LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Putting the family back together

Posted

To the editor:

(re: “Feeding the world, especially the children,” May 27)

A more apt headline for your recent front-page story about feeding the world would be “government complicity is destroying the family.”

Gang membership increased 40 percent over the first decade of the 21st century because children are seeking a sense of belonging. Having meals with family is a part of instilling a sense of belongingness.

Here a former gang member described the importance of family and eating together:

“The reasons why children/young adults join gangs is they have lost a sense of family value. The love which should emanate from families.

“Families are no longer bonding. Everyone to each his own. And that includes children.

“No longer are families seating together at breakfast or supper tables to talk about life’s agendas, or sharing what has happened in their day. We are being asked to defend ourselves in our walk in life. What happened to the father is the ‘king of his castle’ and the mother is to be the queen for that is her domain? And to the children it is their place of learning and a safe place to play?

“We do not see that. Family values have gone. Children are seeking safety in their own peer groups, or older children. Wanting to be accepted and loved.

“Love is the greatest need with these children. And they will find it in everything: drugs, alcohol and sex.

“What happened in raising up the next generation with love? So that they will show their children the value of family and love? Sad, but true! I know, ‘cause I was one of them children of rejection.”

How sad this is. Such a simple requirement. They want a home and a sense of belonging. Their parents didn’t give it to them. The government is working at full tilt to keep them from having it under the guise of helping the poor.

How many are so poor in New York City they can’t feed their children? I was born at the onset of the Great Depression, and I lived through the poverty that it produced. I can go on a lecture circuit describing poverty that this generation has no concept of.

Yet mothers were at home and fed their children. An ingredient not found in school cafeteria food is love. Good mothers put love in everything they cook and prepare. The food prepared by a loving mother always tastes good, and the environment created by loving parents always feels good.

America represents the greatest level of financial attainment in the world, and we are sending our children to institutions to be fed. Something is fundamentally wrong in our society.

If there are others who share my views, I would appreciate hearing from you. It’s time to rebuild and support the basis of human existence — the family.

George Silos

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George Silos,

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