Loading ...Just Thinking
I woke up this morning with a few thoughts on my mind, most of them were random but there was one that stuck out with me.
I was thinking how nice it would be if as many people in this town got as worked up over the murder rate as they do free tickets to tour a stadium that leaks.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Isn’t that the truth! My office is very close to 38th and Sherman, and I can’t tell you how many times I have driven through that intersection. It is hard for one to fathom the permanency of other people’s actions, don’t you think?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Public hangings!
July 15th, 2008 at 8:47 am
MissouriDemocrat
July 15th, 2008 at 8:42 am
“Public hangings!”
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Have rope. Will travel.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:36 am
When you manage a city based upon politics with a priority placed upon making your political friends rich and powerful, when you abandon all of your campaign promises and pledge loyalty to cronies and old guard politicians,when you fight crime with T.V. spots and free hotdogs….well, What’s the point?
July 15th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I think the point was driven home, Abdul, when you asked a few days ago “What are you going to do?” about the rising crime rate. The responses generally fell along the lines of “arm myself” and “avoid bad neighborhoods” OK. That protects the individual posters, who were in all liklihood in no greater danger than they ever were. Those actions and responses do absolutely nothing for The City. If people don’t care about the community or the city as a whole and a rising crime rate, fine. Live with things the way they are and will become and protect only your own ass. It’s only a downward spiral from there. Rising crimes rates never have made me more concerned for my individual safety- I protect myslef, always have, and like most everyone else I have a miniscule risk of being caught in the crossfire whether it’s downtown or at a gas station in Geist (where, some will recall, a suburban mother was shot by a probably mentally ill man and the techniques mentioned by some for “doing something” did or would have done nothing to save her….probably not even if she had been armed with her hand on her loaded gun while pumping gas.)
In any event, a lot of this is just a problem of governmnet, lack of leadership, and ultimately misplaced priorites. Just like immigration, or disaster relief, if there was genunely a willingness to pour the substantial resources necessary to deal with the problem in the way people wanted it done, problem could be solved. It is NOT a democrat or republican thing here, it’s several decades of leaders of both parties being unwilling to say to the people: Adequately funding a justice system (or whatever issue) will cost THIS MUCH. It’s not a matter of just finding jail space three counties away. The jail beds could be had, but you would also need the significant additional transportation costs, sheriff/jailer costs, prosecutors office costs, public defender costs, court room space and staff costs, adequate infrastructure and technology costs… There is almost nothing about our justice system that works effectively, because for years, no one, not democrat or republican, has been willing to say, sorry, but this is what we need to keep up with the population, with the influx of drugs/dealers/addicts, new crimes, etc. for DECADES. I could go on and on and I have, but that’s the reality.
Now libertarians would probably tell you to go each protect his own, legalize drugs, keep the cost down. That’s another alternative, but its not the majority view at this point in history. At least they are willing to be honest, (the true libertarians anyway, as opposed to the disguised Republican faux libertarians who like freedom as long as it doesn’t involve sex or drugs) where most of the rest aren’t.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:08 am
bit,
.
Here’s an interesting fact - as we’ve built more prisons and passed more laws, guess what’s happened? Crime rates have increased.
.
There’s a good fix, but few will stomach the changes it will require.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:11 am
bit,
I agree with much of your post - but remember Mayor Peterson did exactly what you called for…he was honest with the citizens of this city about the costs of public safety would and that it would require a small sacrifice in the form of less than a 1% income tax increase. I think it totaled about $200 a person per year. Sure, that increase wasn’t even enough to do everything that is needed, but you saw what happened. The Col. campaigned fervently against it - the most negative campaign that I have seen in a long time in that there was no message other than “vote against the guy I am running against” and now that he is in office, he knows darn well that we need the money and he will never rescind it.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Right on Robert:
Fighting crime with candles, hotdogs and TV
spots is ridiculus.
