Do you honestly believe helping these young killers learn how to clean up is going to be effective? This generation of blacks is largely lost. The only question to answer is at what point do we turn it around. From there it will take at least 3 generations in my estimation before any significant change is made.

Do you honestly believe helping these young killers learn how to clean up is going to be effective? This generation of blacks is largely lost. The only question to answer is at what point do we turn it around. From there it will take at least 3 generations in my estimation before any significant change is made.

I actually live a short walk from Turkey Thicket, and I had no idea that this meeting was taking place. So I'm surprised to read about it this morning. I think that the ideas that were proposed in this article would change the lives of many children. I myself have thought of this idea as a great way to change the lives of inner city youth. However, no matter how good and idea may be, implementation and execution must be present to make any idea work. Until then, it's just an idea. Something I have learned over the course of my life is that finding faithful volunteers can be the hardest thing in the world to accomplish. I have worked with many organizations, and this is a common problem. If you choose not to use volunteers but a paid staff, then the challenge is finding capital for a venture that is not going to line anyone's pockets. Once again, in my experience, this has been one heck of a mountain to climb. So this is how we find ourselves in the stalemate we have now.

"This generation of blacks is largely lost."???!!! Nathan, you do not need to be a part of this discussion. Your comment is racist and offensive, and you have demonstrated that you have no concern in presenting a viable solution to the problems facing the human lives with whom you share this world.

I think comments such as your Nathan "This generation of blacks is largely lost" is untrue and onr of the reasons why the youth of DC feel so hopeless. I know a hand full of youth that are lost some even killers (as you describe them) but I know many more that are in school and in after school programs that are teaching them how to become at the least productive adults. What if I may ask are you doing for these so called killers. If you see a young boy or girl on the street up to no good do you say something or do you just walk on by. IF you just walk by than you are part of the problem too.

There comes a point where law-abiding, working people of moderate means (I'm a government worker in Ward 4), simply stop caring to hear the rants, raves and justifications for people who threaten, rob, injure and kill. Where is our apology? Where is the appreciation for not taking our meager savings and fleeing to the suburbs? It has worn us down to the point where many of us just want safe streets as soon as we can have them. If that means more incarceration, than so be it.

I too live a short distance from Turkey Thicket and didn't know about the meeting, but do live a block away from where one of the NE killings took place in April. I think what frustrates me most is that the block where this killing took place ( and the blocks all around it) is full of kind, good citizens. I make it a point to talk to all the youth I see but I am frustrated about what an average citizen can REALLY do. Lots of people say youth have nothing to do and if we fill up their lives with activites and job traing programs it will help. I don't believe that. Youth that attack people, rob people, and kill people could be playing basketball at Turkey Thicket, swimming, joining the bevy of activities at Turkey Thicket, or applying for a job mowing lawns. They don't have to leave their neighborhood to access many opportunities. It is already there.

So my question is; How do we find caring adults to really steer those most in need very early on before they give up on themselves and society?

The lesson of life is learned at home from the leader of the house hole the father. If you ask every young person that took another one's life or who is involved in some kind of gang or crew, do have I Father in the home or in their life? The answer will be no. We need more male involvement and groups like the Falconsedge Male Task Force for youth because with fathers not in the home or not in involved that child's life for reasons like being killed or in jail. We need male involvement to fathers or significant other, mentors any male that can give his time to these children. If not our youth will stay lost with no value of life.

I grow tired of people always trying to blame poor behavior on the lack of a father in the home. Poor behavior is just poor behavior. It stems from the environment in which we live. Life styles that include disrespectful music lyrics, poor choices in clothing and appearance parents and a society that promotes the "see what I have " attitude are just some of the things that lead many astray.
I know this area well because I grew up here and have life-long friends that also didn't fall into that lifestyle. You must first give a reason to care before you can ask someone to care. This is not an over night process but I totally agree that giving jobs to clean-up, paint and decorate the community, not just for the "good" members of the community, is more cost effective than jail time.

