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AMERICA'S KILLING FIELDS
Published On 05-23-2009 , 11:33 PM
The names? Can't remember. Doesn't so much matter, anyway, because there are so many and by the time this column gets into print there will be many more added to the list.
Where did it happen? That doesn't matter so much, either, because it happens everywhere and by the time you read this a street corner in another city somewhere across America will bare witness to the on-going slaughter.
At every crime scene there'll be a make-shift memorial with stuffed animals, flowers, candles and pictures of the victim - a vibrant and smiling very young black man.
Sometime the victim will be presented to us in his evening best - maybe it is a rental, it being a recent photo from his high school prom.
Another scene will provide the on-lookers photos of the young black male victim in livelier days standing with his "homies' flashing gang signs.
News reporters at the crime scene operate from the same script - no matter which city. No matter which victim. No matter which makeshift memorial is in the background.
The public is fed weeping testimonials from relatives - mom, if they can get her on camera. Then there are the voices from the community, people who are fed up with the violence in the neighborhood demanding something be done.
Are the men who pull the trigger, whether police officers, rival gang members or just dummes with a gun, part of a widespread fraudulent insurance scheme?
"My baby was just standin' at the bus stop and they shot him dead," says one tearful mom.
Another one, not tearful at all, swinging her umbrella at reporters in front of a courthouse, yells and screams, "My boy didn't do it!"
Who did do it?
And who are we expecting to clean up our American killing fields?
The feds busted up organized crime, didn't they? I remember being glued to our 1950s television screen watching Elliot Ness and the "Untouchables" clean up cities all across America.
Most surely, states now have commissions that are charged with studying the problem and making recommendations.
At the local level, mayors hold press conferences regarding the positive direction their forces are moving in, while the next news segment provides us with yet another dead body.
The community activists, though they march and demand something be done, don't actually seem to know what to do.
Then there are the weeping relatives of the victims and the belligerent relatives of the perpetrators of the crime.
The media needs to stop parading the grieving families before the cameras, since most of them don't realize they are not obligated to provide interviews.
And the killers? There used to be a community service ad that said, "Use a gun - go to jail." That doesn't mean much these days. So how about: "Your kid uses a gun - you, too, go to jail."
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http://talkaboutparenting.org/pages/articles.php
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Comment
| | 1. | Cleaning up America's killing fields" leaves out one important point, that point being the reason for these killing, plain and simple they are related to gang involvement either through the children or the parents of the parties involved. The same old song is always sung " my boy was a good kid, he was not a gang member, everybody loved him our family is not envolved in a gang ". Well just once i wish a parent would stand up and say , " I loved my boy with all my heart. we tried to raise him up in the right way, fed him, clothed him, sent him to school, and tried to see that he learned right from wrong, and to be a part of his life, but he lived a double life beyond our control away from home, he was a gang banger, drug user, gun carrying street thug, we tried to tell him "if you life this kind of life you will make enemies that can and most likely will bring harm to you and your loved ones, if you live the gang life you can die in the gang life ". But he chose not to listen and this is the end result of his wasted life and of our heartbreak. We loved him but not everyone did, the message in his death is live a life of a gang member die like a gang member.
- by SB, 05-26-2009, 7:32 AM
| | 2. | Personal responsibility was abrogated years ago. It was greatly assisted when community activist convinced willing weaklings that they could solve their problems. Some activist actually accomplished some community enhancement projects such as increased police patrols and community centers. But the majority only used the opportunities to advance personal importance or political careers.
The people that live in these communites know what has to be done. They just won't do it.
- by tyrone, 05-26-2009, 7:29 AM
| | 3. | Shirlee,
It's gonna stop, when WE, the families, cause it to stop. It's "our kids" that are doing much of the killing. Do WE not know that they are armed and dangerous? Do WE not know that they are going out an involving THEMSELVES in situations where they are likely to kill or be killed?
It's time WE stop blaming society, and others. It's time WE point the finger back at US.
- by Hank Wilfong, 05-24-2009, 7:27 AM
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