To Whom It May Concern: Why Are You Turning Your Back on the Children?
What would the future be like without our youth? There would be no future.
Refused the right to rehabilitation. Refused a chance to learn and grow. Refused a chance to become a better person. A productive member of society. Stripped of self-esteem and self-respect by a system that would rather fund more jails for our youth than fund programs that bring about positive results. It is impersonal and it is cruel.
Walden House Youth Facility is closing. These children are being displaced and kicked out because our City and our government could not care less about what happens to these children at the facility, or the many more like them who will have no options except to be locked up like animals; or dead bodies on our streets.
All of the children that come to places like Walden House need a mother, a father, sister brother, aunt, uncle etc. If they did not have a family when they came to Walden House, they have one when they leave. Once you walk in that door you have an immediate family. All their hatred is left outside the door. No matter where the youth come from they are all family one and the same. There is someone and something to address every one of their needs. They learn non-violence and learn to talk about what they are feeling inside. They learn coping skills, solutions, and how to be a friend instead of an enemy. Go to school. Get a job. So many opportunities they would not get if left to the streets or locked up.
To close this facility or any like it is morally wrong. After all, these children are just like all of us or our own children. The only difference being that someone took the time, the money, the love, and the patience to give some of us a chance. Someone gave us hope, and a shoulder to cry on. Don’t these children deserve that too? Closing the doors of Walden House is to throw these kids out onto the streets and all who come behind them to death or prison. And that is a big waste of human life. All responsible for doing these horrible things are guilty of being part of the problem and not part of the solution: keeping youth from self-destructing.
Hiding behind the excuse of budget cuts and no money is simply ludicrous! These are human beings we are talking about. Just like the rest of us, just like our children.
The youth you are turning your back on are at-risk youth. Our children are dying everyday. Where is your conscience? Is this okay with you? Someone invested in your future. Can you invest in theirs? What is more important: a human life or a budget?
If you actually took the time to come out and see these kids and what they do at the facility, you would see a part of yourself in each and every one of the children. All they need is a place such as Walden House to be nurtured, find their strengths, and coping skills for their weaknesses; a place where they are listened to, disciplined, and taught responsibility.
I am begging all responsible to reconsider the decision to close Walden House. To stand by the decision you have made will mean the beginning of the end of our future: theirs, yours, and mine.
Please reconsider.
theresagriffith