Quinton Coples came back home just in time.
The community weekend the N.Y. Jets linebacker hosted in his hometown July 12-14 was more about giving back than it was football. That was obvious.
He returned to Kinston and mingled with this community, happily. He took pictures, shook kids’ hands and got personal when he actually participated in his sports camp instead of just slapping his name on the activity. He told me he didn’t want to just stand up and talk to the kids but to get out there with them instead.
Coples was very successful in that, and I commend him for coming back in this capacity. I saw with my own eyes the impact this weekend had on the community, especially the kids. Quinton, I believed, seemed very genuine in his efforts. He wasn’t just some NFL football player this past weekend; he was a true role model (and maybe a little bit of an NFL football player).
What makes his visit so important was the message it sent to young boys. It was the underlying effect of his weekend that impressed me in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial verdict.
I stumbled across a Time magazine article a couple days following Zimmerman’s acquittal. It was written by a man who spent several days mentoring a group of young, black boys when the Florida jury announced its decision. The author, Madison Gray, revealed the group of boys was “vulnerable, quiet and confused.”
One of them attended the same school as the slain Trayvon Martin and began to cry. Gray, a black man, was concerned the verdict "cheapened" the lives of black youth in America. He said the kids became very scared, and rightfully so.
Trayvon was minding his business before he was shot and killed by Zimmerman. The fact that no one is held accountable for the murder is unnerving, regardless of Zimmerman’s self-defense claim. At the very least, he should have been charged with manslaughter because his life faced no true danger.
There is no justice for Trayvon, and the message the jury sent was that his life – the life of this young, black boy – was not worthy. That's a terrifying reality for some of the kids affected by this tragedy. Trayvon was only walking home. Kids walk home every single day.
They could have been Trayvon Martin.
Right now, they are Trayvon Martins. But Quinton Coples Community Weekend had the power to shed positivity’s light on some of these children in Kinston. They were able to see their elders do something constructive and encouraging in their very own community. They were able to meet a young, black man who achieved success, and that -- if only it reaches one child -- is moving. They have been given a different perspective and have been exposed to options through Quinton.
Sure, they are Trayvon Martins. They are also Quinton Copleses and Doc Riverses and Thurgood Marshallsand Barack Obamas, and that comes from contact with productive men in their lives, communities and society.
Some kids are probably too young to understand the meaning of the verdict, but messages resonate with us from an early age. Black youth in Kinston had one of two messages to choose from as the weekend closed: impossibility or hope.
Thank Quinton Coples and the dozens of male volunteers for inspiring the latter.
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgarn@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.