Tone--

Great article, great philosophy! Listen up: we need the deep thinkas like yourself and the rest of the hip hop/arts community to take something really important to heart. I know that many of you guys are involved in favorite organizations/activities (like the emerging Hip Hop coalition, MAP, the Co-Op, etc.) doing important community-wide work. Everyone is busy, too. Notwithstanding, I am writing with a call to ACTION.

The young (and elder) males of our community are much needed to take "help the community" to a new level: be the man to help ONE youngster connect in a meaningful adult/youth relationship and with the larger community, while helping him (the youngster) learn to love reading. There is an incredible need here for MEN to mentor boys into caring, activist young men who are culturally and socially savvy, with a sense of optimism and hope for their future.

A mentor's training and ongoing support are provided for free, and the program I work with is in the heart of downtown Buffalo--easy to get to from anywhere in the city! You can be a mentor in just 1-2 hours per week once you have completed the application and short training--meeting with your mentee before or after school, or at lunch time (great for downtown workers who may return to the 'burbs at day's end). Frankly, whether it's the program I work with or another, the message has _got_ to get out: no one can show a boy how to be a man better than a successful man!

The ways of getting there are as endless as one's imagination--through music, spoken word, technology, science, printed books, writing, entrepreneurship, and on and on. I hope you'll help spread the call (I wonder if this is a song-worthy idea?)--I feel sure there are men out there who are "man enough", and the kids are waiting!

Thanks for making Buffalo a cool place to call home--

Sherry Byrnes Youth Mentoring Program Manager Literacy Volunteers of Buffalo & Erie County, Inc. www.literacybuffalo.org