Periodically, when I hear that society at large is being held responsible for the crime and poverty in the inner-city, I feel the need to relate the story of the rampaging elephants.

Some years ago, the park rangers at the Serengeti began coming across the trampled carcasses of rhinos. They couldn’t figure out the cause of the massacres until they set up hidden cameras. What they discovered was that young rogue elephants were the villains. They were running around like teenage gangbangers killing rhinos just for the hell of it.

The rangers were at a loss. The only option seemed to be to kill the pack before they started in on all the other animals. Fortunately, one of the rangers decided the cause was the lack of bull elephants in the area. Poachers had killed them off for their ivory tusks.

The plan the rangers hatched was to bring in a bunch of older elephants as role models. The problem was that nobody had been around to show the youngsters how elephants are supposed to behave or to administer discipline.

Before bringing in the herd, the rangers killed the leader of the pack, having determined that he was beyond redemption. Once he was out of the way, the elders quickly restored order.

Some people might resent having young blacks and Hispanic troublemakers compared to elephants, but it’s the elephants who should be insulted. That’s because it takes a poacher’s bullet to prevent them carrying out their paternal responsibilities.

The fault that does lie with society at large is that we’ve made it socially acceptable for young, unmarried, uneducated women to bear and raise children.

Although society pays lip service to the importance of children, we put the lie to our words when we dole out relatively short prison sentences to pedophiles and when we turn a blind eye to the huge number of babies born to women who are in no position to care for themselves, let alone raise babies, children and, most difficult of all, adolescents.

What is really odd about this is that we are a health-conscious nation when it comes to things like a balanced diet. We focus on things like calories and trying to avoid something called gluten, but we barely give a second thought to incompetent women or homosexual couples raising the next generation.

I’m not saying that these people don’t love their children, but love isn’t enough. If it were, most of us would try to survive on chocolate, that most lovable of foods.

I find it amazing that, for no other reason than political correctness, people are so willing to surrender the notion that the ideal when it comes to parenting is a father and a mother. Anything other than that combination is the equivalent of bringing up a child on an all-dairy or all-protein diet.

I’m aware that there are factors, including death and divorce, that can affect the situation. But when 71% of black babies and 53% of Hispanic babies are born into homes without a father’s presence, we shouldn’t be shocked when the kids grow up to slaughter rhinos.

Another issue that society in general but left-wing politicians tend to lie about is that young blacks and Hispanics have a high unemployment rate because of racist employers. But if these teenagers lack the discipline to even complete high school, where they’re surrounded by their friends for six hours a day, why would anyone think they’d be willing or even capable of putting in an eight-hour work day?

As anyone who’s been reading me for a while knows, I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. But even I am getting a little fed up with the anti-Trump campaign. It’s non-stop and all consuming, and it has nothing to do with his stand on the issues or even his actual rhetoric.

For instance, Michele Fields, a reporter for Breitbart, claims that Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski grabbed her arm so hard it left a bruise. Well, I have watched the alleged assault several times on TV and I was unable to see it occur.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t do it, but a couple of bruises on an arm could just as easily be self-inflicted. I mean, she wasn’t hurled to the ground. It is possible that Lewandowski or some other Trump aide thought Ms. Fields was crowding the candidate as he approached the dais, and it certainly wouldn’t do to have a presidential candidate shove past a young woman. His polling numbers among women aren’t too good, as it is.

But knowing what we do about the media, when even seasoned White House reporters jostle to be seen on camera asking a question of Obama or Josh Earnest, are we supposed to ignore the fact that members of the media are every bit as publicity-mad as their cousins in show business? After all, a lot more people and potential employers have heard of Ms. Fields today than they did a couple of weeks ago.

On the other hand, Lewandowski did indeed go into a Trump crowd to wrench an obscenity-laced protest sign away from a demonstrator who had snuck into the hall with the idea of raising a ruckus. I say, more power to Lewandowski.

If you want to hear what Trump or any other candidate has to say, you belong inside. If you’re only showing up to let the TV cameras know you disagree with him, your place is outside, preferably across the street, not interfering with those entering the auditorium.

The weirdest thing about the anti-Trump activists, a great many of whom are being paid, probably by George Soros, is that the louder they shout and the more rabid they get, the better it is for Trump’s campaign because it shows him being victimized by the mob.

I agree it’s hard to picture a man with several billion dollars, a beautiful wife and a bunch of attractive, respectful, kids as an underdog, but somehow these dingbats are managing to pull it off.

With all the lies that John Kasich has been saying lately, I’m even beginning to wonder if he really helped balance the federal budget in the 1990s.

The first time he was asked if he was actually running for the vice-presidency, he said absolutely not. But then he bowed out of a final debate when he, who has spent months whining that he was being shortchanged at the debates, would have gotten to share the stage alone with Ted Cruz for two solid hours.

The next time I heard him asked was on “Meet the Press,” and once again he said he definitely, absolutely, positively, was not looking to be anyone’s V.P. He said he is out to win the nomination, and would settle for nothing less.

The only problem is that at that point, he would have had to receive 106% of all the remaining delegates. So either he’s psychotic, terrible at math or he is so anxious to succeed Joe Biden, he would even agree to be Hillary Clinton’s running-mate.

Finally, I suspect that Barack Obama is such a sissy boy when it comes to armed conflict that he won’t even watch war movies or John Wayne westerns.

What confounds me is that even after ISIS has at long last been condemned for committing genocide against Christians, Europe is unwilling to initiate a modern-day crusade against the Islamists.

In prior times, we sometimes had to invent stories about the atrocities committed by our enemies to help foment sufficient hatred to get our patriotic juices flowing.

But nobody has to invent anything about the jihadists. They even make videos of their beheadings with which to taunt those of us in the West. Moreover, they have taken their unholy war to every corner of the globe. And still, the super powers and some of the less super powers sit idly by and let them get away with it.

It occurs to me as I see these barbarians turn the world into one large killing field that Hitler must be kicking himself over his lousy timing.

It turns out the little schmuck was simply born 80 years too soon.