Chicago is in trouble.
The city (with its splendor, lakefront skyline, presidential popularity, championship sports teams, and celebrities, works. But it is not working for our youth. To be young, smart, socially mobile, gifted, black and male seems to be a prescription for murder in Chicago. Young, smart black men are the victims of violence. They are targeted. These youngsters are being shot down in the streets going and coming from school, sitting in the car and standing in front of their family homes. It’s too much.
The latest incident of a student being mobbed in the streets of Roseland, beaten with sticks, kicked in the head and beaten with bear hands that led to his death is sickening. This barbaric behavior seems like something from another place … another century … maybe even another country. What on earth warrants such an attack? A kid walking home from school. Please. What the hell is going on? Enough is enough. We are out of control.
Day after day the newscasts deliver reports of children, particularly from the west and the south sides, who gun one another down. We are losing more children on the streets of Chicago than we are losing soldiers in war zones. It’s worse than a war count. Phil Jackson of The Black Star Project focuses on these statistics and reports that 53 children and teens under the age of18 have been killed in Chicago from September 2, 2008 to September 2, 2009. Father Pfleger, too, has been a constant voice against youth violence. He flies a flag upside down at Saint Sabina to draw attention to the problem. Our children are not safe at school, home or at the recreational centers. Some are afraid to go to school, and so are the teachers.
Educators and students are living in fear.
Enough is enough.
An honor roll student is gunned down while riding the bus home from school.
A young black man sits in his new car, in his own neighborhood, and is killed in a drive-by.
Another kid, comes home from the University of Illinois-Champaign to get clothes for homecoming; he is killed on the porch of his grandmother’s home, along with his cousin who was also a college student.
The latest incident of the young man in Roseland and the mob that killed him is the absolute last straw.
The fact that a kid can’t walk home from school in magnificent Chicago is shameful. The kids are being murdered while doing exactly what kids are supposed to do: Going to school, riding the bus, walking home and standing on their grandmothers’ porches.
They are innocent and are being killed for being good students and not participating in gang activity.
Why are they being killed?
What aren’t they safe? As a community, we are becoming numb to the violence and the murder reports because they’re becoming routine. We need to stop and pay attention. It’s not my school. It’s not my kid. It’s not my community. Wrong attitude. Our city is paying more attention to traffic violations with hidden cameras. We have a growing problem, and we all need to address it where we are. This is a time for all good people to come to the aid of our children. Preachers, teachers, politicians, media, parents and, most of all, the police need to have a town hall meeting to stop the madness. Law and order is obsolete. This issue of youth violence needs addressing. Who will call for the summit? Are the murders about gang membership? Is it about drugs? Jealous? Or turf? Is it about jobs? It is about hard economic times? I don’t know the answers, but these questions are possible reasons. Whatever the case may be, it’s time for decisive concern. We must stop the madness before parents and students become armed and take the law into their own hands.
In the weeks to come, the political season will be upon us. We will be asked for our vote. The first question on the political agenda is, “What would you do to address and stop youth violence?” This question is appropriate for the county board president, congressman, governor and dogcatcher.
And we don’t need grand speeches, university studies or theories; we require practical solutions.
We cannot continue to lose our kids on the street. We cannot have the Olympics with violence looming. Our attitude must change. We cannot just preach about it. We cannot have another press conference about it. We cannot continue to bring teddy bears, flowers and balloons to death sites where young people were gunned down.
It is time for swift action. Enough is enough, damn it.
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