Moral Compass Editorial Resonates In the Community

Dear Editor:

I have just read the recent publisher’s notes and I agree with you 100 percent. It is very refreshing to 07-09-14-letter-to-editor.gifread of other alternatives to help solve or at least attempt to help the youth of today. And, you are correct, we need to get them while they are young.

Times have changed since I grew up. I was raised by a single parent — my mother after my dad died in a car accident back in 1979. I was 11-years-old. Back then, even a single parent ruled with an iron fist. Don’t get me wrong, she was a loving mother, but she did not play. No talking back, staying out late or skipping school. We were in church every Sunday.

As a black man, I consider myself very fortunate because I had other family who helped my mother instill the right values in me. I was also fortunate to have had school teachers and other parents who treated me like their own.

I have a nephew and he is only 4-years-old, but he has a thug for a father who is in and out never there half the time and a mother who is trying but she needs help. So far I have heard my nephew use the “B-word,” the “N-word” and the “F-word.”

Fortunately, we were recently able to get him out of that environment.You can already notice a change in him. We started introducing him to better things like children’s books but only with the pictures, teaching him how to write his name, watching educational programs on PBS and on iPads. It is a start but we have to keep at it.

Thank you for caring about today’s youth. We need more people like you!

Sincerely,

Lamonte Smith