Societies New Responsibilities.....

After hearing the recent story of the group of 13-15 year olds that have been attacking citizens on the T-Line platform on 3rd Street I started to think about why this may be happening. I have heard lots of comments such as....."where are the parents?" and "There is a lack of parenting here.". Both of these I do believe, but why?

First I thought about what is required of parent(s) to provide just the basics. Roof, food, clothes, etc. Many time, if there are two parents in the house, both are required to work at least one job, if not two. Many times, the children that are creating the problems come from low-low medium income levels with parents working in the service class in some capacity. These are low paying positions, sometimes with little to no benefits. This doesn't even address if it is a single parent home, then that parent will many times carry not one but two jobs just to bring in enough income. This leave very little time for parenting in any capacity. And when the parent is home, they have very little energy to provide some kind of structure and teachings to for their children.

I believe that it now falls on those that this service class provide services for, the creative class, to provide a solution for the children of these parents. The old saying, it takes a village to raise a child, comes to mind here. I believe that some of the solutions that would deter a lot of the problems is the return of after school programs. The return of venues for the children to attend that will give them some structure and take up some of the basic teachings that is lost from the parent that is 'absent'.

I also believe that some sort of government sponsored civil service that is required of everyone once they reach the age of 18. A 2-year commitment to some sort of civil service work that would be required before they are allowed to attend college. This would be a two fold benefit. They would learn a skill that would benefit those that may not want to attend college, and prepare those that will be entering college with a sense of civil responsibility and pride. Second, much of the countries infrastructure, many of the entry level jobs, could be preformed and save the country millions in making and returning this country to what it once was. When FDR put many of the civil works in place during the Great Depression, many great and wonderful pieces of architecture were built and still stand and remind us of what once was.

****to be followed up on****