Equal opportunity includes education, health care, nutrition and even housing.

Sometimes we need to look ahead. Those inner city kids who have no hope and feel as if they are not part of society, are also citizens, we are wasting intellectual capital.

Also, we need to create schools for skilled workers such as mechanics, electricians, carpenters and plumbers. Not all students neither want nor need college. 

If we allow poor children to get a poor education, they will be poor citizens.

Often, poor citizens become drags on society, as convicts and welfare recipients.

It is a shame that the largest inner citizen employers are often drug dealers.

We need to fight for our youth, all of them, as they are the future our children must live with.

Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.