Kyesha

"We need to talk about how to walk away from beefs before it gets violent."

It doesn’t just start with the person committing the violence. It’s often little things. When someone makes the decision to pick up a gun, there’s usually no way to talk to them. They’re caught up in an action. That’s why it starts with communicating before it gets violent. People need a new mindset before a beef gets going. We need to talk about how to walk away from beefs, dissect them and understand how to get past them without violence. Then there can be something positive instead of negative. When a person is thinking about what kind of life they want – one where they’re involved in gun violence or not – we need to ask them; do you know yourself? Do you care about anyone else around you? Because when you make a decision to act violently, you take away the right of others to make their own choices. I’ve been a part of the PLC for 3 years. It’s helped me think more and more about the world itself. It becomes bigger than just talking and people coming together. It becomes about the world we live in and I have realized I can be hands-on and change things in this world. If we’d all evolve our mentality in this community, the options for change would be never-ending.