As I continue to speak about this war on our youth, I have to speak to the problem of the violence that is taking place in my hometown of Detroit. While it is not as bad as Chicago’s youth violence but what city is right now, I still pray that Detroit doesn’t get that too far problematic before us the citizens of Detroit and realize how much violence is out of control. Therefore I still have to recognize the fact that youth violence in my home city must end. I am tired of politicians speaking about the violence in Detroit without really doing something about it. In a city with nearly 800,000 people and nearly a homicide every week taking place, it is clear that Detroit’s violence is not going to go away over night but real solutions are needed now more than ever.
In fact Detroit’s violence will take more than just a mayor criticizing the people for caring more about bus routes than the violence because the truth of the matter is that community leaders, activists, parents, students, and religious leaders all speak out against the violence plaguing our youth and our city, however it seems like these pleas to cease the violence go ignored. Youth today in the city of Detroit die for absolutely nothing and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I recently read a blog written by my friend George Hall Jr. where he writes about the death of a young man by the name of Matthew Antonio Soto. My friend George says, “The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men killed in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men who kill Black Males in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black Males that are killed in Detroit are under the age of 30. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black males that kill Black Males in Detroit are under the age of 30. Matthew Antonio Soto was a Black Male, 22 years old.”
Nonetheless what my friend George describes is something that should make the citizens of Detroit outraged that our youth particularly our young black men are dying at such an alarming rate in a predominately black city lead by black leaders. However the fact that black males are dying is not the reason I am calling for Detroit to end the violence or for other people to care but the truth of the matter is, it is time to get serious about ending youth violence in Detroit and violence in Detroit period no matter what race of people are dying daily or weekly. Our youth need saving more now than ever so that our youth can have an opportunity to have a better future than the present that they inherited from us. Currently Detroit is in need of a savior, however the only savior for my home city is us the people to step up and take our communities back from the violence. We, the people of Detroit can be the savior of our city by taking our youth back from the streets that stems the violence that makes our youth want to act out because of despair and hopelessness.
Detroit, our youth today need guidance and more than anything else they need a good tongue lashing than only their parents can give them with the support of the community. We all know that it takes a village to raise a child but the truth of the matter is our youth have heard why they shouldn’t kill another human being and why they shouldn’t harm another human but for some of our youth, they have no choice when they are presented with the reality that they live in a city that has an unemployment rate of nearly 30%, a dropout rate above 10%, and an adult illiteracy rate that is at best estimate 50% or more. Also you can’t blame our youth for acting the way they act when many of them come from single parent homes with mothers or fathers that don’t have no more than a high school diploma if that and to add misery to that, the city of Detroit constantly ranks high among major cities when it comes to violent crimes. Therefore, it is understandable why many of Detroit’s youth feel hopeless when they live in a city where the third of its population is living in poverty.
With numbers like that, no one can blame our youth today in the city of Detroit who look toward violence to solve the problems that plague them when they are not even given a fair chance to live decent normal lives. Many of our youth in the city of Detroit, only know violence, only know despair and only know how to fend for themselves because some of them don’t have people who care for them or don’t know the meaning of love yet alone being safe. No longer can we as a city ignore the fact that youth violence is problematic and every time we hear about youth robbing or shooting someone, we need to understand exactly what our youth are facing before we simply act as if it is normal.
Today more than ever, Detroit doesn’t need any more youth task forces or violence task forces that will only get federal grant dollars to put on one or two programs that will not solve the problems facing our youth in the city. Problems such as a 12 year-old boy shooting a 24 year old woman to death during a robbery in the wee hours of the early morning or a 19-year-old killing Clarence (Sonny) Jones, a beloved 86-year-old southwest Detroit man known for helping others. These images are not nothing new to us as city and can’t be solved simply with programs but can be solved with constant action and social activism.
Our youth today need us to stand up for them and to help them find opportunities to keep them off the streets and out of safe harms. It is not hard to understand why youth violence in Detroit is out of control when we have failing schools (public, charter and private) in the city of Detroit that have become more like baby-sitting services rather than educational factories that provide food for thought and opportunities for our youth to have a better future than their present. So I can understand why two teens with shotguns held up a Hollywood film crew working on the movie “Little Murder” on Detroit's west side in the middle of the afternoon because they saw the opportunity to get ahead a little. I can also understand why two teens would want to rob a mother and child while they were standing at a bus stop on Friday.
Now while I understand why our youth act out, I am not condoning it or giving them a past but we as citizens of Detroit must understand that what our youth are facing in the city is a lack of opportunities and a chance to see a better future. Some of youth truly want to succeed but many of them don’t know the meaning of delayed gratification. In our youth today want and need instant gratification because that’s all they know. When they cut on the television or look on the internet, all they see is bling and people balling out of control not understanding that some of the athletes and entertainers they see don’t really own half they stuff they wear most of the time.
