It matters not a whit where you're from, it matters greatly where you're going .

I agree, genetics have everything do do with this but, Humans can learn to modify their behaviors, unlike animals .

If you don't think indentured servitude is still present, you've never known a parolee .

I have a brother whom I very much doubt was from my father's loins . six children, all look one way, he has high cheek bones, sallow skin and dark hair ~ we're all very light skinned and have blond hair & blue eyes .

We're a nasty bunch I think .

I'm the least educated and least $ of all of them,. I'm also the only contented one ~ I'm the 'baby' and didn't like the toxic family situation so I left when I was 8Y.O. and never really looed back .

? Why be anywhere you're not wanted ? .

Sadly, instead of being pleased, many are envious of those who can and do move on and do better, they make endless problems for those who try to do better .

I have sympathy for to - day's young folks, it's not an easy time .

Like you, I learned to make do and work for whatever I wanted, habits leaned 60 years ago are still useful .

Our Foster boys always tell me how I know so much, I tel them that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you actually know .

it's all relative I guess .

I was able to learn to change and prosper in spite of being hard headed and stubborn so I think pretty much anyone can *if* thy try .

I live in the Ghetto of South Central Los Angeles and have little pity for most wh live here in poverty, filth degradation and fake anger ~ yes, racism is real and will crush you but only if you allow it to .

My Sweet is Black and earns more in retirement than I ever did, never went to college but never wasted time acting the fool nor like an animal .

Same deal for my mixed race son .

I taught him early on that life isn't fair so to prosper he'd have to work harder and do better than everyone else and guess what ? he did and does, enjoys a higher standard of living than I ever did or aspired to and makes over $85 K / year . not rich but able to raise up a family of two kids in a nice house with nice cars. Motos, guns, etc. , etc. ~ all the trappings .
.

Far from where I live .

All Americans deserve the chance, if they waste it that's on them but NO EXCUSE to wa$te $ on rich people when there are bad schools and hungry children out there .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I don't think he's autistic ~ I've known quite a few autistic children and they're different , even the high functioning ones .

When I was in stir, we'd get all manner of really screwed up kids who were never, ever going to make it alone (one used a hatched to chop both his parents to bits) sometimes he had to use methods not openly talked about to keep them under control .

kids _died_ there, it wasn't nice, I chose to learn from it ~ my mantra was :

"if I survive this I'll make DAMN SURE I never go back and no one will ever treat me like this again" .

Many never grasped this simple concept and went up to have awful lives, many died , one in particular caused S.F.P.D. so much trouble they simply got tired and shot him down in the street, no one mourned him at all .

Real life is *very* different from the whiners and conspiracy nuts think it is .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

If I seek help at any age it is usually because something is not working for me. So I want change. Specifically a sociopath is quite content as they are. Societies desire for them to be otherwise is almost pointless. Prisons are filled with them.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. When you are trying to change behaviors with no real want to change. Success if any can be transient at best.

It is perhaps as my father told me years ago. You cannot change a persons basic nature. My addition to that even if you can they will often regress. I just call it with no cynical intent to just be the reality. Of the human condition.

Sadly, you are correct .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

You probably deal with the inner city kids of today. That in my mind can be about as hard as it gets at times. For many the free ride through life they expect is probably not going to be there.

Almost half of the latest generation cannot hold a job for more than a few weeks. I read in a recent statistic. I assume the growth of single parent families will continue as well. This may increase the percentage of problems even more.

The only logical saving grace of what you do. Is you did not create the problems you deal with. So the direct guilt is not yours. Yet there is a small collective guilt. Or should be throughout society.

My understanding is many cultures like Japans do not have these issues. North America's government as a leader in society have failed in many things I think. I am not smart enough to think of anyway to stop the human carnage that is pretty evident from it.

Perhaps we have taken the concept of freedom and distorted it and it has evolved into an unrecognizable problem. Perhaps freedom without picking up the responsibility for it is lacking.

Just getting drugs out of the picture might be a start though. It is doable if the will were really there. America is far too preoccupied with things outside it's borders in my opinion. Where there is a major need for some of those resources and efforts internally.

