Anger In Our Youth

An excerpt from.. Anger In Our Youth

Hardly a day goes by that there is not evidence of extreme anger in our society. Ever wonder what can be done about it? Blacks continue to escape the need to answer the question by removing ourselves from harm’s way. This rage in our youth has now enveloped us no matter where we live or work. Let us take some time to understand why we attack and show anger and hostility toward one another. The youth of today feel they have grown up with insensitive parents who have not made them the focus of attention. Once a child is allowed to grow up basically loveless and therefore desensitized, rage and violence is inevitable.

We as parents must understand that the love we received as we were growing up is not sufficient to raise kids with today. Our parents never understood that we grew up with an inner rage that may have caused a street fight or two. Our ability to vent our anger without killing was due to our limited use of deadly force but not because of less anger. Two of my own brothers were shot and wounded with small caliber guns in the seventies that probably would have meant their death in the new millennium. The youth of today have more sophistication and choice of weapons with more people to target their rage against. We must all work to defuse this madness and connect all our youth into a collective show of unity. Some of us think violence is still a crime of poverty. Our youth are angry at more than being poor. They are angry at being neglected emotionally more than materially. Some of the youth who are angry are driving nice cars and come from nice homes with nice parents. So why the inner rage? Parents pursuit of wealth has left our children emotionally poor and unable to cope with our neglect. Too much or too little wealth is still neglect for kids looking for love. For our kids to sit down and eat dinner with us and then proceed to go out and murder, shows that we are not connected to them emotionally.

To call the pizza delivery guy and then kill him when he arrives is a blaring sign of our past parental neglect in not properly orientating our youth to who they really are. Many may disagree with the notion that it could be us who are guilty but hold on. Our children were not born to murder and have a willful disregard for life. A lack of early childhood love is at the very core of our children’s problem. Too busy and no one watching the house. We may be putting our job or a mate before our babies. We are not on the plantation, so please give your offspring your undivided attention until they are full of love and void of anger. Plantation parents did not have the option to give the proper amount of love. We must not make excuses for our lack intensity in raising our children.

This loveless, thankless, unattached world that we find ourselves in was passed onto us. We inherited dysfunctional parenting skills from our dysfunctional parents and then gave life to perfect kids who have now become dysfunctional. We must not be in denial about our role in this society. Our youth being out of control is an outgrowth of us not having control. Control would allow us time and energy to love and nurture and bring about a new and peaceful generation. Is that happening? Parents can no longer continue to do the minimum and expect the maximum. The past generations had a tough time showing us real love and we are repeating the only behavior we know. We can begin to turn this situation around with a heavy dose of understanding the reality of our neglect. What do kids really want? They want to be the real focus of our attention. They will get our attention one way or another. We can decide to give it from the day that they are born or we can wait on the phone call saying your child is in jail or worse. Don't wait on that call, get busy now.