January 23, 2006
Bad luck?
Today's Seattle Times reports:
Tyrone BrownEL hasn't had a lot of luck in his life.
By the time he was 15, he had repeatedly spent time in King County's juvenile detention. He says he has been charged with everything from shoplifting to possession of narcotics to having stolen checks. School was erratic, broken by frequent scrapes with the law.
I'm not sure that Tyrone's problems stem from a lack of luck as much as from his own lack of making appropriate choices. The article is about how Tyrone is turning his life around with the help of a mentor, and I hope he succeeds. It occurs to me that one of the first steps for a delinquent to reform himself is to realize that he's the only one in control of his own behavior. It seems sadly counter-productive for a newspaper to propagate the message that criminal behavior is caused by bad luck.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 23, 2006
09:22 AM | Email This
1. WE HEAR THIS EVERY NIGHT ON THE NEWS...HE/SHE... WERE "GETTING THEIR LIFE TOGETHER"...AND WAS JUST COUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE BETWEEN THE POLICE AND THE BAD GUYS IN A GANG SHOOT OUT OR SOME OTHER ILLEGAL ACT.
2. I would say the young man in question has been lacking in WISDOM, not in LUCK.
3. Another discounting of personal responsibility
4. I think the big story here is the
Times implication that if Tyrone had a lot of luck in his life he would not have been charged for all of this crimes.
crime = scrapes
caught = unlucky
5. Yes, and if I had had luck, I would have won the lottery and had a much easier life. Fortunately, I didn't wait for that to happen. I made my own luck, as most people do, or at least used to.
6. Would saying having a father figure in the picture be too judgemental?
I agree, though, he did have bad luck. He got caught up in the Seattle school system with no choice of an alternate. The everything goes no disipline, no standards, no expectations, environment he got forced in by the loving caring school system.
7. I WONDER...DID TYRONE MEET HIS MENTOR IN JUVINILE DETENTION??? IF SO, I KNOW WE WILL BE HEARING MORE FROM TYRONE IN THE FUTURE!!!
8. This is the central thesis of today's liberal world: Life is happening to you, you can't control it, especially when evil conservatives want to make you try to handle it all by yourself. So don't feel bad when you turn to crime, get poor grades, can't find a job, etc. because it's not your fault, it's just that you are a victim that needs help.
And that's why they are losing, because everyone out here in the real world knows that life is 99% hard work and good choices, and 1% luck or fate. Choose wisely.
9. There can't be change until we take responsibility for our own actions. And no, the Times isn't helping this young man do that, with the phrasing the reporter has chosen.
10. That's Seattle in a nutshell: never hold anyone accountable for their own actions. The city moto should be: We nurture loosers here.
11. Is it just me or haven't the republicans been using arguments that if we allow children to grow up in a household with gay parents, they will grow up to be deviant.
Is it that hard to believe that people growing up in poverty in a bad neighborhood are going to have a harder life with more exposure to crime? oh let me guess,
gay parents = terrorists
poverty = who cares
to me this reads as
heartless + senseless = republican
12. Patrick, my dad grew up poor and his dad died young but my dad didn't turn into a juvenile deliquent. Don't insult all poor people as though they are all animals just waiting to 'go bad'. Some do, but most don't.
13. I didn't say all poor people turn to crime, read my post again. I asked if it was hard to believe that children growing up poor and in a dangerous (i said bad, but I'll rephrase if it helps) neighborhood are more exposed to crime? I never said poor people are animals, nor that they are all waiting to go bad. What I am suggesting is that investing in improving the neighborhoods and in reducing poverty will lower crime.
14. He found himself...(fill in blank.)
15. I have one word that all liberals need to learn: Consequences. All actions have consequences, either positive or negative. When someone tries to make money the easy way i.e. steals it from someone else (or extorts it from someone else via the legislature in exchange for a DEMOgraphic) there are sanctions that will be imposed by the criminal justice system for that behavior (the first example not the second, not yet at least).
Luck is being the right person in the right place at the right time. Character is what makes you the right person in the first place, it demands you choose the morally correct alternative, not the easiest path to what you want.
16. Good catch, Stefan. What a horribly written lead in the Times.
This guy may well have had far more bad luck (and far less good luck) in his life than you or I, but the article didn't say that. So while the reporter's sentiment may have been appropriate, his writing was appalling.
17. Bad luck is growing up in plague infested medieval Europe, or Germany in 1940, or North Korea. Or being born disabled, or developing childhood cancer.
Being born in 20th century America is the greatest stroke of good fortune imaginable. But still, if you make bad choices you will likely be a failure.
