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Agreed, and the bottomline is that each individual child deserves the best developmental environment we can provide all along the way to maturity. In that sense, just because we won't always succeed in getting an optimal outcome is no excuse for not trying in each case.
Agreed. I would add that just because a child lives in poverty, has abusive parents, etc, does not mean s/he will be a failure. There is a lot of research about "resiliency" in kids. There are a lot of unknown factors out there. Not that we shouldn't try to give everyone the best.
I too, don't believe in giving things away for free; with one exception: a chance! What alot of people who've never been stuck behind the eight ball don't know is, when the obstacles in your path are so overwhelming, even the heartiest of us can be stopped in our tracks; soon to be diverted to a different, less resistant path.
I know of what I speak, as I suspect many on this forum do. I came from nothin', from a father who was absent for the first ten years of my life, from a beautiful mother who came from even less of a nothing than I did, and who was married three times by the time I was seven years old. I was shuffled all around Pittsburgh, from the Lower Hill to Garfield to an apartment above a bakery on Brookline Boulevard, even to another city in another state for not quite a full school year; I went to three second grades.
I barely got accepted into college, worked parking cars and selling magazine subscriptions door to door all through it, still had to borrow most of my tuition money and ended up on the dean's list for three of my four years.
Dumping largesse on a problem? I agree with PeterRabbit, No! It's hard for us to crawl out of our skins and look at things from the other guy's view; all we know is we've got our own problems, nobody gave us a thing, so then... I get it, believe me. But if you manage to do just that, even long enough for just a glimpse, you'll find that none of those classifications stand up; ok, I will concede that stereotypes have a basis in truth. But it's so minute it's hardly worth considering. I could give examples, but this post is running on...
Suffice to say that I agree people should work for what they get, and that if that chance is squandered (a student can't cut it three terms in a row, a job recipient is caught with his hands in the till so to speak, then...Out! But I think what you'll find is most will appreciate the opportunity, know that one like it will never come again and will make the most of it. If not they're gone, which by the way will be a good example to set for the ones who remain.
The job market is tough for everyone, but without training or education you are certian not to succeed. Everyone has a story of obstacles they had to overcome. I paid for my education myself, to date well over 60k. The work evolved to pay that money back on top of the academic work was exhausting. At times I worked double shifts, read and studied on breaks at work, and lived in some lousy apartments. There was no handouts for me, but there are incentives for blacks currently both academic and job wise. UPMC actively looks to hire blacks, and most certainly they are given preference in certain academic departments. This is no secret. The problem is no blacks are taking advantage of it.
If I can veer this thread slightly off-topic for just a moment, I just wanted to comment that I'm noticing a familiar trend here. In many cities, including (but not limited to) Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton in our state alone, there is a neighborhood known as "The Hill." That neighborhood in all three of these cities is a troubled one indeed, and I've also heard horror stories about other neighborhoods that share that dubious title in other states.
One would generally presume that a convenient location to downtown and a sloped topography to offer great views of the city would set up such neighborhoods for a vibrant future. Indeed "The Hill" in Scranton was at one point one of the most affluent urban neighborhoods in the Commonwealth, with block after block of neatly-manicured yards, tree lawns, and upscale historic homes. Now many of these larger homes have been subdivided by slumlords and rented out to rowdy students from the University of Scranton and/or drug dealers who are flocking here from nearby New York City. The neighborhood is in distress, but from what I gather Scranton's "Hill" is still the best of the three in terms of overall livability. Then we have the crime-ridden "Hill" neighborhood in Harrisburg and the rusting-out "Hill" neighborhood in the Steel City to contend with.
Do you all think any urban neighborhood dubbed "The Hill" is cursed to face such difficult challenges?
First of all, let's not paint all Blacks with Peter Rabbit's broad brush. There are plenty of Black people who don't have their hand out.
Second, the biggest problem for most of these poor areas are related to two things; too many female headed households, and the destructive force of the illegal drug game. Drugs are what drives most of the crime in these areas. The addicts rob and steal. They rip the pipes and wiring out of vacant houses, which usually results in a vacant lot, and they wander around the streets in a disheveled daze, adding to the negative vibe of the area. The young guys who deal the drugs, fight and kill over territory. Also, drug dealers are frequently targets for robbery. This is one of the reasons most carry guns. The big problem there is that with so many young guys carrying guns, many disputes, that in past years would have resulted in a fist fight, now end up with gun fire. Then the revenge thing kicks in, "they killed my (brother, homie, cousin), we're going to make them pay". On and on. With few fathers around, there is no one to control these young guys and keep them in line. The lure of quick money, and the sexual favors that go to these dealers pulls countless boys out of school and into the mean streets where they eventually end up in jail or dead.
The job market is tough for everyone, but without training or education you are certian not to succeed. Everyone has a story of obstacles they had to overcome. I paid for my education myself, to date well over 60k. The work evolved to pay that money back on top of the academic work was exhausting. At times I worked double shifts, read and studied on breaks at work, and lived in some lousy apartments. There was no handouts for me, but there are incentives for blacks currently both academic and job wise. UPMC actively looks to hire blacks, and most certainly they are given preference in certain academic departments. This is no secret. The problem is no blacks are taking advantage of it.
