: Building Community/Facing Violence- Thesis Revision and Body Paragraphs

Thesis: After Reading Rodriguez analysis of violence and his critique of our current solutions to the problem that our communities suffer do to violence changes my point of view of the problem. Because the youth are so vulnerable to violence, they are the ones that are the most affected because they are going through a stage of learning, they need better communication with adult figures, they need guidance from people who have experienced more, many youth go out to look for the support they don’t have at home out in the streets and that can lead them to turn to gangs, the community fail to pay any attention to this problem and fail to support the youth, people should be more aware of violence in every community due to the youth is the next generation and they are being put away in jail cells and not given a chance to succeed in life. People should come to a realization that what they are doing know is only affecting the youth more.

Body paragraph:While youth is in the process of figuring out who they are; by either making their own decisions or experimenting, Adults need to diagnose the difficult stage that the youth is going through, they are in the process of learning and adapting to society. Adults should provide guidance and have meaningful talks with the youth that can help make better choices. In Rodriguez analysis he discusses about Francisco’s situation whom was very smart but seemed to have trouble staying in school. Francisco was raised by a single mother because his father walked out of his life when he was young; he lacked communication with adults he looked up too. Since Francisco was very young he was hurt and often felt like he was alone he turned to gangs for comfort, Francisco was associating with the wrong people and he was being categorizes and often he was being put down and set up for failure by his own community.. Rodriguez states “…although he had many things going for him. What he needed to get through this situation was a unified collective of caring adults who would hang in there with him… couldn't be done when those most needed to help him do so had removed themselves from an integral and trustworthy place in the boy’s life” (73). Francisco was thrown out of school and no school wanted him, he didn't finish school. Francisco was out in the streets and later began to hang out with the wrong people, he had nothing else to. Since his community through him out of the only place where he can become someone he lost all hope and found comfort out in the streets. When youth are at their weakest and they have experimented things that resulted with negative consequences, like being involved with gangs, all they need is someone who can support them to do better choices instead of being punished. When the youth keeps being punished harshly and when they are being isolated form their community they have nowhere to turn to but to the people that will be there for them. Many can argue that the youth should know better because “they are old enough to know better” but because they are in such a vulnerable stage in life, where they feel like everything is good and sounds good at the moment, what they need is an adult that will be there to support them and provide guidance for them that can possibly guide the youth down the right path.