I don't know what the area you live in is like, but the county that I live in borders on Washington, D.C., an unfortunately crime ridden area. It's not like we don't have crime where I live, just not a whole lot of it at this time. Most of the counties which border the district suffer from spill over crimes. The county I grew up on shares a border with the district, and I once worked in that corner. Some of the stories to come out of that area are sad, to say the least. Many of the areas I'm familiar with and grew up in have now become crime ridden, drug infested areas, some into which I would never venture today.
Why aren't the police doing more people ask, what's happening with the police and why aren't they able to bring the number of crimes down? I'm never sure why people ask these questions instead of looking at the sources of the crimes, and more particularly why these crimes are happening. If you are anything like me you were raised right. You were taught right from wrong, how to make good moral and ethical decisions, never to harm others, don't take what doesn't belong to you, never follow a bad crowd, and always obey the law. Back in the long ago day, we couldn't roam our neighborhood, such as it was, without being known by somebody. I remember being stopped one day by some old man out in his yard raking leaves. He asked me if I was so and so, to which I answered no, even though I knew who he was talking about. Then he asked me if I was so and sos daughter, and once again I told him I wasn't, but I had to admit that I was his granddaughter. We were not allowed to back sass our elders or that meant a whipping. We had to answer to any adult who spoke to us because if we didn't they would hear about it. My grandparents, while not very strict, kept us under close watch, and we were not to break the rules. Cursing? One day, one of my sisters made me so mad that I decided to lay her little butt out and damned the consequences. So I told her off and cursed her, and said now, go tell that. That little hussy went flying down those rows of cabbages my grandmother had planted and was working on and told on me. I just waited on the porch for the whipping I knew was coming, and sure enough, my angry grandmother picked up a long handled coal shovel and beat my behind with it. She probably knew that although I had paid a price I was still pleased with myself.
These were my lessons growing up, along with so much else. I came from a large extended family who loved and cared for us and showed it. I passed these same lessons down to my own child, and used the same rules to help keep brothers and sisters in line when I had to. That I know of there are no jailbirds in my family, not one male in my family has ever spent time behind bars. They were way too afraid of my grandfather to have done anything to land them in jail. This is the problem of today's youth; there aren't enough authority figures in the home, not enough adults with the family training raising some of these kids, giving them the kinds of foundations they need to get through life without resorting to something like this.
Any day now we're going to see the parents of the four teens who beat this man to death, crying and sobbing into the cameras about how their children were good children, how they would never do something like this, and about how they, themselves, were good and loving parents. Doesn't it always go this way? Unfortunately, that's not really the way it is. All too many of these homes may be one parent homes, low income, drug addicted, and far too many have parents who were not trained by their parents to become parents. Somewhere along the line we stopped training our children for parenthood, something that used to be a natural part of life. In all too many households there are no father figures, needed by boys and girls. Mothers aren't passing down any lessons that they might have learned about wrong and right, making moral choices, choosing the right friends, and how to stay out of trouble. There's no one reinforcing the idea that there are consequences for their actions. When children have rules and goals set for them things like this don't happen either. Young people don't feel as if they have to rob and steal from each other or strangers, murdering them.
Lawlessness doesn't begin in the streets, it begins in the home, and it begins with the interactions between parent and child. Too many parents don't have the skills it takes to be a good parent, and too many parents aren't involved in their children's lives. One of the things I wish television stations would do is cut the stupid 911 calls, done only for drama, and explore some of the stories of the arrests of people, talk to some of the perpetrators of crimes, get a synopsis of their lives and what led them to commit the crimes they committed. Maybe there should be a program in the schools concerning crime and how to stay out of trouble, to give them a better foundation for adhering to rules and regulations. It's a well known fact that the majority of kids want rules in their lives to keep them from going over the edge, for knowing how they can't go.
Rules and regulations are meant to keep kids safe. In D. C. there's a school curfew and a summer curfew, one of 10 p.m. and the other midnight. I think this incident happened during the school year, when a mother allowed her son to stay out past curfew as a reward for completing an internship. He would have graduated that year. He and a group of his friends had stopped at a local teen spot and were on their way home when he was shot to death. He was not the target, nor were his friends, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Celebrations and rewards are well and good, but if the child had been at home where he was supposed to be he might not be dead now.