These people need to learn a new way of life by example from black leaders that can set an example they can relate to. I’m a military veteran, ex-cop, ex-IPS’er now holding a doctorate degree who descended from a single parent home and I can tell you Ballard is mixed-up when it comes to crime and the black community. I was unaware during the campaign of his lack of meaningful interaction with the black community. I definitely did not think he’d disregard black intellectuals and use the old slave master tactics of pandering to undereducated, jack-leg preachers and their children with unintelligient, mumbling rhetoric with a program with no measurable success in its 4 year existence; unless you want to count the number signs, t-shirts, cell phones, hotdogs and leather jackets they purchase with our tax dollars. Everytime I see them on tv with the Peace in the Streets, partying, it reminds me of the slaves who were allowed to have church, while the massa watched and listened to the pre-screened and pre-approved preacher.
Ballard lost his way when he pooped on the blacks who supported him during the campaign…it will be his kiss of death in the next election. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
People laughed at me for supporting a white republican for mayor–now I get it! I never knew things could get sooooo low for black leadership in our city. But then, he doesn’t need us, he has the veterans and the asians to catapulut his ‘new’ diversity plan–anybody but negroes.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I woke up one morning a while back, wondering how spending $750M on the people of Indy -instead of on a building - might have benefited our city.
The people will surely be here longer than 20 years, the building will likely not.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Also, instead of hanging around in the streets snacking on hotdogs and soda and leaving trash everyone, i.e. partying, why not go clean up our neighborhoods?
Board up the vacant houses where crimes are committed?
Cut down high weeds where bodies are disposed?
Be proactive, not ‘party’ reactive.
The Peace in the Streets, partying, is too festive and sends the wrong message.
We need to CLEAN UP our neighborhoods, not teaching children how to party in the streets.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
The real answer, truthfully, is among all these posts. And it has nothing to do with guns.
We’re outraged, Abdul, we’re just numb. Every time an LEO fights for his life after a shooting, it captures our hearts and renders us temporarily numb.
But truth be told, a lot of LEOs get injured much less seriously every day. Their job is perilous, their responsibility awesome. The burnout rate is huge, and it’s no wonder.
My own smaller-scale answers:
1. Pay them more.
2. Pay their surviving spouses for life. Not just a pension, but the full pay the officer would’ve received. It’s the absolute least we can do.
3. Educate the surviving children of all these LEOs killed ILOD, free. A bachelor’s degree is small price to pay, but its cost is sometimes scary for a surviving spouse.
4. Insist that their be ample prison space for those convicted. If there isn’t enough space, the system operates from the top-down. Judges can’t send criminals to prison spaces that don’t exist.
5. Pay parole and probation officers better. Over half these murderers were “in the system” at one time or another. The Parole/Prob. profession is high-stress, low-pay. Ask any of them: if they had fewer cases on their desks, they could spend more time with each person. Many of these behaviors were predictable and recitivism was just underneath the surface.
For the remaining criminals who are first-time murderers, the above solutions will, over time, send a clear message that these actions have consequences.
No excuses, no second chances.
And for the criminally insane…well, there’s no hope. Throw away the key forever.
Thus endeth my Epistle.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Bootstrapper-
I agree that we need to do the things that government will not, but here’s the problem: If I go and board up a house and cut down the weeds of an abandoned home (which I’ve done many times), I can’t report them to the Mayor’s Action Center. If I don’t report them to the MAC, they can’t ticket the homeowners. If they don’t ticket the owners, they can’t foreclose for unpaid tickets, and the home remains under the ownership of absentee landlords who care nothing of the neighborhoods they are destroying!
