Hello neighbor!
Welcome. This is my first posting. As a result of two recent incidents I have decided to create a communication facility dedicated to perpetuating the quality of life I have enjoyed for over 35 years living in Randallstown, MD. The two incidents that prompted this action both involved the local school system. The first was a casual conversation with a neighbor about the increasing signs of gang activity within the elementary and middle schools and the second involves a situation that heightened my fear that we are foolishly relying too heavily on the public school system to assist in the raising of our children, especially black males.
Let’s face it, the system as it is composed or organized today is less focused on what is best for the kids and more driven toward standard test and the impact low performance on those test have on one’s career. It doesn’t take a whole lot to solve some of the problems if we, the stable members of our community, get more involved in the creation of a fertile enviroment for these kids. Children are like plants, if you fulfill their needs they will blossom. If you don’t they will make life miserable for everyone in the community.
Here is my quicky test to determine how well the community cares for it’s young -
- Are there Girl Scout, Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Explorer Post within the community?
- Are there little league baseball, football, baseball and other activities in the community?
- Are there activities for the kids who aren’t interested in sports?
- Are the local Parent Teacher Associations functioning within the schools?
- Are community service providers (police officers, teachers, and etc) vested in the community (i.e. live within the community)?
- Do local political leaders actively participate in community activities?
- Are churches active in the community?
- Do parents participate and support after school activities?
- Do you have community activities like fairs, carnivals, cookouts, and etc?
If you can’t answer yes to each of the above questions, we have a problem. Let’s chat about what we can do to turn things around.
Hopefully this Blog will encourage you and others who are truly interested in maintaining this community and insuring the fruit of the community (kids) get a fair chance to succeed share their concerns and ideas.
April 29, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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April 29, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I agree with you Rod. But I think the problem goes even deeper. We have to look at our group home problem. If we can’t stop the flow of group homes into the neighborhood and phase out their use entirely, we will always have a problem with the quality of persons in our neighborhood. Group home clients are going to our schools and becoming entrenched in our nighborhood in other ways. And according to one person who runs a group home in Randallstown, we have politicians who are actively seeking to place MORE group homes here. Yes, we need to get the politicians on the same page with us also. It seems as if some of our representatives are working AGAINST us.
April 29, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Hey RW, this is a great concept. I hope it takes off!
April 30, 2008 at 12:06 am
Darryl,
The growth of group homes in our community is a real problem. I believe I started a discussion on my other Blog (baltimore-Micromail.blogspot.com) but aside from a comment from a cousin, we received no comments. This is an especially tough problem because the proponents are quick to throw up the discrimination defense. This is a pretty strong defense and is one that federal law actually supports.
In my view there are three ways to attack the problem. The first is to hit it head-on. State a position against any group homes and go after the local, state, and federal politicians. My feeling is this would just be a waste of time because the politicians will simply listen and do nothing. The second is to develop a case demonstrating we have an unusually high number of group homes in our area. This case not only put presure on our local representatives to act but it also began an effort that could prove productive in a court of law. The last is to watch these home like a hawk to make sure they adhere to the letter of law. Since the owners are driven by profit ,every effort would be made to drive their expense up to the point they decide the venue is no longer profitable and move on.
Problems like this really require a well thought out strategy that can be managed over time. Back when I was working we used a process called mind mapping to lay out a plan that would take into consideration the actions of the opponent. I would thing mind mapping would be ideally suited for the development of a strategy here. The one factor that would be questionable is the area of community committment and support for the action. This could even include the possiblity of the owner of one of thses homes reacting with court action. Mind you, even this is good from the neighborhood perspective since any expenses associated with would ultimately impact profitablity.
Maybe we can get some folk fired up on this one.