Emotional Adoption

The recent murder and violence in Chicago got me to thinking about what could possibly be the solutions to inner city gangs and violence? How can we turn this around?

There is no doubt in my mind that liberal policies have led us to this vicious cycle of poverty and dependency, where men are pushed out of the picture as government becomes the "daddy." So solutions have to be far away from that.

The young men who were in involved in the killing of that honor student will have, and probably already have, children. They will go to prison, if not now, then later for some other crime. That is almost a given. Then, once again, their children will have no father. The cycle continues.

It has to end with those children. How?

Whatever happened to The Promise Keepers or The Million Man March? Where are those men who promised better things? Could someone call them with my idea?

This is my idea. Emotional adoption.

It's time for the good men in our society to step up to the plate and mentor and be father figures to these children. White, black, or hispanic. It doesn't matter. Your color doesn't matter. What matters is your commitment.

Leave the legal stuff out of it. Let this be taking a man at his word. Let these good men "emotionally" adopt a child with no father in his life. The man would promise to be there emotionally for that child until he is grown. That means spending time with him. Helping with school, taking him to ballgames, taking him to church, letting the child know that you care.

More than a "Big Brother" program, this would take a firm commitment for a lifetime.

The thing about this idea is that I know that the men involved would get more out of it than the child. A child gives us so much more than we give them. They fill our world with things we never imagined.

This would be a win/win. Emotional adoption. It wouldn't be easy. But it would be cheap. Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? Anyone? Take my idea and run with it. You guys want to change the world, right?

I can think of no better way.