by Alain Jehlen in Schools and Youth
Posted on April 3, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Last Modified on April 6, 2008 at 9:46 pm
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This speech about Somerville young people killed by drugs, made the front page of the Globe’s City section. But publicity’s not enough. What should Somerville do about it?
Last spring, at a Teen Empowerment youth “peace conference,” Mark McLaughlin gave this speech about lives destroyed by drugs. The Globe printed it, with the headline, “The Graduation Speech You’ll Never Hear.”
or watch it here:
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The next Peace Conference is just next week. In that past year, who has done what in response to this challenge by Mark McLaughlin?
How many meetings have YOU attended? How many more school teachers/administrators have you added to your email lists?
How many “issues” – achievement, drugs, violence, alienation, despair, anomie, etc. – have you begun to address with people under 25?
The measure of “community” is NOT how many play in their community on sites like this. Instead, it’s how many more people do you know, talk with, respect, learn from, teach, share meals with, earn that first name relationship, and trust who live in the general region where you live. For me its been a good year, quite a good year, and the McLaughlins are not small contributors to that quality of life. But I wonder how many other “progressives” have gone beyond their boundaries and engaged more of the reality of this city.
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