For example why is it not possible to make street gangs unlawful if they are an affront to the majority of society. Certainly they are to the security and safety to the population where they exist. . Or is that a removal of freedom? My belief is instead. The gangs are an attack on others freedom and security. If we are going to continue to base everything on money and the rich. It will get worse by design.

Simply because under the mess it serves a need somewhere in the background for it to exist. It for example might be cheaper overall to pay all kids to try at least in school. Their pay level and it does not have to be much. Would be linked to the performance level at their general basic IQ level.

Good points all .

I don't have any answers either apart from : make people responsible for their actions .

Yes, we get all city boys and very few White ones .

One was from Palmdale, Ca. (a large Desert city), he asked if he could go get a Slurpee @ 7-11, sure it's only two blocks down, he went and was walking out the door when one guy shot another to death right in front of him ~ poor kid was scared witless, took off running and didn;t stop until he was out of L.A. and when he went to DFCS he said 'send me anywhere but not back to Los Angeles ! .

Oops .

It turns out the move "Friday" was filmed five blocks from us , across the boulevard .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

shame L.A. has gotten worse in some areas.But it's world wide.To many rats,in a cage ruled by religion,telling us to breed

__________________
1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Society in general and even our own children. Wear blinders I have observed. What they do not want to see they just keep it out of their perifial vision. It works to keep things as they are.

Racicism is still there unfortunatly but far less than before in my area of the continent. I like to hope people are getting smarter. You would have to be black to really understand it. I am not.

Many years ago I was asked to address a black businessman meeting. I perceived they were actually afraid of the whites. I assumed this had to be reasonably based on their experiences.

The only thing I could offer is the anti discrimination laws where now starting to be enforced. Things have been getting far better for them since even though the problem remains.

The biggest difference there was perhaps an unwritten mandate to cater to their educational needs and that has made a major difference. We now expect a black person to do as well as a white person regionally. You can see the change as they get better jobs now at least. Although I still see the discrimination on occasion myself.

At the beach a young black girl was playing with a similar aged white girl. Two years ago. These kids where about 6 years old. The white girls mother stopped it. Even though the girls where playing well together. Perhaps I should have said something to the mother. Although I am almost certain it would have changed nothing.

A persons bias is about the hardest thing to change. As it is a strong component of their beliefs structure..

The local garbage collection was dominated for decades by people of color. When it came time to turn it into a municipal contract. I suggested that they amalgamate into one group and bid on the contract. Hiring a good lawyer. Instead I found two of them trying to get in with the large company that was going to be bidding.

I told them this would probably not work. As soon as the nation wide contractor got it. They would be out. Same happened to all the local school bus small contractors. The black people probably were unaware that had they appealed to the local public for support. It might have been there. They had always done a good job for decades.

Several things disturbed me at that time. Why did the municipality reach out when there was already a well oiled service in place? They collected directly from their customers periodically with the garbage business. The bus owners where paid by the municipality or school board. All these families where making a living. The profit stayed in the area.

Personally I do not think this was racist. More likely someone was getting some money under the table. Yet you cannot eliminate this as a possibility by those that enabled the replacement systems. I imaging many of those black families landed up on welfare.

The people that got the bus contract overcharged on contract renewal and there was not a possibility to retrench to what was. Many of the owners had probably taken a financial beating when they sold their busses. Plus felt so betrayed they wanted nothing more to do with the people that had done this to them. As for the garbage collection this widespread business is pretty well owned in Canada by old mafia type money. So questionable means of securing contracts could be the norm.

This was about thirty years ago. I really doubt the tolerance exists today here that would let this occur. So there has been some positive change.

The thing that always stays with me in retrospect. Was their fear of the whites at that time was not paranoid. Long ago when I first arrived here there was a black community. I treated them very fair when doing work for them.

Word got around and even today some of their off spring still mention. They remember their parents talking about how fair I was..Usually they also go out of their way to say hello as well. Forcing me to clarify at times that it was unreasonable to charge the going rates under their families circumstances of the time.

