Baltimore Mother Who Showed She Cared

 

One Baltimore Mother, Toya Graham, upon seeing her sixteen-year-old son on the television coverage throwing rocks at police instead of in school took her parenting skills up a notch and intervened getting him out of the streets during the rioting. Where her technique might be debated, her love leading her to act was shown to the world. Toya Graham is being lauded and has been interviewed endlessly many of which can be found on You Tube attached as recommended viewing from our embed for those who may not have witnessed Toya Graham as she applied some negative reinforcement and the loving and caring reaction pushing her to some extreme parenting. Immediately following find the video of her actions caught on the streets of Baltimore during the riots.

 

 

 

 

Where we cannot actually commend her methods we also refuse to condemn them as often a parent understands the degree to which they may need to go to correct behavior of their child, especially teen age children. We most certainly hope and keep our prayers with Ms. Graham that she not be dragged into the mire that Social Services can put a parent through should they perceive that their style and tactics in correcting a child does not meet there esoteric guidelines which emphasize using reason and persuasion and never ever, no matter the circumstance, resort to physical assaults when conveying displeasure with one’s child’s actions. Personally, we would prefer to witness more parents willing to risk everything to correct their child thus using an intervention at the time of the action when possible or as immediately after any undesired action applying whatever you have found works best when communicating such corrections. If the mothers of only ten percent took to the streets to apply some degree of parental intervention and guidance preferably at as early a stage as possible and at every juncture which appears that some corrective actions are required, then we would probably see far less rioting and matters would be easier for law enforcement to police and shut down violent rioters. Unfortunately there are so many busybody agencies which extend from Humane Social Services or from the school system through teacher interventions, counselor advisement and other administrative forced guidance interventions or from somewhere out of the blue government program into whose clutches one might fall. I realize how much a parent can be up against from raising one of the most wonderful and brilliantly successful self-motivated and among the high-achievers of her generation who has put herself through college while working and gone beyond a Bachelor’s Degree and achieved several licensing certificates which have aided her advancement and the fact that she developed her potential and at the same time displayed her devoted service to a single company building her record of achievements while advancing from entry level through to management and almost beyond the cusp of entry management into middle and even upper management as she also has shown an interest in attempting to get her MBA in her specialty. Still, there was a series of difficulties encountered where the school system was distressed and expressed their concerns and even recommended that my wonderful and yet individual and creative daughter be placed on medications simply so they could put her into some special pigeon hole from which the school system would receive additional funding for having another special needs student. Fortunately intervention prevented their prescribing some psychotropic drug at the advice of meetings held between her teacher and a counselor noting certain undescribed but classified as troubling behaviors which would require her being put on medication. Thank Hashem that parental consent was still required a few decades back; it is frightening to think what is being done to our children by school systems.

 

The intervention of schools in parenting children where they place in the minds of children that they need not listen to their parents, that they have rights to watch television, have a cell phone, text instead of interact at the dinner table, eat what and when they please and how parents are there simply to provide for you and if they attempt any discipline, just tell your teacher or counselor and they will bring Child Protective Services down on your parent and that situation will be resolved to the child’s satisfaction. The only advice I can give parents, should Child Protective Services representative appear at your front door they will try whatever it takes to force their way past your front door and into your home; do not at any time permit them past your portal as once they gain entry they then have every right to act ‘in the best interest’ of your child. They are actually acting in the best interest of the state in furthering the forcing of your child into their assigned pigeon hole where they will learn to love big brother. Simply remember at all times that your child is the most precious of life’s treasures and their freedom to be who they wish to be is your war to be fought to allow them that path and not necessarily the path the government has decided is best. Our children are still ours for as long as a parent can prove control of situations which may arise, but keep such situations and their treatment on your application, never the state’s application. Only in the case of a felonious or extremely dangerous misdemeanor should you possibly do the best you are able to remain in the loop concerning your child. All these little items must be performed by both parents as it takes two to bring forth a new life, except in Britain where they now allow for three parent children as by introducing additional proteins, DNA strips and mitochondria into the embryo there can be advantages to resist diseases or correct for other abnormalities producing a superior child. Where this slippery slope will take us is something we will only see the results down the road ten, twenty or even thirty years. Who knows, they may know what it is they are doing or they may be playing with alterations which may prove to have been beyond the cusp and into the weird world previously found only on the very strange and twisted Island of Doctor Moreau.

