In
the book Hearts and hands: Building Community in violent times by Luis
Rodriguez, a former gang member, community activist, foster parent of troubled
youth, wants to bring awareness and demonstrate the possibility for change when
it comes to down to violence in the community. He wants to inform community
leaders that have the power to provide resources to youth, academic students
and politics, government that the solutions that they have today are increasing
violence and that youth have the capability to change with other preventative
routes. His purpose is to provide context, challenge the assumptions, to
demonstrate the possibility for change when it comes to people like him. He
wants to find a way of empowering those who are affected by violence. He wants
to create change. There a many people who believe that youth who was troubled
once will never change. They have the assumption that if they are affiliated
with gangs they should be called “monsters”, and not treated like humans, they
believe that they should be isolated and go to prison because those with
authority and parents do not give them the opportunity for that individual to
explore other ways to create change. They have the misconception that ones a
gang member, always a gang member and will never change. The problem in our
community is that society fails to teach youth to no be violent; they isolate
them for the mistakes they do and don’t give them the opportunity to find a
solution. Therefore, youth turn to gangs to find comfort and acceptance. The
solution would be that youth should be encouraged to attend programs, which
will help them change unlike, being isolated like the current system does it.
Youth that is believed to be
affiliated with gang’s, are now called “monsters” and they have the connotation
that they do not deserve to be treated as humans. Those with authority make
regulations for the troubled youth, like treating them in court as adults. They
are humans themselves and deserve the same respect as any other human being in
the community. In the book, Hearts and hands, Rodriguez claims, “Of course
being called a “monster” now a days had the connotation of not being a human—an
animal—therefore, deserving of less than human consideration” (Rodriguez 31). This
makes me view that violence changes the whole perspective on people and how
they view those that are involved violence. People in the community should not
judge the youth, because they do not know the reason on why they join gangs and
why they are violent. Youth happen to join gang’s, which leads them to
violence, one factor that leads the path is the experiences they have at home.
For example, Francisco, from the book hearts and hands, was physically abused
by his step-father, his mother hold him down so he can beat Francisco. That
experience affected him, in feeling the sense of not belonging there and not
feeling loved by his mother anymore. Youth need to feel surrounded by people
that receive them with hearts and hands; which is necessary for their proper
growth.
Youth
need support and guidance from the community and their families, they need to
be reached out from people that can help them experience proper growth and can
help them succeed in life. He asserts, “Young people need a place—both at home
and in the community—of unconditional acceptance, where they are honored, where
their natural gifts are nurtured and they can live out purposeful lives”
(Rodriguez 50). I believe youth can succeed in trying to change for good, if adults
can help them feel accepted by the community and honored, the youth will feel
encouraged and will try harder to become engaged in life and find their ability
to reform the world with their own gifts. A good example, is Francisco, which
he was involved with gang members soon after he felt unloved and misplaced by
his mother and step father. An English teacher found the potential in Francisco
and gave him the patience to help him study for his General Equivalency Diploma
(GED). She saw a genius not a gangster, Francisco was desperately seeking to be
filled. It took time, but he succeeded, he became a father and vowed to not
repeat the mistakes his own family did with him.
People need to not
judge others and think that they are not going to change just because they made
a mistake once. Rodriguez provides, “The
group cant meet here anymore, he declared. I’ve heard you have gang members in
the group. We don’t allow any gang member in our facilities” (73). It was
unfair how the director of the community center where the youth would meet,
told them that they could no longer meet there because he had heard that they
were gang members. They were once affiliated with gangs, but they were in the
community center, involved in activities because they were willing to change. I
believe that the society in which youth is also part of, needs to help the
youth instead of rejecting them and putting them aside. Our methods of
authority towards the troubled youth, is only pushing them away by isolating
those who do “bad” things. The justice system that we currently have, should
have alternatives other than isolating the prisoners in jail. The alternative
would be programs in which the youth can reflect on their life’s and the
problems they have, rather than being isolated in prison, forgetting how your
community works and putting others in danger because the prisoners do not know
how to act once they are released in to the community.
Youth seek to find
their place where they feel recognized and they can see their way out of violence
and their involvement in gangs if any. Rodriguez created a program called Youth
Struggling for Survival (YSS), this program is set to reach out and assist
youth who are falling into traps of violence, drugs, and alcohol. Rodriguez
describes, “ The purpose of these workshops was to take twenty to thirty young
writers from various public and private schools, homeless youth shelters, and
violence prevention programs and help prepare them for a writers life” (219).
Having Luis take those kids to the workshops and having them find themselves
with writing is a good prevention program because it helps them take their mind
off of the streets and violence, and they are more likely to be involved in
activities that can help them feel honored, welcomed and acknowledged for what
they do.
In conclusions,
this issue is important to the community because it makes the community members
think about how many youth are involved in violence and the reasons are not
only because of gangs. Everyone from the community should care about this
problem because anyone from their family can be in the certain situation. Like
I said before, if we continue to focus on the bad things youth do they will
continue to ignore what you say and turn to others for comfort, support and
acceptance. People need to stop categorizing youth based on what they see
around them. Young kids usually sacrifice themselves and turn to drugs,
violence, gangs and prison, by paying with their lives just because those in
their community fail to give them the place they need in order for them to feel
accepted
- How do violence, pain, and loss impact our personal identities? Our communities? I believe that violence affects our personal identities in many ways. It can impact you mentally, or physically and then you wont be the same after that .For example, in the book hearts and hands, there's two siblings and one of them is believed to be involved in gangs and he gets thrown to jail. He was very close to his brother and ever since his brother got thrown in to jail because he was believed to be affiliated with gangs he hasn't been the same. He has anger towards people and he feels lonely because the only person that he had was him. So this goes back to how violence and being involved in gangs can cause that sense of loss in you an d then at that point you just don't care.
- Violence impacts our community in a bad way because it can make people scared to go out and not feel that comfort of being in the community. Gangs are usually against other gangs and that's how violence is made. Also, it can affect the community in a negative way because violence is giving the youth a perspective that it is okay for them to do what they see. like vandalism and shooting others and having a rival gangs. it gives the youth to mind set of not doing anything with their lifes wither sent to jail or dead
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