The Death Of Our Children
Every time I hear about the death of a young person murdered on the streets of inner-city America, I’m often reminded about the murder of my own brother 13 years ago in St. Louis, Mo. Although most of us are shocked by the brutality inflicted on the streets in urban areas throughout this country, I’m not. I’ve lost my own brother to violence and, as a child growing up in inner city St. Louis, I’ve attended too many funerals to even keep count. Sadly, the only way I am able to remember to this day is to count the number of obituaries that have piled up on my closet shelf.
I recently read an article that highlights the epidemic of violence that so many youth often fall victim to. What’s happening in the city of Chicago illustrates the point. With about three months left in the current school year, the number of Chicago Public School students slain totals more than 30 and already exceeds the total for all of last year.
While most of the killings have taken place on neighborhood streets and not during school hours, it is incredible to imagine that in a school year 30 school children could have been the victim of violence. But let’s be clear: the problem of youth violence is much bigger than the public school system. It is truly a community issue that requires the resources and efforts of parents, schools, teachers and community members who refuse to harbor criminals or provide an excuse for the violence in our communities.
Truthfully, I’m heartbroken by the number of children we lose each year to violence and the fact that this has been an ongoing problem for years with no signs of slowing. I have no idea if at the end of the day anyone truly cares about the suffering inflicted in our inner-cities. Maybe it’s the cynic in me who has seen this violence spiral for years with no signs of stopping. Maybe it’s the sister in me who has lost a brother to violence or maybe it’s the mother in me who has sons that refuses to allow them to be statistics. All I know is it’s time we do more. That we say enough is enough. The problems and violence are too rampant to allow this type of behavior to continue.
I could spend the rest of this post on the issue and the solutions but I believe we all know what they are. For once, I would like to take some time for us to remember the victims because it’s important to show a human side to the statistics, the heartache of mothers and fathers and families, and the devastation to our communities that stems from the death and potential of so many youth who could have transformed our communities, and even our world, in ways we can’t imagine or will never know. And for this, we should all feel sad. We are all failing our kids.
Click on the link below to take a look at the gallery of photos of Chicago Public School children who’ve lost their lives to violence this school year.(You may need to cut and paste the entire link into your browser)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-090311-cps-student-deaths-ph...
See also video of 15 year old shot, beaten and burned.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/05/06/mattingly.chicago...
I recently read an article that highlights the epidemic of violence that so many youth often fall victim to. What’s happening in the city of Chicago illustrates the point. With about three months left in the current school year, the number of Chicago Public School students slain totals more than 30 and already exceeds the total for all of last year.
While most of the killings have taken place on neighborhood streets and not during school hours, it is incredible to imagine that in a school year 30 school children could have been the victim of violence. But let’s be clear: the problem of youth violence is much bigger than the public school system. It is truly a community issue that requires the resources and efforts of parents, schools, teachers and community members who refuse to harbor criminals or provide an excuse for the violence in our communities.
Truthfully, I’m heartbroken by the number of children we lose each year to violence and the fact that this has been an ongoing problem for years with no signs of slowing. I have no idea if at the end of the day anyone truly cares about the suffering inflicted in our inner-cities. Maybe it’s the cynic in me who has seen this violence spiral for years with no signs of stopping. Maybe it’s the sister in me who has lost a brother to violence or maybe it’s the mother in me who has sons that refuses to allow them to be statistics. All I know is it’s time we do more. That we say enough is enough. The problems and violence are too rampant to allow this type of behavior to continue.
I could spend the rest of this post on the issue and the solutions but I believe we all know what they are. For once, I would like to take some time for us to remember the victims because it’s important to show a human side to the statistics, the heartache of mothers and fathers and families, and the devastation to our communities that stems from the death and potential of so many youth who could have transformed our communities, and even our world, in ways we can’t imagine or will never know. And for this, we should all feel sad. We are all failing our kids.
Click on the link below to take a look at the gallery of photos of Chicago Public School children who’ve lost their lives to violence this school year.(You may need to cut and paste the entire link into your browser)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-090311-cps-student-deaths-ph...
See also video of 15 year old shot, beaten and burned.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/05/06/mattingly.chicago...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beeba on -
Kim, I totally agree with you. This is my first year of retirement from Chicago Public Schools. I'm hesitant everyday to listen to the evening news for fear of hearing about another child's life taken. We've had a lot of rain for the last couple of days and I take comfort in that.... no children outside, no children killed. It's really sad.
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Permalink Reply by Ly Syin on -
Kim, I often here in the news about children being shot or killed. I know last year there was a case about a 13- year old girl that was stabbed by another teenager that lived down the street from her. The victims family asked the courts to have mercy on the young man and to try and rehabilitate him. All over this country we need to do something to change the fact that our children are becoming victims of violence. Maybe we could do a twit about youth violence day or blog about youth violence. I would support that.
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Permalink Reply by MyBrownBaby on -
I love the idea Ly Syin had for all of us to tweet in support of our children and against the violence being perpetrated against them. Maybe we could all collectively post a blog about it, and then tweet about it, too. I also think it would be a great idea if we demanded better coverage of the violence and our slain children; there was a great column in the ny times last week about how the media has done a poor job of covering these deaths in Chicago... if they won't, we should. I wrote about it on MyBrownBaby...
http://mybrownbaby.blogspot.com/2009/05/wheres-media-frenzy-when-br...
We could all pick a day and agree to post and tweet for the cause... our beautiful brown babies.
What do you guys say?
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Permalink Reply by Kim Crouch on -
I of course would be in support of doing this blog. I saw the article you talked about: What Color Is That Baby? It is a true reflection of the media coverage. I do think we need to demand more coverage, more justice and that people treat this issue seriously. I heard someone say it's a shame that let 36 kids in Chicago die from swine flu and there would be all kinds of resources sent to Chicago or anywhere. When it's violence, it's like oh well.
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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Ross on -
Yes this is a definite problem. I live in Cleveland Ohio and there are many young people who die in the streets and you never even see it reported in the news or the newspapers. While in my last year of high school alone I personally lost 6 friends and 2 cousins to gun violence. Two of them were female who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are always so many innocent by standers. Anything that I can do to contribute to stop this senseless violence I will do. When my daughter was in the 8th grade a girl threatend to cut her face. I immediately made a police report and took the phone with me so that they could hear the message. We have to remember to act quickly to try and avoid some of these acts of violence. We had conferences with the girl and her mom. The girl was actually being pressured by other girls to say this. Her mom immediately put a stop to her association with them. We have to take charge!
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