our children deserve better than that!

recently one of the leaders in our community made a remark that a certain playground should not be used by my daughter and her 'peers' as it may be unsafe - you see, it is located in a 'low economic neighborhood'. my daughter was perplexed, we had lived in that VERY SAME neighborhood just a few years earlier and walks from our house to the playground were a routine thing. nothing bad ever, EVER happened to us. my daughter asked herself 'like we couldn't fall down and get hurt at a playground in a higher economic neighborhood?' no, the point was that it was unsafe due to the PEOPLE in the neighborhood, not that the equipment was somehow different than, let's say, at the city playscape although technically, the part of town where the children's park is located is also a 'low economic' neighborhood. having grown up in san antonio, and not in the 'ritzy' part of town, and having lived in various neighbors in san marcos, i take offense to such comments. i was not a part of a gang, did not maintain a 'gangsta' lifestyle nor did i get pregnant 'many times' as a teenager. AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN ARRESTED. i am disappointed that someone in a position, a leadership position, that has influence over groups of children in the community and in his/her church would perpetuate the stereotype that people who are not 'white' and don't make as much money as he/she does must therefore be BAD, DANGEROUS, and 'gangster' like. this is not the type of message our children need to here; yes, OUR children, the future is everyone's business, and all of our children, in our village, in our community, in our city of San Marcos Texas DESERVE RESPECT and the OPPORTUNITY to be free of LABELS. Anyone can f*ck up and be a liability to a community,white rich kids included, not just those in 'low economic neighborhoods' and we should be fostering an atmosphere where everyone CAN BE ALL THAT THEY CAN BE. [to borrow a catch phrase from the military -sorry about that] labels and stereotypes and generalizations do not foster that atmosphere. two generations ago in my family, no one had even gone to high school and now we can count among ourselves several college degrees, including a few MASTER degrees. and we would have never gotten there if we believed that due to the 'low property' value of the house we lived in meant we were destined to go to jail and experience multiple teenage pregnancies.