Being An American Male

I am currently reading an amazing book by Sebastian Junger called "War".  It's about a platoon of American soldiers stationed at a remote outpost in Afghanistan, and is an unbelievable account of combat.  It's also an amazing look into the lives of combat soldiers.  There are stories that highlight the lives of soldiers and detail everything from brotherhood, courage, and death, as well as the strange boredom combat soldiers suffer in between battles.

Within all of these tales, there was one piece of information that hit me hard: Junger talks about death statistics - and not just in war.  When speaking of young men in America, Junger writes: "They are killed in accidents and homicides at a rate of 106 per 100,000 per year, roughly five times the rate of young women.  Statistically, it's six times as dangerous to spend a year as a young man in America than as a cop or a fireman, and vastly more dangerous than a one-year deployment at a big military base in Afghanistan."  Just being a young male in America is dangerous.

The city of Newark, New Jersey is engulfed in violence right now.  On Christmas day two High School students were shot and killed for no reason.  One of them - a 13 year-old girl - was shot as she was taking out the garbage.  The other was a 15 year-old boy.  Another boy was seriously injured - he is 14.  The two deaths brought the total in Newark to over 100.  That's over 100 people killed in one single year in an American city.  That's disgusting.

A lot of people are trying to figure out what's going on.  Lots of questions have been asked like why?, or how come?, or what's going on?  There's a lot of things going on in our cities and Newark is just one example.  One of the main reasons for this mess is abject poverty.  People are living a third world existence in America and some are doing this not too far from you (in my case, it's only ten miles).  In addition to this poverty there is crime, violence, and corruption.  It's embarrassing.

Another recent story that's relevant took place not too far from Newark (and not too far from my town).  A few days before Christmas at an upscale shopping mall (where I worked at one point in my life) a young man came out of the mall with his wife.  As they got into their car four men appeared, pulled the wife from the car, then shot the husband dead at point blank range.  The men got in the car and drove away.  The car was found a few days later in Newark.  A few nights later (in an unrelated crime) two more men were shot and killed outside of a bar in Newark.

Many people I know are shaking their heads and/or asking one of the aforementioned questions.  The thing is, no one seems to be doing anything about it.  There is no effort to address the poverty in Newark or in any other American city.  Many of the crimes being committed are perpetrated by poor,  frustrated men or boys who have no idea what a life is.  They don't understand anything except frustration and embarrassment.  They turn to an easy way "out".

I am not making excuses for what's going on - believe me.  How ever, I spent a year working in a school where most of my students had nothing.  I watched them get upset at Christmastime instead of happy.  I watched young children as well as adolescents suffer at the hands of poverty.  I've seen first hand what poverty does to people and it's not pretty.  If we really want to address violent crime in Newark, begin by addressing poverty.  Give people opportunity and the rest will come.