But James says it infinitely better than I could.  In my earlier two posts about being Outside Looking In (I & II), I brought up that the solution to the inner city Milwaukee problems can't be solved by people outside forcing a solution on people inside.  It has to come from that community.  But James makes the obvious, yet sadly unfortunate point about those in that community:

Have you ever driven through McGee/Jackson's district? We are talking about people who won't even clean up broken glass from their front porch, even though their own kids play there. We are talking about school systems that are scraping the bottom of the barrel. We are talking about astronomical crime rates that lead all other districts in the city. We are talking about people who have embraced and worship the thug life.

Admitting your own faults is probably the hardest thing a person can be asked to do.  It's right up there with changing your beliefs.  Impossible?  No.  Damned hard?  You betcha.  Then of course comes two more problems.  After you've admitted your own faults to yourself, you have to be willing to admit them to others.  Swallowing pride is probably number three in tough things to do.  And do you know what number four is?  Fixing what's wrong.

You might be thinking to yourself that "Fixing what's wrong" should be labeled as the toughest thing a person can do.  But the reality is that because of the first three things in the list, very few people ever get to the step of trying to fix themselves.  Why do you think so many people end up having to hit absolute rock bottom before they change?  Why do you think it sometimes takes a person being shown exactly what they are in the mirror?

How do we do that for Milwaukee?  I have no idea... but that's what it's going to take... and a bunch of folks from the suburbs aren't going to be able to do it.