Parenting classes might be one thing, especially if the child has a brush with the law, and parent/child classes, where parents learn to to interact with their children could be another. Lawlessness begins in the home and is then taken to the streets.
Why aren't the police doing more people ask, what's happening with the police and why aren't they able to bring the number of crimes down? I'm never sure why people ask these questions instead of looking at the sources of the crimes, and more particularly why these crimes are happening. If you are anything like me you were raised right. You were taught right from wrong, how to make good moral and ethical decisions, never to harm others, don't take what doesn't belong to you, never follow a bad crowd, and always obey the law. Back in the long ago day, we couldn't roam our neighborhood, such as it was, without being known by somebody. I remember being stopped one day by some old man out in his yard raking leaves. He asked me if I was so and so, to which I answered no, even though I knew who he was talking about. Then he asked me if I was so and sos daughter, and once again I told him I wasn't, but I had to admit that I was his granddaughter. We were not allowed to back sass our elders or that meant a whipping. We had to answer to any adult who spoke to us because if we didn't they would hear about it. My grandparents, while not very strict, kept us under close watch, and we were not to break the rules. Cursing? One day, one of my sisters made me so mad that I decided to lay her little butt out and damned the consequences. So I told her off and cursed her, and said now, go tell that. That little hussy went flying down those rows of cabbages my grandmother had planted and was working on and told on me. I just waited on the porch for the whipping I knew was coming, and sure enough, my angry grandmother picked up a long handled coal shovel and beat my behind with it. She probably knew that although I had paid a price I was still pleased with myself.
These were my lessons growing up, along with so much else. I came from a large extended family who loved and cared for us and showed it. I passed these same lessons down to my own child, and used the same rules to help keep brothers and sisters in line when I had to. That I know of there are no jailbirds in my family, not one male in my family has ever spent time behind bars. They were way too afraid of my grandfather to have done anything to land them in jail. This is the problem of today's youth; there aren't enough authority figures in the home, not enough adults with the family training raising some of these kids, giving them the kinds of foundations they need to get through life without resorting to something like this.
Any day now we're going to see the parents of the four teens who beat this man to death, crying and sobbing into the cameras about how their children were good children, how they would never do something like this, and about how they, themselves, were good and loving parents. Doesn't it always go this way? Unfortunately, that's not really the way it is. All too many of these homes may be one parent homes, low income, drug addicted, and far too many have parents who were not trained by their parents to become parents. Somewhere along the line we stopped training our children for parenthood, something that used to be a natural part of life. In all too many households there are no father figures, needed by boys and girls. Mothers aren't passing down any lessons that they might have learned about wrong and right, making moral choices, choosing the right friends, and how to stay out of trouble. There's no one reinforcing the idea that there are consequences for their actions. When children have rules and goals set for them things like this don't happen either. Young people don't feel as if they have to rob and steal from each other or strangers, murdering them.
Lawlessness doesn't begin in the streets, it begins in the home, and it begins with the interactions between parent and child. Too many parents don't have the skills it takes to be a good parent, and too many parents aren't involved in their children's lives. One of the things I wish television stations would do is cut the stupid 911 calls, done only for drama, and explore some of the stories of the arrests of people, talk to some of the perpetrators of crimes, get a synopsis of their lives and what led them to commit the crimes they committed. Maybe there should be a program in the schools concerning crime and how to stay out of trouble, to give them a better foundation for adhering to rules and regulations. It's a well known fact that the majority of kids want rules in their lives to keep them from going over the edge, for knowing how they can't go.
Rules and regulations are meant to keep kids safe. In D. C. there's a school curfew and a summer curfew, one of 10 p.m. and the other midnight. I think this incident happened during the school year, when a mother allowed her son to stay out past curfew as a reward for completing an internship. He would have graduated that year. He and a group of his friends had stopped at a local teen spot and were on their way home when he was shot to death. He was not the target, nor were his friends, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Celebrations and rewards are well and good, but if the child had been at home where he was supposed to be he might not be dead now.
Parenting classes might be one thing, especially if the child has a brush with the law, and parent/child classes, where parents learn to to interact with their children could be another. Lawlessness begins in the home and is then taken to the streets.
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