AC 360

I watched Anderson Cooper 360 last night, and then the same episode came on tonight, and it is the same old argument.

This school year in Chicago, 28 students were murdered. Yes, murdered. In 9 months. All of these students were killed by other teens. All of these students were from the south side of Chicago, which is well known as a very violent area of Chicago.

The topic of conversation seemed to keep getting back to the fact that these kids are poor and live in a poor part of town. They even mentioned that a lot of families were made pretty much homeless when Chicago decided to tear down the notorious housing projects depicted in "Good Times".

Same old thing. These kids killed other kids because they were poor and they don't know what else to do. They see killing depicted in movies and music videos. The rap music is to blame. Not the kids, not the parents - the music, the movies. Nonsense.

One CNN reported commented that he hears that the white world is responsible for some actions of black people due to slavery, but a white person had never put a gun in his hand, or in the hand of any black person and made them pull the trigger. This reporter was black and he seems to understand.

White people aren't to blame for all the problems in the black community. As soon as blacks stop defining the world as the white world and the black world, and I heard that on Oprah, maybe they will start taking responsibility and stop blaming everyone else.

I also read in our local paper that over 5,000 heads of household who evacuated from New Orleans and settled in Houston are still unemployed. These people are choosing to live off of food stamps and government funds for their rent. They choose not to get a job in one of the largest cities in the nation. The article said that they are the New Orleans residents who were unemployed in N.O. and were on food stamps already. They were getting everything handed to them and that's the way they like it. They take, take, take and never give.

This segment of the population in Houston is also responsible for the rise in crime that has happened in the last 19 months. I saw it here in my city, too. We had evacuees in our schools who started fights and caused all kinds of problems. I guess they thought they were not getting enough handed to them, so they were taking what they wanted or fighting to get it.

People need to take responsibility for their actions. They need to take responsibility for their kids. That's the conversation we should be having. Make the parents take responsibility for the actions of their underage children. Put them behind bars the same as their kids. Take the enablers off the streets. We need to stop talking about how the movies are having a bad influence on kids and how the parents can have a good influence on them. But they need to get jobs first. They need to get off of welfare and in to work. They are the ones who need to set an example. When they do, their kids will know what is expected of them.