Thaddeus Johnson

So we have to, as a community, make sure that we're willing to invest the money.

Does that mean increasing property taxes?

I don't know wherever you're at, but we have to have hard decisions about how we can make long term sustainable investments and not be interrupted by political appetite and things like that.

No, I mean, you know, if you know, this is even, I think, you know, some of the school surveys done in D.C.

by the Department of Air there where they were talking to students, right?

And why are you all not engaged in after school programming?

Quote unquote, it's whack.

It's not good, it's not engaging, and they don't expect that you're gonna turn up at these events.

But what isn't there for me, right?

And this is not just some adults telling me what I want.

So we have to find a way to give juvenile leaders, develop juvenile leaders, representatives.

You know how we have representatives in every ANC and DC, those commissioners?

We can't do the same thing for juveniles because we have to involve them.

So anything that does not involve them, that their peers don't endorse and sign off on, we've already lost.

Because a bunch of old folks, church folks, or whatever else, and we're going to do some vacation Bible school and some dunking the teacher in the water, that's not going to fly.

And perhaps we should not leave the parents out of the conversation.

Instead of pointing fingers and blaming them, support them and help them get involved and provide them that we got your back.

And it's not us versus you.

So

A lot of this is symbolic as well as evidence-based as well, too.