July 15th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Bulldog, you got it wrong. Ballard did not run a negative campaign. The negative campaign was run by citizens who were completely fed up with Peterson and his lies and not affiliated with Ballard’s campaign. I was one of those people. Ballard simply benefitted from citizen disgust with Peterson.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Anymore throwing more dollars at law enforcement is like throwing more money at our failing schools. Until they get their own house in order and priorities straight, along with changing some procedures, nothing much will be accomplished. Many officers are hard working and put themselves in harms way but many do not. I live in a township with a hugely disproportional police presence. As you would expect a disproportionate amount of these guys spend the majority of their time chasing teenagers around and hassling and/or busting them for stupid stuff that overloads the juvy system. The schools all over Indiana do the same thing. Until we as a people are able to differentiate between criminal behavior and stupidity we’ll continue to spend millions on things that should never see the light of day in a criminal setting. Stopping this waste would free up considerable amounts to use on more meaningful pursuits throughout the system.
People complain all the time about seeing cops just sitting in their taxpayer provided cars doing nothing but running the AC. You decide if you want them writing tickets for people going 8 MPH over the speed limit (when they pass me on the streets going far in excess of that) or patroling problematic neighborhoods where real criminal activity can be observed on every corner 24/7. Why aren’t officers with take-home cars required to more evenly distribute themselves throughout the community, including high crime areas? I thought the whole point of take-home cars was to operate as a preventive measure by having a physical police presence in our neighborhoods. More cars in troubled areas and less in low crime ones would be an excellent start. You can’t tell cops where to live but you don’t have to issue a take-home car to everyone living in the safe suburbs either, especially when some communities already have a police car in every other driveway.
This is obvious stuff in my opinion. As long as we continue to pass laws that criminalize public farting, allow school administators to pass off kids to the juvy system because one took a poke at the other defending a mother who does not wear army boots (what ever happened to in-school suspensions anyway), and allow cops to disproportionately gather/work in the burbs rather than at the Pheonix Apartments or 38th St., we’ll continue to have a stressed, expensive system that doesn’t produce desired results. And I can tell you, no one working within these systems has any desire or incentive to change a damned thing. And those that do want change don’t survive long and end up working somewhere else. The best thing that could happen to law enforcement and education would be to get some unindoctrinated blood in there. Neither one of these systems to so specialized, complicated or incomprehensible that smart,talented people can’t help fix them.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Juno, you have any idea what you are talking about? the take home car program is part of the officers salary and benefits. the main stipulation is that they live in marion county. how can you give to one but not the other when both meet the same criteria? if you don’t then you are gonna have to pay the one without more salary. i know some of them would prefer that.
if you wanna do good in a “stressed” neighborhood. move there and teach a kid to read.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Melyssa,
So you are saying that Ballard didn’t authorize the Had Enough slogan? I think he did and that is nothing but negative. It doesn’t say what he is going, to do, it is a one line summary of his entire intellect and mentality. Pander to our society’s throw the bums out mentality. Well, you know what, he is now bum #1 and I have certainly HAD ENOUGH NOW….aaahhh, I can feel a bumper sign in the future.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Police (and government) are NOT required to protect YOU.
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So sayeth our black-robed lawyers.
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We need open-carry laws in Indy. Then, a bunch of like-minded, openly armed Citizens can go out and clean litter in blighted areas.
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Focus on high-crime areas. Twenty or thirty armed Citizens would give pause to even the most hardened criminal.
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Works for New Hampshire !!
July 15th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Bootstrapper! I don’t have a lot of people that I respect anymore but I just added you to my short list! We really need to have lunch one day and discuss the future of Indianapolis in terms of who not to support. Greg Ballard is very first on that list! What a joke and a disaster! I am so sorry for supporting this man!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Juno,
Did your parents have any children that lived? If so, I bet they regret it.
In the time it took you to spew your jaded opinion about where to make cops live, you could have planted a flower somewhere.
