Sunday, April 16, 2006

Why Monday....

I remember this beautiful woman.


Do we have to sit back and watch Whitney Houston kill herself? Why won't her family commit her to a mental institution to get her the help she needs? I don't know, if she was my child I think I would kidnap her and lock her up with doctors and let her detox. I hate watching her lose this battle in the public eye.



Teen Pregnancies:

Why are so many teens getting pregnant now? I'm talking about those who are in high school, not yet even seniors. As I walked the halls of some of these schools I am surprised to see so many young ladies walking around with extended bellies as if it is how it should be? How are these young girls going to feed, clothed and educate these babies when they don't even have the skills to take care of themselves? Even though nationally the overall teen pregnancies rate is decreasing, it doesn't seem that way in the schools I visited. Bush need to reinstate the intervention and prevention program. Clearly, abstinence is not working.

The statistics:

One in three teen mothers drops out of high school. Teens may not have developed good parenting skills, or have social support systems to help them deal with the stress of raising an infant. Pregnancy and parenting is cited as a major reason for females dropping out of school. Eighty percent of females who become mothers before the age of eighteen don't finish high school and forty percent of females who give birth by age fifteen don't complete 8th grade.


Males:

Why are our males dropping out of school between the grades of 8th and 9th grades? Why are many of these teens citing boredom, lack of focus, and no real motivation in the classroom? What are we going to do about it? Some states such as Baltimore are reporting up to 76 percent of the dropouts in the 9th grades are African American males. How can we help stop this problem across the country? Other races are equally affected too, just at a lower rate.

My Plan:

One thing that I am planning on organizing is a "Teen Forum" to discuss what is it that teenagers want adults to know? I think that adults always sit around and ponder how can we help and what can we do to inspire teens, but I think it is high time we ask them what is wrong and what can we do to inspire and encourage them. We need to know why teens are making poor choices, so I want to go to them. Our audiences will be parents, ministers, pastors, community business leaders, politicians, and educators and administrators. This will be moderated by someone who teens repect.

20 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't help but feel sorry for Whitney, too. Such talent gone to waste. It breaks my heart.

As for the forum you suggest, that is a wonderful idea. It's time we hear what these kids have to say. Part of solving the problem is understanding it and you can't understand it if you don't understand the kids.

Stacy-Deanne said...

Rose, I understand where you're coming from about Whitney but family and friends can only do so much. She has to look at herself and want help. She's a grown woman. She's sick but at some point she has to get up and do something for herself. Family and friends can only love and support her. They can't drag her to rehab. She's been and you see it didn't do a thing. She even has a child and that hasn't seem to sway her. It's sad but I don't know if she will ever get the help she needs. I believe if she doesn't finally shape up she will end up dead. That's bad to think about but I see Whitney and all I see is another Billie Holliday. And if she ends up like that it would be a tragedy on all fronts. But she has a problem and only she can kick it. I am sure her family has shown love and support throughout but it hasn't worked. Also, there are so many people in this world who suffer from diseases they can't help that I find it hard to always feel sorry for folks who use drugs. They are killing themselves. Others end up with health problems and diseases out of their control but people on drugs made a choice to be on drugs. At least that is how I see it. I felt sorry for Whitney at first but when I saw she was only getting worse then I moved on. It's up to her to take a look at herself and decide what's more important: the drugs or her life.

princessdominique said...

I feel for Whitney however, until she sees she has a problem I honestly don't think there is anything we can do. I know her mom isn't just sitting by. I'm certain she's letting her have it. It's sad to end up like that when she still has so much potential, we all do.

slurp! said...

i feel so sorry for whitney. always love to listen to her songs, her voice. she got such talent & bright future.

I thought she was managed to kick her habit at certain point of time? how did she got it back to these shitty stuffs again?

The Sarccastik Variable Why said...

i hate to see whitney now...damn...

Dr. Deb said...

Love your plan!
And I agree, Whitney and her spiral downward has been very hard to see.

~Deb

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

she looks real bad and the vocal cords are gone as well as bobby

Brea said...