A big problem you have today, vs 30 years ago, is that well paying jobs that involve manual labor are not numerous like they were before. Thus, education becomes more important than ever. A kid in the 50's could drop out of school, and act like a knucklehead during his early 20's, and he knew that there would be a decent job waiting for him when he decided to straighten up. Not so today. A kid who screws up in his late teens can literally be closing the door to a better life. I know quite a few guys who were in the streets in their teens and twenties, and who found out the hard way how tough it is to make it in the real world with felonies on their record, and no education.
Too many female headed households is the problem? I don't think so! Not per se, anyway. IMO, it's too many teens having babies and becoming heads of households, using the term loosely. I have been a public health nurse, I have seen this situation first hand. Black or white, it doesn't matter.
The Great Society failed because enabling people to live off of handouts does nobody any good, least of all them. If you've ever spent any time in an inner city project, what you know is it's a world unto itself. Some residents spend days, weeks, longer, never leaving the compound. You get the feeling there's nothing, no world outside the gates, it is a culture, a society all its own and the children that grow up there, if they are not extraordinarily gifted, strong, and imaginative, will at a very young age begin to shut down. They lose their spark, their curiosity, they are robbed of their natural joy before they hit their teens; we were all products of our environments, good, bad, and everything in between. What if you'd have been raised there?
Maybe the hardest thing for any of us to do is to empathize, to see from a different perspective. And I'm not just talking about white understanding black, or middle class seeing things from the poor man's perspective; it's just as difficult the other way around.
You work hard, or your father worked hard, there's not much difference, to reach a certain standard of living, only to be resented by your gardener, or to have a genuine concern diminished by someone who sees you as one of the fortunate ones, with no cares to even come close to what they have to face. 'Course, that is not true. I've known too many miserable wealthy people to believe that anymore. And why would it be? Don't these other people, these people with houses in Fox Chapel or Virginia Manor, with a condo down in Florida they use as a winter retreat, don't they too have aging, ailing parents, parents they love just as much as you love yours? Aren't their kids driving them nuts? Hasn't their marriage seen healthier days?
I mean to say that we are none of us, all that much different. We all want the same things: meaningful, lucrative work, a happy, supportive home life, the opportunity for a little excitement now and then, and most importantly, for our kids to have it a little better than we did; for the first time, that is no longer a given in this country. Chances are, the way it stands today, it is less likely your child will have a higher standard of living than you. I know this may seem off-point, but it's not. There is only so much to go around, and lately, never more than over the past eight years, an unprecedented portion of this country's wealth has shifted to the elite upper class. I had statistics at one time, but not at this moment, and it is too late for me to start digging them up.
Less for the upper middle class even; even they've been left out of George Bush's version of the Great Society. There is a home foreclosure epidemic underway. I know it's not so bad in Pgh, but it could be coming to a housing market near you. Gasoline prices are driving up the cost of everything that has to be delivered, which is everything but always first it is the essentials, and the people at the bottom of the food chain, the ones that have to wait for the grown-ups to eat before they can be served, are always the worst off.
Drugs are what drives most of the crime in these areas. The addicts rob and steal. They rip the pipes and wiring out of vacant houses, which usually results in a vacant lot, and they wander around the streets in a disheveled daze, adding to the negative vibe of the area. The young guys who deal the drugs, fight and kill over territory. Also, drug dealers are frequently targets for robbery. This is one of the reasons most carry guns. The big problem there is that with so many young guys carrying guns, many disputes, that in past years would have resulted in a fist fight, now end up with gun fire. Then the revenge thing kicks in, "they killed my (brother, homie, cousin), we're going to make them pay". On and on.
I agree with this. I would only add that drug use, drug dealing, and the crime and general hopelessness that comes as a result of this "culture", is a symptom first, then a cause.
During Nancy Regan's ridiculous, "Just Say No," campaign, a modest, soft spoken, black high school teacher in South Central L.A. got her 10 seconds of fame on the local TV news. Interviewed as to her take on how effective she thought the Regans' anti-drug program would be, in her simplicity, with no agenda, harboring no obvious animosity toward the Regan administration she simply said, "Well yes, that's all well and good. But I think we have to give these kids something to say "yes" to."
If I can veer this thread slightly off-topic for just a moment, I just wanted to comment that I'm noticing a familiar trend here. In many cities, including (but not limited to) Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton in our state alone, there is a neighborhood known as "The Hill." That neighborhood in all three of these cities is a troubled one indeed, and I've also heard horror stories about other neighborhoods that share that dubious title in other states.
Do you all think any urban neighborhood dubbed "The Hill" is cursed to face such difficult challenges?
Any city neighborhood named simply the Hill, means it's probably old and all that implies, probably convenient if not adjacent to downtown, and what at one time was one of the first neighborhoods has got to be by now showing its age, and is long-deserted by anybody who could find a way out. Some inner city neighborhoods find funding, private or public, for development or renovation, others are seen as problematic, too embroiled in political snares, neighborhood or those instigated by City Hall.
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