By Angela Waters Austin
CEO, One Love Global
A friend, who knows the lengths I go to avoid public speaking, recently said to me, “If you are ever given an opportunity to speak, it is your duty to take advantage of that opportunity.” That same friend said soon after, for reasons that will become clear as you read this, “I am giving you space on the cover of the newspaper to write about Weusi Olusola.”
First, I must tell you that my heart breaks for the families and friends of Ricky Taylor (17), Maurice McDonald (20), Leslie Alan McDonald (20), Stanley Davidson (25), all victims of gun violence in 2009. Some would contend that not all of these young men deserve to be called victims, yet that is the reality. They are victims of gun laws that make weapons too easily accessible and gun safety regulations that don’t appear to have a significant impact on making our homes and communities safer. They are the victims of the glorification of violence and aggression. They are the victims of apathy.
Weusi Olusola: A Celebration of Life
I was almost oblivious to it all… for which I am deeply ashamed. Nonetheless, my defense is total absorption in helping my friends in Detroit plan an event to honor a young man who at the age of 16 was paralyzed after being an innocent bystander , sustaining four gunshots that moved his heart and resulted in the loss of one kidney.
Willie Brown, his given name at birth, was an All-City basketball star at Detroit’s Murray-Wright High School with sights on college basketball, and dream of dreams, to one day play in the NBA. A member of the marching band, Willie Brown had been “scared straight” by the fatal shooting of his best friend right before his eyes. Miraculously unscathed in the rain of bullets, he turned his life around and set his sights on having a bright future free from the commerce of street drugs and violence.
I would argue that Weusi achieved greatness and became a far more influential leader than had he become a professional basketball player. Let me clarify, Weusi was an incredible ball player and the captain of the Detroit Die Hard Wheelchair Basketball Team and was a star of the Annual Pistons Celebrity Wheelchair Basketball event. However, he was better known because he transformed tragedy into a mission to end gun violence that has saved the lives of countless young people who had the fortune to be captivated by the Pioneers for Peace outreach program.
As the Director of Pioneers for Peace, Weusi led a team of activists and advocates, all whose lives have been affected by gun violence, to spread the message of peaceful conflict resolution and love for one another. “Don’t be the sucka’ on yo’ block!” Simple words of wisdom that made sense to his young audience. So wise in fact that Judge Hatchett invited him to serve as a consultant to work with troubled youth on her juvenile court television show and so passionate that Bill Cosby marched along side him in the streets of Detroit to send a message to the drug dealers holed up behind closed doors.
Weusi was also a board member of One Love Global. It is because of his energy and passion that One Love Global adopted peace in its mission to build sustainable communities. After I moved to Lansing from Detroit (for the 3rd time), I would drive back to Detroit to visit Weusi at Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan – Detroit Medical Center, where Pioneers for Peace is headquartered. We would talk for hours about forming a united front to take the message of peace and social change through social enterprise to communities throughout the nation and ultimately around the world. We were born on the same day, September 4th, and while I am two years older, Weusi was my “big brother.”
On Friday, March 13, 2009, Weusi Olusola died of bladder cancer at the age of 38, one week after being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Park West Foundation in Southfield, Michigan. Bill Cosby returned to Detroit solely for the occasion but because of liver failure, Weusi was delayed in arriving. Bill Cosby asked the crowd of hundreds to pass on a message to Weusi. Cosby shouted, “Tell him I love him! Tell Weusi that I love him!” Weusi the Warrior, as determined as ever, arrived approximately twenty minutes later. He made a point of using what would be his last opportunity to demonstrate his life of sacrifice, strength of character and commitment to inspiring others to continue the work he began by founding Wheel 2 SURVIVE, an organization that will ensure his legacy is preserved. A book on Weusi’s life is reported to be scheduled for release later this year.
The Park West Foundation’s Director, Saba Gebrai, quickly began organizing supporters to fulfill Weusi’s wishes that his memorial be a celebration of life and a call to peace to the entire community. In one week, hundreds of people mobilized and worked together to plan a parade, march and program that included the Mayor of Detroit, resolutions from Governor Jennifer Granholm and Wayne County officials, and many of the colleagues who were privileged to labor with him over the years. One after another, each pledged that this would not be the end of Weusi’s work, but the beginning of ours. On Saturday, March 21, 2009, we all became Pioneers for Peace.
There Are No Coincidences
After hearing it two or three times, it finally sank in. Four young men in our community lost their lives due to gun violence in a matter of days while I was busy working to pay tribute to a man who spent his life working to prevent gun violence. If ever there was a need for Pioneers for Peace, surely it is now. It occurred me as I was discussing with my newspaper publisher friend that Lansing could benefit from what I experienced on Saturday. We need a call to peace; we need to renew the commitment of the community to end youth violence and apathy. My friend encouraged me to make a phone call to an individual we both knew would “get it.”
I called Lt. Noel Garcia at the Lansing Police Department and began to tell him about the event I was working on to celebrate the life and home-going of Weusi Olusola that included an invitation to youth and youth service providers to come together and make a pledge for peace. I told him how the event was organized so that youth would learn about the resources in their community and have an opportunity to connect with mentors, programs and services. We discussed the importance of working to address the root causes of youth violence rather than reacting to the symptoms when tragedy strikes.
Lt. Garcia began to tell the story of a group of young people that came from Detroit who were all victims of gun violence, several young men in wheelchairs and a woman blinded by a gunshot at the hands of her estranged husband, who went with him to Lansing schools to talk to young people about making better choices.
There are no coincidences. The group was Pioneers for Peace.
Culture of Violence
“Why do we thrill at destruction and yawn at creation?” Words of wisdom from the least likely of places. Hollywood. Spoken by actor/comedian Eddie Murphy to be exact. The movie is “Holy Man” and this unexpected kernel of insight should give us pause. Take a moment to reflect on what we have come to expect and accept as entertainment content whether the medium is television, films, music, books or video games. This is what goes into the eyes, ears and minds of our children, all day every day. Where is the balance that teaches them this is not reality and that when a person is shot, rarely do they get up? How do we learn that the consequences of a decision made in a heated moment will forever change the lives of so many people?
National Youth Violence Prevention Week
March 23-27 is Youth Violence Prevention Week and by the time you read this, it will almost be over. If we don’t agree, as a community, to take action now and make PEACE a part of our daily work and mindset, it is likely to be forgotten until next year… or until there is another young life lost to gun violence.
Contact Angela Austin at angela@oneloveglobal.org or log on to
www.oneloveglobal.org.
