You want proof?
"We can no longer be surprised by the terrible outcomes experienced by young people who grow up in environments where drugs, violence, welfare and teen pregnancy are far more prevalent [than] safe schools, high school diplomas and good jobs ... These neighbourhoods offer no real choices; we need to change that." — Douglas W Nelson.
The quote above is both insightful and true. It speaks to thousands — perhaps millions — of men, women and children. It is an accurate assessment of far too many American lives, and, what is worse is that too few Americans who can do something about it, won't. They don't even want to hear, let alone see, the truth. I know some of these truths personally, so let me share a few with you.
Thirty years ago I trudged through snow all the way up to my chest to reach a welfare office seeking help to feed my family. I would have gladly cleaned toilets for minimum wages to provide food and warmth for my family, but there were no jobs. The 15 mile trek took from 11.30pm Sunday night until 1.00pm Monday afternoon. Even those people who were fortunate enough to have jobs couldn't get to them because the only vehicles that could navigate the regional thoroughfares were road graders with six-feet tall tyres.
Once inside the welfare office I explained that I was just out of the Army, unemployed, without funds to buy food for my wife and child. I was also a month behind in my rent.
After filling out a stack of forms and standing in line until 6pm a counsellor told me, "Mr Jones, I'm sorry but since you are an able-bodied man this agency can't be of assistance to you". She then leaned over the counter and whispered into my ear the following: "Tell your wife to go to your local police station and take out a warrant against you for desertion and then bring a copy of the warrant here. Then we can assist your family immediately, but of course you'll have to stay out of sight".
I hope the reader understands that my choices were to do precisely that, or watch my wife and child starve and/or freeze to death during those weeks of snow and cold. I chose to send her to the police station that very next week.
That evening, after I left the welfare office, I kicked in the window of a small market. I gathered up several gallons of milk (baby formula), a box of baby food, boxes of Pampers, loaves of bread, canned goods and assorted meats. Realising I had no way to carry those provisions I peeled off a 4' x 8' x 3/8" wood panel from the wall. I looped my belt through the hole that was once covered by a light switch plate. I flung it through the huge window that I had broken and placed the food onto it; I then crawled out afterwards. I pulled that panel, like a sled, all night long. I never told my wife how I came by that food. During my walk home that night, my life changed course.
Out of necessity for a brief time, I became a petty thief — despite the fact that I didn't feel like one. There was very little violence on the street then and the drug problem was not nearly as bad as it is now. Things are much tougher for young people today; people in seats of power need to recognise that.
I would like to remind you of Nelson's last words in the quote that appears at the head of this column, " ... we need to change that". I agree entirely because if my presence in this death row prison cell in Georgia 30 years later is proof of anything at all, it is certainly proof of that.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]