https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/14/myrtle-beach-poorest-evacuating-costly-hurricane-florence
What poverty means when confronted with a storm like Florence. I wonder what political party the landlord mentioned in the article belongs to. He boards up just the windows on his own unit, and then leaves the rest of the complex to fend for itself. I mean, wow.
Regarding black bootstrap tugging... Josh points out some aspects that that nice (Utley quoted, prev. page) pep talk won't fix. I would add that gangs, terrible as they are, are a response to urban government and law enforcement which has caused a lack of trust in marginalized communities in said governance and policing. Ethnic groups subject to bigotry and abuse, including Italians, Irish, Latinos, have all formed gang subcultures when they fear a more powerful ruling class. We are all part of the solution, if there is to be one.
As a Christian, and being involved with Youth For Christ, and the Burbank YMCA, etc, I was taught that I am third. God is first, and everyone else but me is second, and I am third. And even on the farm as a kid, you feed the animals before you eat, and you learn to take care of a living thing outside of yourself. The same with managing a dog kennel, etc. Many people are selfish, and then selfishness attracts depression, and you have tons of people committing suicide, etc. The answer is to get outside of yourself, and take care and help a living thing outside of yourself. Then as we all help each other then we will all be happier, and things improve.
And like here at my apartment complex, I would help the neighbors all board up, and then I would board mine up last. That is just the way I was raised.
(And I am sort of scared on my apartment complex, we have new owners and they are raising the rent. That is how the housing crisis happened, people are buying the housing and they are raising rent, and people are all into flipping houses, they want to buy low and sell high, and the poor people are ending up homeless. And we also have gentrification in Anaheim, everyone wants to live in Anaheim, and so they can charge high rents. Please add me to your prayers if you pray. I need for a lot of good things to happen.)
On the issue of gangs, and Godfathers, you also have the issue of the immigrants being afraid of the police, and being afraid of ICE, etc. They cannot go to the police, so they go to the Godfather, or whomever. We need to make our immigrants legal so that they are not afraid to call the police and so they can legally work and join unions, etc.
Salute,
Tony V.