[Jermyn Davidson]

It is shameful.

It is so hard to address the racial situation in America with American black people. Too many of us are in denial and those of us who are not in denial really don't have any (public policy) solutions that do not involve massive government intervention. For me, I think much of what is happening in our communities can be addressed by revamping the public school system. Notice I said, "much" and not, "most" and NEVER would I say, "all".

The system of failure is in full force for many human beings in our communities by the age of 5.

I try to have discussions up here about what goes on up here and I get stuff like, "No neighborhood is safe", "crime happens everywhere", "whites kill people too"-- I experience these roadblocks often up here with various, random black people here in Cleveland. Some are friends and some are strangers, but many of them have the same retort, as if they've all been coached by the same loser.

I call their responses roadblocks because it is next to impossible to have a conversation about what is going on in our communities when we're convinced that what is happening in many of our communities is normal.

I do wonder sometimes if there isn't some vast conspiracy or something, enacted long ago, that intentionally or unintentionally brought black communities to the place where we are today. Planned Parenthood, cocaine, heroin, LSD and crack, decades of underfunded and understaffed schools, predatory lending practices-- all things brought in from outside of black communities that work to destroy black communities today.

Of course, people are responsible for their own individual actions, but how did drugs ever make it to the big cities in the first place?

Why are there so many Planned Parenthoods and liquor stores in black communities?

How is it that no one understands the GIGANTIC BENEFIT of proper investing in the urban population centers, where there are massive amounts of people that can add to the tax base (of the entire state) if the situations were better?

I know banks exist to make money, but surely someone sees the value in enacting policies that educate and lift the poor out of poverty instead of practices that keep them poor?

Those "Payday Loan" sharks should be banned everywhere!

It's not about just throwing money at these situations. For the things that government can and should address, the government needs to take a multi-prong approach that includes money being invested properly. For example, smaller class sizes are INFINITELY more productive than any other special program or initiative that I can imagine for a school setting.

Of course, a genuine faith in Christ would address so much more, but faith in Christ can't be legislated. I have attempted to address the issues related to public policy in our urban centers, where the largest concentrations of black Americans live, where poverty and joblessness rates are high, where crime rates are high, throughout our country.