Recently, the city council of Florence approved the first reading of an ordinance that will establish a school hour curfew for juveniles. Under the ordinance, which will go into effect after its second reading on August 10, kids between the ages of 6 and 16 will not be permitted on the streets of Florence between the hours of 8:30a.m. to 2:30p.m. The council came to the idea of a curfew after reviewing information regarding incidents involving minors that occur during school hours. The curfew is an attempt to stress the importance of education and to encourage children to stay in school.
Enforcing this curfew doesn’t necessarily affect most of The Weekly Observer’s readership directly, but it is a very important topic that needs to be addressed due to the universal nature of the question it is attempting to answer: how do we ensure a better future for our children? This is a classic topic of conversation and has been discussed so much in our modern world that the matter has almost become cliché. Politicians across the globe speak constantly on the importance of youth, the need to provide future generations with more opportunities than their predecessors. Anyone who would dispute the notion that “our children are our future” would obviously be mistaken; however, those who might disagree that government action is the best means of ensuring the future of those children would have a very valid point.
While the future of our kids is an important matter, the answer isn’t going to come from a piece of legislation in any government body. Problems with juveniles are most often rooted in family matters, be it abuse, neglect or otherwise. Incentive for a good education should be the social and personal advantages that come with the discussing of ideas, cultivating of friendships and strengthen of family structures. Even though certain politicians might disagree, it doesn’t take a village to raise a child, it takes a family. No amount of legislating is going to give troubled kids a loving parent, a stable home or a legitimate shot at a good education. It is true that simply stating those facts is not the same as offering an alternative solution, but when the answer can’t be found in a government document or legislated from a congress, council or bench there is no other alternative to simply make the statement and let it stand on its own. The city council of Florence might have their hearts in the right place but their solution is anything but satisfactory.
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