Growing up in a house with no daddy (the case for 2/3 of all African-American children) is very damaging - but is that bad luck on the mother's part? Hint - don't let men you are not married to impregnate you.
18. Patrick:
It's just you. ;-)
All kidding aside, though, there are indeed some of the right who state what you said they do. The problem you seem to overlook is whether or not their statement respresents all conservatives, a majority of conservatives, or just a few.
You might be surprised to find out how many people on both sides call those folks idiots.
19. Patrick: So much for your logic. I know a family member who grew up in an upper-middle class family and still dropped out of school and took drugs. Even financially comfortable families can have these problems.
What I CAN believe is that kids without dads around (or who are gone too much) are most at risk to 'go bad'. That's exactly what this kid doesn't seem to have: a dad to guide him. And the relative I refer to had a father who was gone a lot.
Show me a poor kid with a dad around to provide strong guidance and I'll show you a kid that has an excellent chance to grow up 'good.' The problem with libs is they think that money solves everything. it doesn't. But involved fathering beats tax dollars any day.
20. Misty - Do you understand the word risk? not guaranteed to turn to a life of crime, just risk.
How about the word more? I said more exposure to crime for people in poverty, not no exposure to crime for the middle and upper class, just less.
Let me ask this again, do you think that investing in improving neighborhoods and in reducing poverty would help to reduce crime? If you don't think so, just say so. By the way you bring up your dad as the only outcome for growing up in a poor family is, and that middle class kids go bad with drugs and crime, would you suggest that we take away all the money of the middle class and let them grow up poor so they will be "good"? Come on, expand on your arguments, taking them to the next level is enlightening, it helps me understand a lot of republican policy ideas.
(I don't really think that this is what prompts republican policy, or that misty's shortsightedness is widespread, but please, if people want to reduce crime think about reducing poverty)
21. Patrick:
Can you say Patty Hearst, or Ted Bundy, or Scott Peterson, or Gary Ridgeway, or, or, or? I don't think poverty is the overrriding factor in crime. I think family values are the overriding factor, bolstered by two caring parents. Rich, middle class, low income, they all screw up if there is no foundation to depend on. My mother grew up in Los Angeles in the Depression, was dirt poor, divorced parents, hungry most of the time, and somehow she turned out just fine. So I really don't think environment is the be all and end all for crime. It's CHOICE. But I do believe that our kids today are not seeing the real consequences of poor choices and the rewards of good ones. We're teaching them that they deserve instant gratification in all things and they're going to get off easy for quite some time before they have to face any consequences.
22. I'm not going to read the article, since it seems pretty clear Tyrone was not involved in things that he should have been.
It is interesting, however, that he seems to be doing better now that he has a mentor.
I wonder if he has a father and, if so, where his father is. If not, what happened to pull his father out of his life.
The single largest determinant of a teenagers success in life is whether or not he lives in a household with his biological father. Sure, some of these fathers crap out on their responsibilities. Most don't want to though. They get forced out by Washington state's family court system, false allegations of abuse, and the SS of DHS who put the fathers in jail if they become unemployed and can't meet their child support payments.
23. "Do you think that investing in improving neighborhoods and in reducing poverty would help to reduce crime?"
Yes. But it's the residents of the neighborhoods that need to do the "investing." They need to "invest" in it by collectively having and living by moral values which contribute to make a neighborhood a neighborhood in the first place. And if you are referring to a more literal meaning of the word "invest," then I agree with that too. But the money used should come from the community itself - the residents and private community organizations. The problem is, the libs' definition of "investing in neighborhoods" is usually just a code word for government handouts. Then the circle is complete: Born to bad luck/became a victim/rescued by public safety net. Personal investment: ZERO. But this is the same guy who someday will compete in society with the best and brightest who fought their way up. Now the cycle is really complete: Instead of a higher success achieved by the hardworking, we have a mediocre success achievable by anyone. Is it any wonder those who make the right choices are angry? Government. The new Robinhood.
24. I believe that whether a family has a good father figure/role model around is a huge factor in whether the kids grow up to be well-adjusted, responsible adults. It's also true that poverty is much more likely if a single mother is raising the kids (another reason to keep a strong father presence in the home). Involved fathering matters far more than how nice your neighborhood is. Notice that Tyrone seems to be turning his life around because of a substitute father figure coming into his life. The prisons are filled with men whose fathers were absent from their lives. Studies even show that the tone for emotional well-being of girls is set by their relationship with their father. Even I was surprised by that one. Men have a huge role to play in family life; larger than they themselves may even realize.