The phrase 'tough on crime' sits atop a silent undertone. It is not about early intervention or after school programs or drug prevention programs. It is about punishments and putting "them" away.  Steven H. Cook, a former police officer who became a federal prosecutor based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has just been appointed as a top lieutenant in Attorney General Jeff Sessions' administration.  According to the Washington Post:

"Sessions and Cook are preparing a plan to prosecute more drug and gun cases and pursue mandatory minimum sentences. The two men are eager to bring back the national crime strategy of the 1980s and '90s from the peak of the drug war, an approach that had fallen out of favor in recent years as minority communities grappled with the effects of mass incarceration."

This is a warning. These appointments to the positions in Washington may be out of our reach and beyond our voice in the voting booth, but we do have ample power in our schools and the neighborhoods in which they reside to educate, care for, and encourage children. Read more...