Most excluded people perceive that they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain in the battle to belong. Many youth consider it a matter of life and death. Teenagers join gangs because they are desperate to belong - to have meaning. Even when the gangs kill, youth join. The gangs meet their needs.
Gangs are a logical response to society's failure to make teenagers feel belonging.
When our youth literally die to belong, it is a searing warning for us to look hard at the system in which we live. Many suggest that with our society in crisis, we need to mount the barricades and defend our turf. Control, control, control. There is another possibility. We could strive to welcome and include everyone, to build a society with more acceptance, more love, more care, more compassion.