The San Francisco Chronicle displayed a pictorial by Tom Meyer. It showed a young white male, high school student, taking a pop quiz, in the 1960s. The student was thinking of an answer to a mathematical equation. In contrast to a picture, of a young white male in school taking a pop quiz in the 2000s. This quiz consisted of multiple choices. "A school yard gunshot sounds like a pop, bang, crack, depending on the caliber of weapon?"

This question tells a lot about where we are headed morally, and what we are lacking. The powerful do not seem to have answers, now that violence is being focused on young white males.

Malcolm X once stated, "The chickens have come home to roost." Malcolm's statement was taken out of context then, and probably it will be now. The meaning I give to it is this: White America cannot hide from what they have created. The most powerful nation in the world is divided, due to the recently exposed destructive behaviors of our students. The power-elites are confused, and the laws which were intended and implemented for people of color (because no thought was given to getting at the root of their troubled youths) are returned to them.

The mass media analyses are creating reasons for this massive outbreak of violence in our schools. "It is the parents’ fault," "It is the guns, "  "It’s puberty," etc. I am quite sure you have heard them all by now.   

When African American and Latino youths were forming gangs in the streets of Los Angeles to the rural streets of Mississippi, the solution was simple: "Get tough on crime," "Three strikes laws," "Proposition 21." The powerful did not care about poverty, the poor, the disenfranchised, the homeless. They did not care about the psych/socio/environmental conditions that led to a child's abnormal behavior.

The economic factors of high unemployment, unaffordable housing, and inflation are factors created by broken families, divorces, single parents, high pregnancy rates, and stress. These factors caused long working hours, working two jobs to get by, less time in household, less time with spouse, less time with children, etc. So children join gangs to feel a sense of family.

The powerful who rule America focused only on wealth, how to promote more wealth, and how to secure it. 

Politicians claim they care about education, family values, and the welfare of people. Yet they have devised laws to cover up the woes which they inadvertently created from the desire and greed. They are so busy in the labs, that they forgot about the home front. The powerful have taught people how to kill, and how to hate, they have taught people how to make money, and how to stay focused on money. They have influenced us with dreams of the ideal America, or "The American Dream." Now, it is becoming the American nightmare.

The poor and disenfranchised and people of color have taught us how to survive, how to cope, how to wish, how to pray, how to struggle for another day. It is the powerful who have brainwashed our nation for centuries, learning their ideologies, so that we can support the purpose of capitalism, racism, and oppression. Hence, we have disregarded the true nature of our
existence--to love and pray, and promote healthy morals and values to our children. The fear of sharing the wealth that human labor produces and work hard to achieve have blinded their vision and corrupted their souls.

The powerful focus on greed, not morals and values. And when a catastrophe happens, most people call on God, but now, death is in our backyards, and all are asking God Why?

What is missing is the same thing that was missing for the children who died by the hundreds on the streets of Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond, Los Angeles, East Palo Alto, Fresno and all across the nation among people of color and poor whites from the 1980s to 2000. 

All children, rich or poor, need love, intimacy, attention, time spent with them, leadership, sensitivity, understanding, tutoring, advice, leadership, positive reinforcements, discipline, morals, values, and involvement in their activities, joys and fears. They need the true sense of family, and they need to feel that they belong.

You can give your children the best of everything, but if you cannot nourish their hearts, their souls, and their minds, we will continue to have adversities in our schools.

We need to try something new that will help all people. Maybe a four day work week, longer vacation times, make health care available for all; stop television shows that are so sexually based; stop making violent cinema's so enticing; stop removing programs that help individuals and families meet needs; and maybe if you share the wealth, we will have more time to spend with your children. When there is less focus on greed, true morals and values can be revitalized.

School violence is a sign of the times. The warning signs started long ago, when there were massive killings in the streets, when the children were killing parents, and when the parents were killing their children. So, I ask, what will our children be pondering next--which  designer casket to be buried in?  Stop the madness.

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