I work at a Youth Development Center
A Youth Development Center is a "treatment program" for juveniles adjudicated delinquent
it is a place to house criminals under the age of nineteen
I am a counselor here
I am the person these young men discuss their problems , their fears, their concerns with
it is a junior jail
Most of our students leave here and either very promptly return here or go on to the big boy house as we call actual prison/jail in here

As a mother, this place drains me, frightens me and enlightens me all at once, every day
Most of my students attach to me pretty quickly because I do not cuss them out, or hit them or degrade them
Because those are the methods of "counseling" that are used in here
One of them...an intelligent young man who has an 8year adult sentence to do...calls me "moma"...his own mama is in prison and feels that her motherly duty is to send him sexuallly explicit mail from her cellmate...whom he considers his woman...he is sixteen, she is thirtyfive

This place, makes me hold on to my children more tightly, to watch them more closely and to love them more deeply
to be even more careful about what they eat, what they watch, what they listen to, where they go
and this is why
Daniel Quinn said once that if you worked in a car factory and the machine that produced the car doors started making doors that were twisted or didn't work you wouldn't pick up the door and ask "what is wrong with you?"
You would get a new machine
Not so with our children
The machine that is this society
this way of life
this status quo
this shitstem
this western patriarchal bullshit that we have all grown up in
is producing Monsters

it is producing people that you do not want your children around
it is producing people that will say and do things that will horrify you and feel no remorse
it is produce mindless killers
and rapists
mass producing them to be clear

these monsters are walking amongst us on a daily basis
this is not a prophecy
this is not what will happen if we do not change soon
this is what has happened
the monsters are already here

what we must do as mothers
is make sure we are not contributing to their numbers
research every and anything you do with your children
what they eat
what they wear
what they watch
what they listen to
who they consort with
be clear on what you want as an end result
and work towards that

BE a mother to your children
do not allow society to raise them
do not allow the tv to raise them or the radio
do not fill them with sugar to pacify them
do not give in to the "every body else does it" syndrome
do not fill their little bodies with chemicals in the form of medicines or vaccinations
hold them close to you
speak sweetly to them
let them hear your heartbeat at night when they sleep
feed them your thoughts in your breastmilk and in your words
teach them yourself
do not allow the school system to brainwash and degrade and torture them

Love your children Mommies
and make sure they know you love them
tell them you love them
tell them you are proud of them
tell them how they enrich your life
do not assume that they know

Trust yourselves mommies
trust your instincts
trust what your heart tells you in regards to your babies
and follow your deep inner yearnings

Believe your eyes
do not allow anyone to convince you that you see something different that what your own eyes tell you
Raise your children
Truly raise them
Lift them HIGH