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Changing policies in the city where the young die young, Part Two of Two
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Our City
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans has begun to dig itself into deeper levels of poverty and violence. New Orleans has more than five murders a week in which most are committed by youths between the ages of 14-19 years of age. Living in New Orleans you see a lot and this is what I’ve seen with my own eyes. This has become a major issue in this city and has caused more and more pain to mothers, families and the city. If we were to have more educational and recreational programs we could begin to try and reform our city and save our youth. Education and recreation are two of the best ways to help and fight against the types of crimes committed in this city.
More schools and educational programs are much needed in the city of New Orleans. The city lacks good education and has no recreational programs to keep our youths occupied. There are too many youths carrying concealed weapons in this city. When instead there should be more book reading and sports, but how can we expect this if it’s not even available in some of the schools. This is such a sad and depressing situation for the city to experience. And sadly to say, no one cares about our city not even the Mayor, Police, Governor, Schools, Local Businesses and even the silent and sometimes narcissistic community. Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word narcissistic as concerned only with oneself. Don’t get me wrong we have some in the community that are just tired and try deeply to make a change, but they deal with an issue of not having the rest of the community’s support which creates an unstable and fearful environment. These kids today are a force not to be reckoned with and the community that does come forth does not receive the correct protection and end up in a bad situation because of wanting to create a change.
If New Orleans had better schools, we would have more educated kids instead of pregnant and/or incarcerated ones. Education has always been at the bottom of the charts in New Orleans, so it causes our city and youths to remain at a low level of intelligence with poor learning skills. We have more kids on the streets learning how to do math along with chemistry by selling drugs rather than from a classroom. Educated youths can make a big difference in this world because our youths of today are our tomorrow. This example in itself shows the importance of education not just for this city, but across the globe.
Merriam Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching. Educate is further defined as “to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of”. Education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the process of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. Another meaning for education is a systematic study of the methods and thesis of teaching and learning. The purpose of education is to gain knowledge and skills in order to make significant and reasonable decisions for living one’s life. Education is the core of morals and virtues allowing individuals to gain and keep knowledge to maintain and build one’s life. To gain knowledge is to gain a place in life where stability is yours and it allows you to have a beneficial career that will last. The most important purpose of education is human development as well as mental stability. Education eliminates ignorance and it helps to exercise your mind and teaches us discipline. Basically, Education is the basis of life and the key to achievement.
Education is a major part of life; it helps one to understand the essence of living. New Orleans is one place that proves that the lack of education is a complete hindrance and a huge addition to the culture of poverty. The city lacks good education and for many the thought of education is but a mere dream. This factor alone has helped to increase the poverty issues and struggles of New Orleans. Most areas don’t have high schools to attend. Due to the distance they would have to travel in order to attend school most youths just decide not to attend at all and remain at home. Due to the lack of schools and poor academic standards of the public school system we have more youths having babies than attending school, higher murder rates, more drug usage and distribution, extreme cases of violence, lack of understanding and much more.
None of the public schools in New Orleans can honestly say that they are currently up to the correct educational standards. The majority of the schools are being held in trailers with limited capacity which results in fewer schools. My kids attend an Elementary School where they currently don’t have any books to bring home nor available in the classroom. The youths of today are our tomorrow, but the way this city is heading New Orleans will soon have no future. One out of every five young males from age 14-19 years of age in New Orleans has a handgun instead of a book, football or even basketball.
New Orleans has more incarcerated youths than educated ones and more murderers than athletes. Due to the lack of resources and programs for our youths they turn to drug sellers and users which place education on the back burner for those individuals. Many people blame the problem on the parents, but due to the economy and the need for survival most of the parents are working long hour jobs; not all of these delinquent youth’s parents are drug addicts and etc. And even the parents that give their kids everything they heart can desire which means they have no need to sell drugs, but still sells drugs to be accepted in a city that’s full of poverty and negative influences. The city must also take the responsibility because if you reflect back in the days when our parents were in school if they did something wrong and the neighbor caught that child they were able to chastise that child, correct that child or even mentor that child. But these days so many parents has that don’t tell my kid anything attitude which can be an issue in the long run because sometimes everyone in the neighborhood knows what’s going on, but the parents of that troubled child. If a parent has that kind of attitude then why would your neighbor warn you? Why would your youth respect that person’s opinion if you have raised them not to for so long? Yet part blame lays on us as a community even though many may believe that this does not affect them or that it cannot happen to them or theirs, while they overlook the fact that this affects New Orleans as a whole. No matter where we go around the world we will still be seen as a New Orleanians and are looked down upon and after Katrina I think this was shown to many of us. No matter how different we are as individuals, no matter what ward you are from or what set you claiming, we are still considered as a whole in unity because we are the Heartbeats of New Orleans.
