Who raises a rioter? Not a two-parent family

First things first. It’s too late to ask, “Where are the parents?” (May 30) as letter writer Rita Animashaun did. In he case of most rioters, there are not parents plural but only one, a single mother.

Although many single mothers succeed in raising children to be responsible citizens, it is against the odds and at great cost to them.

It is not a secret that a major cause of poverty and violence is the lack of a home where mother and father are committed to each other and to the well-being and success of their children. Home is where responsibility, respect and morals should be learned and where security should first be experienced.

Anyone truly interested in this threat to a civilized city should look at the laws coming out of the Maryland General Assembly. They would be shocked at the ratio between pro-family and pro-criminal legislation for the past 50 years.

There is little doubt that legislation that favors lawbreakers over a population becoming more and more desperate is a “root cause” of the anguish in Baltimore and other cities. The proof is in this pudding that has been cooking for half a century. Unless this changes, and until the thrust of our lawmakers is to address this reality, hope will continue to sink like a stone.

Elizabeth Ward Nottrodt, Baltimore