Posted on 12/14/2011 7:45:43 AM PST by upbeat5
CHICAGO, December 13, 2011 ― I was a Chicago Police Officer for almost 30 years. I spent the first ten years of my career in one of the worst, most impoverished areas of Chicago, Lawndale. It was named as one of the ten most dangerous neighborhoods in America. Even people’s dreams weren’t safe.
Everyday I patrolled streets where there was no hope, no change, no future, and no way out. Self survival was paramount. People did whatever they could to live through one more day. Crime was just a day’s work.
(Excerpt) Read more at communities.washingtontimes.com ...
Who was the Republican pol who kept urging ‘empowerment’ as the remedy for such neighborhoods? I don’t recall his name, he was an athlete at some point IIRC, and was always urging that home ownership and ‘empowerment’ would inevitably bring such people around. He has passed away now, late 1980s early 1990s guy. Likeable, sincere, optimistic - and wrong. I’ve forgotten his name.
No one wants to even attempt to build anything there. The hurdles, obstacles, and barriers are too high. Federal, state, and local governments put up roadblocks."
Many of these welfare dependents would start micro-businesses if they didn't have to defend them against the bureaucrats who will show up like locusts, buzzing and devouring all their energy and cash be put into filling out incomprehensible paper work and obtaining certificates and licenses.
Fighting off criminal thugs and thieves is a cakewalk compared to that.
Jack Kemp
Yet next November 6th, community organizers will herd these people to the polls where they will ignorantly cast their vote overwhelmingly for Obama and the politicians who keep them enslaved by promising more welfare and now wealth redistribution.
I was thinking more along the lines of local candidates. Chicago is dominated by a corrupt Democrat machine. People have their representatives selected for them.
I agree...I looked askance at that passage and thought “How the heck does he know that?”
That is a really key point that gets very little consideration in discussions on education. Of course these days, little that is relevant gets much consideration in most societal discussions on education.
Excellent article!
Good article - but he missed the major problem we are fighting now; three plus generations of envy, sloth, and greed taught by the education system.
Not entirely true from the teachers I know. What has happened is that because of the decision to reduce class sizes from 35-40 to 16 to 20 many, many teachers of marginal intelligence are now in the system, forever. The small class size does not correlate to accademic accomplishment after you control for income and professional levels of the parents.
The smaller class size is a big mistake and is probably the biggest contributor to lack of learning in our children.
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