"Redemption Song"

The songs of the city are the melody.

The voices of the people, the lyrics.

It's all about the "Redemption Song".

At work yesterday I talked to one of my colleagues about the verdict in the MTA Bus Beating Trial. If you don't know back in December 9 African-American middle school students beat a Caucasian woman (note I removed allegedly because 5 of those students were found to be guilty) on a MTA bus. Prosecutors had contemplated charging the students with a hate crime, saying the women's race is part of the reason why she was attacked. Atleast one student accused the woman and her boyfriend of assault of hurling racial slurs.

Well like I said a judge found them guilty. Throughout the course of the trial I've been made to think about what this story signifies. Does it signify that we have lost or are losing our young people? These are middle schoolers accused of such a crime. Earlier today while listening to talk radio I heard a commentator say, "I've had a defense attorney say to me there's nothing more dangerous than a 15 year old with a gun."

It made me go back to a comment made by Dr. Julia Hare, "They did a grand thing when they took that discipline away from us. Because when they made our parents afraid to discipline the children, then what happened? We found out that the teachers were afraid of the principals; the principals were scared of the superintendent; the superintendent was scared of the school board; the school board was scared of the parents; parents was scared of the children, and the children ain't scared of nobody."
-Dr. Julia Hare

She was so deep in that comment. Taking away discipline in many respects takes away people's connections to others, and more importantly to their community.

So how can we redeem our young people.

How can we ultimately in the context of everyday life with the "melody" and with the "lyrics" create a redmeption song.