16 shootings<\/a> this year involving our children as victims or assailants — and often, both.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a pastor and ministry leader with more than 25 years of experience living and working on the near Eastside of our city, I\u2019ve seen a sickening number of young lives ended by violence. I\u2019ve ministered at the funerals, cried with the families, consoled the classmates who see the empty places where a friend once stood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wish I had easy answers for how we can reverse this appalling trend of our children harming and even killing one another. But there are none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social media can ratchet up fear and anger, which contribute to outbursts of violence. TikTok, however, isn\u2019t to blame for one child deciding to pick up a weapon to strike down another child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easy access to guns puts tools of destruction in the hands of young people whose minds and emotions are still being formed. Yet, the great majority of us will never, at any age, take up a gun or other weapon against another person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The longer I think and pray about this plague of violence the more I come back to the vital role of families in nurturing young lives, teaching right and wrong, and preventing harm to their children and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think such an idea is too simplistic? I suspect that the reverse is true \u2013 we shy from this answer because it\u2019s too hard and would cost us too much if we truly took it seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hear an agonizing number of young people say that they have accepted that violence \u2013 perhaps life-ending violence — looms in their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hear them say that they feel isolated and alone, even as technology allows us 24\/7 connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I hear them say three words that break my heart: \u201cNo one cares.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why I first say that moms and dads, aunties and uncles, grandmas and grandpas must step up to love, nurture, mold and discipline their children \u2013 our children. It\u2019s hard and exhausting work, but it\u2019s largely irreplaceable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That doesn\u2019t mean the rest of us get a pass. All of us in this city, in this community of neighbors, also must step up. It\u2019s not just about the vital roles of teachers, coaches and pastors. All of us are called to love our young neighbors as our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, please don\u2019t shake your head about youth violence and then pass up the opportunity to mentor, tutor, feed, clothe and encourage children in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to spend less time condemning violence and much more time listening to and connecting with young people. And we need to do it with enough consistency and passion that the deadly thought of \u201cno one cares\u201d is pushed out of their minds forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope and pray never to see another video of a child beaten and humiliated by other children in our city. I hope and pray never to experience the need to comfort another family whose child was stolen by violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope and pray you will join me in the work of turning those hopes and prayers into reality. Our children need you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jay Height is executive director of <\/em>Shepherd Community Center<\/em><\/a> in Indianapolis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recently was sent a disturbing video of a teenager being knocked to the ground by another teen on a Saturday night in downtown Indianapolis. Several teens then surrounded the child \u2013 and yes, most teens are still children developmentally and legally \u2013 and repeatedly kicked and punched him as he wrapped his arms around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns-by-jay","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}