Bermudian motivational speaker Dennis Rahiim Watson, Chairman of the National Youth and Gang Violence Task Force, recently met US Attorney General Eric Holder at a conference in New York City.Mr Watson was among 600 New Yorkers who heard Mr Holder speak during a Black History Month programme sponsored by Congressman Joseph Crowley (Bronx/Queens) designed to honour community heroes.Prior to the beginning of the formal programme, Mr Watson thanked Mr Holder for visiting Bermuda last year. Mr Holder said that he was “impressed by the beauty of Bermuda and was honoured and delighted by the gracious and wonderful hospitality he experienced” while in Bermuda.Mr Watson also discussed issues of youth violence with Mr Holder. The two men had earlier attended a conference in Washington, DC on “Fatherhood and Youth Violence”.“As Chairman of the National Youth and Gang Violence Taskforce I have been honoured by invitations to speak throughout the Caribbean and the USA with recent proclamations from mayors throughout the USA and nothing has been more touching than receiving a proclamation signed by the 13 members of the Atlanta, Georgia City Council,” Mr Watson stated.“As a Bermudian I feel tremendously blessed to be one of the sought after speakers in the USA to address issues of black male gun violence, crime, drugs, unemployment, gangs and prevention/intervention strategies”.The major issues facing the African American community is the black-on-black murders that are committed by young black males from ages 14 years old to 21 years old it is a war zone in areas where black people live and very few black pastors with the exception of Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton are out there raising hell and sounding the alarm,” he added.“That’s why I always thank God for his mercy and grace for giving me a purpose and mission in life to wake up this knucklehead/hip-hop generation from ending up in funeral parlours and/or prison.”Mr Watson recently received a proclamation by Nashville, Tennessee, Mayor Karl Dean for his anti-gang violence campaign during a Black Male Conference at Fisk University where he was Keynote Speaker. He is now on a 25-city tour of US cities with his Black-on-Black Love campaign to draw attention to Black-on-Black violence among Black males and the escalation of Black females into all aspects of the gang and criminal culture. He will be speaking in Oklahoma City tomorrow at a “Family Jubilee” event.Earlier this month he was honoured by the Atlanta City Council for his work with young people during the National Black Caucus of State Legislators Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia.Mr Watson can be contacted at black.success[AT]yahoo.com or at 212-252-2272.