Our Nations children are under seige. They are killing each other at an alarming rate. The rate of violent crime is alarmingly high.Young people between the ages of 10-24 years old are being murdered and they are becoming murderers.According to safeyouth.org, about 9% of murders in the U.S. were committed by youth under 18 in 2000. Youth under 18 accounted for about 15% of violent crime arrest in 2000. In my mind this is unacceptable. Some people might argue that things are not getting worse. They want to believe that we are just hearing about it more, because of the media. I don't think it should matter either way this is a terrible thing.
The mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents sons, daughters and friends left behind are left empty. They are not comforted by knowing numbers. They usually just want to know why. Why did these things happen?Young people should be looking forward to living their dreams.This is just not the case for far too many of our youth.
The reasons are complex. We can say the violence in the movies, on television, in the music, in video games,
etc., etc. is the cause. This is an irresponsible response. Parents , teachers, clergy, and all adults involved in the lives of children have the power to communicate with the youth.It is time for adults to realize we are allowing them to be exposed to the negativity. Collectively and individually it is our fault. We as a society just plain and simply got too busy to care about the children.
There are some of us who allow the television or the video games to raise our children.There are exceptions of course, but there are too few. We can not continue to allow our children to go out into the world and experience it on their own. Too many people are willing to let our children fend for themselves. Last summer I remember driving down the street at 11 o'clock pm and even later and seeing children in groups hanging out with no adults in sight. When did this become appropriate?
Chidren need more interaction from adults. They need to be told when things are inappropriate. Just because your child can walk and feed themselves does not mean they should be left on their own. Communicate with your children. You have to start at an early age. We have to be involved we can't just let them navigate through this world without guidance.
