Richard R RamosRichard R. Ramos. Founder of Parents on a Mission,Youth on a Mission, and Latino Coalition for Community Leadership

Why Parenting Is the Ultimate Solution to Youth Violence and Community Safety!

2 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

Richard R. Ramos argues that strong parenting is the most powerful tool for preventing youth violence. He uses a farming metaphor to explain why tending to a child's foundational development matters more than treating symptoms, citing Thoreau: for every 1,000 striking at the leaves of evil, one strikes at the root.

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That is what causes a human flourishing, for a human being to flourish. Now let me say, because some of you out there might be thinking, well, I know good parents, and— or I'm a good parent and my son or my daughter has gone off the rails. Okay, it's true that you could have great parents and this— the child or children don't always turn out great. That, that could be true. And the opposite is true. You could be the worst parent in the world, and your kids turn out great. But those are exceptions to the rule. In general, again, getting back to the farming metaphor, you have to take care of the environment. You have to focus on the roots to produce the fruits. I read something many years ago that really got me focused on the roots. Where Henry David Thoreau said this: for every 1,000 men that are striking at the leaves of evil, one is striking at the root.