There are several ways for the city to begin to implement educational and recreational programs at a low cost for everyone. The first thing is that the natives of New Orleans are so talented and unique. If the architects, contractors, plumbers, painters, carpenters, roofers and etc were to get together and stop being greedy and only thinking of themselves and think of the youths instead they could rebuild some recreation centers. They could rebuild the parks, recreational centers, boys and girl homes and etc. at little cost to us all for the sake of our youth’s future.
Another solution helps both promoters and our youths; New Orleans people love music. So it would make sense for more promoters outside of non-profit organizations to give events that are in demand and from each event donate portion of the profit to rebuild and reform or even create educational and recreational areas for our city. This is something that my company ChozenOne Promotions Inc, has tried to accomplish on several occasions but the funny thing is that Corporate Sponsors do not feel like our purpose is more important than First Fridays, Jazz Fest, Voodoo Festival, The Essence Festival and other events that can only profit the city and not the youth or the communities. And truly, I say this with respect for all those events that we as New Orleanians so greatly love, but what about our youth?
So basically if we all thought more of our kids and their futures and less of ourselves and our own personal greed than we could begin to make a change. And the reality of the situation is that it’s up to us the community to make a difference and not the government. These are our kids and we are losing them too fast and losing too many due to our prior errors and it is time to make a change before we have no one or nothing left to change. Education and Recreational programs in New Orleans can offer our kids so many opportunities that change will be inevitable with a greater sense of hope for not only our kids but city of New Orleans.
“Food For Thought”: Change in this city can happen and it is up to us to implement change. All it takes is unity, diversity and love for our kids and we can help create a new title for New Orleans from the “Murder Capital” to the “City of Hope”. And until next time peace and blessings and remember that if you practice diplomacy and zero tolerance you can escape the violence in which we are surrounded by. We must always think to ourselves “What will the city end up as without the youths that are the future of New Orleans.”
I thought that I would leave you guys with lyrics from Ludacris (A Rapper) song titled “Freedom to Preach” but quoted by Bishop Eddie Lee Long.
What you just heard is real life. It's real life for you, it's real life for many
It's about where you been, yet at the same time you
Ay, you find yourself, in the midst of conflict and turmoil
Yes I'm talking to you, in the midst of conflict and turmoil
Cause you realize HEY - it's, time to change right now
And in the middle of that I wanna say this
The Bible says that when I was a child, I spoke as a child
I understood as a child, I fought as a child
Hey, but when I became a man
I put away those, childish things
Did you not know that your environment has shaped you?
Where you were born, in the projects, in the ghettoes
In the upper downtown, wherever it was
The people around you, the things around you
cause you to do strange things because, you were seeking to learn
But what you learned, was on the streets, and not in the book
God called you a prophet
When you open up your mouth, everything of God comes out
And it commands attention, it commands change
I'm talking about the power, that's inside of you
And in the midst when you're, starting to understand
that I caught the wrong message, and now it's time
I'm hearing from God, what amazing experience, as you hear from
God. He said, "Is there forth any man be in Christ, he is a new creation". Old things are passed away, somebody needs
to hear that and behold.
Everything becomes new, and when everything becomes new in you
It's time to stop the killing
I said it's time to stop the stealing
It's time to stop disrespecting our women
It's time for us to come home and raise our children
It's time for us, to really mold our communities
It's time for us, not to get hooked up in religion
But to get hooked up in relationship, with God
And the amazing thing about it
is wherever you find yourself right now, you can confess
and you can tell God "I'm sorry;
I had the wrong cue, I was doing the wrong thing
I was going after things that I thought were right, but it wasn't right
And now that I'm getting it right, I'm asking you to forgive me
And I may have done the things, that they said I did
But I'm not, who they say I am; I am who you made me to be
and I'm changing in that, and it takes a few moments
But every time I fall down, I'll get right back up
And every time I make a wrong turn, I'll get myself back in line
Because I recognize, I have been called, for such a time as this!"
You can't resist the change and you're not condemned by your yesterday. If you can grab hold of your now, and move in your destiny
Move, change, and be, now!
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