Many have already posted to lay blame on absence of fathers and I believe that is indeed part of the problem but actually only a symptom. It is the larger fact that there is an absence of FAMILY within that neighborhood and culture and worse an anti-family bias there. It is the incessant denigration of FAMILY by popular culture in music, education, government, cinema, TV and idols.
FAMILY is the nugget of culture and civilization. Children that are started within it make better choices and end up with far better outcomes than those without. The HORRIBLE denouement of Bill Cosby has forever tarnished a really great teaching lesson that was the Huxtable Family!
How we will return our country to a FAMILY-centric culture is a problem that I see no solution for because there are so many factions seeking their goals in a non-family society. It may take a revolution from the base to accomplish and that will be bloody!
The Second Coming - Yeats 1919
- - - - -
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Thank you for a thoughtful post!