The solution to stopping the violence in the Bay Area and around the country will not be resolved by one particular source. This film is only a tool to present the problem and options to the masses in a visually concise and constructive manner. A question is always asked about whether media influences society, or if society is reflective within the media and film images. Whatever the answer, it is a proven fact that media can incite change and be a significant catalyst for positive action.

The idea with this film is structured to be a little more proactive then using Nancy Reagan’s slogan, “Just Say No.” Professionals that have the proper credibility and experience will articulate some of the possible solutions. The Producer and Director have planned a significant number of interviews and information sessions that will encompass solution oriented examples. The theory behind these examples it that they will help you to be a better person and if you are concentrating on these points, then you will be too busy to get caught up in destructive behavior that will land you in prison or dead. That last statement comes from the majority of parolees that I have interviewed. Some themes, ideas or visual examples the film will advocate include:

1. Start changing personal ATTITUDES despite your environmental conditions.

2. EDUCATION. Go to School. Get as much education as you can. Higher levels of academic and technical education readily translate into more and better employment opportunities, higher income and more wealth. Education begins when you teach your children to value learning. Start reading early. The new hierarchy of “human needs” are air, water, food, shelter and education. Without proper education, it will be hard to exist and thrive as concepts and technology increase in complexity. Speak proper English. Speaking “Standard American English” is a step in the right direction towards productivity. We are not suggesting that you loose your flavor, but know that there is a difference between the dialogue used in talking with your homies, parents and work associates. This is called "role switching" and Black people do it better than anyone. Learn it! It will help get you to the next level. With more education, you decision making skills get better. This is not to say that you will always make the right choices, but it will put you in the position to come up with the best answers to problems in your life.

3. YOUR PERSONAL PLAN. Develop a plan for self-betterment. Create one, three and five year goals. You will hopefully not be doing the same thing next year that you will be in ten years. You can control this fact with your own personal plan. Get one and write it down. Place in on your bathrom mirror so that you see your goals every day. Act upon them. If there are days that you don't do anything towards your goals, those are wasted days.  Resting is important, but you can only rest so much!

4. WORK. Continually seek employment in all areas until you acquire something to help sustain your life while you are preparing for your long-term goals. Get a job, any job until you get what you want! Every job is a learning experience, take the helpful knowledge from that job and move on.

5. PEERS. Disassociate yourselves with unproductive people who will ultimately get you in trouble. It is hard but some times you just have to let people go. If they are into the drug thing, let them go! Do not sell, nor distribute drugs. that is the quickest way to be imprisoned or die.  Those are the only outcomes as told to me by the parolees I’ve interviewed. They have been where you are, so take their advice. You know the difference between right and wrong. If you are doing wrong, stop it before you get caught.  When you get caught, you get caught up in the system.  Stop it now!!!

6. DEALING WITH CONFLICTS. Learn more conflict resolution skills. Know that we (your brotha) love & care for you and need for you to stay alive and thrive in your as a community. Know that without you, there will be no black people to carry on the legacy.

7. DON'T TAKE DRUGS. Avoid mind-altering drugs and certainly any addictive drugs including alcohol. Keep personal firearms locked up and away from your kids. A person shot while on drugs is just another person dead brotha regardless as to what the situation and circumstances might be.

8. LOOK FOR THOSE WHO HELP. Seek the advice, help and direction from the older generation. They have been through the storm a long time and chances are, they might have better answers to share with you.

9. FREE TIME. Acquire a hobby or something that will fill your free time. Develop a goal!

10. LIVING. Save as much as you can. Stop renting apartments. Save enough money to make a down payment on a house. Then BUY A HOUSE! The largest portion of the net worth of most families is in home equity, not cash assets. Open savings accounts for your children. Teach your children the value of money and how to earn, save and invest it at an early age. Take personal finance classes that teach you how to save it, invest it and stop buying everything on credit. This requires education!