Nonetheless, what our youth in the City of Detroit see every day when they walk outside their homes only makes them want more hunger to get out of the despair and hopelessness they see on a daily basis. Our youth want instant success and results because many of them feel if they don’t make something happen now than it will never happen. That’s the life they see every day when they hear stories of the young athlete who could ball out of control back in his heyday but is now back at home in the hood roaming the streets as other youth attempt to go to school every morning. Detroit’s problems are not new and many of us know these are the problems facing our youth but for some of us, we tend to ignore them.
So there should be no doubt that no one in our city wants to see any little murders in Detroit. However all the crimes I have mentioned are part of a rising wave of armed violence this year: From January until August, Detroit police received reports of 1,166 shootings, 215 of them fatal. That compares with 1,037 for the same time period last year, 179 of them fatal. The violence in Detroit must end and our youth need real solutions to the problems plaguing them.
We need to stop the violence in Detroit and all of us must play a role in stopping it. We need to reach our youth in order to prevent any further violence. With more than 1,100 people being shot in this city and 215 of them being died that's 215 faces families won't see. That's, most likely, 215 funerals. Enough is enough people; we must change our fate of the constant violence in our city before it becomes worse.
Chicago is already as bad or worse than Iraq and Afghanistan so that is why Detroit can’t get to the point where we are compared to two wars. In fact some people might say Detroit’s violence is kind of third world country like but if that’s the case than what is Chicago like. Yes Detroiters we muster up some righteous indignation about the crime that's sweeping the city however Detroit, we can’t do it if our politicians, our pastors, our community groups, parents and students are not on the same page to fight this violence with the Detroit Police Department.
So make no doubt about it, the violence in Detroit must end and the only way it will end is by all of us working together to end it. No one is going to deny the fact that all of us have failed to deter the violence but the truth of the matter is, no amount of money will fix the problem if we the people of Detroit don’t stand up and get up to fight against the violence as well as many other issues plaguing our city. Now the war on our youth in the City of Detroit and the violence that is taking place is not only Detroit’s problem but it is everyone in the state’s problem who claims that they care if Detroit succeeds and prosper. Well now is the time to show it. Detroiters and the suburbanites need to work together to end the violence in Detroit and to protect our youth.
We all need to be involved in doing this because this is the only way to save a generation of youth from killing people off over simply nonsense and chump change. Our youth need saving and everyone needs to work to make sure we provide our youth with opportunities to succeed in life by giving them and showing them a better life than the one they currently see every day. This is how we need to approach if we are to change Detroit’s fate forever.
In fact Detroit’s violence will take more than just a mayor criticizing the people for caring more about bus routes than the violence because the truth of the matter is that community leaders, activists, parents, students, and religious leaders all speak out against the violence plaguing our youth and our city, however it seems like these pleas to cease the violence go ignored. Youth today in the city of Detroit die for absolutely nothing and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I recently read a blog written by my friend George Hall Jr. where he writes about the death of a young man by the name of Matthew Antonio Soto. My friend George says, “The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men killed in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men who kill Black Males in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black Males that are killed in Detroit are under the age of 30. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black males that kill Black Males in Detroit are under the age of 30. Matthew Antonio Soto was a Black Male, 22 years old.”
Nonetheless what my friend George describes is something that should make the citizens of Detroit outraged that our youth particularly our young black men are dying at such an alarming rate in a predominately black city lead by black leaders. However the fact that black males are dying is not the reason I am calling for Detroit to end the violence or for other people to care but the truth of the matter is, it is time to get serious about ending youth violence in Detroit and violence in Detroit period no matter what race of people are dying daily or weekly. Our youth need saving more now than ever so that our youth can have an opportunity to have a better future than the present that they inherited from us. Currently Detroit is in need of a savior, however the only savior for my home city is us the people to step up and take our communities back from the violence. We, the people of Detroit can be the savior of our city by taking our youth back from the streets that stems the violence that makes our youth want to act out because of despair and hopelessness.
Detroit, our youth today need guidance and more than anything else they need a good tongue lashing than only their parents can give them with the support of the community. We all know that it takes a village to raise a child but the truth of the matter is our youth have heard why they shouldn’t kill another human being and why they shouldn’t harm another human but for some of our youth, they have no choice when they are presented with the reality that they live in a city that has an unemployment rate of nearly 30%, a dropout rate above 10%, and an adult illiteracy rate that is at best estimate 50% or more. Also you can’t blame our youth for acting the way they act when many of them come from single parent homes with mothers or fathers that don’t have no more than a high school diploma if that and to add misery to that, the city of Detroit constantly ranks high among major cities when it comes to violent crimes. Therefore, it is understandable why many of Detroit’s youth feel hopeless when they live in a city where the third of its population is living in poverty.
