Accepted Truths

Political junkie that I am, I lost 90 minutes of my life watching the Republican presidential debate last night (the term ‘debate’ being used in its broadest possible connotation). Oddly enough, something actually happened …

Texas Congressman Ron Paul suggested that the attacks of 9-11 were in part the result of blowback -- a CIA term for responses to our activities in the world. This statement was treated as blasphemy by the 9 other candidates, particularly Rudy Giuliani who responded with obvious and apparently genuine anger that Mr. Paul would say such a thing. In the aftermath, most pundits I’ve seen have been marginalizing Mr. Paul as nothing less than a nutcase, pretty much relegating him to the Rosie O’Donnell camp and making it appear that he said 9-11 was our fault, or perhaps even that we knew about or possibly staged 9-11.

It’s been fascinating to watch this reaction because, of course, Ron Paul said no such thing. All he said was that actions have consequences, and 9-11 did not occur in a vacuum. The popular view that we were just sitting back minding our own business when suddenly madmen came to our shores completely overlooks the decades of American foreign policy in the middle east -- including involvement with and support of an obscure Saudi fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan named Osama Bin Laden.

But, wait a minute (I hear you say) … this is a youth advocacy blog. What does this have to do with young people? Setting aside for the moment that war always has to do with young people -- and, due to this fact, reserving the right to bring up similar issues in the future -- your question is valid. I’m simply bringing this up as an example of two things that I see far too often within youth services.

Agree with him or not, Mr. Paul offered a perfectly legitimate perspective -- yet if the debate format had allowed the other candidates to shout him off of the stage, they would have. Why? Because his perspective challenges the accepted truth of 9-11; that the United States was an innocent victim of an unprovoked attack. To even suggest that there may have been a context for that attack is to remove yourself from the debate. This way of thinking, that there is one truth and other perspectives are dangerous, and therefore need to be crushed rather than considered, permeates our entire culture today -- including youth services.

You see this when we discuss outcomes, and the suggestion that we shouldn’t be measuring things like jobs and education is met with blank stares before the conversation moves on ignoring the suggestion. You see this when you propose that street violence is, at its root, a cultural survival response, and your words are lost in the din of calls for more jails to remove these bad kids from our society. You even see it when a book like All Gods Children is released, and it is loudly condemned by people who haven’t read it.

And what about the real point that Mr. Paul was making; that actions have consequences? Youth services are often reasonably good at seeing young people’s deficit regarding this basic law of the universe. Part of a young person’s transition out of street life, for example, involves developing a connection between the actions they take and the results they get. Despite our position as role models, however, we are often blind to this law ourselves. Responding to funding pressure for tangible short-term outcomes, services evolve to being developmentally inappropriate to the needs of homeless youth. Youth begin to fail within services, or stop seeking services altogether. Our response? Must be something wrong with the kids -- I guess they just don’t want to get off of the streets. That’s the only answer -- because it can’t be us. It can’t be that our actions also have consequences.

I get really frustrated when politicians act on blind faith and blame everyone but themselves. I get both angry and sad when youth services do the same thing.