I am a dc resident with an 11 year old daughter and 4 month old baby and I work for the government. I was able to receive help from the engery program but was unable to get my daughter into the summer camp program.In order for her to go I would have to pay 460.00 as an low income resident.Where does the youth go when there parents are at work? Outside hanging out with the wrong crowd. Talking and listening to the killers and the drug dealers that makes it seem as if that's what life is all about.They see the easy/fast money, fame and fun. Then it to late because now they are in to it way to deep to be turned around by their parents or anyone else for that matter. WE NEED ANY PROGRAMS THAT WE CAN GET THEM IN. IF THAT MEANS KNOCKING DOOR TO DOOR AS THEY DID WHEN THEY WANT YOU TO VOTE FOR THEM!!!TO SEE WHAT THE YOUTH IN THIS HOME WILL BE DOING FOR THE SUMMER/AFTER SCHOOL .HAVE SOMETHING FOR THEM TO DO BEFORE THEY TURN TO STREETS AND FINE VIOLENT THINGS TO DO. (START WHILE THEY ARE YOUNG).DC pubic school starting in elementary use to have programs for the youth basketball, football ,cheerleading ,safety patrol parade, band ,ect which required after school pratice sometimes even on saturday so they had something to do other than standing on the corner. Now they don't even have gym in some school.Let's get back to the basic and start while they are young because middle school is to late.

I'm not here to defend my comments on this generation of blacks. You very well may know of many blacks doing well in school, etc. But there is something very wrong in our culture. You can't deny that. And this culture is very pervasive. So while there may be many examples of young blacks doing well, there are overwhelming numbers of blacks that are doing just the opposite. I tend to think that you are only as strong as your weakest link. The weakest link for black people is terribly weak. It first starts with the culture. Until that changes, black people as a group will only make marginal improvements. I just don't see that happening in my lifetime. I am only 32.

I am a landlord. Much of my property is in Ward 8. I see the problems first hand in the homes of my tenants. I recently asked a young man if he wanted/needed a job. He refused my help. He had rather hustle on the street. That part of our culture must change. Unfortunately, rap music and the allure of the gangsta lifestyle holds more sway.

dream,
You should leave DC. I understand you may have been born here and lived all your life here. But DC is too expensive and too bad of a city for someone straddled with a child and low wages. There are many cities in the South that would provide a better living with better schools. Trust me, you will be doing your child a favor.

I grew up in one of these small towns. Living was cheap. The pay relative to the cost of living was decent. As an adult, it may not have what DC has to offer. But you have a child now. It is not about you. It's about providing the best environment for your child. If you don't leave, then you are leaving it to chance with your family. The decision to make a better life is up to you. But, trust me, a better life likely doesn't include DC.

For those of you who have posted that this generation (Generation Y)of Blacks is lost. Please look at the generation before this one (Generation X). Generation X was the generation right in the middle of the crack epidemic. I know - I saw more death and degredation that many and I was raised in a middle class area. A good bit of what has been discussed is true, however, I think the biggest element being overlooked is economics. Just as in the late 80s early 90s the country was in a recession and crime spiked. Crime was low through the 90s because the country was prosperous. Stop writing this kids off and help them through this. Generation X turned out alright - Sure there are many of us in jail for the rest of lives and many who are dead but the ones that made it through are doing good things. A lot intelligent talented people were lost back then. Everyone has the responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again. Remember they are kids, by definition that makes them inexperienced and unwise.

1MM black men in jail. Another 250-500K on some form of probation, parole, or headed back to prison. Highest rates of AIDS. Highest unemployment rate of any race of people. 5-7K gunned down every year. Legions of black men that have multiple kids by multiple women and not taking care of any of them. The highest dropout and illiteracy rate of any race of people.

And yet we have people on this board saying things are going just fine. You guys can't be serious. Or maybe you are serious and that is why the problem has been getting worse over the last 40 years.

I've never understood the assertion that these thug kids turn out that way because "they have nothing else to do". Have you been to the suburbs lately? There's really nothing to do, and even if there were, it probably wouldn't be within walking distance. There's a million things to do in the city even without all the community centers and social programs. I grew up on a farm where there was really nothing to do but I and the others in my peer group didn't feel the need to break into houses or mug strangers. Perhaps knowing every house had a gun in it made some difference...

I think Oscar is right, though, everyone reaches point after which they just don't care anymore- they just want to go about their business and not be bothered. If throwing them all in jail is what it takes, so be it.

But all this talk is for naught: everyone knows the lack of a strong father figure, a situation so common in black children's lives, is the root of the problem. The black community has noone to blame but themselves for accepting this behavior.