You should’ve opted for the flower, but I bet (based on the rationale of your argument) that you would plant marijuana, so maybe it’s best that you just waste everyone’s time here.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I know I’m a broken record, but whether it’s 38th St. in Indy, the eight mile zone (whatever it’s called in Detroit), or economically deficient areas in the Middle East, young people need role models, education, and jobs. If leaders and citizens alike pitch in for public safety, sound economics, and educational expectations, while serving as role models for responsibility and not implicitedly condoning irresponsibility, I believe in this city and country. Without a return to fundamentals, it’s not looking pretty.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
jj. do you know what you are talking about, the police car is not part of your pay package. check facts with the fop, and if you have been around long enough than you should know that when the take home car program restarted it was for those officers living in the inner city. it spread outwards to the county. and many different units took a couple of years before they received thier cars.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Something few non-blacks have the courage to address is the fact that most of the problem stems from the purposeful lack of integration into society or adoption of societal norms by working class and lower blacks. That leads directly to the explicit/implicit acceptance of this bullshite within that community and it occasionally spills outside of that particular area.
How do you reach a community that’s (mostly) interested in outward appearances/perceptions and actively disdains education or mainstream societal inclusion? Yes, Abdul and others, you get the occasional folks who decide to do better and get out of that SES, but those people are too few and too far in between.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Mike,
Can you please explain what planting flowers or pot has to do with criminalizing dumb and irratating behavior, overloading the criminal justice system with the same, or looking for ways to make the take-home car program more effective? Oh, and all my parent’s children lived and are law abiding citizens. They don’t regret any of us either. Personal insults and suggestions to go plant something don’t contribute much to a discussion about finding more resources to throw at crime.
JJ,
You make a legitimate point about the take-home car program that needs to be addressed. I have no idea what that comment about my teaching a kid to read in a “stressed” neighborhood was all about. That won’t do a thing to stop the current killing spree.
Being illogical and rude may silence critics and discussion, but it doesn’t facilitate solving the problem. I stand by my assertion that you don’t want things to change.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
So what’s left JW, more affirmative action?
On an unrelated side note, the Obama song / video below was pretty funny.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Envision the Roman coliseum being built by slaves back a few thousand years ago. Ok the Lucas Oil Stadium was not built by slaves but mostly by hard working union Hoosiers. Follow the money trail and you will find many top Indiana company’s and minority company’s that made out like bandits. Why do you think ex-mayor Bart was not happy that Gov Daniels came in and swept the rug out under him when it came to contract giveaways. Although I suspect Daniels must have thrown Bart enough bones so everyone came out happy. Well almost everyone, the taxpayer did get the screw job. Not completely thou, the Super Bowl will create enough trickle down cash that at least we will get something back on our investment. Hmmm I still don’t know how we going to pay for those cost overruns? Any ideas boys? For those of you that were around when the Hoosier Dome was built remember when you couldn’t give away a ticket. A state representative was even caught scalping tickets during the Colts down years. Peyton just had knee surgery and there is no guarantee we will keep making the playoffs. Remember who picks up the bill if the Colts don’t fill the stadium. Say it can’t happen! Can you say “PACERS”! Ok enough of this silliness it’s just a sport right!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Now for something completely different! Envision the library from Asimov’s Foundation. Ok got the picture here’s the story! You know the Library the one that had the horrible cost overruns due to the parking garage. Yup I was on vacation and took off two weeks ago on a Wednesday morning with my three boys (Wife was off to work) to see this new downtown wonder. I decided to park on the street and walk thru the American Legion Plaza checking out the statues and the monuments. Another one of our San Diego mornings sun shining and just one hell of a beautiful day. We entered by the old entrance. There were architect students checking out the columns and the construction of the old section of the library. The awe in their voices was quite inspiring to my 11 year old son who started pointing and staring at the antique arches. We then entered the main lobby of the new library. Here’s what I saw a cross section of America, people of all colors and races heading off in every direction in search of knowledge, the arts, music, amusement and just about anything you could imagine. I counted at least 4 classes being taught on a Wednesday afternoon during the summer! My kids were almost impossible to keep track of as they darted in and out of the shelfs and desks. As we headed up each level I couldn’t take my eyes off the beautiful downtown landscape as we went up and up to explore each new floor. A yoyo exhibit had my two youngest boys mesmerized. There were computers everywhere where you could surf the web or look up information on the library’s database. There were very few that were not in use that morning. The staff was courteous and helpful even the security guards where happy to chat and tell me what a wonderful place it was to go to work. My 15 year old son (the one who never tells you anything) even called his mom to tell her what a great place it was. As we were leaving I wondered why the city doesn’t push the children’s museum and the library as a tourist attraction for the families who come to see our city. It also occurred to me that maybe we got a better deal with the library then we did the Lucas Oil Stadium. Sure there will probably be no business deals done during library hours but the kids that learn there will be the ones who will eventually make those deals and will be better educated to make those important decisions in the future. Yeah Abduhl (I’m taking a shot at you!) you can sit in Star Bucks and surf the web, but come north a little bit and spend a little time at your new downtown library and decide if it was boondoogle or a good investment in the future. My minds made up!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Big brother:
I believe many of these people, including Olgin Williams is on the city payroll and Peace in the Streets received a hefty grant; please ignore the lies you hear from his son–believe me, Olgin and his son is not working for FREE.
