Testimony: Jimmy Rosemond

When I heard the guilty verdict [for assaulting a Maryland disc jockey] I didn’t understand how two men fighting is an assault. That was the first thing that ran through my mind. The second thing is I really didn’t understand how I’m back in this situation, where I’m facing jail time again and things of that nature. Sometimes you just don’t know what the lesson is.

In the Koran it asks “Do you think you will say you believe and not be tested?” And it also states that you will be tested by way of your children, your parents, your friends, your loved ones, your property, so on and so forth. So this is definitely a test of faith. This isn’t something that has broken my spirit at all. I’m definitely on point with my faith and this hasn’t shaken it.

Coming up as a troubled youth, and going through the penitentiary, going through being shot, and just going through so many different trials and tribulations that a lot of young black males go through coming up, my faith was tested. But to tell you the truth, a lot of the stuff I have been through only affirmed my faith, as far as knowing that there is a greater power than me.

I just have to learn how to let go everything that I really believed in when I was coming up in the streets. A lot of times you get your manhood tested. Not only by brothers, your peers, but sometimes those white people test you too. At the same time, I came up in the 70s where racism was still alive and well, it still sets in my mind like what it is. A lot of times when people say certain things to me, it triggers certain kinds of emotions. Back then you kind of have had to stick up for yours and be proud of who you were and who you are. Sometimes that still comes out of me, where I have to prove my manhood or show that ‘Hey, I’m not backing down to certain things.’ Maybe I have to come to a point where I don’t have to prove myself as much. Maybe that will help me in not being in the predicament that I’m in right now.

When you look at a person’s life and you see all the tribulations they go through and there able to come back up after they’re knocked down so many times, I understand that there is definitely a higher power. I call him Allah. Other people may call that power something else. But I truly believe that who God blessed, no man can curse no matter if you control the wind, the rain, or the storm against that man. If it isn’t by the will of God, nothing will come in his way. I really believe that God definitely has a plan for me because I have been the wretch of the earth many of a times and still have gotten the blessings from God in a way that men who have never done the things or saw the things that I have. I just thank God for allowing me to no matter how many times that I have strayed that I have always been able to repent and get back on my feet and do the things that he wills me to do.