  Yeah, right. I live near the Chicago Southside. Local folklore said my Southern suburban hometown had a higher per capita murder rate than New York City. So I know a scant bit about crime, both of the random and the "he needed killin' 'cause he disrespected my sistuh" variety. So we know there's crime, yes. We know there's violent crime, yes. We know there's epidemics of poor and rich youth with too little supervision and too much time on their hands and too little to strive for, yes. But do we acknowledge where it's happening? Here's an urlLink interesting article (yes from the New York Times, just register already! ) about gangs hitting rural areas. This paragraph below is a good reason for me why foreign affairs should always be paid attention to.
Like 19th-century Irish-American gangs, which arose from an immigrant community that had fled famine, MS-13 has its origins in turmoil abroad. As the brutal civil war in El Salvador was waged in the 80's, pitting leftist guerrillas against the American-backed government, more than a million Salvadorans sought refuge in the United States. Thousands literally walked much of the way to America, initially settling in the Rampart neighborhood of Los Angeles, where they were not warmly welcomed by the established Hispanic community.
''Mexican gangs picked on them mercilessly,'' says Al Valdez, a veteran gang investigator in the district attorney's office in Orange County, Calif. It's all connected people. Folks get crapped on elsewhere, they come to the US and spread crap here. So there are wayward folks going downhill fast - and taking everyone with them - in rural areas.
But, rich white kids aren't immune from doing this crap either. Oh, no, no, no, my friends. Check out the PBS Frontline documentary urlLink "The Lost Children of Rockdale County. " This is a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, GA. A syphllis outbreak among youth signaled to (some) community leaders, "Hey! Something is seriously wrong here. " So Frontline followed a group of teens around to look at their life. It's shocking and scary and sad. And people still believe that it can't happen in the 'burbs. Honey, I grew up in the burbs. I went to school with your children in suburban schools. Let me assure you, it's happening. Something I like about living in an urban environment is that church and city leaders usually don't need to convince people that something is wrong. Granted, most folks still like to believe there's nothing wrong with them or their own, but at least folks generally concede that life ain't as grand as it could be.
In the suburbs, not so much. Suburban life is built around the idea that everyone is the same, so nothing can be wrong with anyone. Because that would mean that something's wrong with everyone. Unfortunately, I think the latter is more the case. And I think suburban kids get trapped in a bad way. They're trying to make themselves distinctive when all their cohorts dress alike, think alike, move alike, and have similar characteristics.
Even if someone busts out of the box - goes all Goth or becomes a Korn Kid or a Riot Grrl! - they've just changed from the big herd to a smaller herd. Still a herd. And I'm fine with herding. Get every square inch of your skin pierced or tattooed for all I care, just don't be writing checks with your mouth that your butt can't cash. On a whim, a few weeks ago I was in a local 'burb with some friends for a city festival. Paris Hilton skirts and scantily clad girls as far as the eye could see. Most of them were aiming for Paris & Nicole's blondness with the other members of their tribe. Then the Korn Kids came in, and they had on Punk Paris Hilton skirts! It never ends! My friends and I kept wondering, "Did their mothers let them out of the house looking like that?
" But then we also recalled our high school days. For two of us, backless shirts were the big rage, back in the day. I personally came to the conclusion that high school and youngster fashion will always push the envelope. Since the 60's or so, that envelope is always, "How much female skin can we get away with showing? " For my age group, it was backs, sometimes it's shoulders, a few years ago it was midriff (and still is many times), and now especially - legs. And there will always be a group of kids at your local high school who will do drugs. In my day (by cracky, you young whippersnappers! ) they did Pot or cheap beer. Now, pot's bad. It can kill you or just make you do dumb stuff that you'll pay the rest of your life for.
But, your downward spiral with pot can take a year or two. You've at least got a few months in there before rehab is unavoidable. In that "grace" period, an attentive adult or friend can find out and smack some sense into you. But now, youngsters jump into E, Special K, Meth, Crack, and chase it with whiskey or Everclear. More potent poison = less "grace" period to get caught and/or get off it. Now, you do Ecstacy, and you could be dead in 2 months, easy. So the stakes are higher. Parents, your kids are less than 3 degrees of seperation from someone who can get them a chemical that could peel the paint off the walls of their brain. Kids are less than 3 degrees of seperation away from a party where they could get into a sexual situation that scars them for life. Youth today are less than 3 degrees of seperation away from getting involved in a gang (or some dipwad friend's "posse") and getting trucked off to jail. Pay attention to your kids! 
