Stopping the violence

I have read with great interest your feature articles on the violence in Kansas City’s 64130 ZIP code. As I read the article “Working toward a solution” (1/27, A-1), it occurred to me that the prescription for healing in Kansas City is the same prescription needed in troubled areas in the world, including Gaza:

Give our children a strong education.

Encourage commerce and jobs.

Teach people to value life.

Reach the at-risk youths and teach them love, not hate.

These are just a few of the solutions offered by The Star’s article. I, for one, plan to help Kansas City and any other troubled area to the best of my ability.

Dan Kass
Leawood

Comments

[Pub 17]

You lost your mind about 1968 when you heard about snorting Drano as a big head rush....

What does "require" mean?

[BudRog]

Gosh, just spitballing here, but what if he required Dads to be Dads, and stopped filling that roll with government....Damn, Hey Listen, I am sorry Race Card, sorry Troop Train Chaser.....man, I must have lost my mind for a second.....

Sweet Jesus Save us All......

[Pub 17]

And until we get the right to license parents and regularly inspect people's homes, the next best thing is to do what we can, right now.

[Marctnts]

Sadly, this problem may be one without an easy public-policy fix. The list Pub provided would help to mitigate the symptoms of inadequate homes, but you simply can't legislate stable home lives no matter how hard you try, and without addressing this "root cause", I think you're always going to be fighting an un-winable battle.

[Engineer]

solomon
Different situation. The affluence came first and one of its results was a decrease in family size. And I don't think Pub 17 has the complete answer, either. The things he wrote of would help and no doubt save some. However, in my opinion, the problem will never be solved until the home environment can be changed.

[solomon]

C'mon Engineer, I thought you'd recognize your own words.

Just a few says ago that was the phrase you used to suggest a solution to the overpopulation the world faces.

[Pub 17]

Affluence is almost irrelevant. "Support" would include things like watching the kids in school for stress, poor nutrition, molestation, violence against other kids; then providing supplemental nutrition, counseling, intervention, all the crapola I don't like to think about but recognize as absolutely necessary.
The choice is simple. We can assume away the problems: it's the parents' responsibility, not the taxpayers', the poor will always be with us, we can't violate the parents' rights to raise their children as they see fit, etc. This guarantees that those of us in the upper middle class and above will have a whole new generation of worthless little weasels to complain about.

[Engineer]

Pub 17
What do you mean by government support and how do you supply it?
solomon
I and most of my retired colleagues grew up in poverty in the Great Depression. So affluence, per se, isn't the answer.

[Pub 17]

That was MY point. You can't. You either write off some percentage of the population or you provide government support programs for those kids who made the wrong choice of parents.

[solomon]

Make them affluent, that is what has worked in parts of Europe and North America north of Mexico.

[Engineer]

So we all agree. The big problem is the home environment. How do we go about changing that?

[Pub 17]

Unicorns are easy to catch with a bait trap. The problem is that unicorn bait itself is hard to come by.

First, let's assume a responsible, educable parent or guardian in the home...

[Matt]

I agree with Marctnts it starts at home. Dan's idea's are good but it has to start at home with the parents or legal guardians.Most importantly, you can lead a horse to water. Well you get the point.

[Marctnts]

An admirable list, but Dan forgets the first step. Start in the home, or you will always be fighting an uphill battle with the rest of your ideas.