US should make bigger investment in education


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RECENTLY, while watching the news on 21 WFMJ-TV, I saw an interview about drugs and crimes in East Liverpool. When asked about how to solve these problems, the interviewee cited several solutions, including more police and education. I hoped that he would have said: Education. Education. And, more Education.

On Sept. 1, I was in East Liverpool in conjunction with Mercy Health’s Joanie Abdu 3D mobile mammography unit. We parked on a pothole-ridden, dirt road, next to an old school building, built in 1888, which now serves as The Resource Center. It serves as a soup kitchen, and provides food, except meat (meat is too expensive), to the hungry and the poor three days a week.

Denise Taylor, center director, gave me a tour of the facility. I was impressed with Ms. Taylor’s level of compassion, caring and love for her poor community, especially the children.

During my visit, I met others and was saddened and appalled, when I learned that East Liverpool’s high- school graduation rate was extremely low. “What happens to those who don’t graduate?” I asked.

The answers were: drugs, robberies, and crimes. I felt sad and dismayed, and hoped that our presidential candidates could visit East Liverpool, and see firsthand, that the greatest threat to our security is not so much ISIS or al-Qaida, but it is the lack of education that leads to unemployment, which leads to poverty, which leads to drugs, crimes and dependency.

Those who lack education do not understand that dependency is another form of slavery. They lack the knowledge, insight and understanding of what this country really means. They don’t understand that their responsibilities as citizens of the greatest country in the world is to protect it, not to destroy it. They lack the understanding of our constitution, the greatest document ever written, for protecting the rights of all its citizens.

Think of all the “East Liverpools” all over this great country, which add up to many millions of our potentially bright, potentially productive, and potentially self-supporting and responsible citizens. None of these children was born bad. Provide them with the necessary nurturing, support and guidance and they will become our greatest assets instead of our greatest liabilities.

We don’t need more police force. We don’t need more jails. We don’t need more surveillance cameras.

We need more good schools and good teachers. We need leaders capable of sorting priorities. Education must be our No. 1 priority.

Last year, we reportedly lost more than 28,000 to heroin overdose. How many did we lose to ISIS or al-Qaida? We spend billions on ISIS and al-Qaida every year. How much do we spend to educate each child and each family, each year, in all the “East Liverpools” of our beautiful country?

Our politicians and their surrogates constantly bombard us about how they are going to protect us from terror groups, those evil people thousands of miles away, who have no Air Force, no Navy or regular army.

But only in passing we hear protection from the greatest threat to our national security and maybe our existence as the greatest nation on earth: Lack of education plus poverty, drugs, violence and crimes in all of our “East Liverpools”. We can unleash overwhelming power to destroy any external enemy, but only understanding, compassion, generosity and love can conquer the “enemy” within.

*Dr. Rashid Abdu is founder of the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center in Youngstown.

 
  
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