Jay Honeck wrote:

However, the cretins that have been
looting, raping, and shooting at rescuers represent the end product of a
failed culture that has been propped up by an endless stream of tax
dollars,
in hopes that the inner city problems won't spread to the "nice"
neighborhoods.

What is your solution (not right now during rescue, but in general)?

Well, we're drifting farther and farther afield from aviation, but I'll
take a whack at this.

There are simply no easy solutions to the problems caused by a culture
that:

- Humiliates those who excel academically...
- Accepts and encourages very early, single-parent child-bearing...
- Expects males to play little or no role in child rearing...
- Has no social sanctions against absentee fathers...
- Regards working 9 to 5 for "chump change" as "selling out to the Man"
- Expects the Federal Government to fulfill every basic need...
- Sees authority figures as the enemy...
- Views the sale of drugs as an acceptable economic alternative...
- Accepts violence as a normal way to solve disputes...

Many explain away the development of the under-class culture as being a
"relic from the days of slavery" -- but this doesn't explain the growing
Latino and white aspects of this culture. There is far more going on
here than simply the collapse of black society.

For most of us, the inner city is a bizarro world where up is down, left
is right, smart is dumb, and hard work is viewed as silly -- but for a
huge (and growing) percentage of our inner-city population, it is just
"life." And, as we've seen in the aftermath of Katrina, it has produced a
violent and corrosive subculture that scares the bejeesus out of people
when it's exposed.

This whole phenomenon is so hard to understand -- God knows I've tried.
I've sat down with black friends who have "made it out" and asked them to
explain the ideals and values of the inner city to me in a way that makes
logical sense -- and they are every bit as frustrated -- no, MORE
frustrated -- by it than I am. Because, in short, there *is* no logic to
it -- especially to those who are trapped in it. It's just an immediate
gratification, get-through-the-day way of life that is made possible by
oodles of tax support we now call "entitlements," which have allowed the
development of a culture that no longer sanctions unproductive behavior.
Over time, this has created a generational expectation and acceptance of
personal behaviors that most people would regard as self-destructive.

Fact: Early, single childbirth is the single highest behavioral
correlation with poverty.
Fact: Dropping out of high school correlates strongly with poverty and
crime.
Fact: Violence as a way of solving disputes often leads to prison.

Eliminate these three problems, and you've largely eliminated the
underclass
in America. No cash, no entitlements required -- just a cultural sea
change.

But there are historic solutions.

Take, for example, the Jews. For centuries, one of the most hated
minority groups in the world, they came to dominate finance and many
Fortune 500
businesses in America. By every measure, they have "made it out" by
literally believing the mirror-image of every under-class belief I've
outlined, above. They did it by banding together for mutual support, by
selling and buying only from other Jewish-owned and operated businesses,
and
by making sure that their children received a terrific education. They
overcame incredible obstacles of prejudice, language and distance by
coming together, rather than ripping apart, as our inner cities
continually do.

I'm afraid solutions are going to take more than Bill Cosby pointing out
the
obvious. After all, how do you change the attitudes of an entire culture?

It's going to take a complete -- and painful -- reassessment of our "Great
Society" entitlement programs. We simply can't continue to provide the
financial support that is enabling an entire segment of our population to
self-destruct. It is morally and (from the standpoint of national
survival) logically wrong to reward self-destructive behavior.

Worse, although in the short term throwing money at the issue "makes the
problems go away" so that polite society can get on with their lives --
after all, they're only killing each other, right? -- it has created a
growing problem that cannot end well. We simply must face this issue and
deal with it as a society, sooner than later, rather than meekly
continuing to accept the Left's failed approach to the problem.

And: what have you done in your former job except stepping _over_ the
bodies not knowing if dead or high on drugs or whatnot?

I survived. That was the best I could hope for at the time.


Well put, Jay. We've thrown trillions at the problem and the problem
persists. Money is not the answer.


--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm