Frank T. Williams
--The Angry Man--
I recently started a pilot program while an intern at Laguna Honda Hospital, in San Francisco called Across Generation. I took adults from the Substance Abuse Treatment Services (LHH) to Youth Guidance Center to talk to the youths about proper decision-making, alcohol and drugs, etc.
Anyway, some of these adolescents had a lot going on. The boys and girls ages ranged from 15 to 17 yrs old. Some were in for guns, drugs to murder. You would get the sense that some never wanted to go back home, yet wore a shield to keep themselves hard because of their surroundings. Some you could tell missed being home, although treatment there wasn't what it should be for an adolescent. I found this out through a therapeutic realm. Yet, my point is that the existing paradigm is so fixed on money, fighting, and power, that morality and values seem extinct. Extinct for those who are wrapped up in the hype.
The children suffer to a point. But, many have dreams and goals; sadly, some pretend that they don't, and some don't care about themselves or others--a learned behavior that originated from the home and its immediate environments and the hip hop radio stations that send blunt messages to kids to smoke marijuana, have sex, to hate, how to be deceitful, deceptive, and to be money oriented. Not to get off the subject, but the children that I encountered for that one week were in need of attention, affection, love and kindness, and an opportunity to find out who they are and that is it cool to have a dream.
What is natural today in child development, and/or child rearing? Surely, raising children with a television and video as their child-givers isn't the answer. And to exploit them to one's own lust, pedophilia or whatever mental disorder a parent or parents may have is beyond understanding. I ask why should a child have to go through it? There is no excuse for subjecting children to such degenerating, deplorable lifestyles. There are too many people out there with mental disorders that are walking around unchecked. Some of you know it and don't help them. To keep secrets surely do not help the person with the problem or the victim enduring the problem.
I enjoyed working with the children at YGC during spring break because it helped me through what I was going through (the fire). The sad thing is that, in some cases, the choices the kids made are because of neglect or abuse at home. For some children, making bad decisions is the right one for them at the time. People should wake up and be right.[]