|
Doggystyle,
I absolutely agree with your "horse is out of the barn” assessment. While I believe that the only way to make a widespread, lasting change in this area is for the black community to move back to a mentality of personal responsibility and strong family structures, that does not change the reality of all of the children whose families have already missed that boat.
I think there is a selfish, self preserving motive for society to take an interest in changing the lives of the potentially lost souls that are out there now. If you keep the things that create a welfare dependent person in play but remove the welfare system, the notion that they will suddenly "do the right thing" because the aid is gone is absurd. Certain societal ills will be exacerbated as some portion of the populous falls into a big black hole. Finding a way to improve this situation rather than dropping these children by the way side may save us all a certain amount of grief later.
What should be done? I think there need to be efforts to encourage some accountability for parents in the raising of children. I think there need to be greater resources dedicated to parent education. If you want to break the cycle of government dependence, you need to be willing to invest more up front to save more later. Even if we convinced people to take a better stance going forward, attention still must be given those children who are already here in struggling families. Investments in education must be made for the sake of all children and especially those in urban and rural settings. A strong education system benefits the entire country.
(On a side note, I always find it interesting when people scream about people relying on the government the lines that get drawn. Is it only those who take afds that are wrong? Those on food stamps? Section 8? Student loans are still government subsidies, despite the fact we pay them back. Corporations take government welfare everyday to bail them out. But people can rationalize that away in a favorable way so that may be okay. If it is all about self reliance and only getting things you have earned and worked for, there should be no government subsidized anything and people should only attend schools they can afford or getting private loans for, right? On some level it is splitting hairs to me. )
|