NO EXCUSES!!!!!!!

In the beginnig of Douglas Massey's article,William Wilson is trying to explain why the poor are in their situation. His theory explained that due to fact that high paying jobs for the low skilled citizen that once existed in the city are no longer available, people have and are becoming more and more poor. My immediate response to this statement was the obvious......it is not high paying jobs for the unskilled worker that inner cities need, it is education and training that we are in desperate need of. With or without the availability of specific jobs, the quality of people that is being left behind is the real issue. If a quality education was a bit easier to attain, people would be able to move out of the city in search for better jobs. In my opinion, city reformers' intentions are to keep the poor, poor. I do not feel that enough effort is being put forth to fix the problem in the citites. For example, growing up,I have always wondered how my friends were getting new clothes and sneakers and their mothers didn't have jobs! I soon learned that the welfare system was supplying people with housing, food, clothes and money! And I always asked myself, what is the point of getting a job when luxuries are being given away for free? But boy was I wrong! Living in the city has taught me alot about survival, I knew by the time that I was able to fill out a job application, that there was something wrong with "the system". Yeah people were getting all of this help from "the system" but they were forced to live in impoverished areas for the rest of their lives. There is no chance, or shall I say legal chance for upward mobility once a person has given up their right attain an education. Once a person got on welfare, chances are, they are never getting off. Regardless if a person lives five minutes or fifty minutes of at least a half decent paying job, there is no excuse for not having one! Public transportation is always available to everyone so I think that it is silly when I hear or read about the "decline in manufacturing" or "the suburbanization of blue collar employent" in the cities.
As I continued reading the article, Massey began to talk about how racial and social segregation was at fault when determining the causes of poverty. I believe it is the complete opposite way around. It is because of the laziness of inner city people and the lack of motivation that they have that they have fallen so far behind in the race for success that they put themselves in a situaiton where the only place they can afford to go is to the ghetto streets of the city. While everyone else in suburbias are working hard for their dollar, the poor will continue to be left behind. I do happen to agree with Massey when he talks about the association of poverty and crime. It seems like, the poorer you are, they worser the neighborhood you live in, the more likely you are to commit or be a victim of a crime. It is sad to say but very true! But, and I hate to be critical of the city dweller but, I have come from and still belong in a poor neighborhood, people need to pick up a book on resposibility and get with the program, time and success waits for no one! Success does not care where you come from, what color you skin is or how much money you already have!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaM6gUHEF5s