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Health & Fitness

A Return to the Basics of Raising Our Children

Prairie State College Trustee and longtime policeman Marc Wiley says the village may be broken, but we need to rebuilt it to raise our children.

Tragedy on the rise!

We have seen such a dramatic increase of violence against innocent teens. How many times can you turn on televisions and radio to hear tragedy has struck a teenager who was not a member of a gang. It’s very disturbing when money can be spent over in other countries to “restore peace,” but not in our own country.

Many are asking for solutions to this growing problem. A former FBI agent was appointed Chicago Police Superintendent under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Hired to restore dignity and get to the bottom of alleged corruption in the police department.

It sounds great to explain a $310,000 dollar salary, I guess.

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The police are overworked when it comes to becoming social workers, marriage counselors, then law enforcement.

What is wrong with the system, when police officers make arrests for crimes and before the ink is dry? The offenders are back on the streets before the officer ends his shift. We cannot blame law enforcement or just community alone. I blame the lack of parental accountability. I blame budget cuts in certain programs for mentoring to our youth. Responsible parents, who are seeking help with their trouble teens, are often told nothing can be done unless the children are in the system.

A large portion of parents want the best for their children. But we also have a small group who tends to forget they have children and only want to become parents, when the police arrest their child. They want to become parents when a bus or passenger vehicle strikes their child, who is playing in the street at 3 in the morning. Now they want to sue the person who hit their baby.

I often ask, “Where are the parents?” Many times the mother is out on the town herself, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Dad in one way or another may not be in the picture.

I often have run into parents who are working one or two jobs to support the family. When mom and dad leave the house for work, the kids are out the house and down the road. I support responsible parents trying to raise their children.

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I believe the term, “A tired child is a happy child.” Children need to be active in a positive way. I support any assistance for responsible parents and accountabilityfor parents who decide to let their children out the door at night like a house cat. You don’t want to raise your child, but collect assistance for that child? Guess what? You become cut off and someone else will raise that child.

We all look at this as to say, "What are you getting at, Marc?"

How many times are grandparents raising their grandchildren? How many times are we paying to put a child or even adult into a juvenile system?

Our government will support cutting funding for programs to keep our children off the streets. But will make sure their cronies have high salaries in positions of jobs in “creativity.” We will build more jails and prisons, but cut prevention and mentoring programs.

So the time has come to not always blame the police officer, teacher, ministers and social workers. I say look at the parents and guardian and hold them accountable. We need to have parental training programs. Any time a juvenile is involved in criminal activity on “any” scale. Parents should be required to attend parenting classes. How many times do you think it will take for a parent to have to spend their evening with a lecture? We have to start somewhere! That somewhere should be back in the home and work from there.

Our children are lying dead in the streets. Time to get back to the way things use to be. We always hear the slogan, “It takes a village to raise a child”. Well, the village is broken and has to be rebuilt.

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