I knew that at sometime I would find myself posting in support of an opinion of Mr. Lacy's (although he might be a little surprised himself), but I never thought it would be in opposition to a post by Mr. Graham. Life is always full of little surprises.
JIM GRAHAM wrote: > So Brandon, are you a drug dealer or a criminal because of your up-bringing > and your mother's gallant efforts? I grew up on a sharecropper farm in > Arkansas in poverty you might have trouble even imagining, unless you have > visited some truly third world country. (I do not mean Cancun or Dominican > Republic here). Yet I do not sell drugs on the corner and I do not rob > people! I wonder why? Do you ever have that overwhelming desire to commit > criminal activities? I do, but only assault type behavior, and only when > confronted with true child or woman abuse. Your mother, like many poor > mothers, may have given you something more important than "Good economic" > conditions. It is called values. I don't see how you can equate a rural background to an intercity one. You might just have found yourself on one of those street corners if, in order to avoid being beaten up everyday, you'd joined a gang. There are a lot of short term benefits that come with gang membership and we need to be aware of them if we want to lessen the attraction to young people. Gangs provide: protection, family, love, power, prestige, adventure and sex. Not being in a gang in some intercity neighborhoods is a daily struggle and is not quite on the same order of resisting the temptation of stealing watermelons. > We have a generation coming on line whose mothers have taught them the > "value" of criminal lifestyle. That is the reason for the phenomena of > criminal families. We have whole families who work in the drug industry > from child hood to grandmother, and have done so during the best economic > times in the history of the United States. What are downturns in the best > of economic times going to do to those families? Probably nothing. The > Police and true intervention might. I don't think that this is a statistically valid argument. The vast majority of kids who become involved with drugs don't have parents who are drug dealers. I think that you need to reassess your evidence. Gang leaders in L.A. have been telling community leaders for years what needs to be done to combat gangs: good jobs. Unfortunately, gang leaders don't see the connection between education and employment. I suppose this idea might stem from the cronyism inherent in many unions where good jobs are awarded based on who your daddy is or how good his connections; an option not historically open to many minority members. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
