Letter to the editor: Connecting the dots on social chaos

Why is there so much violence in the streets of America today, and what is causing it ? A recent state survey report on Louisiana student discipline problems provides another missing piece to the puzzle, and when you stop to connect the dots you get a picture that looks like this:
— Starting with the passage of the Great Society Welfare Programs in 1965, the number of disadvantaged mothers having children out of wedlock has exploded; today 73 percent of all black childbirths and 39 percent of all white childbirths are out of wedlock. With no fathers in the house discipline is often lacking.
— In the newly issued report last week, it was disclosed that nearly 8,000 Louisiana students from pre-K through third grade were expelled from public schools last year. Most suspensions were students from low income minority families. The chief reasons for the discipline were willful disobedience, injurious conduct, fighting, violating rules and treating those in authority with disrespect.
— As these disadvantaged young children get older, the report reflects that the number of suspensions only increase as there were nearly 50,000 students suspended from grades four through 12, of which 71 percent were black and 29 percent white.
— As these troubled children become teenagers and young adults the egregious actions only become more severe as witnessed by the recent social chaos in Ferguson, Baltimore, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Dallas. Willful disobedience and treating those in authority with disrespect resulted not only in injurious conduct, but actual deaths.
So what is the cause of all of this social chaos, which is now starting to appear in children only four years old — and only gets worse with the passage of time ? Surely it’s not bad cops. Is it possible that the root cause of the problem is our government welfare programs — that has led to the disintegration of the disadvantaged family unit — and that leads to a lack of parenting?
Steve Gardes, CPA
Lafayette

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