They can lead the mission to clean up the streets/our neighborhoods, instead of standing around in the street hoods chillin’ and hanging out at Christamore House at their studio listening to rap music.
They need to put our public tax dollars/grant money to good use, not on hotdogs, signs, rapy music and empty retoric. The city can still log it into the system, cite them and charge a fee, and proceed with legal actions, but to yell and party in the streets, what a waste of time.
There are other ways, but you can’t expect them to be created by black leaders with the intellectual capacity of someone in junior high school and the vision of a blind man.
Maybe Ballard feels better by surrounding himself with blacks who speak less articulately than he, or maybe he feels better about himself by NOT including the highly educated blacks HE sought out to support him and advise him DURING the campaign.
Whatever it is, its ’strange fruit indeed’.
July 16th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Just a quick note: can anyone find the Foundation sign in the new library. I saw it but can’t remember which floor it was on! ;)
July 16th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hey Money Guy,
I see that Monument to Murphy’s Law everyday as it is in my neighborhood. And I have used it before.
I would have rather seen the Library Board spend the time and money on neighborhood libraries, than that giant white elephant.
July 16th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Every city needs a giant white elephant! Opps you where talking about Lucas Oil Stadium weren’t you?
July 16th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Lucas Oil didn’t bother me so much as to how it was paid for. I think the Colts should have contributed a lot more and the taxpayers should have paid a lot less or received more revenue.
And I think you meant to say “were” and not “where.”
July 16th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I should be working for the Star! ;) My proofreading is horrible!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Ruth would enjoy that comment!
July 16th, 2008 at 7:44 am
O.K-I’m not going to dwell on the harsh criticisms here against an administration that has had the opportunity, responsibility, privilege, whatever you want to call it, to clean up a mess in just over six months, that was over eight years in the making by a prior administration. Just please temper your criticisms with some semblance of realistic expectations.
Citizens of Marion County did not elect a politician to the mayor’s office. They elected a PUBLIC SERVANT. Mayor Ballard has his head down, shoulders pushed forward, braving through the muck of you-know-what, slogging step by step to make some positive changes in this city. God rested on the 7th day of His creation, but many of you won’t allow Ballard to even take a breath after seven months of hard work.
Pretty, soothing words of a politician might be what many of you desire.What we we elected, though, is a man of action with the backbone and determination to execute and finish his assignment. Mayor Ballard has already cleared much of the way towards accomplishing his mission of achieving a safer, cleaner, vibrant city.