11. INVEST. First, invest your money and your time to enhance your skills and knowledge base. Then to improve your overall well-being - not in cars, clothes, furniture, frivolous electronics, sports, games and the lottery. Second, learn how to make big companies work for you through stock ownership, rather than you only working for them. And third, invest your money in the U.S. and global stock markets. The world is much bigger than the United States. This requires education! Creating options, financially or otherwise breeds positive results!

12. GOD AND RELIGION. Go to Church. Tithe. Give to your church, or to a social cause that improves your community. Create a will. Ensure that your accumulated wealth is passed on to the next generation. Studies suggest that a significant percent of most households' current wealth is lost by the younger generation. Every American and certainly African-American has to do at least one positive action to help the problem.

13. CREDIT. Manage your credit carefully and avoid unnecessary debt. Beware of spending excessive amounts on holidays, birthdays, vacations, weddings and funerals. Learn to pay cash for what you need OR DON'T BUY IT! And forget about what you want. Create a household budget that includes food, living space and utilities - and live by it. Save for a rainy day. It's coming! This requires education!

14. FAMILY. Get married (when it is time). Households headed by two-people are more viable economically than one-person headed households. Marriage can be an economic advantage when both parties are aligned together with financial priorities and fiscal realities. Sixty-five to seventy percent of Black children are born into single-parent households and begin life in poverty. Most of them never make it out. This commitment also breeds family, responsibility and will take focus off of negative actions. Your mate will help you stay focused. Studies even show that you live longer with a mate, then not. Don't be so hard until you miss out on a family.  You need them and they need you.

15. HEALTH. Create a life-enhancing strategy. Include good nutrition, plenty of exercise, and proper rest so that you can share your good fortune and a long, healthy life with your family and friends. This requires educating yourself in this area. Your body is your temple, take care of it because it will carry you to old age.  Nobody wants to distroy their bodies while they are young so that they have to take dozens of pills daily to stay alive!  A healthy body is a healthy mind and you need both of them to function.

16. CREATE A BUSINESS. Start your own business. Few people acquire wealth working for someone else. By starting your own business, you will be able to hire qualified family, friends and community members. Additionally, you will build the economy of your community. You will also be able to pass on your successful business as a family inheritance to your children and grandchildren. This requires education! if you find something that you love, it will be less like going to work. You can no longer depend on larger corporations. They will let you go just as fast as they hire you. remember, last hired is first fired. You can only depend on yourself!!!

17. COMMUNITY. Community support for violence prevention and enforcement. It will be a full comprehensive community program implemented by public officials, authorities, citizens, parents and the affected young Black men.

18. APPRECIATE LIFE. Create more value associated with human life. Understand that two sets of peoples’ lives are affected in a shooting, the victim’s and the perpetrators. They both have families. One killing might affect hundreds of relatives on both sides.

19. LOVE YOURSELF. Spread the idea of self-love in hopes that it makes a difference. Help to assure young Black men the concept that they matter.

20. CHALLENGE. We challenge every interested party to come up with additional solutions to help save our young men from the system, their environment and themselves. We hope that your ideas will resonate in an effort to make a difference in uplifting young men so that they still value themselves, life and the art of productivity.

21. AVOID NEGATIVITY. Avoid negative attitudes that lead you down the path to self-destruction. Negativity breads negativity. Just know that it is powerful for you to walk away and not to go with the flow then it is to participate in something that you know is wrong. In the age of CSI and video cameras, just know that the chances of you getting caught is higher than ever and that can only lead to more struggling and a harder life. You do not need to add to your struggle, "they" will have already built a path for you to struggle. You need to look for the positive experiences that will make your life better in the long run. Trust me, your youth will fade in time although you can't see it. What you are left with is only what you build in the process. If you build positive things, the universe will supply positive results. Negativity can only bring you more heartache and pain. Be optimistic and act upon your dreams. It is no use in having a dream if you don't try and reach for it!

22. REALIZE YOUR LIMITATIONS. If you notice that you might have an inferiority complex due to negative conditioning from other sources, take the time to deal with it by going to get help.

