tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post672618012393470484..comments2024-03-23T19:16:01.555-07:00Comments on Can it happen here?: You don't get better government from electoral gimmicksjaninsanfranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07548452260456734928noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-6862160707344681942014-08-17T09:04:55.468-07:002014-08-17T09:04:55.468-07:00I've read since that Ferguson high schools are...I've read since that Ferguson high schools are no longer accredited because their scores were so low. That pretty much is a dead-end street and very sad. Do parents not care or is this generation after generation where care or not, they are helpless? It's more like an occupied culture than one that is part of the broader culture. One article said it's like Detroit and I would assume parts of Chicago. TragicRain Trueaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07994628226501093880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-75474003246105694112014-08-17T06:54:48.812-07:002014-08-17T06:54:48.812-07:00The problem we are facing in analyzing this situat...The problem we are facing in analyzing this situation, beyond the superficial photos or often superficial stories we see, is we cannot know the roots of what led to it. If the school board is all white when 70% of the citizens are black, does that mean the blacks are not voting? <br /><br />Another issue I am interested in but have no idea how to find out-- at least currently-- when the black unemployment rate is higher than white, is that related to education or even lack of interest in working with some young people who have found other more lucrative ways to make money that don't require jobs? <br /><br />If it's schools, then it's a place to start. If it's gang/drug affiliations, that's tougher. Throw a young man in prison for dealing and what do you end up with-- a better informed criminal when he gets out? <br /><br />The looting was almost all the younger men (based on the photos); and we have seen a lot of statistics on how bad unemployment is in young men in our country (white too) but what we don't know is why.<br /><br />From what I've read and i've been also reading about it, the police were overreaching way before this last episode, which may or may not be the same situation. Frankly police don't ask you to approach them with your hands up. They want you flat out on the ground and hands behind your back or spreadeagled against a car. For a guy as big as the teen, to approach anybody with his hands in the air would be threatening. That doesn't mean I say the police officer is innocent in this. I guess, no matter what that he's ruined his life as well as taken a life. There has to be a fall-guy but from what I've read on what was happening there before this, this was a police force using gestapo techniques for quite awhile. Stopping people routinely, just to try and find something wrong, is not something most of us would tolerate in a government; and yet we didn't know enough about what was going on to recognize the threat.<br /><br />A town near to us does some of that and it's not just to minorities. They have a very aggressive police force but some of this has gone beyond that. <br /><br />In my own rant, I haven't felt like writing about it simply because I wouldn't know what to say. Being a moderate, I often tend to see both sides of situations. This is one of those cases. Some seems obviously wrong but then you ask-- how'd we get there and it gets stickier. :(Rain Trueaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07994628226501093880noreply@blogger.com