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12/11/2004: "Dealing with Gangs"
Inane article in the Inqy showacsing a conference on youth violence here in Philadelphia.
It's a real problem.
To solve it, let's have a conference where folks are saying things like this:
David Fattah, director of West Philadelphia's House of Umoja, invoked Gandhi in saying: " 'The change that you want must first come from yourself.' That's hard."
He went on to criticize the way children are raised and to attack the music they listen to.
"We are basically in a culture war," Fattah said.
Even better, like this:
The head of the state's Commission on African American Affairs, Manwell Glenn, who moderated the event, said efforts must be made to increase the stigma that young people feel if they have served time in jail.
"Some people think it's a rite of passage to be incarcerated," he said.
Forget about poverty. Forget about crappy housing. Forget about crummy schools and brutal policing.
The real issue is that kids listen to bad music and like going to jail.