He should be standing up and demanding an end to this violence. Won’t all the gangbangers just swoon at his super-powers of persuasion? Well, he knows that it is next to impossible, so he won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Yes, I do think he has a moral responsiblity to step up and try to address those issues. But as Father Pfleger now knows, it’s under the bus with you when you have outlived your usefulness to him. Why doesn’t he do a gangbanger summit like his Muslim summit? Tell those people “yes you can.”

One parent who consistently frequented the school was the local pimp. This was a elementary school! My first room mothers were local ladies of the evening. Home life was so chaotic for most of the students school became the place to unwind and to get away from oppressive criminal and abusive situations. Any pressure put on students to excel academically was often met with behavioral problems. It was indeed a vicious cycle. Most of those students would only put forth effort if there was a reward attached to it. I realized then that those attitudes were going to be with them the rest of their lives.

Fast forward to today and my suspicions have come true. Obama is a prime example of someone who is incapable of giving or performing without a reward somehow attached.

He is absolutely the worst example for young people beyond the American Idol facade. I feel for the AA community. Those that took advantage of opportunities for a better life deserve so much more. We all deserve so much more than Obama.

We can not wait for the federal government to step in. We need to take control of our own communities. What I have seen from the disillusioned Democrats who disavowed their party and now increasingly from obots is despair that things can or will ever change (they’re slowly waking up) and that our country is going the way of Rome. The dirge is that “CHANGE®” is now just a slogan, not a realistic goal.

But the one idea that makes any sense and is starting to rumble out there is WE need to take care of OURSELVES. Politicians will not take care of us. Government/institutions will not care for us. We must care for each other. If we turn the passion and energy that we spend on national politics and elections and put it into our home towns and schools, we can rebuild main street. That’s real grassroots activism and could have real results.

Simple kindness, as your story reminded us, from one individual to another is a mighty powerful thing.

It’s so sad to see young AA men hobbled by their low pants waists — it’s a trend that’s lasted far too long and betrays a losing self-image — the look of incarcerated men who’ve had their belts taken away from them. That the gangster life has been romanticized and glamorized to the extent that it has, has unfortunately created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Defeatism is the enemy.

As an AA male, the POTUS is in a unique position to make a difference — the plague of gang warfare isn’t limited to only one municipality.

I could readily see that if the trend of single parent, out-of-wedlock births continued and spiraled out of control that there would be vast trouble in these AA communities. I was hired about 6 weeks into the school year. According to the principal the students had “run off 2 teachers”. I made a vow that they would not “run me off”.

The first day in the classroom a student threw a 45rpm record at me missing my head and ear by less than an inch. I turned around and asked who threw the record. I immediately corrected myself and told the class not to ever tell me who threw the record. I then told the class that who ever was the owner of the stack of records to get them and put them away. I turned back to the blackboard and moments later another record came very close to my ear. I did not say a word to the class. I walked back to the person with the stack of records, took them to the front of the classroom, and proceeded to smash each and every one of them one by one under my high heels without saying a word. And then turned back to the board.

I felt I worked very hard to teach my students and tried every trick in the book to get their parents involved in their education. One of my techniques was to call each and every parent of the student at the beginning of the school year to merely “introduce myself as their teacher and directly ask them for their help in their child learning and behaving in school. All of them were stunned that the “teacher had called for something other than a complaint about their children”. In the classroom I used many techniques such as group problem solving, help your partner, what did we learn this week, etc. I shamelessly quoted MLK often to encourage them. Another one of my favorite speeches especially to the young men was to analogize their circumstances to a football player by telling them that their generation had the football in their hands now; that my great grandparents’ generation was able to advance the football from the 1 yard line to the 10 yard line because they were unable to read or write and had practically no avenues to success. My grandparents’ generation advanced the ball to about the 20 yard line while my parents’ generation advanced it to the 50-yard line. Because I had a college education and participated in helping to secure the voting rights act and civil rights legislation my generation advanced the ball all the way to the 10-yard line. I told them their generation had the ball for a first and goal on the 10-yard line. I then challenged them as to what they would do with the opportunity. Will you fumble the ball by dropping out of school, getting in trouble, etc. or will you commit to slowly grinding forward inch by inch until you reach the graduation goal line. By the time I finished you could hear a pin drop in the classroom.

As an incentive for working hard and doing good work I promised them an end of the year school trip to Washington, DC. They worked hard and they and their parents raised some of the money for the trip. I solicited businesses near the community to contribute as well. These kids from the ghetto behaved themselves admirably on the trip even though I was somewhat ill and could not watch them like a hawk. I told them everybody at school remark that I am crazy to take a chance on taking them to DC. Let’s show them that they are wrong. I told them I was sick and I could not watch them. I let them know to have fun but don’t get into trouble and reflect badly on yourself, your parents, your school and me. They were superb throughout the trip.

I continued to work on young people’ issues here in Jackson. I worked hard to organize a community approach involving the school, church, parents, educators, and local politicians, to address school dropout problems, jobs, gangs, etc by using the “hands on” approach as much as possible. The necessary key to it all is parental cooperation, community commitment, and daily effort.

I said all of that to say yes Obama does have an obligation to speak up, put up, shake up, encourage, etc these communities. Young people are watching him. For example I know a young dropout named Al who is always in and out of minor trouble. After the election he told me he would have to” shape up because Obama was now president.” I did not nor do I now support Obama because he is a liar and a George Wallace type racist, that is he uses race to further his political agenda. The black community was taken in by a charlatan. I forever remain one of the 5%.

Thank you so much for posting this information here.

It would be a good cause and even those that don’t like her would probably give her kudos for trying.

What to do about the current situation, would be up to “experts”, but I would recommend a civics class instituted into the public ed. programs to teach children civic responsibility to themselves, their fellow students, their communities, etc.