I have not entered much into this thread after my last rambling discourse, primarily because I have simply been awestruck by the intelligent, caring, and brutally honest sharing of thoughts here. We have some very wise people as part of our online community on the "Cat". Your realistic yet compassionate discussion does you all credit.

I taught in the Job Corps program for five years. Many of these young people we are discussing were my students. They came from the gangsta culture we are discussing. I was overwhelmed at first by the task of a middleaged white guy trying to relate and teach these young people. I tried talking like them, being hip in a way that I thought would cause them to think well of me. I failed miserably until it came to me that these very savvy, street smart young (16-21) gangsters had come to the program for one reason. Hope. As successful as they were at the life they had in the 'hoods they came from, they had come to the program to find a better way. It was a revelation that I never failed to pass on to them. When they would start to challenge my rules, or do self destructive things, or listen to messages that hurt their chances of success (which were limited at best), I would point out to them that that was acceptable only if they wanted to return to that from which they had come. And I would send them back if they continued. I challenged them to live honorably no matter where they were or what they faced. They absolutely understood the philosophy of a code to live by. I did not try to impose my code, rather to impose honor and the sense of the right thing to do. I did not save them all, nor did all of them save themselves. But they left my life with a sense that there is a way to walk honorably through life, and a method to enhance their odds of success based on their own measure. One of them told me that she noticed that I had never used the word fair with them. She took that to mean that things are inherently unfair. That it wasn't about the possibility of getting knocked backwards, that was a certainty. It was about the certain struggle, and always carrying it on no matter what. That young woman had a wisdom that bowled me over. I learned more from these young people than I ever taught them. They turned me into a realistic liberal. Our job as a people is to provide hope. Our job as bards is to inspire hope. If we do, I have great faith that this generation will rescue itself. Our failure as a society as testified to by the gangsta culture, is that we have been enablers in our treatment of most of the rap message. We have treated it as a movement instead of a symptom. We have honored it instead of used it to determine what the ills are.

Music, as pointed out by a philosopher, is moral law. That is an ageless, and still relevant view.

Mick