By now, you can write these stories in your sleep. Young thugs with guns start shooting at each other. Bullets spray. Innocent bystanders bleed and die. Anguished soul-searching breaks out all over. How could a harmless street party turn into a bloodbath? Clearly, we need action to address the root causes.

In fact, despite the carnage that broke out Monday night, Toronto is in the minor leagues of homicide. Detroit, a much smaller city, has chalked up 184 so far this year. Chicago has had 277. The two young people killed at Monday’s house party in Toronto – Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23 – were victims 27 and 28.

But make no mistake: In certain neighbourhoods, a war is on....The single most significant root cause is not guns or crummy housing or racism or inadequate policing or lenient sentencing or lack of jobs or insufficient social programs. It is family and community breakdown. Most especially, it’s absent fathers.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Marriage & Family • Urban/City Life and Issues • Violence • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada

The URL for this article is http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/44020/

© 2013 Kendall S. Harmon. All rights reserved.

For original material from Titusonenine (such as articles and commentary by Dr. Harmon) permission to copy and distribute free of charge is granted, provided this notice, the logo, and the web site address are visible on all copies. For permission for use in for-profit publications, please email KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com