Thanks bishop for letting me share this and vent as well. Don't give up bishop, because Cleveland loves Bishop Moultry.

The letters won't stop … Youth gone crazy!

Bishop Moultry:

I saw you on the news talking about all the violence that's taking place in our community and I was really moved and impressed by the young Black males from your church that united together and talked to their peers about stopping the violence in front of the news cameras.  When I saw it on the news I called in my eighteen year old son, who is going to court next week for carrying a gun that I never knew he even had. Bishop, how does an eighteen year old get a gun when he [doesn’t] even go beyond the inner-city? The police have the gun now, but he won't give them or me any information on how he got it. And the police had to stop the violence of me jumping on him as I could not believe he had a thug side about him. His father has never been in his life and my son is smoking weed, I think involved in a gang and to make matters worse he has a baby on the way with the baby's mother being sixteen years old, which I have to go to court about that. My son has gone crazy bishop and he's driving me crazy as well. I need help fast and don't know which way to turn.

Bishop you've been on the battlefield working for the Lord for years and you're one of the best in the field of street ministry and working with gangs, ex-felons, those on drugs and those selling drugs just for starters. Your church and ministry team truly go beyond call of duty reaching out and assisting the hurting. I'm sure at times you and your staff feel like Social Workers because you know the human issues of the hurting must be addressed before the spiritual. Most churches want to just give out food, making people dependent on them, and a few cloths. Many of these same people need resources as well as intense counseling to get their head together.

A few weeks ago also on the news a group of ministers held a press conference here in Cleveland addressing the violence and once the press release was over, that was that. I knew three of the ministers and they don't even live in the "Hood," as you call it, meaning the Community. Why didn't these ministers have a follow-up meeting with the community for starters? Many of these youth are hurting and angry and single mothers can't address these issues ‘cause they are hurting as well.

I don't know if I have a question or an answer, but I do have a statement, which is, “If these hurting youth don't get help through counseling, education, a job and spiritual support while trying to stay alive in the ‘Hood,’ the Holiday Season, which is fast approaching, is going to be worst than the Wild Wild West.”

Thanks bishop for letting me share this and vent as well. Don't give up bishop, because Cleveland loves Bishop Moultry.

Bishop:

I knew what I did would have landed me in jail but I, an eighty one year old Senior Citizen, went crazy yesterday evening.

First Bishop, many of the youth of today have gone crazy!

I came home from church yesterday and as I got closer to my home I saw a car, a truck and about seven young Black males in my driveway, on my front steps and in my yard. Bishop, they had my water hose on washing their car and truck. At first I thought maybe I was on the wrong street, so I passed my own house Bishop, went around the block came back and it was my house. Bishop, I knew I should have got on my cell and called the police, I should have called my son who lives in Pepper Pike, Ohio, but instead bishop, I jumped out my car with my registered gun in view for all of them to see and gave them five seconds to get off my property. Bishop, they left so fast saying, “That old lady is crazy.” Bishop, I really went crazy.

I never thought the day would come that I'd have to fight my own people and worst our own children, meaning the youth. During the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I marched with my husband before he passed against all the wrongs of Whites, but now I'm pulling out a gun against my own race and they are children. What has happened bishop? Is it the music they are listening too? The breakdown of the family? No father in the home? Drugs in the Community? No jobs? No role models? What?

I'm too old bishop to go to prison, but I'm also too old and tough to let these young “Thugs” take what my husband and I worked for over all these years.

The youth have gone crazy and just like they understood my gun; they will likewise understand when we as a community fight fire with fire and hold them accountable, as you've stated on radio talk shows, on TV stations and also in your Bishop Speaks columns.

E-mail the bishop at bishopspeaks@aol.com, write him at the church In Touch for

Join him each Sunday morning 11a.m. for the 11a.m Praise Service at the above address off St. Clair, directly across the street from the Job Corps Campus.