What can be done about crime in New Orleans right now? Everything I read in the Times Picayune makes me feel like things are getting out of control.
There was an armed robbery in the French Quarter this weekend. A local woman was walking to a car and was accosted by two youths who demanded money. Within seconds the woman had been shot in the torso. She was taken to University Hospital but she died there, police said.
I have no idea how New Orleans is supposed to approach this problem, let alone solve it. How can one react to this kind of thing. Shock? Anger? All these reactions are natural but isn't it time was had a better reaction? Some way of curtailing this terrible road that New Orleans is on?
Why is New Orleans such a dangerous place? Why are there so many people who feel like they can live their lives stealing from others, weilding guns and shooting innocent people? Why has that become so normal and accepted? I wonder, please tell me.
What do the criminals mothers feel? Are they uncaring, uneducated, scum? Do they care if their sons spend their lives in crime? Did they receive the example from family members? Is this a problem generations old?
What is the solution? How can this be solved? Is education the answer? I asked my husband why he thinks people steal, sell drugs and behave in many criminal ways? He said quite simply, "Because it is quick." Not easy, but quick. Lets not confuse those two words. Does it really come down to speed? If I rob this woman in the Quarter, I may walk away $20 richer. It will take, from start to finish, probably 20 seconds to complete the whole operation. $20 for 20 seconds work. Of course, the spoils couold be even higher, depending on how thick her wallet is.
I wonder if these men have ever been involved in any activity in their entire lives where they have acheived something and it did not cost anything? Helping an elderly lady with her shopping? Studying for a test and getting an A? Painting a garage door and admiring it afterward? I wonder if their problems really stem from never acheiving anything and never feeling that wonderful feeling of acheivement.
Barack Obama said in his inaugural speech that parents should take the time to nuture their children. Does this have to be asked of parents? To take the time to nurture their own children? To read with them, to bake cookies together, to attend a sports game together, in short to do something positive together. Are our children even deprived of these small, insignificant activites with parents, that really are character forming and remembered always? And ultimately very significant.
Maybe all is lost? How can we teach parents to love and give time to their children? Does that come from education?
I am almost at a loss of how human nature has become so dire. How do we change things?
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