Judge Mathis to youth: 'Don't give in to temptations'

Judge Mathis to youth: `Don't give in to temptations???

Inspired by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Judge Greg Mathis, who has a popular TV courtroom show, challenged youth not to give in to the "tools of destruction" of drugs and crime and do as he did as a former drug dealer/street gang member, fight back and succeed.

Speaking at Jackson's 11th annual Dr. King Breakfast at the Conrad Hilton & Towers Hotel, 720 S. Michigan Ave., Mathis said he's not ashamed of his background having "fought my way out the streets and the jails of Detroit."

It was Jackson who first met him in jail when Mathis was a teen. Mathis, who was inspired by Jackson, revealed he had gotten into the drug business because of his drug-dealing father who contracted his services out to a street gang.

Arrested, Mathis obeyed a judge who ordered him to get his G.E.D., bachelor's degree and his law degree.

However, he said getting that degree was denied but granted only after working with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) appealed and won the right to practice law. But, his troubles were far from over.

Mathis decided to run for a judgeship "after going to these courts and seeing how they were treating our young people...not giving them a chance...locking them up for the most minor offenses while their kids get treatment and counseling, our kids went to jail."

He told of officials revealing his sealed juvenile records to the press "to try and stop my campaign." Mathis said: "Man has a plan and God has a plan and God is the Master Planner and what man thought would destroy me, God used to lift me up and inspire others."

He told the youth "never give up" and don't buy into the "lame" and "punk" labels some gang-bangers give the "good guys" who are trying to do the right thing. "Who's the lame and who's the punk if you're standing out on the corner scared to go out here and fight for what is yours in mainstream society...feeling sorry for yourself. Those are the lames...."

Mathis chided those youth who say "we're trying to be white.... This is not just the white man's system. This is our system, too. Our forefathers worked 300-years for free to make this the richest country in the world, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pass it up and let some white boy get all of the benefits. Fight back. This is our country...our land."

"I thank God that my enemies tried to put those obstacles in my way. So, young folks don't you let them put anything in your way. If they do, kick down the door, fight back. Don't let them hold you down."

Mathis said youth are not bad kids. "Some of them just need direction and the best direction we can give them is to put God first, fight back and overcome your obstacles, and believe in yourselves." Despite the obstacles, he said. Black youth, are succeeding.

While Mathis isn't sure if the prison crisis is a conspiracy or consequence, he said the solution is the same. "We as Black men must resist the temptations of self-destruction that come with the drugs and the guns. Ain't nobody putting a gun up to our heads to smoke that crack pipe...."

Admitting there are pitfalls that await Black men that force some of them "to fall into this trap of crime and self-destruction," he told them. "These are obstacles that we must fight against."

Saying young people are inundated with visual vices like "feeding our young folks a constant diet of media, sex and violence, then we dump them in these sub-standard public schools" followed by the dumping of "drugs and guns in their community and expect them not to rebel...."

Mathis called these vices "tools of rebellion" that are removing Black men from their communities. He said if he had grown up in the suburbs perhaps he would have "cursed, maybe took a puff off a cigarette...and that would have been the only tools of rebellion." However, there, unlike the inner city, he would have received therapy, not jail time.

"When you dump millions of dollars of crack and heroin into a community with youth who are starving for money and jobs and with a 40 percent unemployment rate...dump AK47's, Uzi's and 9-millimeter guns like they use to tell me when they were on the corner `I got'em straight out the box for $250...'"

Mathis said they then sell their "first bag of rocks...come back get your 9-millimeter...and your next money you can buy some Nikes. That's how the game goes for our 13-year-olds. Those are the tools of rebellion and the obstacles that our young folks deal with....

"After all of the obstacles they placed on our children, they want to call them failures.... Our children can't fail. Children don't fail. We fail them. Children come to us born with a clean mind...a pure heart and clean hands.

"It's what we put in their minds...in their hearts and what we put in their hands that determine what they become.... We as a society are failing our children..." He told them despite the obstacles "we're coming back to become lawyers, judges and congressmen and run this country...."

Mathis told the youth "don't let anyone tell you you're a??? failure. Don't let them condemn you...hold you back...don't let them put any obstacles in ???our way...don't let them hand you no drugs...don't be scared of those professors when you go to college. Stand up and fight back against your obstacles."

Calling it "disturbing," Mathis said 60 percent of prisoners are Black men who represent less than 5 percent of the U.S. populations. "There are more women than there are men." While African Americans represent 12-13 percent of America's population, Mathis asked: "What is driving this prison boom.??? construction industry?

"Why are the big corporations now investing in the operation of for-profit business? Why are the majority of U.S. prisoners Black? Some activists suggest that the Prison Industry is the latest of many attempts by this system to extract free or cheap labor from Blacks who the system no lo???ger has room to accommodate with real economic employment and real economic opportunity.

"They point to slavery and allege that America has a his???ory of using Blacks for free or cheap labor until technology outgrows their necessity," said the judge.

Others with more conse???vative views claim that Black male incarceration amounts to their "rejecting the main stream values of hard work and responsibility and are instead opting out for the sub-culture of crime, drugs and irresponsible lifestyles."

Interviewed at the Break???ast, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), himself a lawyer, said he was "inspired" by Mathis' history. "He's a very inspirational fig???re-to see how much he has overcome and gone on to be such a success. It's a message that a lot of people should pay attention to."

Burke wasn't the only on??? in awe of Mathis who received a standing ovation and protra???ted a round of applause. Former Mayor Eugene Sawyer agreed with Mathis saying Blacks "should not let anybody hold you back...move ahead...."

Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown said she was "very touched" by Mathis' history. She first met???the judge at a youth convention. He has a love in his heart, a love for young people."

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) called Mathis' speech "power???ul" and said the judge's life is p???oof of "what you can accomp???sh when you're determined."

Like Brown, Mathis is a m???mber of the Church of God in Christ. "I think he's a fanta???tic person. What he has done in overcoming the odds of going to jail and becoming a judge is the epitome of Dr. King's dream???for us to be judged by the content of our character and not by the color of our skin and the fact that we can do anything we want to do."

Article Copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.

Photo (Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and Judge Greg Mathis)