While I’m on a tear, let me also just say, that the hot dogs and rallies bring people out of their homes to where leaders in the community who care and want to serve, can meet them and let them know where to access the role models they so desperately need.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:56 am
If Barack Obama can be threatened with castration by a “good reverend” for having the temerity to suggest that Black men be even more responsible for their fertility and lives, and Bill Cosby called everything but a Child of God for positing that Black parents and youth step up (um, and grow up), then Abdul, I think you may want to invest in a cup if you’re going to persist on this line of thinking.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Speaking of leaks, I’m not sure why this is news. I know contractors who worked on or are working on the new stadium. I knew about the leaks before the summer began. It’s common knowledge the roof has a design flaw that allows water to come in when closed. It wasn’t uncommon, I’m told, for dry wallers to redo dozens of feet of dry wall some mornings or for entire closets of electronic equipment to be replaced.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Cha ching cha ching! Just because these spoiled hoosiers can’t take a little cold weather! We need a expensive retractable roof! Don’t forget you still have to pay Irsay ahhhh oppss the Colt’s when you want to use the new dome! Well at least Bart’s gone no more blank checks…
July 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Wow 38 comments! Do you think Abdul should thinl more!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Wow 38 comments! Do you think Abdul should think more!
July 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
This is the first time I’ve seen anything posted about mumbling stumbling Olgen Williams and his son on the city payroll.
Believe me, both are. And neither is up to the job. By a long damned shot.
At least I think so, judging by their public statements. They both talk like their mouth is full or marbles.
And they repeat tired old platitudes better than Rev. Jackson.
July 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Upon looking up “platitude”, as in “tired old platitudes”, I got a cross-reference: see Andre “The Seed” Carson
July 16th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Dear Demand accountability:
You said “that the hot dogs and rallies bring people out of their homes to where leaders in the community who care and want to serve, can meet them and let them know where to access the role models they so desperately need.”
RESPONSE: For starters, the role models are Olgin Williams and his children. See #40 comment by Think Again.
Next, the role models you suggests are NOT at those rallys and those rallys are NOT the proper place for the proper role models to influence the behavior of those who violate the peace in the streets. Those in attendance are politicians politicking, paid by grants & awards jack-legged preachers, law enforcement officials, city employees and Olgin Williams many, many children–they are not the most effective role models needed for the people we are trying to reach.
The problem in this city is we think we can raise the inner city children instead of raising the inner city parents up. The City of Indianapolis diversity initiatives have skipped a generation of black adults who are in their 30’s to 50’s–Adults who are educated, street smart, ambitious and who truly have a passion for the community but who have been neglected. We’ve intead focused on the past 20 years or so on annual segregrated events to prove we treat our blacks fairly without realizing how concentrating our diversity inititaives into such programs caused us to neglect other initiatives spearheaded by this generation of blacks. This has left them negative and without hope and caused some to use their ambition, intelligence and street smarts to commit blue and white collare crimes. Their children then suffered and are now the ones killing without emotion, stealing and selling dope. These are the children we are now trying to raise with the Peace in the Streets, a failed program for 4 years now.
We’ve been perpetuating a fraud, with visions of phoney success and phoney outreach packaged in slick 4-color flyers and corporate brochures and phoney diversity celebrations. Its so easy to continue this because it so much FUN! Blacks like to party right, so lets just give them what they want. Blacks want to be socially accepted by whites right. So we’ll invite them to a black or diversity function.
We MUST be better parents/leaders to our constituents and just say we CAN’T PARTY RIGHT NOW! The singing and dancing must stop and the work must begin.
Peace in the Streets is just a party for the children of the parents who we’ve neglected by having corporate america and every other institution in the state focus on annual diversity events. Our FOCUS should be on the lost black generation in Indianapolis–the parents, women, business owners and professionals 365 days a year by teaching them how to bootstrap themselves or giving them the tools to spread their passion and mission, then THEY will be daily role models for their children, family and neighborhood. These individuals are NOT at the Peace in the Streets Rally because they were not allowed to help shape the inititative into one that is effective. They are NOT going to waste their time hanging in the streets with no structure.
Finally, the role models these kids need are those who have bootstrapped themselves from the same streets we are trying to clean-up. Not those from the streets who make a living off the government dole and have hitched another ride to a new mayor who is naive to the ‘hood’.
