{"id":745,"date":"2007-11-15T16:21:52","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T16:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voteforjoe.com\/wheresjoe\/?p=180"},"modified":"2007-11-15T16:21:52","modified_gmt":"2007-11-15T16:21:52","slug":"111407","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=745","title":{"rendered":"11\/14\/07"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My wife Liz and I are coaching a Rec. Center indoor soccer team for the next six weeks in Cleveland. \u00a0 The Comets. \u00a0 We had our first game last night. \u00a0 It was a spirited match, with kids (mostly Black and Hispanic) lost in the exciting play, the cheering&#8230; as most youth would be. \u00a0 The difference down here? \u00a0 At halftime I came across a plain clothes police officer looking into the gym from one of the doors &#8212; \u00a0with a gun holstered to his side. \u00a0 After the game, we drove one of our players, Devon (not his real name), 9, home through a nearby rough neighborhood. \u00a0 (One he often walks through after dark). \u00a0 Devon pointed out some older boys on a street corner. \u00a0 &#8220;Them&#8217;s the &#8216;dope boys,'&#8221; he said, rather matter of factedly. \u00a0 &#8220;They always trying to get me to do crack.&#8221; \u00a0 As we drove away from Devon&#8217;s place, I couldn&#8217;t help but think \u00a0what an absolute (spiritual) scandal it is that we let these little kids in these big cities, day after day, \u00a0try to dodge \u00a0hunger, bullets and needles (or crack)&#8230; as \u00a0so many just continue on with their \u00a0comfortable, and insular, suburban lives &#8212; \u00a0without \u00a0virtually any concern. \u00a0 <strong>Note: \u00a0<\/strong> For more \u00a0about our take on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voteforjoe.com\/joeonurbanyouth.htm\">urban youth&#8230;<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My wife Liz and I are coaching a Rec. Center indoor soccer team for the next six weeks in Cleveland. \u00a0 The Comets. \u00a0 We had our first game last night. \u00a0 It was a spirited match, with kids (mostly <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=745\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}