Saturday, July 27, 2013

Letter to the Editor by Nancy Murdoch, CCTA Education Chairman, July 26, 2013

Detroit and the Black Community


Detroit, once the seventh largest city in America, has recently filed for bankruptcy.  The statistics of Detroit are frightening:  40% of the traffic lights are broken, only 1/3 of the ambulances work, the police force has been cut by 40%, the murder rate is eleven times higher than New York City, only seven percent of 8th graders are proficient readers, and 47% of the citizens are functionally illiterate; even though billions were poured into the education system.  Millions have fled leaving urban blight in their wake.  The future of Detroit is dismal.

The black population of American finds itself in similar disarray:  over 70% of black children are born to young, single mothers; high unemployment and poverty; high incarceration rates; rampant drug and alcohol abuse; gang membership; huge numbers on welfare; malaise and hopelessness.  While it may be easy to blame whites and the history of slavery, there comes a point when personal responsibility and other factors need to be examined.

Detroit and the black community have one commonality---50 years of progressive Democrats with destructive and corruptive policies, destroying Detroit and the black family. 

“The War on Poverty” has effectively made the black man irrelevant as government has taken the place of the father in the home.  Because of entitlement rules it has become more beneficial for black men to become sperm donors than fathers.  Male children look in all the wrong places to replace the missing fathers:  gangs and drug dealers are often popular choices.  Statistics overwhelmingly suggests that marriage and family is a better way to prevent poverty and crime.  However, the progressives and the race baiters would not profit from such a scenario.  The race baiters need to constantly pick at the scab of racial tension, and the progressives don’t want to lose the black vote.

The election of a black president did nothing to alleviate the racial conflicts, but has seemed to exacerbate them.  A NBC /Wall Street Journal poll shows a sharp decline in perceived racial harmony since 2010.  The leader of the free world misses the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about how we are all Americans, preferring to enflame by throwing gasoline at situations which are divisive.  Granted, these are not confined to racial issues, but to all people who disagree with his agenda.


“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.”  It’s probably too late for Detroit, but hopefully not for the black community and the rest of the Nation.

No comments:

Post a Comment