Sometimes the answer is obvious

I've been thinking for a long time about this. But I'll get back to it. On a related topic, I was recently interviewed about an internship program. It was 25 years ago that, as bar president, I was fortunate to be involved in a program to introduce inner city youth to law firms, lawyers and judges. It was an introduction to the world of professional work. The program jumped its legal borders and expanded to 80 different professions. It spread throughout the country. It was about hope. I was being interviewed because the program was receiving an award. It has picked up a few of those during the last 25 years. The interviewer asked me to explain the effect of the program. This is what I said: "Here's the choice. We can provide our young, economically disadvantaged teens with hope and welcome them to the second floors of our law firms and businesses, or we can ignore their economic reality and one day find them on the second floor of our homes. It's really not any more complicated than that." Today we all know America is wracked with the gut-wrenching problem of criminal activity perpetrated by young African-Americans, police shootings of often unarmed African-Americans, and retaliatory shootings of innocent police officers. Shootings often trigger demonstrations. Some peaceful, some not. There seems to be no end in sight. Our presidential candidates continue to comment on these events. With respect to the Tulsa, Oklahoma, shooting by policewoman Betty Shelby, candidate Trump, speaking off the cuff as he often does, said, "That man was hands-up, that man went to the car, hands-up, put his hand on the car. To me, it looked like he did everything you're supposed to. Did she get scared? Was she choking? What happened? But people that choke, maybe they can't be doing what they're doing." We don't know all the facts yet, but that off-the-cuff comment sounded like a heartfelt, unscripted, honest and potentially correct reaction. His next comments, that "We're going to rebuild our inner cities because our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before, ever, ever, ever," made me want to grab the guy and shake him. It would have been better if he just stayed with his heartfelt gut reactions and kept politics out of it. Candidate Clinton, for her part, giving a reaction that sounded well thought out, maybe even rehearsed I don't know if it was rehearsed or not, and perhaps it's gotten to a point where she just sounds that way stated, "We have got to tackle systemic racism. This horrible shooting again. How many times do we have to see this in our country? This is just unbearable, and it needs to be intolerable. I know I don't have all the answers. I don't know anyone who does." As usual, her comments, scripted or otherwise, generally made sense. But here's the thing: We do have the answer. It's the same answer I gave the interviewer about the internship program. The answer is hope and jobs, jobs and hope. Most minorities living in the inner city, whether Hispanics or Bosnians or African-Americans, would like to be millionaires like all of us but first off, they would like to be able to make a living wage. Like the rest of us, they would like to be able to provide for themselves and their families. They would like to know that with hard work, things will get better. If they don't believe these things are a realistic possibility, where will they turn? Where will frustration and anger take young people in an already too violent country? Let's not tiptoe around it. There is a divide in this country with respect to the younger African-American community and the rest of us. (In certain areas, there may be a related issue with other minorities, but it is virtually always less extreme). The more liberal thinkers may oversimplify the ease with which we can provide jobs. The more conservative thinkers may believe that many members of minority communities want something for nothing, or aren't willing to work. Still, in general, the truth is individuals on the edges, and the vast majority of people in this country, still subscribe to folksinger Tom Paxton lyric: "Lord give me a job of work to do. That's all I want, that's all I ask of you." The creation of more jobs is, needless to say, not an easy thing, but it is the answer to what we should do. Really, what we must do. So, for the most part we can stop looking for the answer, stop wringing our hands, and start working on the solution. If we can find a way to produce reasonable jobs, we will get young African-Americans out of the legal criminal system, and we will start to work on diffusing the increasingly downward spiral between the police and minorities in this country. That's what I've been thinking about. ----- © 2016 Under Analysis, LLC. Under Analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Mark Levison is a member of the law firm of Lashly & Baer. Contact Under Analysis by e-mail at comments@levisongroup.com. Published: Fri, Oct 14, 2016