The Cycle of Poverty must be broken, we are creating criminals
The cycle of poverty must be broken. We are creating criminals. Because of my criminal conviction, I have had limited income for the first time in my life. I have not been able to work. This has allowed me to see things from a different perspective. I see mothers who do not work and go around begging for food and money. I am over 60 and this has never been my experience. I was a social worker for almost forty years. I see mothers teaching their children to steal and lie. The crab system dominates. If one person has a new dress, someone will steal it and sell it or destroy it. They do not want the other person to succeed. This is different from my generation when we all pulled for each other and tried to help each other succeed. When I grew up, there was no such thing as a robbery or break in of homes by blacks or anyone. We could not lock our doors. We only had wooden latches. We attribute the change to the use of drugs and the criminal behavior that that caused. However, when I was in jail, I learned that there are professional criminals. They are people who have never worked and only commit crimes. They commit crimes until they are caught and then they repeat the cycle. My favorite tormentor and burglar, Kenneth Prejean is a prime example. Prejean is in his mid fifties. He receives a pension from the military which he supplements with fraud by renting out his housing that he receives for $200.00 a month for $400.00 a month. He supplements this with crime. He steals the sweet from sugar. He has lost all humanity. He only cares for himself and his needs. He is a crack addict and he supports his crack habit with crime. He is also a black bigot and hates himself and blacks who are educated and try to live a law abiding life. There are others like him. For example, one black mother of four was telling me that she gets used clothes for her children for Christmas. I was shocked. Where are the toys, candy, games and new things for children, I thought. She does not work and she does not have small children. Where is her feeling of responsibility for the children she is raising. I remember a family I had when I was a student. The whole family was dealing drugs and teaching the children to deal drugs. Two drug families got into a fight over turf at Henry Ford High and helicopters and swat teams were called. The parents told me how the children are taught from an early age to be criminals. How do we break the cycle of poverty when the parent is teaching criminal behavior?
Recently, the killing of black youths and men have been highlighted. We need to highlight the underlying issues more. Poverty and racism are destroying this society. In the old days, poor people had pride. They were proud of their heritage and aspired to become better. Now, they do not care or do not have aspirations, they appear to want to destroy. It seems that the schools, churches and organizations need to have more input to inspire values for the children and encourage them to be better. Children have lost their racial identities. They do not have the immediate history of the Klu Klux Klan and its activity to inspire. Parents are not teaching values. One example with my dad is instructive. One day my dad took us to the store. I do not remember who stole the penny candy. We shared it. My dad learned about it. We were punished. He took us back to the store to pay for the candy and we had to apologize and work for the owner. We had to do some chores. Dad told us that if something was not worth asking for and we could not pay, that it was not worth having. ” Never sell your soul for a few pieces of silver.” I never forgot that lesson. Who is teaching the children today and what lessons are they being taught. Because of racism, some people gave up and went to a life of crime or became involved in drugs and criminal behavior and lost hope. They did not stop having children. It is these children who we are losing as well as the middle class with low incomes and poverty. I recently had a mother who wanted to attack me for asking a child to pick up some paper for a treat. She stated that she was paying rent and was entitled to throw down trash. Her man instructed the child to spread the trash around on the ground. This was not even her child. These parents did not respect themselves or anyone else. They had no respect for where they live. They do not work and like Prejean are parasites on others in that they steal sheets, towels, dishes, food, clothing and everything else. They refuse to use their money for these necessities. This was an experience that sadly I had to give up observing. When they stole all of my books including my casual reading books given to me by the library, I had to give up this mad experiment of observation and seek self preservation. I had to move. This experience has taught me that my dad was right. There are two sides to every issue. If we do not do everything we can to break this cycle of poverty for the children, we will have a society that is too dangerous for civilized people to prosper. Education and support are the key.
