The Real Cause of and Cure for Crime

Crime is in the news a lot lately, particularly violent crime.  There is just too much of it. 

Of course, nobody knows why any of this is happening, so we have to call in the experts, so they can tell us.

I think life is a lot less complicated than that, and I think the experts are getting it wrong for the most part. 

A recent letter to a newspaper captured this clearly.  The writer says, and I’m sure the experts will agree, that “the unacceptable level of crime in our city is due to many factors: poverty and equity, low employment opportunities in under-resourced neighborhoods, high dropout rates and tension between law enforcement and those communities.”

Apart from the high dropout rates, everything is somebody else’s fault.  Maybe the high dropout rates are somebody else’s fault too.

If only our government had spent billions of more dollars in certain communities, if only we had given poor people more money so they wouldn’t be poor anymore, if only selfish employers, or the government, had made more jobs in certain neighborhoods, if only the police were nicer people, then people wouldn’t resort to crime.  They would be happy and content and wouldn’t want to shoot anybody anymore.

No, people resort to crime and violence, because they have no sense of right and wrong.  Usually that requires a belief in God, Somebody who sees and knows everything and who holds people accountable for their actions.  But even prior to that, it’s a value system that says that certain things are just wrong. 

Many times in my life I have had to figure out what to do about something, and there were always a number of options that were never considered.  Because they were wrong. 

When you have no sense of right and wrong, then wrong things become options, and when things are options, we can find reasons to do them.  Even random, spontaneous violence or crime happens, because a person previously had permitted violence or crime as a viable option for certain situations.

As long as crime and violence are somebody else’s fault, we will never solve them.  We will never feel like society, or somebody else, is doing enough as long as there is high crime.

But nobody can say that I am not responsible for what I did, and society needs to affirm that.  Prosecutors must hold them accountable.  There are no acceptable mitigating circumstances for a crime of violence.

The cure for crime and violence is parenting.  That means a husband and wife in a loving relationship and raising their own children.

 

Of course, there are exceptions.  Of course, there are bad parents.  Of course, there are parents that fail.  But having a child’s natural parents in a loving home is still the best program we have with the highest success rate.

This is not a slight to gay couples.  It’s just that only one member of a gay couple can be a child’s natural parent.  I am talking ideally here.  As much as possible, we should want children to be raised by both of their natural parents.  They are most likely to be the most loving, committed parents to that child. 

What are parents, but fulltime mentors, caregivers, supporters, educators, tutors, individualized support systems for each child?  And most parents find that that child creates a love for them they didn’t expect and didn’t know before.

Whether you believe in God or evolution, they both ended up at the same place.  Children are the result of a mutual biological act that creates new life.  Children prosper best when they have the benefit of both parents together in their lives. 

And all this is at no cost to the public treasury. 

It used to be a shame in our society for an unwed woman to become pregnant and have a child.  Now it is often celebrated.   We don’t want anybody to feel shame for their actions, like they might have made a bad choice.

Our schools encourage children to become sexually active at very young ages.  They don’t teach that sex is something that is meant for marriage yet alone families, or even that marriage is something they might want for their lives.  Sex, yes, marriage, who knows? 

As a society, we should encourage families.  They are the foundation of a society.  The smallest building blocks.  Every new member has two fulltime adult mentors to show them how to live.  There is no better solution. 

The problem, of course, is that encouraging marriage, families, and parenting won’t solve today’s crime problems.  It’s the best answer to solve the future problems but not today’s.

Whatever else you want to do to make society a better place, you need to enforce the rules.  There must be consequences for those who commit crime.  Without that, all those other answers won’t change anything.

an armed society

I read William French’s opinion piece  “An armed society is nothing more than a fearful society,” May 26, and laughed.    

Not at French.  I did my grad work at Loyola.  I might have had him for an ethics class.  I have a lot of respect for him.

His article was excellent. 

Just one thing.

A free society is a rare thing in the world and human history.  And basically, humanity has a choice.  You can have a free society, or you can have a safe society.  You can’t have both. 

They are two opposites on a spectrum.  Move the marker toward safer, and freedom is diminished.  Move it toward freedom, and society becomes riskier.

The Founders, in this case, James Madison in Federalist no. 46, were happy that America was armed and attributed the nation’s freedom to that fact, where Europe was unarmed and ruled by kings.

Another Founder, James Adams, said that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  A society with an abundance of guns but without morals and religion is indeed a dangerous place, but our Founders never intended that we would be in that place.

 

Thoughts on Mental Health in our Society

Mental health is on everyone’s minds now, after an 18-year-old killed a class of 5^th graders this week.  What the bleep was he thinking? 

