I have been reading about the latest surge in murders in Philadelphia. Philadelphians are again questioning whether their city is as safe as Iraq. I do not know what the statistics are for the murder rate are in Iraq, but I know it does not matter in a city where "another surge in murders" is an ordinary occurrence. Why are people killing each other in Philadelphia?
Anyone who has to grow up under some of the same conditions these kids have to grow up under would be more likely to commit violent crimes than other people. The teachers at countless public schools across the city understand this very well. I spent four years teaching at one of Philadelphia’s “persistently dangerous” middle schools. Lex Street (the largest mass murder in the history of Philadelphia) happened during my first year a couple blocks away from the school. The year Jasmine McDonald (one of our brightest students) was murdered was my last.
The faithful decent people with enough conviction to endure urban America’s hardships from birth through adulthood while maintaining optimism and charactor are the people who will guide our cities to better days. The truly fortunate thing is that there are far more of these people than you might expect, considering the circumstances.
Could it be that the kind of money we are spending in Iraq to insure Iraqi freedom could find just as constructive use at home in our own cities? To insure that our American freedom will be present in our cities, somewhere along the line people are going to have to decide to stop killing each other. How do you get people to decide to stop killing each other?
People who grow up feeling safe and cared about are less likely to kill other people later in life. The government will need to see that every child who is not already getting the kind of attention and support needed to secure a happy and healthy life will get that kind of attention and support.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - alienboy
I know this isn't an original observation but I still can't shake the idea that if there were less weapons around, there'd be less weapons used.
Unarmed disputes tend to produce less deaths and are easier to manage.
*Ducks to avoid incoming fire from NRA supporters*
;-)
2 - David
It's interesting that you mention the need for less weapons. Where I am now, there are many more weapons avalable to children, yet no one is killing each other.
3 - andy marsh
Other options? How about we just let them kill each other off? Why is it the govt. responsiblity to make sure someone is loved? Nothing in the constitution about love...
I live in Virginia Beach, not a bad place, murder rate is fairly low, but head through the downtown tunnel or across the bridge to Norfolk or Newport News and it happens every day. I hear it on the news every morning. Another shooting in Norfolk, or Portsmouth or Hampton.
Arm everyone and the real criminals will think twice.
4 - Victor Plenty
Let's arm the homeless. It's a standing army, quite literally standing about (well, okay, sometimes laying about) in all of our large cities.
Let's make them our well regulated militia, which the Constitution does mention. Let's provide the homeless with the guns and ammunition they need, so they can defend themselves from crime and provide backup to our overwhelmed police forces.
In a few years, the veterans of this program would be ready to take over for the exhausted service members currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
5 - David
OK, so that's another option, sure. Give everyone guns and let them kill each other off. Hadn't even thought of that. You're brilliant.
6 - Eric Olsen
while neatly providing self-confidence for our most downtrodden
7 - Victor Plenty
Don't give "everyone" guns! Only the homeless! And don't let them kill each other off, either. That would be a waste of ammo.
We have to train our new homeless militia to follow very specific rules of engagement, so they will only kill evildoers attempting to commit violent crimes against people who are too poor to have their own guns, but not poor enough to receive guns from this new government program.
By the way, this new program will have to be administered under the Department of Homeland Security, so nobody will be able to question it unless they are America-hating traitors or communists.
8 - Mark Schannon
It's too bad a serious issue raised by David has deteriorated into name calling and wierd ideas. (Unless Victor was pulling a Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal," which then makes him brilliant...but a mite obscure, although lots of people misunderstood Swift too.)
But to the point, man, get to the point!
I share your dismay, Eric. I won't get involved in the gun issue. Might as well talk about abortion.
There are times the government intervenes to remove a child from a dangerous environment, but I think that's something that has to be done with great care and as a last resort.
I'm more than willing to strip the military of the money they're wasting in Iraq and loads of other places, but I think the problem has to be tackled in its entirety.
The family, as battered a unit as it has become, is still the a powerful influence. People need jobs, they need decent housing, they need safe neighborhoods, they need to believe that there's a future for them and their children. And they need to believe that society values them as human beings.
On some level, yes it's the typical liberal move of pouring money into a problem, but it has to be a program with high expectations and significant support. Not a give away.
For example, after years of supportin bilingualism, I've come to believe it's the worst idea we liberals ever had. You move here, you learn English. If you don't, you're consigning yourself and your children to the lower depths forever.
