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Despite low turnout, pastor keeps up the fight for peace
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At Sunday’s “The War on Youth Violence” presentation at East High School, Patricia Eiland of Austintown tells Pastor Cecil Monroe how she believes violence can be prevented.
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
Pastor Cecil Monroe didn’t see what he’d hoped for when he looked across the East High School auditorium Sunday afternoon, but it was a start.
Only seven people — including Pastor Monroe’s wife and three young children — attended an event he’d planned, aimed at trying to bring about an end to the violence and killing that has plagued the city. He was hoping for many more.
“I can’t say I’m not discouraged about the turnout because I am,” Monroe told the small audience. “But I still choose to make a difference, and I’m going to continue with my efforts. This turnout is not indicative of the severity of our problem. This problem is severe.”
Monroe, 43, pastor of Higher Learning Church in Canfield, said concern over the rash of homicides in Youngstown this year pushed him to plan Sunday’s meeting, which he called “The War On Youth Violence (The Battle for a Violence-Free City).” He chose East High School because he lives on the East Side, and because one of the recent homicides happened on that side of town.
“It’s like we are on a killing rampage in the city,” Monroe said, noting that in five of the city’s 22 homicides this year, black males age 14 or younger have been charged with the crimes. “We have kids killing kids. We need to stop it. We have had our share of killing.”
Monroe said his primary concern is for young, black males in the community because that’s where the violence seems to be concentrated.
“Why are our young black men so angry? What is it about life that they do not like?” he asked. “Is it poverty? Is it coming up in broken homes?”
Though those may be reasons cited for violence, he said they are not excuses for young people choosing to kill others.
“It all comes down to choices. What are the choices that we’re making?” he asked.
Monroe said he grew up in poverty on the East Side, in a home without his father’s presence, but he did not choose to fall into a life of violence. He said church leaders, including himself, must do a better job of getting out of the church and into the streets, “meeting these kids where they live” and reaching out to them and encouraging them.
“Are we speaking to the problem, addressing these young people’s lives? Or are we just walking around town saying ‘stop the violence’?” Monroe asked.
“We have to do more than sit back and shake our heads and say this is a shame. We need to get busy. We need to encourage our young people.”
Monroe said he had planned to have several area funeral directors participate Sunday by having coffins placed on stage and telling any young people who attended that if they don’t get off the path of violence, they would end up in a coffin themselves. He said Youngstown city schools officials nixed that plan, though, as being too shocking.
“But we’re in a dire situation here,” he said. “All this killing. That is shocking.”
Mike Peace of Youngs-town was one of the few who attended Sunday’s event and said he was surprised and disappointed at the turnout.
“You hear everybody out there crying for help [about the violence],” Peace said. “And here is something positive, but look around, there’s nobody here.”
That sort of apathy, he said, only helps to perpetuate the problems.
Peace and Patricia Eiland of Austintown, who also attended, said parents must do a better job of teaching their children and raising them to be responsible adults. Peace said he coaches little league football and regularly picks up four or five of his players and drives them to practice.
“Every time I pull into a driveway, there’s always three or four cars sitting there,” he said. “But not one adult there — not the mom or dad or an uncle. No one will take the time to drive that kid to practice.”
Like Monroe, Peace said he grew up in the streets in Pennsylvania. He’d hoped to speak to a larger crowd Sunday, shedding some light from that perspective.
“I just can’t believe that no one came,” he said.