Gang Love Is the only Love They Know

There are more than 350,000 teenage gang members in the U.S; there is a way to keep your kid, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, moms, and dads from living this horrid life threatening lifestyle. When young men and women do not live in the right neighborhoods they are exposed to the wrong kind of role models, see things they shouldn't, and don't get a decent education. When they see all this and feel unwanted at home or at school they turn to something outside of those places and the first thing they go to is what is happening around them, gangs. When they join gangs they start doing things out of their nature. Some people think its bad parenting; sometimes it is but a lot of the time the kids just get tired of not being a part of something. They believe that they are alone and that gangs can be their "family" when in reality they are just another body ready to be replaced. When you look at a teenager on the street most people think that he is just another thug but there is a reason he is with those kinds of people whether it's the fact that he was pressured, lived in the wrong neighborhood and felt unloved or they had absolutely nothing else to do.

A lot of the time teens feel like they can't do anything with their life; therefore they choose the lifestyle of a gang member with thrill girls money and drugs. Some teens cannot be occupied with the simple activities provided at school. In this case they turn to something that will get their hearts racing and adrenaline pumping. Gangs are something that people can get in to where there are no rules and no restrictions, it's a dog eat dog world as soon as they get themselves in this situation there is no turning back and the only way out is live to be old and death. In the ghettos there is as much to do in their free time. Also the fact that numerous people are drug users affects the gang life. When a teen has a drug addicted parent they are traumatized for life. That shouldn't be something that anyone should deal with especially not at a young age. When parents are addicted to these drugs they often neglect or reject their children. The separation these kids go through would cause kids to look for a different kind of family. The first thing they see are the gangs on the streets how they protect each other. That's exactly what they need, someone to lean on when times get rough, but those are not the people they need to get it from. The biggest problem with gang members is that most of them live in poverty. "...gangs exist in poor rundown areas of the cities." (How Street Gangs Work) People who live in these communities don't live in decent houses. The conditions of these houses are terrible; they are broken down and have no a/c or a heater. When living in these communities the education is limited. The schools cannot afford to keep all the schoolbooks up to date. A lot of the time the teachers at these schools let the children do what they want and goof off because all they care about is the check they get at the end of the month not the well being of the students. As you can see the children are not completely at fault there are major factors that lead them to that decision.

There are two major ways to end gangs is reducing poverty and keep people from getting to addicted to drugs and treat the people who are addicted rehabilitated. The first solution is to get people out of ghettos. "In Uganda poverty was able to be cut by 40%."(Mallaby, 1) If we can cut poverty in another country why cant we do it in ours. We are able to raise money and get people in other countries out of poverty yet we sit here and let our projects grow and with this the gangs grow and so does the crime rate. The only problem is that we need cooperation from everyone. "...the bank needs to communicate better..." (Mallaby, 1) The money needs to be steadily earned and saved to slowly get these people out of these conditions. Next we need to stop the drug trafficking in America. If we stop that the gangs will have nothing to sell and they will eventually die out with nothing to get money from.

In order to get people out poverty we have to make it to where they have the education so start with the parents and get them jobs and the teams will follow in their footsteps. Do you see what's going on here? This is degrading two-thirds