This story was painful. It took effort to get through it this morning. Throughout are the themes we have been debating over the past few days, centered tangibly around the most painful emotion there is, the unexpected loss of family.

With gun violence on the rise, many of the themes in this story need immediate attention:

"Hip-Hop Culture"
As quoted in the article, the kids in this neighborhood have no expectation that things could be better. "This is just the way it is, it has always been this way." Losing fifteen year olds at 2:15 in the afternoon is not the way its always been, and we can't let it continue. However, this culture is supported by the "Code of the Street", of which, yes, Price, I read the article, in addition to a brief Q&A with the author. Unbelievable as it may seem, I too read to question and modify my own position.

A memorial is a way to remember those we've lost, and yet not entirely let them go. The t-shirts and other memorials for victims of violence only propogate this Street Culture. By memorializing inner city violence, these kids only enforce a culture that kills more of our youth by the day. Of the examples in the T-shirt shop, most were pictures of deceased making thug poses, or holding fake/real guns. How is this a way to remember our loved ones?

Absent Role Models
I sympathize with Patrolman Williams, and respect what he is trying to do. By being a positive role model to kids, he is providing a counter to the forces that pull neighborhoods into depression. However,watching both Jarrette and his father gunned down creates an image of futility working against the change he is trying to affect. There just are not enough people like him.

When a young girl has 8 children by 4 men by the time she is 26, society must lend a helping hand. I am not a family values hawk, but without a strong male figure, kids are bound to get into trouble. This is admitted in the article:
"He craved male attention, said relatives, friends, and even the 31-year-old Erie Avenue barber who regularly cut his hair. He turned to older friends back in Nicetown."

Kids need a positive male influence in their lives. Just as with the gun safety debate we had earlier, the presence of a strong male in a childs life helps set up notions of right and wrong, enforced over many experiences through childhood.

Also, having a mother that is complacent about her son selling drugs because, "kids want that money" is just unacceptable. However, this is what can happen. Women cannot raise all of these children by themselves. I also don't condone telling women what they can do with their bodies, its none of my business, but a male figure in the home can only help.

The whole article for me is embodied by the final lines, in which an argument breaks out at the church service. One of the kids yells out "I'm a real gangsta!", while several other brandish their pieces, showing how big a man they are. The argument stems from who is to blame for Jarette's murder.

I don't pretend to know how to fix this problem, though I believe that an increased role for organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters can only help.

I am probably missing some of the themes in this article, but it is already too long, and I am too disgusted to keep writing.