JH- very interesting perspective- thanks for sharing. Your well-earned cynicism about the potential for majority black urban communities to find healing from the cultural pathologies that have plagued them for more than a half century is sobering to say the least. I'd offer (just a bit of) hope for your consideration: Glenn's not that old, and he remembers a much different Chicago: full of promise as it came out of the century of enforced racial segregation that followed the abolition of chattel slavery in the US. An older man like Thomas Sowell can remember a Harlem where everyone slept out on fire escapes on warm summer nights, or in Central Park without any thought of molestation by criminals.
What's the difference? Of course it's the alarming deterioration of the basic unit of social cohesion that held the black community together throughout the severe depredations imposed by actual systemic racism: the FAMILY. 57 years ago black families were still strong, though out of wedlock birth rates had risen to an alarming 24% despite increasing economic prosperity associated with the post-war migration to Northern industrial centers. Then the War on Poverty was declared by the Johnson administration, which in its hubris thought it could stop the commies in SE Asia and eliminate poverty at home at the same time. After 25+ $$TRILLIONS$$ spent on means-tested welfare programs that REQUIRE the abiding poverty of recipients for continued "assistance", now 3 out of every 4 black kids is born into a home without a father- including much higher rates of fatherlessness in broken urban communities...
It's arguable that the ongoing failure of the War on Poverty has been a much more significant disaster for our nation than the Vietnam War, or any other ill-conceived military adventure, precisely because so many are still unwilling to examine the evidence for that failure, the damage done to millions of fellow citizens (actually every one of us), and the implications for future public policy decisions. So there's my little bit of hope for you: the problem is not what the urban poor look like (as evidenced by the 95% of them who are not criminals), it's what we continue to do for (to) them together, ostensibly for their benefit. If public policy can have this disastrous an impact on those we try to help, think how much potential there is for a public policy that prioritizes family formation and gainful employment for all! (novel ideas to be sure- pretty much the opposite of what's being pushed by the Left and the technocratic globalist elites who are currently manipulating them for their own nefarious ends)
JH- very interesting perspective- thanks for sharing. Your well-earned cynicism about the potential for majority black urban communities to find healing from the cultural pathologies that have plagued them for more than a half century is sobering to say the least. I'd offer (just a bit of) hope for your consideration: Glenn's not that old, and he remembers a much different Chicago: full of promise as it came out of the century of enforced racial segregation that followed the abolition of chattel slavery in the US. An older man like Thomas Sowell can remember a Harlem where everyone slept out on fire escapes on warm summer nights, or in Central Park without any thought of molestation by criminals.
What's the difference? Of course it's the alarming deterioration of the basic unit of social cohesion that held the black community together throughout the severe depredations imposed by actual systemic racism: the FAMILY. 57 years ago black families were still strong, though out of wedlock birth rates had risen to an alarming 24% despite increasing economic prosperity associated with the post-war migration to Northern industrial centers. Then the War on Poverty was declared by the Johnson administration, which in its hubris thought it could stop the commies in SE Asia and eliminate poverty at home at the same time. After 25+ $$TRILLIONS$$ spent on means-tested welfare programs that REQUIRE the abiding poverty of recipients for continued "assistance", now 3 out of every 4 black kids is born into a home without a father- including much higher rates of fatherlessness in broken urban communities...
It's arguable that the ongoing failure of the War on Poverty has been a much more significant disaster for our nation than the Vietnam War, or any other ill-conceived military adventure, precisely because so many are still unwilling to examine the evidence for that failure, the damage done to millions of fellow citizens (actually every one of us), and the implications for future public policy decisions. So there's my little bit of hope for you: the problem is not what the urban poor look like (as evidenced by the 95% of them who are not criminals), it's what we continue to do for (to) them together, ostensibly for their benefit. If public policy can have this disastrous an impact on those we try to help, think how much potential there is for a public policy that prioritizes family formation and gainful employment for all! (novel ideas to be sure- pretty much the opposite of what's being pushed by the Left and the technocratic globalist elites who are currently manipulating them for their own nefarious ends)