Indiana

Tough Questions Demand Tough Answers

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

For the city of Indianapolis and Indiana Black Expo, the hard work is about to begin.  What to do about that second Saturday night of Expo.  While I don’t believe for a moment that Expo should be canceled or the event is more trouble than it’s worth, I do believe Expo’s Saturday night problem is a lot like the one that would face a popular bar.  Although there aren’t any problems in the bar or on the bar’s property every once in a while a fight breaks out across the street.   The bar did not cause the fight, but it false within the “zone of culpability.”  So what’s an Expo to do?

I think there are several things Expo can do in both the long and short-term.  In the short run Expo is going to have to revamp it’s Saturday night agenda.  There are too many unsupervised teenagers running around.  Expo should look at either canceling the Saturday night events or make it a family-oriented event (Saturday night praise and worship or other showcase shows at multiple locations) so that parents are there with their children.   I still have the image of the 10-year old burned in my mind who was on the phone trying to tell his parent(s) where he was but didn’t know so I had to help him out.

My personal preference is for the family-oriented events at multiple locations throughout the city so you don’t have such a mass congregation of people all in one place and you can mitigate the problems caused by unsupervised children.

Speaking of unsupervised children, we are going to have to have a long talk about parenting in this town real soon.  Because it wasn’t just the shooting that was disturbing but seeing 12 and 13-year old girls dressed like hookers on payday and listening to young men use “be” in its infinitive form is not a good sign.

Exactly how we fix it, I’m not sure yet, but we need to start having that conversation now.  These problems won’t be fixed overnight, but we have until July 16, 2011.  That’s when the next second Saturday night comes rolling around.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).