Save Our Youths from Gang Violence

1279 Words6 Pages
Janice Clack July 10, 2011 DL02 Save Our Youths from Gang Violence My visual argument shows how gang violence is stealing the future of our youths. Youths join gangs for a variety of reasons, such as protection, money and power, but the end result is always the same, a youth lost to the violence of street life. Their futures are stolen because of their confusion, their lack of knowledge and the lack of people who care about them and their future. These children become known as menaces to society and criminals because of the life-style they have chosen, a life-style that becomes detrimental to their sanity and well-being. They only see their immediate need for protection, becoming a part of a family or money and they fail to see that being in a gang will ruin their lives and dreams while stealing their future. The very entity that they believe is saving them and their future is actually killing them and stealing their lives. The crossfire of gang violence destroys the lives of everyone it touches, especially the ones who are initiated into these gangs. They are lost and confused young people who do not see a better future than the crime that surrounds them. Many of their futures do not contain a career and family, instead their future consists of incarceration or death. The gang violence that they become participants in not only destroys the lives of the people who are their victims, but they themselves are victims of their environment and circumstances. In the long run, most of these youths’ futures are destroyed. The reason I chose gang violence is because being a previous resident of Baltimore City, I witnessed first-hand how a lot of these children become a product of their environment. Within my first few years of moving to Virginia, I was notified that two of my oldest son’s friends lost their lives because of their
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