shocking
when i lived in kalamazoo a murderer left a perfect imprint of his shoe in my dad's flowerbed. a kid down the street had been killed. the police surrounded my house with yellow tape. the other day i saw that same yellow tape surrounding a gas station near my home, another young man dead. all summer long brett and i would try to avoid watching the news because we grew tired of people asking us if we had heard the news that yet another round of shots was fired in our neighborhood. at least we could honestly tell them no.
it is for these young men who are intent on killing each other that i have decided to write my nursing capstone paper on teen violence. specifically, reducing the number of non-fatal firearm injuries among young black males (a goal of Healthy People 2010). only...i can't. and that is because this paper involves including writing about a successful intervention, an intervention that has proved to work in reducing these injuries and there are none. even though the government, in its Healthy People 2010 report, states that young black men are their main target in this area, most of the interventions i have found involve teaching children, whose parents own guns, gun safety. so, instead of focusing on the people who need intervening most, our society has decided to focus on white, suburban crazy people who keep guns in their homes and don't lock them up, so their children can shoot themselves in the face. obviously, this is a problem in and of itself. the research surrounding this topic is, of course, important. however, doesn't it seem odd?
i would have never thought about this problem in such detail had i not chose this topic. i pointed it out to my professor that i could not find any appropriate interventions for my topic. she hopped on a computer to prove that yes sara, there are interventions. she found some involving educating third graders. i pointed out to her that my topic was about teens. she said, "well, by that time it is too late." i almost fell to the floor! what my research has shown me, is that nobody REALLY cares about what these kids are doing to each other. we've wiped our hands clean. yes, there are the few the proud the strong who teach in the inner cities, who act as mentors, who go tubing with kids even after working outside all day in crazy cold temperatures (aka brett). but these people do not have the money, the time or the energy, but mostly the money...to reduce the number of firearm related injuries in young, black males.
i think i am going to have to change my paper topic. i'm thinking about reduction of homicide (also a Healthy People 2010 goal). there seems to be more information about these kids after they're already dead. i'll let you know if i find any interventions, but i'm not holding my breath. -sn
it is for these young men who are intent on killing each other that i have decided to write my nursing capstone paper on teen violence. specifically, reducing the number of non-fatal firearm injuries among young black males (a goal of Healthy People 2010). only...i can't. and that is because this paper involves including writing about a successful intervention, an intervention that has proved to work in reducing these injuries and there are none. even though the government, in its Healthy People 2010 report, states that young black men are their main target in this area, most of the interventions i have found involve teaching children, whose parents own guns, gun safety. so, instead of focusing on the people who need intervening most, our society has decided to focus on white, suburban crazy people who keep guns in their homes and don't lock them up, so their children can shoot themselves in the face. obviously, this is a problem in and of itself. the research surrounding this topic is, of course, important. however, doesn't it seem odd?
i would have never thought about this problem in such detail had i not chose this topic. i pointed it out to my professor that i could not find any appropriate interventions for my topic. she hopped on a computer to prove that yes sara, there are interventions. she found some involving educating third graders. i pointed out to her that my topic was about teens. she said, "well, by that time it is too late." i almost fell to the floor! what my research has shown me, is that nobody REALLY cares about what these kids are doing to each other. we've wiped our hands clean. yes, there are the few the proud the strong who teach in the inner cities, who act as mentors, who go tubing with kids even after working outside all day in crazy cold temperatures (aka brett). but these people do not have the money, the time or the energy, but mostly the money...to reduce the number of firearm related injuries in young, black males.
i think i am going to have to change my paper topic. i'm thinking about reduction of homicide (also a Healthy People 2010 goal). there seems to be more information about these kids after they're already dead. i'll let you know if i find any interventions, but i'm not holding my breath. -sn
posted by SN at 5:17 PM
4 Comments:
I don't mean to nit-pick you on a serious post, but in all seriousness why is the goal "reducing the number of non-fatal firearm injuries among young black males". Wouldn't fatal injuries be just as much a concern? Or are these just catagorized differently?
Healthy People makes new objectives every 10 years depending on the progress of prior objectives. perhaps the number of fatal injuries has been reduced to meet their goals...either that or they are including those in their homicide goal...OR maybe they are thinking that nonfatal injuries could in fact lead to more violent retaliation if the person were to recover and return home. those are my guesses.
Come to Neland Church on Mon and Tues nights and go to Baxter on Fri night. You will see the type of program you are looking for in action-- run by a one-eyed ex-con. Maybe you should stick with the idea!
oh...i'm determined to stick with the idea! but what i'm talking about is government funded programs. you just don't see the money dedicated to the inner cities like you do for other places, at least not focusing on the prevention of violence. i'm telling you, it's pretty crazy. i've been researching for three weeks and still haven't found one good intervention! i would love to write about your ex-con friend, but this has to be a researched, proved to work intervention...
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