Seems there is a great need for mental health professionals throughout our society – our schools, our businesses and even our families.

A recent newspaper editorial noted the rise of increasing serious mental health issues among college students and the lack of adequate resources to help them.  The article made no attempt to explain why serious mental health issues are a problem or on the rise.

I will try.  I offer my analysis and solution here.

College students are on the brink of adulthood.  As children, they were under the care of their parents, but now they will be facing the world on their own. 

Our society has discouraged marriage and families for decades.  It’s relatively unimportant, as women need to pursue professional careers.  Something like 80% of incarcerated individuals grew up without a father in the home.

Whether you believe in God or evolution, both ended up with a man and a woman creating new life, and by extension, these two people are essential for the well-being of this child as it grows up.

A loving home instills a sense of safety and security into a child.  They always have a place to go.

Children are discouraged themselves from getting married and having a family, or at least for a long time.  More important things to do first.  So they are avoiding some of the richest experiences of their lives – living with someone who is committed to share their life til death and the joy of having their own family.  Maybe they are too young to start a family of their own, but the whole idea of a committed relationship seems out of the question for now, so they must do this alone. 

Their sex education so far has taught them that there is no such thing as normative sex, and sex has nothing to do with marriage and family.  Sex is essentially a form of recreation, and one that can play havoc with a person’s emotions, though they aren’t told that.  It’s not seen as an act of love but of pleasure.  It is not meant for a special committed someone, but something to do for enjoyment, like going bowling only more intense.  So their sex lives don’t enrich their emotional health; it may even leave them feeling empty.

So all of human history had gotten this wrong.  Pretty much everything.  But even more importantly, most likely everything they heard at home was wrong. 

Science teaches them that life is an accident of nature.  Human beings are nothing more than animals that talk and wear clothes.  There is no intrinsic value to human life.  We are mere specks in a vast, cold universe that is oblivious to their presence.  Your parents could have killed you before you were born.  You were lucky they didn’t.    

Science also tells them that our whole world is on the brink of destruction, caused by human activity, and it’s essentially too late to fix it.  We, human beings, have destroyed our planet.

History tells them that they were born into an evil, irredeemably flawed nation built on the backs of slavery and oppression.  It is thoroughly corrupt and the system is broken beyond repair.  It needs to be entirely reinvented.

Economics tells them we have a system run by the rich for the rich, and you are easily exploited.  The whole thing needs to be torn down and replaced with a more equitable and inclusive economy.  And that won’t be easy to do.

Sociology tells them that if you are white, you are inherently racist and an oppressor.  If you are not white, you are a victim.  The cards are stacked against you.  You must be vigilant against racism in all its forms, because it is everywhere and you are the target.

Religion is irrelevant.  It is merely the attempt of unenlightened primitive people in the past to try to explain things that science now does for us.  There is no ultimate meaning in life.  There is no purpose to any of it.  You live, you die, and that’s it.  And the universe doesn’t care.  About anything, including you.

Religion used to provide a basic moral framework for life, giving us the rules by which we can live our lives.  But there are no rules, only what you make yourself and the society you live in. 

There is no Higher Power to direct your life.  Life is like standing before an open field where you can go in any direction you want.  There is no right or wrong per se.  Just be who you are, whatever that means.  There is no Higher Power to whom they can seek help, and no Higher Power to whom they are accountable for their actions.

It’s only the last some generations now in all of human history that tells its children that we don’t need God, there is no such thing, we are on our own.  This has never been done before in human history.  We think we are smarter than everybody else who has gone before us. 

And mental illness is now on the rise among those people who have to sort through all this. 

We have failed, are failing our children, by giving them a life without structure, meaning, or support.  They are alone in a world that doesn’t care whether they live or die.

Obviously, many people have been able to navigate through all this successfully.  But they’re not the ones we read about in the news because of the unspeakable horrors they have committed. 

Our society has lost its way.  The worst part about this is that it thinks it is so smart, smarter than all the generations that have gone before them, not just on religion, but everything. 

Our children don’t feel connected to life, to anything bigger than they are. 

There is far more to be said on this, but it will have to be for another time. 

 

 

 

 

The Great Replacement Theory and racism

I am amazed by how much space the Tribune is giving to articles denouncing the Great Replacement Theory, as though this were a sinister plot to take over the government, rather than what is, a complaint about it.  (Great replacement theory is a grand delusion, May 23)

But it is today’s letter that demands a response.  (Publicly condemn racist theories, May 24)

Ultimately, I can only speak for myself, but I would wager I speak for the vast majority of those affected by this. 

