Role Models

Given my background (ex-drug dealer ,ex-stickup man,ex-con and not to mention a ninth grade dropout)most people (suburbanites and urbanites alike) would say I'm not qualified to be a role model or some sort of mentor to their youth,but I beg to differ.Given the state in which our world sits in,I may even be over qualified.Take a child that comes from a drug infested neighborhood with no recollection of his parents being there in even the smallest capacity.He or she has then been subjected to a world whereas they will live in survival mode for probably the rest of their lives (hence drug dealers and strippers and potential drug addicts) I've learned after doing some research that the younger generation responds better to ones they can relate to and who can relate to them.So I say truly if we DO NOT begin to raise our children, then Ray Ray,Shaniqua,Rick Ross and Nikki Minaj will,if they havent already begun;my eight year old son recently came to me and asked if I would take him to do a fake drive-by.If he had of been eighteen he might've been out doing a real drve-by.When I tell you I literally shed a tattoo tear,I mean this is how my son views me?Then what is the world saying about me?; A wise man once said it like this,"If you and your daughter are ridin in a car listening to music that refers to her as any and everything but a child of God,chances are she'll think of herself as just that.(a superfreak,a ratchett so and so or a bad you know what)But this not only applies to our little girls,but take a look at our little boys.Theres the very alarming possibility that he may end up in someones institution or graveyard by age 25;so the reality is simply this,we have allowed any and everything including ourselves to transform the innocence of our children into products of a world that tells them they're nothing more than freaks and thugs;surely we have a duty if not an obligation(espeacially if you've lived a little bit of life and been somewhere)to be atleast something other than a old freak or over the hill convict thug.We have to try our best to be role models or some sort of examples of real men and women.(I now nominate myself to join the few MEN and WOMEN that has chosen to do this{1st Timothy  4:12-16}-James Doe 1776