We addressed earlier this week some short term, even immediate, solutions to slow down the incidence of violence in the territory. But we know to really have a long term impact we must address the core issues causing the violence.
In order to address successfully what we feel is the strongest of the root causes, hopelessness and disenfranchisement, we have to offer unlimited and unconditional support to all children in this community, regardless of their circumstances.
We constantly pass the buck, blaming first the parents and then television or the Internet or the separation of families, while the children who grow up to become the predators slip between the cracks.
We know who they are. They are too often the offspring often of teenagers ill equipped to raise children. They are the children of drug addicts and AIDS victims. They are children with ineffective, absent or violent and abusive parents.
We need, as a society, to play parent to those children. We need to spend whatever it takes for whatever programs are required to see to it these lost children get the nurturing and education they need to grow up productive, positive and hopeful.
Hopeful kids, kids who are empowered, don't need guns.
We can begin with making sure that every single child who is eligible for Head Start is enrolled. We then have to move to an educational system that is focused on children and is willing to give up some of its administrative "perks" in deference to the needs of those children.
There is enough money to do this. We only need to change our priorities.
This "root cause" solution is long-term and complicated. But like the Back Street patrols, we need to start now.
We may not see the results immediately, but in the long run there will be far fewer predators on the streets ruining the lives of innocent bystanders and their families.
