17.
In Canada this year there will be 10,000 attempted suicides by youths and approximately
1000 will succeed. Incidence of child abuse is projected to increase by 34% by the end
of the year. Incidents involving assaults on police officers has(sic) doubled since 1975.
4 out of every 10 high school students in the Toronto area are likely to drop out of high
school without getting their diplomas because they don't see any reason to bother. The
newspapers and job sites are still filled with situations that ask teenagers seeking their
first full-time employment as dishwashers or busboys or waitresses for 3 years experience.
The number of people in the 16 to 24 year old age bracket out of work is approximately triple
the national average as a whole.
Last year i promised a person from England that i would try to help him with the emerging
problem that was becoming a way of life influencing the future of his country and that of the
Commonwealth. We had formed a strong emotional friendship that was a result in part of
discussions of principles and values that i had had with first one and then a second of his
sons. One of his sons once was present at a potentially ugly incident that resulted in a
confrontation between police and minority groups. The son, headstrong and perspective clear,
had waded into the middle of the trouble and had said 'ho, chaps. Can't we settle this without
resorting to guns and violence?' The tempers were soothed and the potential violence was
defused and dissipated.
I have in my address book the address of the Rock Against Racism movement's headquarters in
London and am considering an attempt to negotiate a benefit concert for their cause with all
the proceeds beyond reasonable expenses to go toward their cause. I hope to get the help of
my friend who was involved in the alleged incidents as the headline act as lending his name to
the cause will undoubtedly draw appreciable and significant attention to the show and will
set the kind of example for three generations that care about this concern that will
establish a suitable foundation upon which to stir hope for the 1980's and beyond.
It is with this in mind, that i submit this petition though at this late date.
Unfortunately, as i will discuss prior to the conclusion of this letter, i have become
involved with circumstances that have taken up more of my time than i would have given them
under ideal or in fact simply reasonable circumstances.
This is the only explanation that i can give for submitting this request to you at this late
date.
What i seek, sir, is a formal extension in principle and spirit of the name and the ideals
of the Year of the Child in part so that i can ask that you consider allowing this concert,
should it be arranged, to exist under the auspices of this campaign and in spirit to seek
to further its goals.
I know that financial considerations may preclude a full year of such projects that have
(been) initiated already in the name of the children, if the bureaucracy involved and the time
element alone did not forbid such a consideration. Hence, what i ask for is a formal statement
that the United Nations' peoples in principle realize that the problems of the maturing child
cannot be solved within the framework of a simple year's work but are so important to the
peoples of the United Nations, that for an additional year the United Nations will seek to act
and live
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