Listening to the Young People of Baltimore

[sheshe2]

By now I'm sure you know that on Tuesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch traveled to Baltimore. The media did a pretty good job of covering that story. But I wonder if you've heard about this:

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Education Secretary Arne Duncan spent Wednesday afternoon at Frederick Douglass High School, where they discussed financial literacy and heard students' concerns about the lack of jobs and opportunities in Baltimore.

snip

This is quite extraordinary. While it's important to connect with city officials as well as community/church/business leaders in Baltimore in order to form lasting solutions to the challenges the city faces, it is incredibly powerful to think that three members of the President's Cabinet spent a day listening to the concerns of high school students.

When Broderick Johnson said the other day that it's all about "recognizing that our young people are not the problem, but rather the solution,” it wasn't just a nice soundbite. This is how the Obama administration demonstrates that they're walking their talk.


Read More~ http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/05/listening-to-young-people-of-baltimore.html

[brer cat]

1. K&R nt

[sheshe2]

2. Oh sweetie, thank you for the KnR!

I thought it completely sunk out of sight.

[brer cat]

4. It isn't often that we

hear of our leaders actually reaching out and LISTENING to our young people. It's important to hear from them what challenges and obstacles they are facing, and to learn from their perspective. It is not the same as ours.

It is not surprising that this administration is doing that listening and learning.

[a kennedy]

5. Like this listening to students would EVER happen in some other administration.

I am going to miss Barak sooooooooo bad.

[sheshe2]

3. Hell!

KnR~

[qwlauren35]

6. Just goes to show

the power of a few riots.

Ten thousand protesters marched in Baltimore and got virtually zero news coverage. But when a few teens riot, everyone wants to help Baltimore.

What is the message here? The squeaky wheel gets greased. So, will we see more riots?

And what does this say about the divide between the haves and the have nots, that the have nots are getting to the point where they think that violence is an answer. This reminds me of the dystopian futuristic sci-fi movies that show armored police fighting violence in cities.

Are we rewarding bad behavior?

Will anything come out of these conversations? Or is the aim simply to prevent more riots? The kids need jobs, and they need more strong, healthy, morally upstanding men in their lives... and liberating convicts without helping them get jobs does not lead to strong, healthy morally upstanding men.

It all boils down to good-paying jobs. And how will government deliver?