First, let me start by praising the seven performers at the Poetry Slam, held Tuesday, August 5 at the Main Library downtown. The teenagers put on a magnificent performance; they displayed talent and a command with words that left people who heard them spellbound.

The teenagers stood in front of an audience of mostly strangers and opened their hearts and souls. They told gut-wrenching truths that made you want to shout like it was a Sunday morning sermon in a Baptist church. From that perspective, the event was a success.

It was, however, a failure in another sense: the apathy of local people.

We want to talk until our throats are hoarse about inner-city teenagers who fall on the wrong side of the law. We plaster their names and their faces across our TV screens and in other media. We talk endlessly about how ill-disciplined those born after the millennium are.

Now, I’d never excuse bad behavior; I’d deplore it. The word “ill-disciplined” might describe some boys and girls of that generation, but it doesn’t describe all of that generation. You could see that on a bright stage last Tuesday night.

But where were people in the community to support them? This extraordinary event cost nothing to attend. Yet instead of a full house, the auditorium was half-filled. In a city with more than 385,000 people, couldn’t 300 show up on a sunny evening to support these teenagers?

I suppose the problem might have been they didn’t know about it. Local media like Ideastream barely mentioned (or didn’t mention at all) the Poetry Slam. The Main Library moved slowly in getting the message to its branch libraries, and Cleveland Metropolitan School District offered zero support in letting its students know about this opportunity for young voices.

For more years than I care to count, we have railed about teenagers. We’ve found fault in them, as if generations before the millennium were perfect. Those generations were imperfect too. We didn’t do our share or lend our support to them; we only found and dwelled on their shortcomings. We’ve betrayed them.

Think about it: We worship the high-profile individual while ignoring the extraordinary among the masses. We’ll line up 10 deep on Euclid Avenue to see famous athletes like LeBron James or public figures like Donald Trump; I can list scores of others. But why should I bother? The fact remains: We won’t fill 300 seats for talented young people in our backyard.

The real concern isn’t what celebrities are doing; it’s what ordinary people are not doing. We put so much time into what doesn’t matter, and so little time into what does.

Well, our youth matter — they do in my opinion, anywah. If we can’t support them at their best, we ought not vilify them at their worst. They are what we’ve made them, and if we don’t like what we see, then we all should step forward and help remake it.

All it takes is some of your time.