Personal Responsibility - Cosby Style

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Fulton Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington got in hot water when he cleared his courtroom of white people so he could speak frankly to a group of more than 50 young, black defendants, because he didn’t want to air the community’s dirty laundry in front of whites.

After being publicly attacked, he is now defended by Bill Cosby and Chris Tucker, both of whom showed up at Benjamin E. Mays High School, packed with mostly at-risk high school students and their parents. Cosby has been tireless in his attempts to reach out to the African-American community with his message of tough love: “The man from Nigeria comes here, he’s here two months, and what does he do? He goes to the community college. He’s learning a second language while he drives a cab. What are our children doing? Practicing a first language only they can understand.” Chris Tucker has vowed to assist Cosby and Arrington in setting up a mentoring program for the approximately 600 students who attended the forum.

Bill Cosby denounced “petty criminals, low-income black who choose athletic shoes over education, and rappers who dwell on ignorance and vulgarity.” He demanded that people start taking personal responsibility or their lives.

Cosby said: “Our people climbed and did stuff they said we couldn’t do,” listing Joe Louis, Althea Gibson and Marian Anderson, to name only a few greats.

Teen “Idle”

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Andrew Sum of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston predicts that teen summer employment is going to fall to the lowest rate in the 60 year history of government jobs data. That’s down from 45% in 2000, and a high of 48.5% in 1989.

The reasons for this tightening of the teen summer job market are varied. Because of weakness in the economy, more adults (including unemployed college graduates, older workers, former welfare recipients, illegal immigrants, and working adults seeking second jobs) are competing for low-skilled, hourly posts. The proportion of jobless teens actively looking and available for paying jobs last summer, at 17.1% was nearly four times that of adults (Wall St. Journal, 4/23/08).

Idle children are not in the best interests of family, neighborhoods, or society. That amount of non-focused adolescent energy needs a constructive outlet. Individuals as well as businesses all should take on the responsibility of providing at least some sort of hourly work during the summertime for teens; this would provide them structured time, financial compensation, skill building, exercise of the mind and body or both, increased self-esteem, and experiences of a more positive nature than they’d probably have without the work.

Another outlet for teens is to come up with some business concept of their own, wherein they provide a service for a business or homeowner. Once concept, described by the founder of Teens4Hire.org, an employment website, was her suggestion to a panhandling skateboarded to start his own business collecting household hazardous waste for recycling. He made $700 hauling paint cans, oil, and other items to a recycling center at $3 per item. Teens can also do grocery shopping or other chores for the elderly or housebound or just darn busy folks - there are lots of ideas just waiting to be brought to life.

The Good Guys

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I read the following email from Tina on the air the other day, but it’s such a good story, particularly during this week following Thanksgiving, that I wanted to share it in this forum as well:

Dr. Laura:

I have to tell you about a recent shopping experience I had at the local Wal-Mart.  My family and I live in northern New York, just 15 minutes from Fort Drum.  This area is extremely “pro-military,” and we like it, even though I can do away with the miserable winters. 

Driving to the store, I always pass through the base, and I saw all the “Welcome Home” banners hanging on the fence, meaning that a bunch of soldiers had just come home from Iraq.  When we got in the store, I couldn’t help but notice soldiers who were shopping - the look on their faces was priceless!  These guys were happy to be shopping, happy to be alive, and happy to be home to family, friends, and community who are aware of their sacrifice and heroism.

My six year old son was sort of oblivious to all of those dressed in fatigues until we reached the Lego aisle, and he saw a couple of soldiers in his favorite section.  He said, “Look, Mommy - some good guys!!”  “Yes, I see,” I told him.  Then he asked the soldiers:  “Did you get the bad guys?”  “Yes, young man, we sure did,” they assured him. 

My son was especially excited that the good guys liked Legos, too!

Thanks.

Tina