23. HATERS. Learn how to deal with haters in a productive way. Your accomplishments and success is the best defense. Those who can't do or create positive things look to those who do and hate on them. The best way to retaliate is to put your energy in what you are doing and thrive to the point of winning, creating, building, making and experiencing what makes thing better. Your success is measurable and people will see it. You really only care about the people who give you positive reinforcement and the haters will be left behind only to see you at the top. Just look at President Obama. there are people who hated on him in the past and still hate on him now, but who is the President who is the most powerful man in the world? the haters can only stand on the corner while drinking the same beer talking mess while the President, a Black man, creates a better situation for all Americans one step at a time. Haters can only sit back and watch as you move to the next level. Let them fall of your back like rain in a storm. They will ultimately end up in the drain diluted by the ocean with a title of "insignificant."

24. CHANGE LOCATIONS IF POSSIBLE. If you need to change your environment and friends, be strong enough to do it! There is a different world out there in different places. You may need to "re-set" or "re-start" you life in a new situation to see the possibilities and your future grow to heights that you couldn't have even dreamed a reality.

25. LOOK AT YOURSELF. Recognize self-hatred and learn how to address the issue with professionals. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! People have told us who we really are for years and now we know that it was a master plan to keep us in our place and struggling. In the new world order and the technology that is available to us, we can now see that the hidden agendas are no longer hidden. We just need to wake up, research the truth, educate ourselves and act upon our personal places to be productive citizens who are hear to teach the young and create something from nothing.

26. AVOID INCARCERATION. Avoid incarceration, but if you have been incarcerated or currently incarcerated, learn from your mistakes so that you never see yourself back in that same predicament. Anyone can turn his or her life around at any point. The longer you wait, the harder it will be, but anything is possible. Remember, it is harder to maneuver through life is you get in the system. Being convicted of a crime is a mistake that might haunt you for a long time so try to avoid that circle of pain. Don't do the crime because your job situation in later life will be affected by you getting into the justice system and creating a record. Your record will stay with you forever. You don't need the trouble. If you already have a record, all is not lost, just stay clean and keep learning how to be a contributing member of society. When you finally realize the era of your ways, you don't want to be so far in the mud that it is hard to get out. Just know that anything is possible with effort, persistence and hard work.

27. HANDLE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES. If you are a black father not living with your child, stop the cycle by going to spend time with your child! Be a part of your child’s life and be a part of your own father’s life. The mental growth will help with being a new mental attitude and appreciation for the human spirit.

28. RELATIONSHIP. A good woman is hard to find, but find her anyway. Seek the help and camaraderie of a good woman that will have your back in an unconditional basis.

29. YOUR HISTORY. Make sure that you go back and understand the contributions of all Black people who have made it so that you have the freedom and conveniences that can make your life full. MANY PEOPLE have suffered for you and you have to realize that even though they did not know you and you did not know them, they are your brothers and sisters who have built a step for you to left yourself higher then you were when you came into the world. It doesn't matter if you know it or not, you needed them to enjoy the conveniences of life that you currently experience. When you point a gun in the direction of another Black man, you are slapping your ancestors in the face and saying that they did not matter. If you want to respect them, you will respect the brother on the street who looks like them. He was part of the step that was built for you prosper. Know it and believe it... it's true!

30. RESPECT ELDERS. Learn an appreciation for our entire elder population who without them we would be already be extinct. Further, understand that that every Black grandmother and grandfather who is walking on this earth has suffered unimaginable situations due to their color and endured. They deserve your respect even if they are not in your immediate family! And just know that as you would want the stranger off the street to respect your elders when you are not around, you should respect their elders when they are not around. It is the law of the universe! What goes around comes around for the positive.

31. BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE. Be more concerned with life’s comfort zone and preparing to enter in to that zone early on in life. Briefly, to avoid the lifelong struggle that most black people experience, cut the struggle in half by preparing, building, studying, saving, and learning tools that will make it easier for your to live later on. The decrease of the struggle is called the “Comfort Zone” and you want to get there as quickly as possible. (This concept is expounded upon in the opening audio message).

