ZACH COCHRAN writes:

Your post about the drive through Camden, New Jersey brought back a flood of memories.

I was a missionary for the Latter Day Saints church in Camden in 1996. My emotions about that city run deep. I only lived there for four months, but the depth of that experience made the memories indelible. The tragedy of the place is that no amount of welfare or support can relieve people from the consequences of their own choices. We would work in the shadow of the city hall, which has on its south side the proverb “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I couldn’t invent stories more bizarre and terrible than the truth of that place. On July 3rd, 1996, while we were eating lunch in our apartment, a man was shot and killed almost on our front steps. While one of the other missionaries called 911, I was the first to reach him. All I could think to do was ask him: “Do you believe in God?” I don’t think the men who killed him were ever caught; I only saw their backs as they ran away.

We taught one family that I remember clearly. The man and woman were unmarried, but her two children were both his. They lived in a single room on the third floor of a rowhouse in North Camden. The communal toilet was not working, but it was so full of waste that the smell filled the building. There was a single bare bulb for light. After a few weeks of work, after they’d been to church a couple of times, they’d begun to talk about marriage. We were trying to help them take that step and had spoken to our church resources about employment help as well. It all fell apart. After we didn’t see them at church one Sunday, we went to their apartment to find that everything had taken one of those turns. The man was missing after a fight. A separate fight with a neighbor had resulted in the neighbor (who was HIV-positive) sneaking in and throwing urine on the two children while they slept. We found out later that after the fight the man had jumped from the Ben Franklin bridge, leaving a petulant and selfish note for the mother of his children.

They had the path out. They had help to provide for a marriage, work, addiction counseling; anything they needed to choose to escape the life. They just seemed trapped by the lack of vision. I remember being astonished to hear that many people in Camden had never been to the shore, maybe one hour away. How could you live so close to the ocean and not see it? Then I met a man who claimed to never have even been to Philadelphia, just a short train ride away, with a round trip fare less than $2 (at least it was in 1996).

I had a small print of a painting of Moses raising the brass serpent on the wall of my apartment. I think that more than anything tells the story. You can’t live in America, even in its most blighted cities, and not have a path out. You just have to look.

So I read what I’d written, and I realize that it sounds simplistic. I grew up in a safe city (Orem, UT – about as far on the other end of the scale from Camden as possible as far as crime, though it’s getting a little worse these days) with a mother and father who were chaste until marriage and have remained faithful after. My dad taught religion at BYU and my mom stayed home with me and my sisters. I had a strong religious community and many friends who shared my values. I’m not saying I didn’t have a leg up. But I’m saying that the way out is there for anyone who wants to take it.

Well, that went on a little longer than I thought it would. I really just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your writing and your clarity, and that your experiences with Camden brought back memories of my time there.

Laura writes:

Thank you for writing.

The people of Camden don’t lack vision because they are stubbornly resistant to it. They lack vision because they don’t have the capacity for it, and it’s important to understand that distinction.

Camden is one of the poorest and corrupt cities in the country and, as of 2008, had the highest crime rate in the U.S. [Wikipedia has some basic facts here.] Its population, which continues to decline slowly, now stands at 77,000; 50 percent of its residents are black, 15 percent white and the remainder are predominantly Puerto Rican Hispanics. The unemployment rate was about 20 percent before the latest recession.

The residents of New Jersey pay huge sums to keep Camden’s schools afloat at a cost of about $17,000 per pupil. The state has taken over the school district because of poor performance.

The schools in Camden should be changed to reflect its population. Instead of foolishly trying to graduate most students at a 12th grade level, they should be educated to what is elsewhere considered an eighth grade level. The basics should be repeated constantly, and this can be done inexpensively. There is the continuing illusion that Camden’s residents can be transformed by the processes of education, whether it be public education or community programs that promote marriage. They can only be helped, however, by an education of which they are capable.

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