Our shoot-from-the-hip president has threatened to send in the feds to stop the shootings in Chicago. Now to be fair they have a serious problem that needs to be addressed soon, but martial law and federal troops isn't going to cut it. You see these are gangs feuding with each other. Fighting with them is like fighting the Taliban, which we have been doing, unsuccessfully, for 15 years. They're not going to come out and fight soldiers in the streets but they will continue shooting each other in the alleys.
You need to follow the problem backwards to address the problem. The turf wars they have created are largely over drugs. They sell drugs because they lack the education that would let them be productive in society. They lack the education because somewhere down the line the people responsible for raising them, quit trying to raise them and left them to their own means. So there is the crux of the problem. Neither political party has a plan to solve this crisis and they both know darn well why it is happening. The left likes to throw money to behave themselves, largely through education programs, aimed at students who aren't in school and the right just wants them all in jail.
This is a social problem that can only be solved by the participants. There is a common denominator here that if it could be removed would greatly help to solve the problem. Drugs. Since there seems to be little we can do to make kids stay in school, taking away the alternative way to make a living would be very helpful. A war we have fought unsuccessfully for a long time but a war that has to be won before we can move forward.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
