If you think the right cares any more about men .... whome
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1136977322242&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Absent fathers root of gun crimes, faith leaders say
Young male adolescents who have no male role model at home 'look to gangs for family'
Jan. 11, 2006. 04:13 PM
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
Young, angry adolescents who have no male role model at home are committing many of the gun crimes in Toronto because gangs are their family, faith leaders said today.
And fathers who desert the home are the root of the problem, the leaders said at a news conference held at the Driftwood Community Centre in the gang-plagued Jane-Finch corridor.
Rob Brodie, who works on trying to rehabilitate criminals following their sentences, said that of 20 case files he recently pulled at random, 14 of the criminals were from single-mother homes.
Along with a call for politicians to toughen drug laws, the faith leaders pointed to a breakdown in the family home as the leading edge of the downward spiral.
Building on the momentum of Boston preacher Eugene Rivers, who's been in Toronto to introduce his own strategies for crime fighting, the faith leaders sent out a call for everyone - politicians, police, faith leaders, mothers, fathers and educators - to do their part.
Bruce Smith, a former Toronto Argonaut football player who is now an outreach worker and chaplain, speaks from experience.
"I grew up without a father," Smith said. "I ran with gangs and packed a gun when I grew up in Texas."
When he was 18, he became "fascinated" with guns and drugs as "a way to have money to buy nice things. I was the person who sold drugs. Young people equate drugs with power and an easy way to make money."
At the University of Colorado, he and some friends mimicked the characters in the movie The Wild Bunch by wearing long overcoats and packing weapons as they terrorized people on the street.
Later, he said, "I became remorseful" for his way of life and knew that "if I didn't change, I'd end up dead."
That's the message he's trying to communicate to young people he talks to.
Football gave him a sense of family, something that many kids don't get at home, the faith leader said.
Dr. Charles McVety, of the Evangelical Association and Canada Christian College, echoed the call for lawmakers to roll back the clock to a time when parental punishment could be used as discipline.
"I'm not talking about abuse," McVety said. "But there has been an erosion of parental rights and a social drift that's been coming for years."
Children who know the law, he said, are practising a form of civil disobedience in the home and getting away with it.
Single mothers, who are working two and three part-time jobs, are either not at home or frequently can't control their sons.
One mother who turned her son in this month when she found an AK-47 rifle in his bed should be saluted, the faith leaders agreed.
Others must find the strength to come forward and the police have to help create the environment where mothers can feel confident in coming to them, the leaders said.
Smith, the former Argo, said he is "very optimistic" that the tide will eventually turn, and he said he is encouraged by what Boston's Eugene Rivers started.
"We got the dialogue going and that's great," he said.
With the federal election coming on Jan. 23, the leaders said they hoped the new government would keep drug possession illegal.
"Stop the soft talk on drugs," McVety urged. "Young people are joining gangs for the lure of drug money. It is dangerous talk."
Prime Minister Paul Martin wants to reduce penalties for simple possession.
But that's going down the wrong road, McVety said, and the party leaders should make their intentions known before people go to the polls.
McVety said "it's sending the wrong message" to spend millions on curbing tobacco use, but mapping out a strategy to make drugs more permissible.
Smith, the former Argo, echoed that sentiment, saying that legalizing drugs like marijuana will instil the idea in people that drugs are not a problem.
"That girl who was killed on Boxing Day . . . drugs were the thing that motivated those shooters. It's time for us as leaders to take an active stand against things that are causing death in our city.
"We need to stand up in the community and say no to drugs."