Solution to problems must focus on culture

I monitored the Daily Herald's three-part editorial series on poverty and crime, and I have watched the letters to the editor for the past year. We have blamed slavery (abolished 150 years ago), Jim Crow (ended 50 years ago), opportunity (EEOC and quotas have been around for 50 years), poverty (even though the Great Society has cost $trillions), systemic racism (even without empirical data to prove it), etc. None of that seems to matter and none will without a culture change.

Clearly minorities can compete. Look at the Italians, Polish, Vietnamese, Indian, and Africans.

So what's lacking? Is it the lack of value on education, nuclear family, religion, citizenship? A culture that values education, work, family, God and the next generation always seems to succeed, one that doesn't never succeeds. I think leaders need to focus on culture if don't want to face the same problems decades and generations from now.

Bill Blaine

Bloomingdale