American Voice

• 27% of males and 10% of females are incarcerated.
• 33% receive public assistance
• 37% have not finished high school
• And a whopping 50% are unemployed

• Children are 11 times more likely to be abused in state care than in their own home.
• The overall child victim of maltreatment rate in 2007 was 10.6 victims per every 1,000 children. The rate for state child victim rates? Up to 26.3 victims per every 1,000 children.
• It is over 5 times more likely that a child dies as a result of abuse in foster care than a child in general population
• 2% of all child fatalities happen in foster care - which is a horrifically high number considering that out of all the children in the general population, only .4% are in foster care. That's right - .4%.

I'm sure that most of us would agree by now that lack of education is the primary source of lack of success for individuals in the inner cities. The statistics below simply provide visual evidence to support the argument that education is needed to bridge the gap between inner city areas and the rest of the nation.

• 16% of Americans have not completed high school.
• 75% of state prisoners have not completed high school.
• 67% of jailed inmates have not completed high school.

• 84% of all Americans have at least completed high school; the violent crime rate for the U.S. is 469 per 100,000 individuals.
• The ten states with the largest percentage of population with a at least a high school diploma is a high 91.5%; the violent crime rate for these ten states is  305 per 100,000 individuals (below the national average.)
• The ten states with the smallest percentage of population with at least a high school diploma is 80.5%; the violent crime rate for these states is 488 per 100,000 individuals (above the national average.)

• Women who did not finish high school make an average of $10,786  a year.
• Men who did not finish high school make an average of $18,990 a year.

Per the responses on the posted poll, it shows that 75% of you believe that education is most likely to help inner city youth succeed in life. 25% believe that it is parenting. A huge thanks to all that took the time to vote!

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!