Sorry to be so blunt, but we’ve got to stop the non-sense!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Bootstapper! I absolutely agree with you! It is about time that an intelligent voice was heard in our community. Beats the hell out of stupid slogans like “Peace in the Streets” avocated by a bunch of prostitute ministers and the Olgen Williams Family (Bought and Paid for spokespersons for Corporate America)
Hot Dogs anyone?
July 16th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Ok everybody stop crying someone got some money! Geez at least it wasn’t a blank check like the ex mayor Bart used to give out. I have never met Olgen William or his family but if I get time I will try to read the book “Healing the Hood” I assume by him or his dad not sure. Amazon has one review by some guy out in Oregon and it’s a five star! Apparently he was the Director of Christamore House and has done some amazing things in that ministry. I believe Major Ballard picked the right guy for the job. Fixing the problems in the inner city is not for the faint hearted! Let me tell you some of these people can’t be fixed. Alcohol and drugs (don’t get me started on prescription medicine) can seriously mess with a person well (boy that’s putting it lightly) being. If Ballard is smart he would rally all of the church’s inner and outer city to the cause. The funny thing is he really doesn’t have to do that because the churches are already there and they are fighting the battles daily. Just open your eyes and you will see Christians, Catholics, Methodists, Muslims and all of the other denominations in the inner city daily taking care of the less fortunate. The humorous thing is it is usually the so called less fortunate that are doing God’s work. Well the rest of us go about our daily life they toil daily to make our life and our neighbors life just a little bit better!
July 16th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Jerry,
Why is it that one of the first comments out of male WASPs during discussions of race usually involve affirmative action? Did it hold you back from a promotion or something? I wasn’t talking about AA at all, just that at some point you have to realize that you can’t reach those who don’t want to be reached or included. I’m not in favor of more AA, nor was I just talking about blacks. What I’m advocating is cutting our losses and moving on as a society; lock ‘em up, don’t hire ‘em and discourage mainstream/high-end development in those areas which seem to support, whether implicitly or explicitly, this crap. At some point those segments of society that disdain mainstream America will figure out that they’ve been left behind in a de facto 2nd class citizenship and do whatever it takes to join the rest of us in the mainstream. It may take a couple decades or generations to settle out, but I think it will happen.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:51 am
Perfectly healthy looking tatooed up kids with kids standing in line for food stamps or ssi because the child was brain damaged due to the mothers drug abuse during pregnancy…. who think the government and everyone else owe them a living and a good one at that… that is the generation I see sitting here ready to inherit the nation. Scared is not a strong enough word for how I feel about it.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Sadly, if we were to take REAL action against crime in the city, the NAACP and other groups would sue everyone they could because it would appear they were profiling or targeting specific groups.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Bootstrapper and Everyone Else:
I am, myself, a bootstrapper. My parents came to this country with literally $7.00 in their pockets, not knowing the language or
the ’system”. My parents worked hard. I worked hard. I always had some plan to earn money, and found a regular paycheck paying job, at the first legal age I could. At the age of 14, I already had a plan as to how I would get through college, even if it took 10 years. I ended up receiving a full academic merit scholarship. Life taught me a lot of hard lessons along the way. My married life has afforded me a life of prosperity. My comfortable life has allowed me the opportunity to offer my time and talents to others. I have served many years in urban ministry related issues. I try to make a positive impact on individual lives wherever and whenever I have the opportunity. Is it discouraging to observe people wallowing in their undproductive lives, squandering their time here on earth? Of course. But if I can make a difference in just one life…I now have the opportunity to serve the community at a different level-as an elected official. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve at this level. I am doing all I can to meet and know the people whose hands I have been getting out there to shake, AFTER the election. I am a realist, but I refuse to be as pessimistic as you about the human condition and what measures can be taken to improve it. If you want to talk, I’ll be happy to hand you one of the hot dogs I load onto a hot grill on a 90 plus degree day.