Problem Statement I:
	The lack of the home-training of our youth in families across America is a public health problem that impacts many areas along life’s continuum while also affecting changes in social and cultural norms that are public health liabilities. The fact that the young people of today have so much free access to adult behaviors, topics, and materials, more access than any generation previous to theirs; yet, they have less access to parental guidance to help them receive this information in a healthy, non-influential, filtered manner. This Community Action Research Project will be aimed at assessing the needs of those raising children in the Aiken Community to ascertain how we can facilitate a collaborative effort based on those needs to prepare youths to face their futures making choices that are less inspired by Hollywood, Politicians, Social Media, Peer Pressures, and the like but are reflective of their family’s values and the values of those who made the final sacrifice, committed to defending the values that make this Nation great.

Problem Statement II:
	Many of today’s youths do not benefit from the paternal altruism afforded to the youths of our yester-years and laws should be adjusted to accommodate these changes.  Families are broken and children are maturing earlier; furthermore, the new fangled social norms that are acceptable and contribute to adult pleasures and the happiness adults seek profoundly and exponentially contribute to the remorse, sadness, challenges, and emotional instability of our youth. This Community Action Research Project will be aimed at exploring the feasibility of developing a Bill that will accommodate the legal representation needs of today’s youth in the Aiken Community. The proposed Bill will be aimed at seeking to allow teens that are victims of these less than virtuous social norms to be able to have a voice and feel less powerless in affecting the relationships they may choose to have with critically important relatives that have become estranged due to the failed adult relationships. 

Deidre Mott Singleton Don't get me started on LeRoy Mott and that which he and Gracie Alfreda Mott contributed to this great Nation. They raised 7 kids and 7 out of 7 are out in the world doing our best to keep our heads above water and noses clean. None of us are living perfect lives (but who does); what we have is strength of character, a strong foundations, and a 'soft place to fall'. And that Blessing seems to be repeating itself in the next generation. 

Mom and dad were a "united front" there was no playing one parent against the other. There were fads in our days too, kids were wearing their clothes on backwards, collars turned up, cigarettes behind their ears, roach clips in their hairs, hangin out on street corners, using all kinda profanity, and so-on but our parents wasn't having none-of-it. We had to 'represent' and look like we had some 'home training'.

We went to public school so the drug use, smoking cigarettes, playin hokey, promiscuity was all there we were not immune but we had what some did not and that was regular family meetings. Two parents who 'gave-a-damn' and took the time to "keep it real". I don't know what those meetings did for my siblings in helping them stay on the straight and narrow and above the rift-raft in conduct and self-expression (lack of affinity for the use of profanity) so I can only speak for myself and say that it took the 'excuse' out of misconduct (I couldn't fall back on "I didn't know"...LOL) I remember specifically that conversation (in Middle and High School) about not getting pregnant and bringing any kids in here on his wife...she done raised all the babies she's gonna raise and there ain't no such thing as an 'accidental pregnancy'. "You know how babies are made so don't put yourself in that position... I want you all to get out into the mainstream without any baggage." (Daddy-Mott).

Another one too, Tami you gotta remember this, daddy had us use the dictionary to look up all the common bad words that kids used (ass, bastard, hoe (whore)... and on and on) purpose being the words these children used are not being used appropriately and if you are gonna use a word use it like a scholar someone who know what the hell they are talking about don't just repeat what you hear. "Don't use words that bring you down to the level of a jack-ass let em come up to your level." He also made us do income taxes on the long form 1040 and 1040A (there wasn't a 1040 EZ in those days) just so that we knew how to do them when we got older and had to do it for real.

One more and then I'll shut-up, LOL. I just can't help but believe that the early training I got from home has been such a blessing to me in having lived such a Blessed life. Our parents did not raise us to live perfect lives as if everything would always go our way; they gave us the tools to take on the challenges of whatever comes our way in life and the courage, commitment, and wherewithal to be able to face it head-on. The thing I'll speak on once again is drugs. Daddy always told us if we want to try them bring them home to try. Do not experiment with drugs in the street because you do not know how they will effect you and you can be taken advantage of....on the flip side of that coin he would he would make it clear that he believed only a damned fool would want to experiment with putting that crap in their bodies not knowing how it would affect them ("you could end up in the hospital", he would say). "it could mess up your mind and you could become addicted to it", he would say. Well that's a catch 22 if you ever saw one, LOL. First if someone offers, you wanna try cause you're curious but daddy said bring it home....well, I don't wanna bring it home cause daddy would think I'm and idiot for wanting to put that crap in my body; and of course I wouldn't dare try it away from home cause daddy would be mad and disappointed that I did not listen to him and bring it home to try. See the dilemma, so what does a teen do, just say no! LOL. One final thing I remember him saying on this matter is that 'your friends ain't gonna ask you to try drugs. He would say if someone ask you to try drugs or smoke or do anything you don't want to do you tell em no, if they ask you a 2nd time you tell em no again, and if they are fool enough to ask you the same thing a third time you let em know you mean business and they won't be asking a 4th time (what he meant by that he never explained but its open to interpretation for each individual to act according to their own personal way of dealing with conflict but the bottom line is there is an end point and you should not be harassed into doing something you do not want to do).

I find it interesting to put this stuff out here because this is what we got at home, "good ol fashioned home training". And these young people today are raising children in a world that is so secular the lines between what is good or bad for their children's futures and that of their children's genomes is so blurred how do you train em up? Marijuana is NOT benign, I don't care what the f___ they say! It's just the path of least resistance for the politicians. Well, I'll concede, you don't have to keep drugs out of America, out of schools, out of neighborhoods, BUT you do have to keep them out of MY KIDS (and yours)!!! That's my goal and I'm taking it to the streets of Aiken, SC! LOL! For better or for worst. :)