32. SQUASHING IT. Learn how to walk away so that you are here to live another day. This way you can enjoy the people and things in life that you enjoy. You should realize that the majority of brothers who die on the street in violent confrontations did not have to die. It was a choice that another brother made that affected both the person who died and the person who went to prison. Two lives were destroyed from something that was insignificant. Realizing the "cause and affect" analogy and the "action reaction" situation that ultimately takes lives that could have created inventions, laws, music and ventures that better our existence on earth, is the senseless culprit. let it go, walk away and squash it because there are things that you have to do to make your life and your people's life better.

33. DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE. Make sure you get up everyday and do something to move your career or goals forward. Just like it is impossible to build a house in one day, you have to take the time to place one brick on top of the other so that in time, you have built something that matters. This just means that you should not waste time because it is more valuable than Gold. You need time to make things happen and in that time, you should do something productive to make your life and the lives of others, better.

34. EACH ONE TEACH ONE. The next twelve suggestions were created by Chicago’s Black Star project and we have encompassed them into this list. Teach all black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education.

35. ROLE MODELS. Provide positive role models for black boys.

36. CREATE STABILITY. Create a stable home environment for black boys that includes contact with their fathers.

37. TAKE TO CHURCH. Ensure that black boys have a strong spiritual base.

38. LIMIT TELEVISION. Control the negative media influences on black boys.

39. TEACH RESPECT. Teach black boys to respect all girls, women AND ELDERS. In order for you to get respect, you have to give it. Everyone would love to be respected, so the best way to get respect is to give it to the people that you might not even know. Assume everyone deserves respect and give it to them and you will be respected in the process.

40. INVEST. Invest as much money in educating black boys as in locking up black men. You have to make sure that you are taken care of in later years. what you do now will affect how you live in days to come. If you are not doing anything to develop a pension,then your struggle will not end and in fact, it will get worse. Save for a rainy day, trust me, the rain is coming so the real question is, will you be prepared for it?

41. BUILD SELF ESTEEM. Help connect black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future. Negativity is learned and the idea of who you are is "positive conditioning." Positive breeds positive. The media and history with negative people have determined that you are not worthy of the good things in life, but i am here to tell you that that is a smoke screen for their own insecurities. You deserve all that you are willing to work to get. Happiness, love, and all the things that are due to an American citizen and a human being are not only your right to have but the right of all breathing people. Self images that are good or bad are learned. If you have a negative self image of who you are, it has to be relearned and reconditioned. If you have a positive image of yourself, then you are a step a head of the game. Remember in order for you to get more, you have to know that you deserve more and God expects you to have more. So just know that they are out there to stop you, but just know if it is worth having, then it is working fighting to get. So go and get what will make your life long, rich and prosperous. Think it, believe it, act upon it and it will be yours.

42. EXPECT BETTER. Create high expectations and help black boys live upto those high expectations.

43. BUILD POSITIVE FRIENDSHIPS. Build a positive peer culture for black boys.

44. SELF CONTROL. Learn self-discipline, culture and history.

45. ALWAYS SEEK THE KNOWLEDGE. Learn to embrace education and life-long learning. It will be there when money runs out, but you will have a way to get it back.

46. START EARLY. Master a craft or skill by starting them early so that they will learn a love for the skill and be proficient at it early in life. Just to give you an idea of starting early, there are numerous articles which you can find on google stating that by the third grade, they will give you or your child a test that will determine how many prisons that they will make in the future! They are suggesting based on factual numbers, that you will miss out on learning opportunities because your foundation is not secure.  This menas that you are more likely than not to drop out of school in eaither elementary or high-school.  At that point you are more likely to get caught up in the system and when that happens, it is wrap.  You will get a record and it will be hard for you to get a job for the rest of your life.  I say all this to say, start learning early and start reading to your kids and teaching them letters and math early.  They can absorb a great deal of information early on, in fact, kids have been known to learn multiple languages by the time they are six.  What ever you do....start early!  It is not impossible to get it together if you start later on, but it will take much more effort.