With numbers like that, no one can blame our youth today in the city of Detroit who look toward violence to solve the problems that plague them when they are not even given a fair chance to live decent normal lives. Many of our youth in the city of Detroit, only know violence, only know despair and only know how to fend for themselves because some of them don’t have people who care for them or don’t know the meaning of love yet alone being safe. No longer can we as a city ignore the fact that youth violence is problematic and every time we hear about youth robbing or shooting someone, we need to understand exactly what our youth are facing before we simply act as if it is normal.
Today more than ever, Detroit doesn’t need any more youth task forces or violence task forces that will only get federal grant dollars to put on one or two programs that will not solve the problems facing our youth in the city. Problems such as a 12 year-old boy shooting a 24 year old woman to death during a robbery in the wee hours of the early morning or a 19-year-old killing Clarence (Sonny) Jones, a beloved 86-year-old southwest Detroit man known for helping others. These images are not nothing new to us as city and can’t be solved simply with programs but can be solved with constant action and social activism.
Our youth today need us to stand up for them and to help them find opportunities to keep them off the streets and out of safe harms. It is not hard to understand why youth violence in Detroit is out of control when we have failing schools (public, charter and private) in the city of Detroit that have become more like baby-sitting services rather than educational factories that provide food for thought and opportunities for our youth to have a better future than their present. So I can understand why two teens with shotguns held up a Hollywood film crew working on the movie “Little Murder” on Detroit's west side in the middle of the afternoon because they saw the opportunity to get ahead a little. I can also understand why two teens would want to rob a mother and child while they were standing at a bus stop on Friday.
Now while I understand why our youth act out, I am not condoning it or giving them a past but we as citizens of Detroit must understand that what our youth are facing in the city is a lack of opportunities and a chance to see a better future. Some of youth truly want to succeed but many of them don’t know the meaning of delayed gratification. In our youth today want and need instant gratification because that’s all they know. When they cut on the television or look on the internet, all they see is bling and people balling out of control not understanding that some of the athletes and entertainers they see don’t really own half they stuff they wear most of the time.
Nonetheless, what our youth in the City of Detroit see every day when they walk outside their homes only makes them want more hunger to get out of the despair and hopelessness they see on a daily basis. Our youth want instant success and results because many of them feel if they don’t make something happen now than it will never happen. That’s the life they see every day when they hear stories of the young athlete who could ball out of control back in his heyday but is now back at home in the hood roaming the streets as other youth attempt to go to school every morning. Detroit’s problems are not new and many of us know these are the problems facing our youth but for some of us, we tend to ignore them.
So there should be no doubt that no one in our city wants to see any little murders in Detroit. However all the crimes I have mentioned are part of a rising wave of armed violence this year: From January until August, Detroit police received reports of 1,166 shootings, 215 of them fatal. That compares with 1,037 for the same time period last year, 179 of them fatal. The violence in Detroit must end and our youth need real solutions to the problems plaguing them.
We need to stop the violence in Detroit and all of us must play a role in stopping it. We need to reach our youth in order to prevent any further violence. With more than 1,100 people being shot in this city and 215 of them being died that's 215 faces families won't see. That's, most likely, 215 funerals. Enough is enough people; we must change our fate of the constant violence in our city before it becomes worse.
Chicago is already as bad or worse than Iraq and Afghanistan so that is why Detroit can’t get to the point where we are compared to two wars. In fact some people might say Detroit’s violence is kind of third world country like but if that’s the case than what is Chicago like. Yes Detroiters we muster up some righteous indignation about the crime that's sweeping the city however Detroit, we can’t do it if our politicians, our pastors, our community groups, parents and students are not on the same page to fight this violence with the Detroit Police Department.
So make no doubt about it, the violence in Detroit must end and the only way it will end is by all of us working together to end it. No one is going to deny the fact that all of us have failed to deter the violence but the truth of the matter is, no amount of money will fix the problem if we the people of Detroit don’t stand up and get up to fight against the violence as well as many other issues plaguing our city. Now the war on our youth in the City of Detroit and the violence that is taking place is not only Detroit’s problem but it is everyone in the state’s problem who claims that they care if Detroit succeeds and prosper. Well now is the time to show it. Detroiters and the suburbanites need to work together to end the violence in Detroit and to protect our youth.
We all need to be involved in doing this because this is the only way to save a generation of youth from killing people off over simply nonsense and chump change. Our youth need saving and everyone needs to work to make sure we provide our youth with opportunities to succeed in life by giving them and showing them a better life than the one they currently see every day. This is how we need to approach if we are to change Detroit’s fate forever.
SAVE OUR YOUTH!
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