Fathers teaching sons way of gangster living

by Vondee Langehennig, staff writer

I was listening to my all-time favorite XM station 66 Raw with Mz. Kitti recently when she brought up a news story that has left the public disturbed and shocked.

In the suburbs of Fort Worth, two guys (uncles, actually) ages 17 and 18 were responsible for watching their "smokin' nephews" as their mother (the boys’ sister) was asleep in the back room of the home.  Well, when boredom takes over, APPARENTLY the route to go is GET OUT THE VIDEO CAMERA AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!

 The ganja gangsters then pulled out a joint and got to puffing, all on camera. The real "fun" didn’t start until the parental guidance in the room handed off the splif to an unsuspecting 2 year old, who did try to mimic the puff-puff pass.  When it came to the 5 year old in the video, that was another story.

 His face may have been blurred out, but it was easy to tell that this young tike was on his way to being a hydroponic professional. The red glow on the end of the blunt showed the powerful lung action that this child had (must have been taught well, right?).

You might be asking yourself, "how did these guys get caught?" Well, I will say at least on behalf of the two half-witted uncles that they didn’t put it on youtube.com like some of the other irresponsible nonsense (well, uh, not that this wasn't).

 BUT they did, however, do something else that resulted in getting their residence search (on an unrelated incident besides the underage smoke circle) in which home videos and other things were confiscated from the residence.  When the videos were viewed, the detectives had a field day.

Charges of child endangerment were brought on the individuals for the video.

Mz. Kitti did make one comment that I thought was very interesting.  She said something to the effect that "this is something that has been going on in the 'hood for a very long time."  And that is very true.

 The best way it was explained to me was by a friend of mine who has seen activity similar to this.  She said, "more than just that is being taught to the younger kids.  I've even seen fathers put their young sons up to fight, smoke, or whatever would make them little gangsters."  That is what the fathers of these children going through these adult activities think.

 It is not because they don't have love for their children.  Instead, it is more of a "lesson in life" they feel that they are teaching, an essential that they must know to survive in the place they were born.  Most of these people don't see what the rest of the world sees.

 Why is that? Is it because they just don’t know the effects of this action?  That is definitely not the case; everyone knows it's wrong.  But what I think is the biggest problem is the fact that education isn't put into economically disadvantaged communities about the real effects of the things they put their kids through, including psychological damage. These children aren’t going to have an equal opportunity to see what the world is like on the other side of the fence, because they are already predisposed to an angry, gritty, lifestyle they already know so well.

 These are little things that are said to be "OK” in these communities, and the children are growing up and passing it on to their children.  What we feel is common knowledge is not that for these mothers, fathers, uncles, who put these children through the school of hard knocks.

That childhood happiness is lost when living a life of survival and innocence is tainted for some of these people.  Children should not be exposed to things that they have no capacity to judge or understand clearly. If they are childhood is robbed.