With more and more young single parents (babies raising babies) and no fathers to help and you can say that a father doesn't matter and a bad kid is a bad. These kids were not born this way and without both parents to help with guideless. The odds are they will fall to the streets. If you can see this then you know nothing about our community. We are loosening more young black men to the streets today, then any other US war.

If you see a young boy or girl on the street up to no good do you say something or do you just walk on by. IF you just walk by than you are part of the problem too.

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Now wait, since when is it someone ELSE'S responsibility to get someone to obey the law??? The ONLY person responsible is the kid "up to no good." They have to feel it in their own heart or fear the consequences. This is not the responsibility of their present or absent father, not their present or absent mother, but themselves. And that's a hard thing for kids to learn, that the only one who is responsible for their actions is themselves. The Man never made anyone do anything positive or negative. The Man was there and people chose to fight the system positively like Dr. King or negatively like Iceberg Slim. They chose to be part of the system by going to college or getting a good job or not be part of the system by being a hobo.

There are two problem kids on my block, one's mother threw him out so he sleeps with friends or in his car or my neighbor's garage. He is about 22, never went to college(!!!), and is homeless. After I took a picture of him selling drugs and the police nabbed him, one of my neighbors started questioning my values. What did I do to help this kid? Well, I did what I was supposed to do, which was live my life as a good and moral human being for him to see as an example. And that's all I owed that kid. I asked him to shovel my snow and later help me clear away brush when he was a teenager and he laughed at me, so I never offered him work again. No one is offering him work.

He calls himself a "hustla" which is the street term for a gay prostitute.

I mean, I'm not a fool. My parents gave me a lot, both mentally and financially. My community gave me a lot, I saw not just doctors and lawyers, but also a congressman, professors, teachers, government contractors, a guy who flipped houses when no one knew what that was, a professional potter.

My Dad drank and my mother nagged me, so I retreated to my room a lot, a WHOLE lot, and read and made plans and designed companies I was going to start. From age 11-13 if I left my house, chances were I'd get beat up. I didn't feel safe outside my home many days and didn't feel all that safe inside my home when my father was drunk.

So, at age 14 after delivering newspapers and mowing lawns for 3 years, I got a job working for the government sorting mail. Some of my coworkers had Downs Syndrome, another was a troubled vietnam vet who was missing a leg. But I learned that my "ticket out" of my house was through work. I saved up enough money to buy a computer and a car myself and did. I had ups and downs, I had "run-ins" with the law and I almost flunked some classes in high school, but throughout it all I knew that I was the only one really responsible for my actions. I learned that when I woke up in the morning, everything I did was fresh and new. No "beefs" or grudges, no blaming my parents for what they said to me, if I was upset because someone dissed me then I knew that it was MY PROBLEM and not theirs. I flunked the first 2 months of a math class and studied so hard that I got a B, even if it was just a "pity" B for my final grade because I tried so hard to get better.

The Past Does Not Equal the Future.

The streets are far more attractive than any jobs out here that aren't paying nothing. Society has programmed us to live the fast life and we have been numbed by the senseless voilence that has taken place over the last 2 decades. We live in a world of guns and voilence where just looking at someone could get you killed. Where are the guns coming from? If you look at the people who actually do these bad things, they have no father, no family and if they do, their family is corrupt also or has turned their back on them. If we want this to turn around we have to take back our streets, clean up our neighborhoods. Take that bad kid or bad person, or your buddies on your block who you know is doing wrong or causing trouble and tell them how you feel and get their respect. Show them you're are not scared of them, become their mentor and show them a better way. Half the time we label these kids as corrupt from the start, if we just talk to them it could make a difference. If we don't get to them, the streets will.

The problems of the inner city are not a result of economics as one commentater noted. If a bad economy was responible then why were people so well behaved during the great depression and so poorly behaved during the relatively prosperouse 60's and 70's. The problems we see today are the result of the erosion of victorian values. The poor internalized the culture of instant gratification, lack of self-control and disrespect for authority adopted by the rest of society in the 60's and 70's.

