Real hope and change for Ferguson and the country

The situation in Ferguson, Mo. is so sad and so unnecessary and so predictable. A black teen is killed by a white police officer and too many people won’t wait for an investigation. They have to act now. And act they did.

They burned and looted their own neighborhood. They punished people who had nothing to do with either Michael Brown or the officer who shot him. And then people say, “I don’t condone the looting but you have to understand their anger.” By saying that “you have to understand their anger” you’re condoning the looting. The killing of a black teen and the looting of convenient stores and shoe stores have absolutely no connection. The only link is that some thug opportunists took advantage of the situation.

In fact, we now know that rent-a-mob types from Oakland and who knows where else flocked to Ferguson to take advantage of the ugly atmosphere. Should we be at all surprised? This is the conduct that results from an entitlement

mentality. Black-on-black crime happens many times a day yet you never see Al Sharpton showing up to do something about it.

The reason so many black people in Ferguson and other American cities are angry is because, whether they realize it or not, their lives have been destroyed by liberalism. The American left thought it would help black folks by righting the wrongs of the past with free stuff from the government. Instead of freeing black people from the chains of racism it merely changed the lock to government dependence.

This is LBJ’s Great Society. It doesn’t look so great today, does it? And it’s all been by design.

Government housing projects are nothing more than petri dishes for crime. They certainly don’t make lives better. They destroy them. Most of us can’t imagine raising our kids in those conditions but for too many it’s a cyclical way of life that dates back 50 years.

Ask any cop in any major city where the crime is and he or she will tell you. Around the housing projects. So, what’s the solution? Destroy the housing projects. Yeah, I know. It’s as simple as that. It really is.

Of course, that’s not to say that you dump all the residents out on the street. First of all, you need to separate the needy from the greedy. Make sure we’re only giving shelter to those who can’t physically or mentally take care of themselves. The others need to go find employment and start putting their lives back together.

For those who truly need government assistance, whether it be a single mom or an elderly grandfather, we give them a voucher for a set amount. They take that voucher to any apartment complex and they get an apartment. We have to make sure we limit the number of units in any apartment complex to ten percent or we’re just going to relocate the housing project.

We give welfare recipients more flexibility, better living conditions, and more responsibility. If they’re running meth out of the apartment they lose their voucher. If they’re trashing the apartment and its surroundings they’re evicted. We have to start demanding that the government-dependent start acting like the rest of us or face the consequences like the rest of us.

That’s how you build productive citizens. That’s how you create hope. That’s how you save another generation from the gangs and the pimps and the pushers. That’s how you prevent people from burning down neighborhoods because they’re angry. That’s how you restore dignity. That’s how you solve problems.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.