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The war here at home
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If our president fails, we fail. Source/AP
Who would have imagined that we would still be fighting wars today in Afghanistan and Iraq? President Obama did not initiate the wars, but he is our current Commander-and-Chief, and he is in charge of the campaigns.
One would think that these two wars are more than enough for any president to deal with, but neither of these wars compare to the war we have right here at home - the war we are fighting to keep our youth from dying on the streets of our cities at the hands of gang violence.
The issue of youth and teenage violence in our nation has been a long-standing subject of concern since the early 1970's - the era when Americans watched the city of Los Angeles experience a significant increase in its gang-related activity. However, this latest incident in Chicago (the death of Derrion Albert) put President Obama in a position where he could no longer ignore the problem.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan were dispatched to Chicago on October 7, 2009 to meet with city officials, area leaders, school administrators and students to discuss strategies for reducing the number of deaths associated with youth violence in the community. The underlying theme for the official visit was to "launch a national conversation on values."
This action taken by the Obama Administration is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately for all of us, the problem we are dealing with is not new. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported 15 years ago in their 1994 World Development Report that the homicide rate for children in the United States was five times higher than the youth homicide rate in 25 other countries combined.
We have spent billions of dollars since the 1970's combating youth and gang violence in our country. Today, the estimated cost of youth violence in the U.S. exceeds $158 billion dollars annually.
Clearly money (or more of it) is not the solution to our problem.
What are we really fighting against?
We spend over $10 billion dollars a month on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As we rapidly close in on almost a decade of direct conflict in these two countries, we are still trying to devise a viable strategy that will allow us to win these wars and bring our troops home.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda - two well financed, highly sophisticated international extremist gangs. The agenda of these two organizations against the West has forced us to commit our troops to engaging in full-scale global gang warfare. With that being said, how do we expect to stop or defeat these politically driven gangs that threaten the safety of our nation if we have yet to figure out a way to defeat and eliminate the gangs we have here at home?
For us to realize any success in reducing youth gang violence, we all have to accept responsibility and play an active role in the process - embracing a genuine sense of care and commitment that allows us to achieve the results necessary to create safe environments for our children.
The loss of our children to street violence affects every person of every race on our planet. One group or organization of people will not solve the problem, and President Obama cannot do it alone.
Obama was recognized for his vision and efforts toward achieving world peace by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, 2009, but the award comes at a time when the goal of securing peace is far from being reached.
The pressure is on all of us. If President Obama is not successful, we as Americans will not be successful. We have a war right here at home; a war that is threating to undermine the very existence of future generations.
As any coach or athlete will tell you - "winning on the road is not easy, but it is much easier to win on the road when you know how to win at home."
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