Myth of Manhood: Chapter Two, Doing what needs to be done, at the time it needs to be done.

Would you say that you're a responsible person?

For the most part, I would say I'm a responsible guy. The people closest to me would more than likely agree that I'm someone they can depend upon.

Yet, there are times when I fall short of the glory. This usually revolves around tasks I'm not completely confident I can complete. Instead of confronting this issue and dealing with it immediately, I'll put it off for another day. More often than not, that another day leads to another week. Eventually, that week leads to a month and sometimes it ends being a year before I actually get around to completing the task. I don't think I'm alone when it comes to procrastination, its pretty common thing folk do every now and then.

The funny thing is how I continue to convince myself that this being common makes it acceptable. The excuses that I make up have become consistent mantra's when I come across an issue I don't particularly want to deal with. I'm not saying there's no validity to them but then again, I certainly find time for things I want to accomplish.

Truth be told, excuses can become our way of life. It easily can lead to disastrous results if we're not honest with ourselves and willing to confront the obvious.

This lack of will to do something when it needs to be done comes to mind in the Cleveland serial killers case, Anthony Sowell. There were multiple failures by the police in particular and on lesser scale the east-side Cleveland community where Sowell lived. There was a failure to do what needed to be done at the moment it needed to be done. Due to that dereliction of duty in this instance, eleven women were murdered.

The Cleveland Police force bare the burnt of this horrific story. Click here to read about their alleged foolish surrounding this case. It seems to me that the Cleveland police force need to work on recognizing what a mentally ill /sociopaths' behavior looks like. Now I know individual rights in this country are very important. I also realize it's hard get someone committed to be a ward of state unless their deemed a danger to themselves or someone else. Yet, this individual was a registered sex offender whom police had regular contact with.

One has to wonder what the police who visited Sowell thought that smell could be. If this smell came from a house in a suburban Cleveland neighborhood, there's no doubt in my mind someone would have tried to find its source much sooner. One part of me wants to give the cops the benefit of the doubt and just say they were incompetent surrounding they're handling of this case. The pessimistic side of me says this particularly neighborhood was not important to the boys in blue or society in general. In their mind, this was a neighborhood of inferiors so why waste time searching for the cause of this odor. If the neighbors can live with it then so be it, must have been their logic on this issue.

The neighbors were not quiet about the odor problem around Sowell's house. They complained to police about the smell. Yet, they failed to get a sufficient response. What's disappointing is that no else in this community demanded a resolution. I know what many of you are thinking, the residents did inform police about the retched smell. They did their part, it was the police who choose to neglect their duties. That definitely is true. But this smell was around for years and nobody demanded closure. Again, folk will say, this is a part of black emotional pain. Police have not always had black folks well being as a priority. We expect to be treated unfairly therefore those residents were just rolling with the punches.

I'll agree with those of you who share those thoughts but you'll also have to concede that they're also excuses. Excuses that led to a habit. A habit which in turn led to a way of life. A way of life that allowed a predator to kill eleven women, without anyone seeming to notice. This only happens when we live in the "stop snitching" code. Or the mind your business, it's not my problem mode. When we have a world of excuses and are only concerned about our own well being, then extreme things like this can occur.

This case is indictment on our society, our communities and our country. A country of individuals who care about nothing but things that involve their own self interest. Think about it, if someone (police or residents) decided I'm going to find the source of this smell a year or two ago, there may be five or six women alive today.

But that's not what happened.

The point of this story is we must have the courage to be cognizant of our problems. We must ask ourselves the difficult questions.

Why are we putting these issues off? Can we afford to put it off any longer? Who are we affecting besides ourselves with inaction?

Anthony Sowell is a mentally ill/sociopath who deserves the maximum punishment under the law. Yet, the only reason he was able to kill for so long was due to the ineptitude of the police and the east- side Cleveland community where he resided.

The choice is simply for Black men and society in general. We can continue to be a community of me first, self serving people or take steps toward building healthy communities by confronting our own bullshit.

The Anthony Sowell's of world will continue to exist. The question is will we have strong communities who catch individuals like him early on or communities were they can thrive?

The choice is ours to make.