Its a time of national violence. I turned on the TV last night, and was flooded with pictures of the riots, looting, cars on fire. If I’m turning on the TV, that means that your sons and daughters are as well. As an adult, as a therapist, as a human being, my own head and heart have difficulty understanding what exactly is going on, and just why people would destroy their own town to make a point.

I have an at-risk boys group that I work with, and lots of those boys had questions too. I wanted to find a way to explain what is going on to them, while letting them come to their own understanding (as much as they could) about the situation…

 

So here, I share my discussion questions with you, that you also can use with your own children, classrooms, and youth in your life..

 

-What are your own experiences with the police, both positive and negative?

 

– Why was this one story so big on the news? What were other big similar stories? Why does the media put so much attention (and drama/hype!) behind these? Is that a good or bad thing?

 

– Why does society seem to have such a negative context and understanding of the police? Why does this exist? What would we do without police?

 

– Why did this town loot and destroy things in its protest? Why did other cities handle this differently?  What (if anything) did this accomplish?

 

– What resolution do you think that the city of Ferguson should take?