There are no specific areas where mostly blacks live today regionally. Many left for the larger cities and the remaining percentage are well dispersed though the region.

The black history here is the result of blacks escaping the American south historically. As Canada had no slavery laws. Unfortunatly Canada was highly discriminatory as well though. So they gained little by coming initially. Freedom while forced into an impoverished existence. Is far from freedom. Basic survival requirements replace it quite easily.

Out cites have been like 'rats in a trap' for over a hundred years, not just because of religious beliefs .

I get to see racism daily, it goes both ways .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Oh, boy .


We took him on vacation and let him swim all day in the swimming pool for three days, got back and he immediately went flying off the rails, SWMBO is talking about giving him the boot after last night ~ he's allowed to go out side and walk off his anger but not at 11PM after driving her crazy for hours, then he locked him self out and rang the door bell for an hour or so, sometime after midnight she finally gave in and called the police, what I think she should have done long before .

This morning some social worker lady showed up and took him off for a while, I caught her before she could drive off and explained that he's close to being put out of our home .

He needs attention 24/7 and will do anything to get it, he's not stupd and like most kids clearly understands that it's easier to get attention by being bad than by being good .

Sigh .

I hate to cut him loose but I fear it's just a matter of time before he turts SWMBO or sets the house on fire or other very bad thing .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Sorry to hear that Nate. Sounds like you have been good to him.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

...Really hard but the endless doing whatever they want and lack of caring about anything is trying, very trying .

I used ti take him to car, Moto and truck events, with me when I worked, hom,e to help out with my dogs and so on, I don't know what he did last time but my Sire turned up soaking wet and my ***** ran from him and hid under my truck ~ it's crazy and endless .

I think he needs some sort of medication but no one even wants to try .

I have no idea what testing is necessary to see what he needs but no one is even trying to find out .

His social worker was trying to close his case and didn't bother telling us ! .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Family doctors can prescribe various medications on mental familiarity with a subject. The uphill struggle with far too many doctors is they see these issues as self inflicted. So they do not in general like dealing with them.

If you can find the right family doctor they can try to help. Mental help without medication is almost pointless at that age. It cannot solve the problems though only making them more manageable for the individual and those around them.

I moved here over forty years ago now as even then I did not like the way the higher populated areas of Canada where going. I felt the environment was far better for our four daughters to grow up in here.

The family remains a tighter unit even now without the distractions and influences present in larger cities. No place is utopia yet overall I think our decision was the best one for us. The lifestyle is laid back somewhat as well reducing stressors. In some ways it has been like stepping back in time by comparison.

We do lose a percentage of our children to the large corporations as they seek out young people from this region. Plus to the allure of the high paying oil region when the price of oil is good.

Unfortunatly many of the things that made areas like ours attractive are changing. We have had no immigration factor like the larger centers either. This has kept some of the pressure away.

A good way to get some perspective. There are less than two million people in all of the four Canadian maritime provinces. There are four million people in Toronto area alone. We do not go up and down nearly as much with the economic swings either. The larger city area influence of today is not a factor on the young either. The largest city in the region is less than 250 thousand I believe.

Just so Barry ;

I'm a Journeyman Mechanic and don't like Country living so I had to follow the job more or less, this meant not living in Los Angeles proper when my son was very young except for a brief period when my ignorant ex wife suddenly moved to down town L.A.in 1977, she soon discovered that the wonderful folks ("her people") in the Barrio were in reality mostly thieves and crooks ready and willing to take any advantage of her they could and did .

I made a point of showing my son the world as much as possible, he's very well rounded, none of our Foster boys are before they come to us .

I used to take them out far and wide to show them a better life is a their fingertips but gave up eventually .

The media and corporate influence is really bad and hard to over come .

I'm lucky to have survived my youth but am running low on patience with to - day's youths .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

? Notice how all those cowardly liars who pretend they care about truth, justice, honesty, basic good citizen ship and claim to be "Christians" haven't said a word here ? .

That's because they'l all F.O.S., remember this the next time they begin to yammer on about corruption, the liberal media and so on....

The truth will set you free .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better