I wish the solution were a simple one. It is a long stream of failures from the home to schools to society as a whole.

Anonymous said...

Yea I remember the beautiful Whitney, too. I've gotten so use to seeing her look terrible that I've forgotten how beautiful she was. But thats how you can tell shes gone because she isnt seeing herself how we see her and she isnt seeking the help she so needs. Reminds me of Michael.

chele said...

Rose: I love your idea for a teen forum. If you don't mind will you e-mail me (chele_rene@hotmail.com)and share your ideas on how to organize something like that.

Thanks

Clare said...

Great idea about the forum Rose and ditto about Whitney. It's so sad to see.

Waddie G. said...

Whitney is so thru and she probably doesn't even care...

Anonymous said...

I share many of your thoughts on teens. I've enjoyed your blog and you can bet that I'll be back.

Anonymous said...

oh my... are those the latest whitney's photos???? what happened to her??

as for the kids... hmm.. i feel sad. i just can't understand, don't their parents teach them anything about early pregnancy and just enjoy their youth?

BostonPobble said...

Rose, you kick serious ass. Just in case you were wondering.

Urban Sista said...

When I first saw Whitney Houston I was about eight or nine and I thought she was the most beautiful person ever. Boy, times have changed. I feel for her and her family, but an adult is an adult and only Whitney can decide to get better.

Kids need someone who will listen to them. If you listen, you'll hear what the issues are. But I think a lot of it has to do with poor parenting and a lack of self-esteem.

~^^~L*C~^^~ said...

Excellent topic - Rose. I deal with this every day as well - saw it growing up and still seeing it. Yes, I totally agree about your "teen forum" idea. I kinda do this through one organization and as a teacher, I get my students to trust me and we address these issues. There are so many barriers in their way and sometimes, no adult takes the time to talk to them about this issue. I am referring to some of my students whose parents are on drugs or working "the streets," etc. These are the students we need to target. Then, there are also kids who have fear of talking to adults about these issues until they find someone they trust. U go girl - that's what I can end with!

Drea Inspired said...

I heard that Whitney checked into another rehab center and this time even Bobby had no idea where she was.

I think one of the problems with teen pregnacy is that some communities still see sex as a taboo topic. I don't get this. We know good and well that just about everybody is doing it, so we may as well be having healthy conversation about it. Anyway, when kids grow up in communities like this where sex ed in high school is the P.E. teacher who is more embarrassed than kids to discuss the facts, our kids don't get to ask the questions they need to ask. They end up talking to each other and passing on bad information. Rather than finding somewhere to get contraceptives, they depend on mythological forms of birth control and don't even consider STDs.

We must do better.

Rose said...

To all of you, Whitney was my favorite singer of all time. I realize that becoming substance free is the choice of the user. It is the only way that the user will stop. They have to admit that they are a drug user/abuser in order to stop the healing or detox phase. However, to save my child I think that I will force her into help as I have read that her mother and others did on April 14th. Though she will probably come out and do it again. Every time her system is clean and she returns to using this just increases her consumption.

Too many drugs are killing our community, children and men and now our women. I just pray that something gives. It amazes me that with all the problems associated with drug usage that in this day in time we have new addicts. I would not try drugs when I see a community is suffering and folks are dying and addicts losing family, life, limbs, and respect. Though in treatment sessions each new user always say I thought the other person was weak and drugs couldn't do me like they did them. What crap!

Drug usage to me is a sickness. Users have a difficult time quitting. Crack works on the psychological part of the mind. I have been taught this is the worse. In order to really quit, users need long term treatment, and they need to change by removing people, places, or things associated in the life of the user. I have seen many drug users quit but it was definitely with the help of giving it to God and treatment. But I have personally worked with more than ten addicts, they are all clean, in church, working, and have tested clean every time. The three consistent things for them all: they strongly desired to quit, becoming save, converted, what ever you may call it, and removing themselves out of the area and life of those who did this with them.

I wish Whitney much success....last year my best friend who is a substance abuse counselor lost 11 people to suicide because they could not with all their treatment quit heroin, crack or meth. Quitting is very very difficult.

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