Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's idea of calling on black men to mentor black youth is good, but one that has been going on quite some time and needs to continue ("City leaders call on black men to mentor youths and stop the violence,http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-mayor-summitr-20150324-story.html March 25). It is going to help only a few young black males because it does not go to the heart of the problem. That to me is the issue of "children having children."
When I see black women walking down the street with two or more children in tow and no father, I think that this is the real crux of this issue. Mentoring a black youth for a few hours a week cannot replace a father who is there all the time. So we need to get to these young black girls first so that so we don't have to have so many black men to mentor and fewer of them being incarcerated.
Jane Clem