Jackson Free Press

Many parents ask, "What will you do this summer, Bobby?" or "What are you going to do when school's out, Jane?" I believe it is said best on the theme song of the popular cartoon, "Phineas and Ferb": "There's 104 days in summer vaction, and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation, is finding a good way to spend it!"

Indeed, these are good questions to ask a school-aged individual. In their free time, what has a child to do? What could they do to help enrich their minds and bodies? And what kind of things would they enjoy doing? These are the pivotal questions we must as ourselves when we look at a place like Jackson, Miss.

From what I've observed, all the things the children of Jackson could do are limited. We could go to the movies, attend a party, go swimming, or get a job. That's pretty much it! And lack of a car for many Mississippi minors can make the possibilities of these activities little to none. The common city activities get old after a while, especially for pre-teens and teens, during a hot, nauseating summer. Do you feel like your kids just want to watch TV and eat junk food all day during the summer? If you did, you're dead wrong! These thoughts boosted me to ask my peers in Facebook what they would be up to for the summer. I got some interesting feedback.

"You know, I'm gonna just go to football practice, ball out and hit a few parties."

"Oh, nothing, just go to drill team practice and hang with my boyfriend Tim."

"I ain't got nothin' to do. I'mma be bored all this summer. LOL Yea, just goin' be here washin' dishes and clothes."

All of them sound just like that. A good combination of boredom and responsibility. You see, what I mean. Jackson is a great city filled with great kids who don't have anywhere to expend their talents and energy. So, we usually find other, not so good, areas to expend them. Like parties where fights and shoot-outs end the event, at get-togethers with alcoholic beverages readily available and just riding up and down the street making jokes and wasting up loads of that expensive gas. Jackson youth are so bored that a man was able to buy an empty parking lot and begin to make people paying to get in the empty lot and just talking to each other, in an empty lot. This is the things we go through just to have a fun summer break.

So what can we do about this problem because no one else seem to be doing anything about it. Do they even care? We have to "beat the boredom" without exposing ourselves to harmful or unruly situations or criminal activity. I've been talking to a few business owners, including my grandmother Clem Cooper, who are interested in creating a Youth Enrichment Center. The program will take some time to get off the ground but she plans to start up a blog soon, headed by me to ask children what they would be interested in doing from day to day. They would like the help of the CRCL and the JFP. They just need help to get turn this dream into a reality. I hope you guys are interested in this idea because it will help your generations, as wells as future generations, of Jackson Youth have better summers. Do your part.

Previous Comments

ID

149749

Comment

wow. What a great way to let the youth of Jackson's voice to be heard. Bravo, keep up the blogging.

Author

Lacey McLaughlin

Date

2009-07-17T12:51:52-06:00