Greetings to our Beat Within community near and far! We’re happy to have you with us, and to be promoting your stories, thoughts, and opinions in our one-of-a-kind publication.
For this issue’s editorial note, we have our longtime friend and colleague Omar (OT) joining us, where he reflects on the progress of our world at large and what it takes to keep pushing and striving to reach our fullest potential. We appreciate OT as always for sharing his perspective and experiences with us!
We welcome you readers back to another double-dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within. It’s OT once again coming at you guys live from the land the quakes and shakes, and the hot volcanic rocks of Managua, Nicaragua.
I’m blessed and tasked once again to share my insight, but there were just too many good topics to just sit there and pick one. We’re approaching to the half point of March, and for many of you I don’t know what that means, court dates, tests, placement interview, job interview, maybe something good like a birthday! Shout out to my sister, Gabs, she just turned nineteen, love you!
To me, it’s just another blessed day of life. One of my favorite topics of this issue is from Curtis Mayfield, “I used to love to sit and listen to the old people talk about yesterday. There’s a lot of good information there.” Curtis Mayfield (1942–1999). I totally agree with his quote, and this got me thinking about one of my favorite songs from Curtis Mayfield called “Diamond in the Back.”
Y’all may have heard it before, it goes a little something like this (picture me doing my best Curtis Mayfield impression): “Diamond in the back, sunroof top, diggin’ in the scene, with a gangsta lean oooooh, ooooh…. You may not have a car at all, but remember brothers and sisters, you can still stand tall. Just be thankful, for what you got.” I got this on replay right now and I’m totally jamming. I hope I don’t wake my son up.
That’s one of my favorite songs, and I will use those particular lyrics to explain what we all seem to be lacking to further advance and grow into not just better people, but powerful people where we learn how to help others grow by teaching them what we know. I don’t really know Curtis’s story all too well, I know that he his father abandoned him at a young age and he was a high school dropout.
He was from Chicago, which if some of you don’t know but Chicago is a pretty dangerous city. Going back fifty years plus, the homicide rate has always been kind of high. I don’t want to get into statistics, but it was volatile at its peak and still is. Chicago averages about a two and a half murders a day, and at its lowest, about one murder a day. That’s based on a three hundred and sixty-five day calendar year. I think you can do the math. The point that I’m trying to make is that when I was growing up in the 1990’s and 2000’s in the Bay Area, things were hectic as well. The crack epidemic hit in the eighties and carried on over for decades and generations.
When I was growing up, drugs, gangs and violence were rampant. I’m pretty sure It hasn’t gotten any better and it hasn’t gotten any worse. Obviously, the only thing that changes is the drug. There is an old saying that I find quite true, which is history repeats itself. I say that to say, that Curtis Mayfield grew up with some of the same problems I had. I had no father, I lived through a crime infested area, and he still managed to overcome his challenges to not only be somebody but inspire people to do something big and greater than their selves.
Now, I’m about to be forty this year, so I may be old to some of you young readers skimming through this message, but when I grew up I was always taught to respect my elders. Part of respecting my elders came with always listening and staying quiet when elders spoke. I would do that by always keeping my mouth shut and listening to others speak. I was able to gain wisdom and knowledge. I was able to learn that there were and are more important things in life than just the block, than a gang, than your friends, than fashion, than trying to be cool and fit in with a crowd.
These younger generations (you all) are going through nothing different than what me or Curtis Mayfield or even one of my favorite OGs Michael Kroll, have gone through. The only difference I can say about now and back is that we didn’t have social media and the pressure that comes along with going viral or being on video doing something dumb.
But we all grew up with peer pressure. Bullying has existed since the early days of mankind, and being a follower not a leader has always been a problem with society as we’re taught not to lead, but to follow what others do.
I remember vividly my grandma would say that everything she would tell me would go in one year and out the other because it took me a while to realize what the older people were telling me. I remember when my aunt, uncles, and mom would talk smack to me about how I was messing my life up, or how I could be a better dad to my daughters, and I didn’t listen. In fact, they would go as far as to compare me to others, and I used to hate it. I know you all hate it too being compared to others.
It took me until now, being forty years of age, to realize that everything my teachers, my coaches, my family and everyone that has ever cared for me were saying is, that I had the potential to do great things. I was my own obstacle. I was the one holding myself back from my true potential. It wasn’t the haters. It wasn’t my environment, the gangs, the drugs, the parties, the feel and need to be running the streets.
See in life, there’s one thing that’s so easy to do as we continue to grow up and face adversity, and that’s make excuses. There’s always an excuse why not to listen to someone older and wiser than you: “Man, they don’t know what they’re talking about. They haven’t been through what I’ve been through.”
Those are our first initial thoughts and it’s an excuse to not listen to the valuable insight. News flash: you’re the only one missing out on valuable knowledge that will help you, mature, grow and reach your full potential. Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t make any excuses when he was continuously being threatened with his life, he instead kept pushing for equality during the Civil Rights Movement.
LeBron James didn’t make excuses when he rose above poverty and became one of the best basketball players in the world. Cesar Chavez didn’t make excuses and instead organized the farm workers, which helped them register to vote and help the farmer’s union negotiate better terms and conditions for employment.
David Inocencio didn’t make excuses and put out The Beat Within magazine every single week for twenty-six years plus. Listen to those that are older than you. I now look back and all the people that were telling me all that constructive criticism that I didn’t want to hear when I was young, are the same people that are still by my side today telling me, we knew you could do it.
I feel like I haven’t reached my true potential just yet, but I’m getting there, and you can get their too, much faster than I did. Don’t wait till later in life to finally start taking advice, because some of us may not have the luxury of time. Do it now. And like Curtis Mayfield said, “You may not have a car at all, but remember brothers and sisters, you can still stand tall. Just be thankful, for what you got.”
Be thankful for what you got, and for the people around you trying to help make a difference in your life. OT is Much love to everybody going the struggle. Long live David Inocencio, and The Beat keeps going and going… OT is signing out with the utmost love and respect to you all!
Thank you, OT, for this excellent reminder to take advantage of the wisdom we receive from our elders while we still have them with us, and to use their wisdom to fuel our own potential. Their histories help to shape our future, and it’s in our best interest to learn from those who came before us!
With spring around the corner, we hope the extra hour of daylight will light our paths forward and continue to show us the way to our best selves. May you feel just as challenged as you do supported on this journey, and make sure to take a copy of The Beat with you for safe keeping! We look forward to seeing you on the other side.