Managing editor Douglas Grant wrote a great column today on the youth violence situation in Suffolk. I wish I had written it, have been meaning to and just haven’t gotten around to it for whatever reason. It’s just as well that I didn’t because I wouldn’t have done it as well.

With the recent violent deaths of several Suffolk young folks, it’s certainly the topic du jour.

Everybody seems to want the city council to do something about the violence, and perhaps they should, but I haven’t the foggiest idea about what that would be apart from increasing the police presence and jailing more young people before they get a chance to kill someone.

Appointing the task force to look into it is certainly a good first step, but I don’t know what it is people expect government officials to do it about n stop teens from getting pregnant and having babies out of wedlock? Make fathers stay in the home? Make kids be serious about their education, study and do well in school so they can get good jobs and break the cycle of poverty? Can city council instill a conscience in these kids and teach them the difference between right and wrong?

This is something that needs to happen in the home and if we start today, we might make an impact in about a generation.

In the meantime, I’d suggest that if your kids or someone you know is involved in gang or illegal drug activity the best thing you can do to bring it to an end is to turn them into the law.