A different time . . .

One of the reasons that I believe that my daughter has had a hard time in life is because of the tremendous losses she has faced since her junior year in high school.

About eight of her friends over the years has died.

In the past month, two of her friends have been murdered. By all appearances, both young men were not doing anything illegal. One was in his home when he was shot & killed by an acquaintance, the other was in the wrong place at the wrong time, shot & killed in Oakland.

Both of these young men were African American.

It brings to light for me when people discuss the pathway for our African American boys - prison or death.

We have got to change something in our society.  The violence and apparent disregard for human life is a symptom of a disease called poverty. Until we address that, the killings will continue.

I wanted to add:
@HappyChyck - a lot of points of conversation. We are a middle class white family, but we live in a community that has become more urban over the past 15 or 20 years. My daughter has a wide-range group of friends, some of whom have died because of their own bad decisions (driving drunk). However, three of her friends have been murdered - these past two, like I said, in the space of a month. All three of these friends were young men of color, two Black & one Hispanic.

The reality for me is that my own two sons do not run the same risk of being murdered as their friends of color. The people who chose to murder these three men were also men of color. I believe that because poverty & racism are so inextricably linked in our society that the young men who who chose to use a gun really saw no other path in their lives.