Fatherless, We Are Dying : Communities must help boys become men, not statistics. And fatherhood must again be a priority.

His ebony skin covered muscles rounded by the hormones of young manhood, perfected through personal effort. But he was a wounded warrior that day, in a large metropolitan hospital that has tended far too many urban warriors. Blood oozed from his hip and his foot as we readied him for surgery. A questioning glance at his abdomen brought a grimace of smile: “Yeah, man, I been shot there before. Same place.” For this lad, “three strikes and you’re out” would probably mean not prison but an early grave.

Societies fear and revere their young men. A young male’s ability to join with others to protect the clan or tribe guarantees his people’s survival. But when there are no enemies around to fight, the tribe must find another mission for its youth, lest adolescent strength be turned against the very people the young man should be protecting.

Most groups have historically met this male adolescent drive to prove oneself through the establishment of physically or mentally challenging rituals under the aegis of older males: Witness scarification rites and bar mitzvahs.

The elders of American have somehow forgotten their responsibility to the young males in their midst. The path to manhood with all its rights and responsibilities demands a male guide. If an older man is not there to steer a teen-ager through the rocks and shoals of adolescence, then the youngster must find others like himself, start a pack and engage in behavior fearfully mutated by the lack of a template.

The problem is scandalous in its scope. A man makes a baby, whisks himself off to another woman, the child grows up written off both by society and by its father, repeats the pattern of studdery and ends up in a coffin covered with flowers. Enough already!

First of all, every single life has value. Letting gangs kill each other off unimpeded is not a solution. We may not even be able to rescue the present adolescent generation, but we do need to start the ball rolling. We owe all kids a firm commitment to their physical safety, and if this means temporary martial law, as one unsuccessful candidate for Los Angeles mayor suggested last year, so be it. Neighborhood policing, with the police force reflecting where possible the complexion of the neighborhood, should take over once things are under control.

Marriage and lifelong fathering--as opposed to studding--must come back into vogue. Forget throwing federal money at the problem; local communities bear the real responsibility for coming up with challenges (be they sports, academe or other) that let a boy push himself until he breaks through to manhood.

And we haven’t much time, friends. Far too many young warriors already “sleep the sleep that knows not waking.” Just ask those of us who close their eyes for the last time, pull the sheet taut over their heads, and take their young bodies down to that cold dark room deep in the bowels of the hospital.