A Philadelphia man who held a gun at 12 now helps youth put theirs down

What happened

In a piece published today, The Trace profiled Nickeem “S Dot” Higgins, a 35-year-old Philadelphian. According to the outlet’s headline, Higgins held his first gun at 12. The Trace reported that he grew up surrounded by violence.

According to The Trace, Higgins founded The Glue, a grassroots mentorship program. The outlet reported that his work is aimed at sparing the next generation in Philadelphia the kind of childhood he had. The Trace also reported that Philadelphia’s City Council recently recognized his leadership in youth gun violence prevention.

This brief uses only the facts The Trace reported above. For how The Glue works and for Higgins in his own words, read the full story at The Trace.

Our reflection

Twelve is sixth grade. It is the age of growth spurts and science projects, and The Trace’s headline says it is when Nickeem Higgins first held a gun. When a child that age has a weapon in his hand, the adults around him were already failing him before he picked it up.

Be honest about the part of us that reads a headline like that and quietly files the boy away. We decide early who is going to be trouble, and then we stop looking. Jesus will not let us keep that distance. He said anger kept in the heart already stands under the same judgment as murder (Matthew 5:21 to 22). The fear that tells a 12-year-old he needs to carry is a cousin of the fear that tells comfortable adults to look away. Often the only difference between us is the block where our fear was formed.

Mark 5 tells of a man who lived among the tombs in the country of the Gerasenes. The town had tried chains on him, and the chains did not hold. Jesus set him free, and when the people saw him clothed and in his right mind, they were afraid. Then they asked Jesus to leave. They had learned to live with a tormented man. A healed one was what frightened them.

The man begged to get in the boat and follow Jesus. Jesus told him no. He sent him home, back to the same towns that had known him at his worst, to tell them what mercy had done. The people who once feared him had to listen to him. His history was never erased. In God’s hands it became the reason he could reach them.

I know Nickeem Higgins only through The Trace’s reporting, and I won’t put words in his mouth about faith. But the pattern is as old as Mark’s Gospel: God sends people back to the streets that nearly took them, and those streets listen.

This is what people mean by credible messengers. A young person will hear an adult who knows exactly what the corner costs. The research on this kind of mentoring is still being built, and honest people in the field say so. What no study argues with is that a boy needs an adult who shows up on Tuesday and comes back the next Tuesday. A City Council recognition is good news. It cannot sit with a young man at 11 at night. People do that.

At We The Revolt, our JCVI work in Miami, Chicago and Houston tries to reach young people at first contact, before a record exists, and to stay with them through re-entry. That depends on local men and women deciding a 12-year-old is worth their weekends. Philadelphia has people already doing it, and every city has young people waiting for them. The steps below are a place to begin this week.

Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.

Mark 5:19

Source: The Trace, “He Held His First Gun at 12. Now He’s Helping Philly Youth Put Theirs Down”