Rodriguez on Youth Crime

Re “The Coming Mayhem,” by Richard Rodriguez, Opinion, Jan. 21:

To imply that we are largely facing monsters in our own children is not only irresponsible, it promotes the very kind of mass hysteria this country seems to be falling for. We should not be so quick to label our youth, but rather search for truth and answers to real problems. Problems not nearly as outlandish or pervasive as Rodriguez claims. There are millions of decent, law-abiding, enthusiastic children in our homes and our schools. Rodriguez refers to a father who sees a normal lifestyle in his neighborhood, but wonders why the local high school needs a full-time guard. The answer lies with us, the adults who have bought into this hysteria.

There truly is a real problem in the inner cities with lack of parental role models. It is also true that many among us are ill-prepared for parenting. But, how much less prepared are we than our parents were? As far as I know, there have never been parenting classes in public or private schools, even in our parents’ time.

Mr. Rodriguez, go peddle your drivel where it belongs--in the National Enquirer, or something like that. Leave the real journalism to those more informed and more responsible.

JIM BANDY

Sherman Oaks

* As long as our welfare policies continue to encourage a high birthrate among our most maladjusted citizens, our nation’s social problems will continue to get worse. Go into any prison and ask the inmates what kind of home life they had as children. Most of them were severely neglected, a lot of them were abused and almost none of them grew up in a caring, two-parent home. The drug epidemic of the last few decades has made this situation even worse.

Children who do not experience caring during their childhood grow up without the ability to care about others. They do not develop a conscience. They become “psychopaths” and this condition is pretty much irreversible, as any experienced mental health worker can tell you. The solution is not for the government to step in as a surrogate parent. The solution is for government to do everything possible to discourage indiscriminate, illegitimate births among people unprepared for the tasks of parenthood.

Cutting off welfare benefits for women who get pregnant will reduce the number of illegitimate births and consequently the number of neglected and abused kids.

JENNIFER MARKS

Irvine