And equally as important, as a society, we must accept that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. We will never succeed in creating a just society until we bury the "I got mine" society. That doesn't mean socialism or mass redistribution of wealth, but it does mean understanding that citizenship has responsibilities most of us are ignoring.
I did a post on my blog, "What's wrong with wealth" which I'll put on this site. There's a couple of statements that'll raise hackles, but screw 'em.
Keep fighting the good fight, Eric.
9 - Victor Plenty
I'm almost tempted to carry on with my satire, after the head-swelling experience of being compared the Jonathan Swift.
Alas, I cannot take credit for the idea of arming the homeless. It's been surfacing on the occasional April 1st for at least a decade now.
I will take this opportunity to state for the record that the target of my satire was not David's proposal, but the microcephalic and microcardiac response from Andy Marsh, one of those unfortunate souls for whom every day is April Fool's Day.
10 - andy marsh
Well Gee Victor I just don't know what to say...I'm underwhelmed that you think I have no heart or brains. But of course anytime someone says to hell with handouts and government programs some liberal will start calling names. Your dumbass comments are allowed to be satire, but anyone elses that doesn't agree with your left coast idea of what life's supposed to be about is brainless and heartless?
I'd say April FOOLS' Day was made for people like you.
Have a nice day.
11 - David
I'm not suggesting government handouts. I'm figuring out how raise a generation of adults who won't be dependent on government handouts.
12 - Victor Plenty
Andy, I did not call you any names. Your response, not yourself, was what I called microcephalic and microcardiac. If you were to read more carefully, you would realize things like this without the embarrassment of someone having to point them out to you.
Likewise with David's point. To a careful reader it's very clear he aims to reduce government expenditures, over the long term.
13 - JR
Arm everyone and the real criminals will think twice.
Arm everyone and the real criminals will have a bonanza taking guns away from the majority of law-abiding citizens who have no expertise in defending themselves.
14 - Victor Plenty
All I know about self-defense, I learned from DOOM and other first person shooter games.
The basic rule goes like this: if bad guys attack you with guns, all you need to do is kill them and take their guns.
That's why I never have to waste any of my money buying guns for myself. If the need ever arises, the bad guys will provide the means for their own destruction.
15 - Scoota Rey
Hey, I'm from inner city Philadelphia. And yes, it sucks.
16 - SFC SKI
That's why people should have to use firearms properly before being licensed to carry. Otherwise you're just another story on the nightly news and another statistic, if you're lucky, someone will cite your case as to why we need to do "something about crime in this city."
17 - David
People who have their basic needs met don't grow up killing other people as a form of problem solving. I'm arguing that it is an issue of national security to see that such basic needs are met.
18 - The Duke
"I know this isn't an original observation but I still can't shake the idea that if there were less weapons around, there'd be less weapons used.
Unarmed disputes tend to produce less deaths and are easier to manage." --Alienboy
Dear Alienboy,
I like ma gunz as much as the next guy.... jist how would you propose we go about gettin' all them gunz into the guvment and melty'd down?
Since everah body on this heyah web site are all conspriratorial in thought... FBI, CIA, Conservative Sumbitches, and the other half are left winged chickenspittin' (gawd bless Frank Perdue), socialist democratic, Youthinasia advocates... how would ya know if all the gunz on a global scale were sucked up?
Furthermore, them poleece ain't obligated to respond to a 911 call (and that's a REAL FACT), cuz litigation would eat 'em alive if they ever failed to respond if they absolutely had to. But I digress.... If sum sumbitch didnt' turn in their gun for meltdown, and was now breakin' in yer door to git a little offa the wife and steal yo' butt blind, at gun point. What would ya do? Some folks, bein' chicken and all, would plead and cry and beg for mercy (when they ought to be a prayin for deevine intervention), but still theya crying and carryin' on and git blasted for bein' an agravating pussy.
So what's a poor ole boy, with no way to defend hissef, goin to do?
I ain't got no answer neither, but this is a no B.S., I pray to Gawd, fer protection, and to keep me outta trouble, and fer no trouble to come ma way... it's called the 91st psalm, and if yer interested, try readin on it some, it's good stuff. Mix that there 91st psalm with a little faith, and believe it... you will receive it. That's what the word sez... but it's not what the world sez....
'nuff said? bye now.
19 - David
Duke, do you think there would be less murders down the road if the needs of our urban kids were met?
20 - alienboy
Duke, I think your point is about how would you actually get people to disarm?
