Part 2: Social, housing, Medical implications for Blacks.
Black America struggles under a plethora of challenges including unemployment, child poverty, hunger, domestic violence, substandard schools, cyclical teen pregnancies, drugs, massive welfare and inordinate prison populations.
However, our Congressional leaders prove un-serious about solving Black America's dilemma. Instead, they spend billions on citizens of other countries, while they relegate our citizens to spiraling despair.
A recent article, Foreign Aid: Good or Bad, said, "The United States gives out $13.3 billion tax dollars in direct Foreign Aid annually. The United States is above and beyond the single most generous benefactor of the United Nations, donating $2.4 billion dollars of YOUR money, to primarily third-world dictators. This amount is 25 percent of the United Nations budget. In addition, the United States also gives another $1.4 billion tax dollars to United Nations' programs and agencies. The American taxpayers fund more for the United Nations than all of the other 177 member nations combined."
In other words, U.S. taxpayers, including American Black taxpayers, fund citizens of other countries at the expense of America's poor citizens. That makes about as much sense as sending food to children in another country while your own children starve in your own home. A recent report showed that 13 million American children live under the poverty line.
At some point, all countries of the world must become responsible and accountable for feeding, housing and caring for their own populations. How much longer can the USA babysit the third world with food, medicine and humanitarian aid-especially with those countries adding 77 million more people annually?
According to Census tables, "The percentage of African-Americans living below the poverty level was 33.4 percent (10.8 million) in 1992, the year Clinton was first elected president. By 2000, the year Bush was elected, that figure had dropped to 22.5 percent (7.9 million) - a decrease of 10.9 percent. From 2000, however, the Black poverty increased from 22.5 percent to 23.9 percent in 2002 and 24.3 percent in 2003 (9.1 million)."
Those numbers fail to present the ramifications of such poverty on the personal level. TV icon Oprah Winfrey covers the human drama by bringing individuals into the spotlight. She started schools for youngsters in Africa when Blacks in America need more help in their own country.
As a teacher in the inner-city with classes comprised of 95 percent Blacks, I experienced Black America's dilemma firsthand. As an enthusiastic educator, I roared into my classrooms with excitement, knowledge and a fiery passion to teach. Within three years, the conditions in the inner-city pinned my ears back.
BASIC PROBLEM IN BLACK GHETTOS
Fathers with poor paying jobs or without jobs become frustrated, abusive and lost. They lash out at their wives and kids. If a couple births four or five kids, the situation compounds with crying, diapers, hungry kids, screaming and unhappy children that lack personal attention. Once the cycle starts, i.e., physical and verbal abuse, it "parent scripts' onto the children. All kids along with their impressionable minds act like computers that "sponge' every piece of data daily into their "hard drives'. When they hear, "You're so smart, responsible and a hard worker"you're the best kid in the world", those children grow into healthy, academic and positive human beings. No matter what their academic level, they will prosper in life.
If they hear, "You're nothing but a loser," "you're not good enough," "you're stupid," they will replay that hard data into their adult lives. You see examples in the media with famous Black Americans who made tons of money, but suffered "parent scripts' from the ghetto that kept playing in their heads such as O.J. Simpson, Snoop Dog, Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown and others. It also applies to all the white lives messed up by poor parent scripting, i.e., Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and dozens more.
Politicians tell us we need better teachers. Wouldn't it be better to concentrate on better, more educated and positive parents? Imagine the long range societal benefit of teaching effective parenting and how to find compatible marriage relationships as one of the most important aspects of high school curriculums. We need to foster high emotional quotient (EQ) that prepares children to become mature and balanced adults""emotionally, physically and academically.
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