 

Meanwhile, if the rioters had simply waited a few days they would have found that the city was going to hold those responsible with the unfortunate death of a 25-year-old African-American, Freddie Gray, whose spine was snapped in custody of the Baltimore Police facing charges of murder. This was to be the result of their internal investigation. Did the rioting affect their deliberations and perhaps pushed the authorities to seek prosecution? Possibly, but that will remain something we can never know. The rioting may have little to do with the pursuit of justice as it does with plain old hooliganism and for some the free stuff which can be taken using the rioting as a cover for their acts of theft, plain and ordinary theft. The damage in Baltimore has been horrific and grown disproportionally by the reaction to each case as they have broken into mass criminal behavior. From spotty bits of coverage I have caught the main subject has been around how these rioters have been left out by society and that inner-city life is so hard and that many of the rioters are the product of a failed school system and failures by the city government. The suggested solution being discussed, I would guess to be the need to invest more into the school system and provide other constructive activities where the city needs to invest in the future. Isn’t all investments made to produce their results in the future? I mean there is no way that I can think that an investment can be made as an investment in the past. Oddly enough, the one item the Baltimore City Government could do, would be to make efforts to make large areas of the city into special tax zones where taxes paid by employers would be cut in half permanently providing their employees are predominantly from within the city. The kinds of industry sought would be those willing in working with the city school system which could be partnered in giving students specific training required to be productive in a variety of areas and expertise. Having such programs might also provide the impetus for some youths to find an area where they were interested in pursuing training at a higher level thus the school could provide the necessary education preparing children to chase their dreams, but also to provide jobs.

 

Still, there is the question of where will these riots lead? The pattern has been obvious where there has been the death of a youth usually by a Caucasian police officer under questionable situations which leads to protest and eventually rioting, arson, theft and vandalism. The real question people across the United States are having is what the odds are of their city being targeted with such unrest. Every major city is simply the pull of a policeman’s trigger and that city could implode into riots which might grow to the point of general civil unrest requiring the use of the National Guard troops. Calling in the National Guard might be simply setting up the next confrontation which could produce such an increase in the level of the rioting to the point where each city involved in rioting would spread the riots to the next city causing a chain effect spreading rioting across the country. The possibility of such an escalation will increase as the summer weather gets hotter and hotter. As far as the United States is concerned, is the potential for a repeat of the summer of 1968 leading up to the Democrat Convention. The effects of the rioting of that summer are still not totally repaired and likely never will be restored. Some cities managed to utilize the destruction to renovate and completely change the face of the center city. These were the miraculous success stories where the almost dead center city was renovated and even transformed into a place which was desirable. They included shopping areas with walking paths and bicycle and rollerblade lanes but no vehicular traffic. Mixed into these shopping areas were apartment buildings and townhomes and a short distance easily reachable by mass transit there was an industrial park. The one other major change these cities did was to lower residential, industrial, land, property and sales taxes. It may have taken few years but with their patience the new lower tax rates were doing exactly as first predicted, it returned vibrancy to the city and was returning more revenue than had been predicted in most cases. Unfortunately, some cities simply were incapable of making a transition when the riots broke out and some simply boarded up the damaged areas and limped forward with the memories of the destruction forever left almost as if it were a museum exhibit. As far as what is in store this summer, well, if this spring is any kind of indicator then the United States is in for a long, hot raging summer of discontent. Perhaps some forms of entertainment and show some progress in attracting businesses which creates jobs and thus present two paths, one the old school and the other new school and the new system where the education system works hand-in-hand with the education as explained earlier. Still, the single most important thing that is required is the lowering of taxes across the board as without making the grounds and situation attractive and desirable to investors, builders, industries and individuals no financial investments will occur. If you lower the taxes they will come, come to build, come and invest, come and produce, come to sell, and most of all, come to live life.

 

Beyond the Cusp