In Washington, DC's Wards 7 and 8, 82 percent of all births are to single mothers.  The District of Columbia promotes this unhealthy trend by promoting value-less sex education.  That means condom use is promoted almost exclusively, and little emphasis is given to encouraging youth to abstain from sex before marriage.  Any female 12 or older in the District can get an abortion with NO parental consent.

According to Washington DC Police Chief Kathy Lanier, there is no clear reason for a 36 percent higher homicide rate than last year.  Ms Lanier and Mayor Muriel Bowser have cited synthetic drug use, dice games, high powered weapons, and the release from custody of repeat violent offenders.

Yet, the biggest issue in promoting stable, safe communities is promoting stable, safe families.  That means families where both parents are present to raise their children.  Ninety percent of children from safe, stable, two-parent homes do not become delinquents. Values stem from what is taught and modeled in the family.  Yet, for instance, in Washington, DC's Wards 7 and 8, 82 percent of all births are to single mothers. 

The District of Columbia promotes this unhealthy trend by promoting value-less sex education.  That means condom use is promoted almost exclusively, and little emphasis is given to encouraging youth to abstain from sex before marriage.  Any female 12 or older in the District can get an abortion with NO parental consent.  As long as neighborhoods have a preponderance of youth growing up without parental supervision, there will continue to be instability, crime and violence.  Schools will also struggle with unruly students.

Respect starts with respectful relationships between the sexes.  When encouraging youth to participate in the Urban Life Training program at Eastern High School, I have had a student dangle condoms that he had obtained from the school nurse, for instance.  The best way to show respect for the opposite sex is to abstain from sexual relationships before marriage.

 LaVar Young reports in his Blog:

"compared with "traditional families," parents of fragile families [families where the parents are not married] are more likely to have become parents in their teens, more likely to have had children with other partners, more likely to be poor, suffer from depression, struggle with substance abuse, and to have been incarcerated. They are also disproportionately African American and Hispanic.

Of the highest concern is what this means for the child, because as the number of fragile families increases, so do the number of children exposed to the unstable environments that they foster. Fragile families are shown to have harsher parenting practices and fewer literacy activities, and children of such families produce lower cognitive test scores and a have a higher incidence of aggressive behavior.

Furthermore, previous research demonstrates that children who live apart from one of their parents at some point in their childhood are twice as likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to have a child before age 20, and one and a half times as likely to be out of school or work by their late teens or early 20s.

The consequences are devastating, not only for these children and their families, but for our communities and for our society as a whole.  As a child's outcomes are compromised, the likelihood that they will continue that negative cycle into adulthood and with their own families is vastly increased. If unstable families are becoming more prevalent, the effect on future generations may be astronomic -- a harrowing potential, considering the already deepening divide between struggling urban communities and their wealthier counterparts."

Furthermore, Lavar says: "We need to reframe the issue. Rather than being about the individual, we can view most social policy as being about children and families, and the choice to make policy decisions that benefit this population."

Yet, does Washington, DC promote policies that are beneficial to children and families?  Programs that teach about the benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage are generally not welcome in DC public schools.  Instead, there is an incessant promotion of condom use.  Teachers are supposed to teach that homosexuality is normal, staring in sixth grade.  There is no discussion of the damaging health effects of homosexual relationships. 

Mayor Bowser did not have time this past March to meet with high school students from Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC to discuss their desire to form a Youth Prevention Corps that promotes sexual abstinence before marriage.  What does this say about Bowser's commitment to the welfare of families in Washington, DC?

In the wake of previous murders on South Capitol street in 2011, former Councilmember David Catania pushed legislation that was passed that requires pre-school teachers to evaluate the mental health of students.  The same bill requires a health panel  in each high school (read: more promotion of the homosexual agenda of pushing the normalcy of homosexuality on the student population).

To help end the spate of murders in our community for the long run, lets make policies that encourage parents to be married.  Let's provide education in all DC public schools that teaches the benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage.  Let's form a Youth Prevention Corps consisting of youth who are committed to sexual abstinence before marriage.

And in the short run, let's make sure that dangerous criminals are in jail, not out on the streets.  Let's also have an "Exile" type program that requires mandatory jail time for those caught carrying or using illegal weapons.  The safety of our community depends on making both long term and short term reforms.  Let's start thinking a lot more about what is best for families and children, not about what satisfies the sexual preferences of adults.