A Reliable
Voice in the
Community

Volume 6
Issue 20
7/29/09 - 8/4/09

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And we wonder why

Whenever I get the opportunity to remind people why some of our youth have turned out the way they have, I do so.

This is one more opportunity.

While reading "Can't be forced to change" in this week's "Seeking Solutions to Black on Black Crime" series I was hit with a dose of reality by the author's words:

"The thing is, I am ready to change. I am tired of being locked up. But I am in the game because I have to take care of myself. I don't care where I go or what they do, I will always be me. When I am ready to change I will. ... They are going to take me from my 'hood, send me away for a year, then send me right back to my 'hood. How is that going to make me change? There is no point to take me somewhere and put me back. My 'hood ain't changing. So even if I do change out there, when I return I will be the same again."

He's right. And I don't understand why the correctional system doesn't get it.

There are programs across the country that do wonders for youth who have gotten in over their heads. But if you don't give these young people the help and direction to not return to their surroundings or the life that they know, how do we expect them to use what they've learned to move forward?

The drug dealer doesn't want to hear someone has decided to "just say no" instead of buying what he's selling. Fellow gang members don't want to hear how the friend they used to kick it with is wanting to do something smart - like get a job to earn money instead of stealing from others. And for those youth who come from homes that are torn apart and in total chaos, putting them back in it only destroys any hope they may have embraced while away being "rehabilitated."

Helping our youth move forward isn't a sentence where they do their "time," learn how to change and then are dropped back into the war zone.

Helping our youth is making sure that they don't ever cross enemy lines again by giving them what they need after they make the decision to change.

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig is an award-winning journalist who resides in Oakland. If you have an individual, organization, issue or other topic that may be of interest to the Globe's readers, contact her at talk2mfc@yahoo.com. Visit her blog at www.stpminute.blogspot.com.

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