Do #BlackLivesMatter?? #HNNSocial #SMWLagos

I am an award winning drug abuse prevention specialist honored by a Mayor, Governor and the Justice Department in 1997 under the Clinton administration. One of my goals was to end drug abuse in Baltimore, Maryland by the year 2000. It was a solid goal. I teamed up with the world famous Johns Hopkins Hospital and began counseling pregnant women addicted to drugs at one of their clinics. I started my own program named MAP. "Mending Addiction and Pregnancy" where I gave expectant mothers the opportunity and directions like a map to quit the drug addiction life. As an outpatient staff pharmacist at the hospital, I moved to a community medical center equipped with a drug rehabilitation center owned by the hospital. I helped enroll hundreds of community members in the program getting people off drugs. A very tough and harsh medical treatment, many showed up to detoxify their bodies and at least 80% in the East Baltimore clinic were African-Americans.

A big challenge was the fact that some aspect of this drug war involved guns and community violence. The dealers who were bent on selling their drugs to the addicts, the middle men and children used in the drug trade were at such an early age. Many losing their lives because they either owed money or got double crossed. In 1988 several died. This was the crack cocaine era. By the time I got involved, it was 1996-1998. Back to the violence on the streets. The Black Lives Matter Movement has been so visible in the police brutality area of the African-American life, coupled with social media the movement has now been stronger than ever, but I don't think they are using their potentials to the max. Many of our young black men are killing each other at record rates over drugs, guns and gang turfs. It is alarming in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and other urban cities.

Why isn't BLM using their powerful voice to talk about this issue, maybe in a rally titled "Let's stop Black on Black Crime." Doing that also has another negative angle to some black minds. It means "helping the police" solve crimes aka snitching. I am known as the Snitchlady on social media and feel that no matter how many bad officers there are out there, there is an equal amount of good ones. Black citizens must report crimes, report illegal guns as this prevents them from being used, something I learned volunteering for the Toronto Police in my Canadian neighborhood. After I was kicked out of Canada by the conservative gun loving government, the Toronto Police issued their own statements to all media commending my work saying that they would not have solved some crimes if not being associated with me plus some information came very timely to them and other police jurisdictions.

Black Lives Matter has a huge impact in the black community and can actually put a stop to black on black crime. They should use their powerful voices to address the internal issues we blacks have in our own communities. Do not let us practice "selective activism" anymore. Let’s activate on all problems in our global communities.

I have been in Journalism since 1994. This article has never been published and was solidly REJECTED at the Washington Post Opinion desk. I have written Opinion articles for Baltimore Times, Toronto Sun, Nigerian Tribune and others for years. There are still many black people like me that tell the truth and keep it real. Go figure...