I agree with you 100% bishop that we can't “Stop the violence until we address the anger of many of these hurting individuals.”

Bishop Speaks

Turn in your Guns! Stop the Violence! Letters pour in to bishop!

Bishop Moultry:

After reading your column "Turn in your Guns! Stop the Violence," last week I had to take time and write you.

First Bishop, I want to thank you so much for keeping it real and not only being on the battlefield, but staying on the battlefield for the Lord for so long. You're truly one of Cleveland's “Un-Sung Hero's” and I have been encouraged by you and your ministry for years. I've been to your Gospel Concerts, see you on TV many times, as well as [heard] on the different radio stations being interviewed and visited your church to hear your powerful sermons. How do you do so much Bishop?

Bishop, like yourself I'm  beyond going to any more meetings, summits and lectures on addressing the violence that have taken over not only in my community but the entire City of Cleveland. Just last week while I attended a meeting on my street with other neighbors addressing the crime taking place on our street, two cars were stolen in front of her house and one of the neighbors attending the meeting house was being broken into while she was at the meeting. When she got home they just about took everything and nobody saw anything and she has neighbors on both sides of her home and neither attended the meeting. Also, at the meeting, not one man that lived on the street showed up for the meeting.

Bishop, I don't know how this violence is going to come to an end, but at the end of this month I'm moving out with my daughter who is only fifteen years old. I know violence is everywhere, but I'm moving into an area where the police dept is on point and the school system is also together. I'm getting the hell out of Cleveland on the Westside.

I will have to drive an hour longer to where I work but I'll have peace of mind when at work and I know my daughter will be alright coming home after school and waiting on me when I get home maybe an hour later.

Bishop, I think that until "REAL MEN" step up and take back the community by any means necessary, nothing is going to change. The police dept can't do it by themselves. Many of the break-ins on this street are by young Black males; I said the color because it is what it is Bishop. They are young, Black and thugs that seem to have no respect for anybody.

I know one wrong don't make a right, but I have a gun to protect my daughter and me. It's registered and I even went and paid for classes on how to shoot it. I keep it out of reach from my daughter and she does not even know I have a gun. Bishop, what else is a single woman to do to protect herself and what's hers?

Thanks Bishop and keep up the good work!

Bishop Moultry:

I'm a Licensed Anger Management Counselor and I just wanted to write you to tell you how much sense you made as always in regards to addressing the violence by addressing the hurt and anger in many of the young Black males that are sent to me by the court system on a daily basis.

Bishop, it never fails that I often hear a male say he needs to know who his father is or his father has never been in his life. Many times I read in the report from the court that many of these males don't even have a name on their birth certificate of who their dad is. I'm always shocked when I so often read this in the report.

Just yesterday, I was with a young fifteen year old male who saw his father with his new girlfriend  and her two kids going into the grocery store to shop for food. This father left his wife with three kids all belonging to him. He left her and his three kids with no food in the house, bills, no school cloths for his kids and angry at his wife, their mother.

When his son saw him, he broke out all the windows of his father's car while they were in the grocery store. The judge sent the son to me for anger management and because he had so much anger in him. Bishop, this fifteen year old had a right to be angry, but because he could not deal with how to handle it in the right way he ended up catching a case. I often ask what about the role of the fathers of these hurting males we see committing crimes and violence.

I agree with you 100% bishop that we can't “Stop the violence until we address the anger of many of these hurting individuals.”

Bishop, you have your hands full on this issue. We need no more meetings, just fathers stepping up for starters.