I am a life long DC resident my mother raised 3 kids in DC. 1 a phycians assistant, 1 18 years in the military, and 1 a system analyst. I was a single mother for a long time my 20 year old Male child is in school he has never been in jail so there for is not on any type of parole and my 14 year old daughter is an honor roll student. They both listen to rap music but the difference is that I and my mother have always talked to our kids about reality. Taking care of each other, being a productive person in society, and most of all having some self pride. I think this battle is not the governments but the parents. DC school system is the worst in the area and until our kids are educated properly there is no hope. Until the parents care enough to hold our educators accoutable there is no hope. If you go a PTA meeting there are no parents. If a school report comes out and 50% of the students are below average in reading and math there is no out cry. When are we as parents going to wake up, get mad, and react!!

Get BeBe's kids under control. That is how you stop crime. Stop glamorizing the ghetto fabulous life. Encourage getting an education over getting an old police crown victoria dropped on rims. Stop sparing the rod (these days that doesn't spoil the child, it makes them criminals). START SNITCHING!!!! Post "We Call the Police" signs EVERYWHERE in the neighborhood, and mean it. Fight to end this gun ban so that criminals know that they are not the only ones with firepower. Make your kids come in BEFORE the street lights come on. Stop going to the clubs leaving your kids at home alone or with their older siblings eating hamburger helper for dinner. Momma and Daddy, stop doing drugs (enough on that). Ohh, renew the Nation of Islam FOI Security Contract in Crime Ridden neighborhoods. When they were in the District, crime and criminals went away. Don't ask me how, but those brothers don't even carry weapons. Criminals just disappear.

Short of that....I believe you like the conditions you live in and should just get used to the regular weekend funeral services.

A couple people here talk about jobs that don't pay enough. I would never recommend to a kid who didn't go to college yet that they go work for someone else. They should start their own companies- they should ALL start their own companies. I'm serious. Does the person who owns the store in your neighborhood live in your neighborhood? Why can't one of these kids rent the space and open his own store?

Sigh.

Throughout this entire blog I've have yet to read any mention about parental involvement and responsibility---and the fact that it has been lacking greatly in the lives of children for generations. For several generations now, its been babies having babies----and families turning a deaf ear to the problem. Our society no longer makes parents accountable for their children's behavior or actions. Instead, we point fingers back and forth and blame the government, recreation department, police and teachers for being the reason that youth are so troubled today.

You know what, I always start my finger pointing directly at the parents----for it is obvious that many of they have not accepted their responsibility as a parent or the fact that their children did not ask to come into this world. Once they have had the baby, it then becomes everyone else's fought that they refuse to be a parent to the child. This behavior is found in all ethnicities.

The Mayor is not the only person who grew up in this city, I grew up in this city too, but the Washington that I grew up in is not the Washington that I live in today. Back then----and this was not that long ago (actually it was in the 1970's), the entire neighborhood raised the children of the community. Parents were directly involved in raising their children and the rest of the community was their support base. What you received at home was reinforced by adult neighbors in the community, at school, at church, at the corner store, by the cabdriver, etc. It was a win, win situation for all. Then came the days when some folks decided to fix what was not broken---which has resulted in the problems that we have today. Prayer was taken out of the schools, a spanking was declared to be physical abuse resulting in structured discipline eventually being removed from the home. Principals and teachers were stripped of their ability to discipline their students, concerned neighbors were told to mind their business----neighborhood cooperation and pride soon left many of the communities. The problems that we face with the youth today begins in their homes or in the place that they call home (be aware that many youth do not have a place to call home----some actually live in the streets, in shelters, with grandparents, guardians, etc.), and is primarily due to a lack of parental involvement. I resent the statement made by Nathan too----as many young people in Washington, DC of all ethnicities lead productive lives and are good contributors to their community. There are also many young people of all ethnicities that are problematic for our society due to their unfortunate upbringing. So, Nathan, you really need to check yourself and stop the stereotyping. It is attitudes like your's that feeds the problem we are facing, not help it

While I agree that programs need to be developed to help our youth steer away from a violent life, we also need to develop mentoring programs for parents----those that can be instrumental in teaching them how to deal with parenthood, those that provide direction on appropriate ways to raise their children; one that will also serve as a support base for parents---assisting them with the emotional drain that is paramount with raising children. Most of the youth that commit trouble acts are primarily seeking attention, attention that they have never received from their parents. We as a community can change this---but first many of our attitudes (Nathan) have to change in order for us to be able to come together as a community, unbiased, to begin to resolve the problems.