American Voice

Have you ever committed murder? Maybe not knowingly..
Today, a sixteen year old girl was sentenced to 25 years in state custody for the shooting and murder of her fifteen year old classmate.
My heart goes out to the deceased child’s family. No child should have to die in this fashion. My heart also goes out to the sixteen year old child sentenced to prison.
This entire situation and so many other similar situations that happen in our inner cities could have been easily avoided. How? It could have been avoided by parenting, communication, and giving the youth the attention that they desperately need and crave. Instead, we as an apathetic society would rather concern ourselves with trivial issues rather than reaching out to our youth.
Without a doubt, one child saved from despair and a seemingly hopeless situation is one less child who may commit atrocities in our society. Whenever we give the excuse “that’s not my child” or decide to let someone else handle a situation that has definitely gone out of hand, then you may as well be pulling the trigger and killing the child yourself.
Our inner city youth cannot grow without the proper nurturing and care that is needed for ANY child. Each child that does not get this proper attention or mentorship stands a great chance of committing any number of crimes, from drug selling, to sexual assaults, rape, and of course murder.
This is why education is a necessity in the inner city areas. Indeed, a special attention has to be given to education and schooling in our urban areas. Most of the children on school campus are never more subject to adult supervision than during school hours, as unfortunate as this is. The reason is many kids do not have the parenting that they need at home. I am not at all attempting to advocate that parents take care of their children, because I cannot force parent to take care of their child. We as a community have been stating for decades that there has to be more parenting, but to no avail. The real change that these children need has to be in the schools. There has to be strong leadership and mentorship in these schools. These teachers that are halfheartedly teaching lessons, if at all, should be fired immediately. These slothful teachers are assisting in the murder of our kids. So, have you ever committed murder?

Let's Save Our Youth!