EAST ORANGE, NJ — The members of the Committee on the Status of Men in East Orange were in front of Robert Bowser Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 7, to welcome students and parents back to school on the first day of class, and they were also at the 9/11 Interfaith Call for Peace Community Prayer Vigil on the steps of City Hall on Monday, Sept. 11.
“This committee was formed by the City Council as an ordinance. It’s a law that we, the men, reach out to other men, young and old, in the city of East Orange to help empower them in education, jobs and relationships,” said COSMEO President the Rev. Louis Mosely on Monday, Sept. 11. “We’re basically a one-stop shop. We have 12 men from all walks of life appointed by each council member, and two members were appointed by the mayor for 12 members total … to work with the young men in East Orange in any facet that they need.”
According to Mosely, COSMEO Vice President Geoffrey Burbage and former Board of Education President Vernon Pullins, who is also in the group, the goal is to “give them the necessary tools and the war chest to make it happen for our men, young and old, here in the city of East Orange.”
“We’re empowering young men who’ve lost the spirit of self, so what we’re trying to do is uplift our community and make sure, through the ‘Status of Men,’ that we walk the walk and talk the talk,” said Pullins on Monday, Sept. 11. “As an education advocate, it’s important that our students are able to see men in the community that look like them, coming from productive parts of society, welcoming them back to school, letting them know that education is key, education can unlock the doors to different variations of success, and letting them know that there is a group of men … who are supporting them academically, socially and, in the future, professionally.
“We want to make sure that we develop that relationship through our leadership, throughout the education community, with all of our schools, with our legislative branch of government and our executive branch of government, to make sure our students have a clear understanding of what it takes to be all that they can be.”
The bottom line, they said, is that the act of welcoming students back to school with a “hello” on the first day can make a difference in lives and academic careers. It’s also about breaking racial, social and economic stereotypes and teaching urban students to exceed society’s expectations.
“It was just to let the parents, teachers and students know that the Committee on the Status of Men (in East Orange) is there to support them in their endeavors for their education,” said Burbage on Monday, Sept. 11. “It’s very important that they see people that look just like them and are there to support them. And they were really surprised by the effort that we put forth. It was a really nice surprise for us as well, to be accepted so warmly at that event.”
Shanicka Thompson and her husband, Jay, walked their young daughters to school at the Bowser Academy on Thursday, Sept. 7. They didn’t get a greeting from the COSMEO men that day, but said they believed the group’s efforts were worthwhile.
“We’re happy that school is open again. We’re late for work to get them back to school on the first day, but that’s OK, because this is something that’s important for us to do,” said Shanicka Thompson on Thursday, Sept. 7. “It was good that they came out here to greet the parents and kids.”
Christopher Moore and his wife also walked their sons and daughter to school on Thursday, Sept. 7, and agreed that COSMEO did a good thing coming out to greet returning parents and students.
“It’s a good thing. I think all dads should be walking their kids to school, if they have the time, if they don’t have to go straight to work,” said Moore on Thursday, Sept. 7. “I work in the afternoon until midnight, so I bring them to school every day and that’s how it should be. I was raised in a single-parent household. My mom raised me. So I walked with my friends to school, but it’s a different day now and I wanted to be a different kind of man and dad when I grew up.”
That’s why Moore said he can appreciate what COSMEO is doing in East Orange.
“We’re the gatekeepers to this community,” said Mosely. “I dropped out of high school when I was 15 years old. I went on to join the Navy but, in those years, there was two years that would stand out in my life — my fourth-grade teacher and a mentor when I was 19 years old that came and pulled me in and said: ‘You need to do this, you need to do that’,” said Mosely.
“As a young man growing up in a single-parent household, raised by my grandmother, I needed that guidance and I needed those young men to come forth to give me that guidance and those two men — Mr. Wendell Moore and Mr. Brent Watson — were my two walking angels. I had the opportunity to have both of them at my house this year and acknowledge them for the greatness that they’ve done. So I feel it’s our obligation, as young black men, to reach out to these other black men of color and give them that same tutelage, that same guidance, that same love, that same resilience, that was bestowed upon me years ago.
“We cannot fear our children; we have to love our children. We have to show them the same amount of respect that we want them to give us and we have to love them, because if we don’t love them, nobody else will love them. We have to take back our community, one child at a time, and that’s why we’re here as the Committee on the Status of Men.”
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