If so, I,d imagine it would take the usual mixture of sticks and carrots that leads heavily armed nations to reduce their stockpiles. That or the realisation of where the best interests of people lie.
and David, you didn't actually say that you were now living in Alaska. That may be one of the places where there is a legitimate need for some weapons ownership but probably not in the urban centres...
21 - gonzo marx
ok...this "the Duke" guy has gone over the edge..
i found it all quite humorous..but the blatant plaigerism of my "Style" bits..
ie: "but i digress" and "nuff said"
not the first one i have seen lately..and i KNOW i have ripped off...err..paid Homage to..the originators for quite a bit of it..
but damnitall...they're MY catch-phrases!!
the preceeding was completely satirical, any resemblance to actual criticism , real, imagined, or implied is strictly coincidental
Excelsior!
22 - The Duke
I ain't advocatin' disarmament, cuz I don't think it's gonna happen in my lifetime. That said, I ain't willin' to be the first to disarm neither! But I will admit that urbanites tend to get fussy, cuz they're cramped up together like a purdue chicken in a chicken house. That, and constant exposure to crappy television (I shot mine years ago), violent video games, all that stuff is blowin' their minds! It's conditionin'... you have to remember that these are kids, very impressionable, you were one too, remember... santy claws, tooth fairy... you believed it all, just like everyone else. And now we got em hyped up on other more violent fantasy games, television shows, uncle ernie's porn videos... all that crap, the sponge (their impressionable brains) are being filled up with vineger, when it should be gettin' filled up with pure water, the water of life.
We can treat the symptoms till we're blue in the face, but the disease will continue unabated. Taken weapons away, might stop killing, but not erratic behavior, or violent tendacies... NYC and DC have the strictest gun laws in the country... and the highest murder rates.
Are guns a problem? sure, but you have to consent that exposure to "unhealthy" mind altering, violent media is having profound effects on the minds of the youth. If you're thinking about taking "some" action, it won't be good enough. Like cancer, it would have to be all, or nothing at all. Guns, knives, sharpened screwdrivers, baseball bats, bricks, pipes, chains, steel toe boots, spiked belts, forks, car antenna's. Where would the list begin, and where would it stop?
As fer stealing the 'nuff said caveat.... that's been around for years... years I tell ya. But I digress, can't remember the first time I heard that, but it wasn't here, that for sure. Anyway, enough tryin' to solve the worlds problems.
I said it earlier, and I'll say it again. It takes some personal committment, and love to turn any thing around. Sometime you (and me) have to show up, to make a difference in somebody's life. The government ain't gonna help, they just apply band aids, the courts will just send them off to jail, where they'll learn to be even tougher criminals. Jesus can help, but people are too proud or ashamed to speak about it, or apply it. I've seen the miracle of saving someone through Christ REALLY make a difference.
One person at a time, pass it on.
23 - gonzo marx
Personal Responsibility
that's what it all is about folks..
fuck blaming games, guns, movies, comic book, D&D, the kid next door or anything else..
fuck saying anything but YOURSELF can save you..not your neighbors, the cops, your shrink,the government or the church
all these factors can Influence someone, but ..ultimately...it is the Individual who does something..both for the good, or the bad
before he died Bruce Lee wrote a film script that told a Parable...
in it, the Hero..Chord, was on a mission to win a Tournament and gain the Prize...the Book of all Knowledge..
he won the fights, and went out on the Quest to find the Blind Man who would lead him to the Book
various Trial and Tests awaited him..he made it past them all, and found the Book
upon opening it, he discovered the Secret held within..the pages were Mirrors...
and so, Sifu Lee taught the same Parable as the Christ and the Buddha
one said "the Kingdom of Heaven lies within"
the other.."Elightenment and Paradise are inside all to find"
the film was named "Circle of Iron" and was made..poorly..by David Carradine, after Lee's death
the Lesson remains
nuff said?
Excelsior!
24 - Tristan
I see the Pope's DEATH has affected young Groucho deeply----
(bringing out the Turrett's Syndrome ....)
and what's with all these: "out of que" dialoques popping up tonight ....are we in the midst of another technical horror approaching on BC ...?????
25 - gonzo marx
heh..not the Pontiff's death, Isolde luvver..
perhaps Aenima...
as fer young..umm..not me..just getting ripe at 43
thanx fer playing tho, plz try again...
{8^P~~~~~~~~~
Excelsior!