I have no problem with any immigrant or any person of any race or religion.  They are all human beings, created in the image of God and worthy of our love and respect.  I have known, worked with, managed, and am friends with a lot of people who are not just like me.  And I have never asked anyone of them their immigration status nor do I care. 

I do have a problem with a government, whether state or federal, that ignores and even defies the laws of our country.  If they don’t like the laws, then change them.  If they can’t change them, then maybe most people in our country don’t want them changed. 

I suspect the problem is due in much part with lawmakers who make laws that are too big and that include things too controversial and so they never pass the parts that aren’t.

The United States is a unique country in human history.  We should make sure that all immigrants understand what it is that makes us unique and makes us what we are.   This is one of the reasons we should not just have open borders, like we do now.  This has nothing to do with hatred or discrimination.  This is just good government policy.

This Great Replacement Theory has no animosity toward minorities or immigrants.  It is only concerned that a particular political party is trying to use them to gain a permanent political advantage.

 

how to prevent violence, according to some religious leaders

I was happy to see a lot of religious leaders join together “to get serious about violence prevention.”  (May 18)  Being a religious person myself, I was curious to hear their suggestions.  I almost said ‘answers,’ but I don’t think they have any.  And I’m not sure they think so either.

They seem resigned to the fact that kids will be kids, and that means random or targeted violence and shootings.  So we shouldn’t be too hard on them.  The kids are in “the life,” where violence is just a part of life.  We should try to understand them.

A big part of their strategy seems to be to keep the kids busy and too distracted from shooting people.  Why shoot people when there are “alternative activities” for them to do?

Frankly, I think these religious leaders should take the summer off and refresh themselves on some of the basic tenets of their faiths: 

1)      Human beings are created in the image of God and are of infinite worth.  Maybe infinite is too strong of a word, but their religions teach that humans have an eternal existence. 

2)      There is a God who has rules for life, and we will be held accountable for keeping those rules.  The rules include not killing people and actually loving other people, even ones we don’t know.

3)      For the Christian ministers, God wants to empower people with His Spirit so that they can live lives of joy and peace with both people and God.

I think if our clergy could get this message out to the public, and if our political leaders didn’t try so hard to keep this message from the public, a lot of people will start to think that they don’t want to kill people after all.  That we can live in peace with each other.  And it didn’t require a big, expensive government program to do it.

 

stopping the killing in Illinois

The Times had two articles today of ground breaking significance that should bring relief to millions of Illinois residents.  (‘Ghost’ busters, Registering assault weapons would be a good first step to ending the scourge of mass shootings, May 18)

The first article noted that Illinois is the first Midwest state to ban ghost guns.  A lot of people intent on shooting and killing people in Illinois will be frustrated now, knowing that it will be illegal to buy ghost guns, and they will have to scurry around to find other means.

The second article encourages the registration of semi-automatic rifles as a good first step to reduce mass shootings in our country.  After the enormous success in reducing murder rates with handguns by requiring them to all to be registered, knowing that their rifle is registered will stop countless cold-blooded killers in their tracks.  They will think twice now before mowing down crowds of people on street corners and grocery stores. 

I have a better idea though.

Why don’t we just make a law against shooting and killing people?  Rather than focus on specific means of killing people, if we just ban the whole practice of shooting and killing people, we can solve the whole bigger problem of violence all at once.

what to do about air pollution

A long time ago, I was in school on the near north side of Chicago, and they sent me to a doctor on Central Street in Evanston.  As soon as I got off the el, the first thing I noticed was how fresh the air was.  No, I was not in an industrial area with a lot of diesel trucks, but there were hundreds of trees forming a canopy over the streets.

The Times reported today on Pollution Pockets (May16) in Chicago. 

It showed a wide variance in air quality, which is a good thing.  That means that the problem is local and not general.  If the whole city was engulfed in massive air pollution, any solution would be significantly harder.

Everybody hates pollution.  I get that.  But often the proposed solutions eliminate thousands of jobs in the area, add to the cost of many businesses providing goods and services to the community, and move many of those jobs, goods. and services out of the communities who will then complain later that they don’t have them.

I would like to suggest that somebody does a study of tree coverage in the city and then superimpose that map on the pollution map.  Trees use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.  They also remove particular pollution out of the air.

There is so much talk about the environment, and all the solutions proposed cost billions and billions of dollars, require a major reinvention of our economy, and end up making so many things we use everyday far more expensive. 

We need to explore other options that are cheaper and that don’t have a million unintended, unforeseen, and undesirable consequences.