I remember distinctly the night I heard a radio somewhere in our house playing music that was so innovative and new I had to track down the source. In the next room a small transistor radio was broadcasting the Beatles’ American breakthrough hit “I Want To Hold Your Hand” on WLS. I remember thinking that it was going to be a huge hit. (Obviously, a few hundred million other people thought so too.)
I was 14. I played in the band, ate dinner every night with my parents and three sisters, went to church, watched Bonanza, and had a crush on “Little Joe.” The biggest trouble I got into was talking when my father was watching Walter Cronkite’s evening news.
Contrast that with the recent arrest of a 14-year-old on multiple felony charges. He was caught as he was running away from gun fire that halted a Ben Davis football game and was arrested for his alleged role in the shooting of a 16-year-old during an attempted carjacking that had happened in the weeks before.
As you are probably thinking, there’s a whole lot more to this story. Undoubtedly, this young man has been a witness to, or has been subjected to recurring acts of violence over his young life. He may have an intact nuclear family, but by something like 10 to 1, the odds are against that.
In prison, right around 85 percent of the incarcerated youth come from fatherless homes. These are the kids who needed someone to hold their hands, but overwhelmingly the case is, they didn’t get the hand holding…or the hugs, or the encouragement, or the standards, or the responsibility. If they ever did, it was likely too little or too late.
We have to do a better job. We have to help challenged families when the kids are toddlers, and make sure they get what they need to grow into fully caring, engaged, educated, capable human beings who have a chance in hell of having a successful, happy life. What’s the cost? It cannot possibly be more than what society is paying now.
It’s about family. It has always been about family,
Nancy
Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it”
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