A little rant

“One of the most dangerous threats facing black America right now is quietly stealing our children at a young age. Incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid, and poor children of color are the fodder. So many poor black babies in rich America enter the world with multiple strikes against them: born without prenatal care, at low birth weight and to a poor, and poorly educated, teenage single mother and an absent father.”

This is from an article I just read on cnn.com. I agree that many black babies are born on a road that many times leads right to jail or poverty.

My beef with this article is the misplacement of what to do about it. From the above quote, I can site one huge area that will help with the volume the writer speak of – single teen mothers with no father present. Is it really so difficult for a parent to teach a female child to keep her legs closed and a male child to keep his ‘stuff’ zipped up?! I would like to see statistics on the parents of these single moms and absent dads. Did they finish high school? Are they on government assistance (first or second generation)? Is the father present?

And this discussion should be talked about within each race represented in the United States of America. I’m a white female but have many friends who fit the above description. Many parents do not instill into their child a moral code that, at the least, keeps them from becoming a parent before high school graduation. I know many people would scream at me for such a statement, but its truth. Sorry for not sugar coating it.

Many people say my suggestion for fixing this situation is naive and out-of-touch. So often society and media outlets tell us it is unreasonable to ask kids to abstain from sexual behavior until are young adults. It wasn't unreasonable for me! I simply chose not to do it. It's called self-control and making choices WAY before the circumstance arose. I find it selfish to bring a child into this world when you yourself are a child and can't support it.

OK, rant over.