The Importance of Having a Family Structure

One of the saddest problems we face in today'sage son is, "be your own man" don't get pressured
society is the violence our youth are exposed to andinto getting into trouble just to part of the crowd.
committing, many people have asked and wondered,· Video games- This one is difficult as today's
why has the violence among our young peopleparent were once addictive to video games like
increased from the time of today's parents. The sadpac-man, asteroids and Donkey Kong the difference
and scary part of this epidemic is the fact that theseis that today's video games are much more graphic
are the youth which are suppose to be are outand violent, if not controlled and monitored, it will
future educators, lawyers, entrepreneurs, policementake over your son or daughter lives and could
and leaders of our community. In my opinion there isinfluence them in a negative way.
one major contributing factor to this problem but,· Drugs & Alcohol- Unfortunately a part of American
before I express this opinion, let me share otherculture, today's teens face the same dangers if not
factors which are not helping with this social crisis:more, than we as parent's faced when we were
· The influence of music and entertainment- Itgrowing up. Experimenting with social drugs is how it
doesn't take a genius to figure out that teens wantstarts and can very easily lead to more hard core
to mimic their favorite artist unfortunately, much ofdrugs and to a path of destruction and violence.
what they see are bad examples especially when itIn my opinion however, the factor which has
comes to degrading women.contributed the most to this social tragedy is the
· The easy access to hand guns- I believe in thebreakdown of the family structure in today's society
right to bear arms but, only in the hands ofespecially in the Hispanic and Black communities. I am
responsible citizens and the system with dealersaware of many troubled young people who do come
buying and selling guns is broken, go to most gunfrom a house hold of two parents, but the number
shows and you will see shady deals going on in someof troubled teens who come from single family house
dark corner. And there is no reason why a citizenholds far exceed this. Ponder on this for a while, it is
should own a gun more powerful than Lawnot a coincidence that some of the most successful
Enforcement.ethic groups in America are those with strong family
· Peer pressure- One of the strongest factorsties. Men in particular need to step up to the plate
especially if a young person does not have a personand take on the responsibility of being a father and
he or she can look up to and guide them in the righthusband and realize the importance role he needs to
direction. My motto I constantly preach to my teenfulfill. Opposing and similar views are welcome here.