He refers to the dispirited young men who now hang out on the corners and the young women who have babies too soon as part of the abandoned class. Throughout the city, it is the members of this abandoned class who have complete disregard for human life and steadily add to the city’s death toll.
“When you try to talk to them, they seem to be beyond reason,” Sims said. “How do you help the single mother who’s 17 or that grandmother who’s 35 raise that boy properly when they not only don’t want the help but don’t think they need it?
“How do you get them to know it’s OK to do well in school and to have manners and it’s not counterintuitive to live in a low-income neighborhood that’s clean and safe?”
One of Sims’ favorite quotes comes from black educator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”