Living Wage? How about not dropping out of high school first? Message for black teens

01 Sep, 2013 by Samuel Gonzalez

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I came across this interesting article of a 49 year oldhigh school dropout who wrote an open letter warning black teens, especially males, not to repeat the mistake he made:  dropping out of high school.: 

That decision made a mess of his life and he still lives with the consequences of a choice he made when he was 16.:  The pain in his letter seems genuine in its intent to beg others not follow in his footsteps.: 

But, within his letter I came across a frightening statistic that is rarely spoken of in public:

“The numbers of minority males dropping out of high school are staggering,” he noted. “Over 70 percent of all prison inmates are high school dropouts.”

Let that sink in for a moment!: 

Progressives often complain about the over-representation of blacks in the prison system.:  However, we’re never told about the underlying self inflicted wounds (dropping out of high school) that makes that situation possible.: 

The article furthers explains:

“Causey was no stranger to working fast-food jobs to make ends meet, typically two at a time – Burger King, Rally’s, McDonald’s. It didn’t help him avoid living in poverty.”

Full article here

So I wonder.:  How many of those people who are striking against McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Ruby’s and other places dropped out of high school?: 

Maybe they don’t realize, if they dropped out of high school, that if Burger King decided to pay burger flippers $15 bucks an hour like they want, Burger King would have to charge the rest of us who graduated high school $21.50 a burger.: 

Life is the sum total of all our choices.:  Not all our choices are good ones, that’s just human.:  But, less than a handful of choices we make in our lives are supercritical with ramifications that will haunt us the rest of our lives.:  The writer of this open letter is making his case to others that dropping out of high school was supercritical choice he wished he never made.: 

Originally published at The Last Tradition