[Mpls] NO DISRESPECT INTENDED.....

[Michael Atherton]

V.L. Freeman wrote:
 
>  Look if you need me and/or other folks to help, just ask! 
>  But, please don't sit by and do nothing. Don't just send 
>  the MPD  alone. Send services along with MPD. Embrace the 
>  whole problem not just part of a problem. Don't use the band 
>  aid solution to a problem that requires a wholistic solution.

I thought that I would take advantage of an appropriate title.
I find it curious how people on the North side (and Central)
get up in arms (no pun intended) when one or two people are
killed, but are silent about a much more pervasive problem
affecting far more children.  People cry for community
involvement and services, but I rarely hear anyone complain
about the 47% dropout rate or the poor quality of the schools.
These problems are inexorably intertwined.  A 47% dropout rate 
produces a new crop of gang recruits each year.  Even good job
programs will do little to help children who are literate
and lack the social skills to maintain employment.  The public
schools are failing the American Americans in this city! Do you
know how the schools are proposing to solve the budget shortfall:
reduce the funding of poverty programs in favor of keeping
class sizes small (an ineffectual program intended to make the public
at large happy).  Why aren't American Americans outraged?  Have 
you forgotten that one of the major objectives of the civil rights 
movement was access to quality education?  Why aren't people marching 
in the streets?

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park