Two Real Men from Cabrini-Green-on victim thinking

One of the reasons, and there are many, why I left academia, was this prevalence of victim thinking. Thankfully, if the "cases" in the college classroom became particularly obstructive to the class as a whole, I had the entire backing of the administration. One of the most wonderful people on the staff was a man who had grown up, yes, in the Cabrini-Green estates. Let just say he grew up in hell. His mother had two sons and she instilled in them the love of learning and the love of God-a Benedictine ideal, but as a Baptist, this wonderful woman was following her grace and role as a mom, and being counter-cultural in her little, no big, way.

My friend, Adam, said that all the kids around him were learning how to deal drugs, kill and be killed. Out of all his friends in Cabrini-Green, all but his brother, are either dead or in prison for life. I asked him to come into my class and give a motivational talk to my 26 students, most of whom were immersed in victim thinking and/or narcissism. He did not succeed inspiring anyone but me. The ho-hum attitude was like jelly being smeared all over the classroom. Dull and icky. However, Adam was not upset, and offered to come into the class again. Later, one young man, who wants to be a sports-trainer, came back to me and said it was "cool", a word still used in the Midwest.

Well, Adam, his brother, and his mom are heroes against the Post-Modernism malaise filling our country. The fact that the Cabrini-Green estates were ever built was an example of false utopianism. Such estates just put all the baddies in one place-how convenient. Oh, and for my European friends, or those few saints who have seen The Blues Brothers at least five times, C-G was in Chicago.

Victim thinking will destroy America as it has destroyed Britain. British youth, except for a golden minority, belong to what I call the Grape Generation-step on them lightly and they give a little whine...

The last Cabrini-Green estate was demolished in the past year. At least two heroes emerged, and I hope more. But, there exists two, strong, Christian men, Adam and Joshua, with a message. A person is responsible for his own life and he can break out from victim-hood, if he wants to do so.