The Capacity to Dream
Rodney D. Coates*
The headlines “Deadly temptations:  Alarming number of suicides far outpaces homicides” in Sunday’s Cincinnati Enquirer (June24, 2007) said it all, or did it?  Reading the article, one notes that white suburban males are increasingly more likely to kill themselves.  Reading between the lines, another message becomes clear –while white males are killing themselves, black males are killing each other.  What is alarming is that while these types of headlines get our attention for the moment, rarely is there any concern about the meaning or possible links between the two.  If we were to add the number of young men whose deaths are associated with the lethal combination of driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol-then it becomes clear that a potential crisis is at hand.  
	When faced with such tragedies it is easy to fall back on platitudes and clichés.  Seeing the connections, one is tempted to suggest that these youth suffer from a lack of love and hope. Others might see the need for more discipline and responsibility.  Unfortunately, while such suggestions might make the one giving the advice feel good, it leaves the recipient with little.  As a friend recently remarked –“Hope is not a strategy!”  Similarly, while increasing love, discipline and responsibility might sound good; they do not provide an effective strategy.  What these sorts of crisis require is a critical understanding of the root causes for what amounts to ‘a will to die’.  
	By definition, to embrace death is to reject life.  I would argue that nihilism, the rejection of life (and hope), is the direct consequences of a set of values which promotes enjoyment above accomplishment, advancement above achievement, and objects above others.  These values once embraced ultimately leads to a devaluing of self and life (either one’s own or another’s).  In a world where everything has a price, every emotion has a commodity made to enhance or fulfill it –then every memory comes with a cost.  Such a life soon becomes devoid of meaning, as one searches for higher highs, emotions, and levels of fulfillment.
	I believe that there is another way, a way that adds meaning, purpose, and thus enhances ones appreciation of life.  This other way requires the adoption of another set of values.   These values would embrace accomplishment through excellence, achievement through diligence, and a healthy respect for life in all of its guises.  I know in an age of fast food and Dr. Phil, instant gratification and the pill – the ideas associated with hard work, honor and duty seems rather passé.    But maybe, Mother was right: “There is no such thing as a free meal.”  Perhaps, just perhaps, pride in a job well done, a focus on a career rather than a job, and a concern for the meaning(s) of life might lead to a greater appreciation of life.   Through the adoption of these sorts of values, our young men might just learn to dream again.  And through these dreams, they might just come to see that life, with all of its highs and lows, all of its valleys and mountains-is till full of possibil
 ity and purpose, reason and wonder, hope and love.  
*Note: Rodney D. Coates is a professor of sociology, gerontology and black world studies at Miami University.  He can be reached at [log in to unmask]