6/04/2009
My name is Mario Smith. I am a 3rd generation Chicagoan and what I am seeing is frightening. In this great city there are too many families, friends and acquaintances who are suffering because their loved ones have been victimized by the horrid and needless to say utterly senseless violence that has gripped our city. Chicago is a town that has always been associated with violent reactions to challenging conditions. The time has come to look within ourselves and ask why. Really ask yourselves as I am doing – why?
We monitor our “wealth” by our children's happiness. Their smiles have been replaced with blank stares and mischievous smirks. Some of them have lost the will to continue and we aren't talking about hardcore grownups - these are indeed children. Their happiness has been co-opted in exchange for sexual promiscuity, open air marketing and disrespectful behavior. The latter coming from disrespectful parents. Alarming numbers of Chicago Public School kids murdered. That must come to an end. Within the past week in a 24 hour period 7 lives were lost to violence. This is unacceptable. Lives being turned upside down for what? The citizens turning on the police making an already difficult situation heighten to an unfathomable end.
This letter is for those of us regardless of ethnicity, financial standing or level of competency, this moment in our city's history is very telling. What must be done to improve the conditions of our citizenry so that we can see these numbers dwindle? This isn't a time for quibbling over who started what but a time to examine how it will be stopped.
Chicago, Illinois is the center of the universe right now. All eyes are on the men, women and children who reside here. Our inability to speak is getting people killed and at some point before this gets much worse the people in this town must do something. If you are reading this then you have the ability to promote peace. There is no middle ground in this venture.
The foundation of our existence is grounded in a peaceful way of life for everyone who desires it. Peace cannot be co-opted nor can it be attained by ruthless means. It can be demanded however and I as a citizen of the city I love more than anyone can imagine will use my pen and my voice in that call: the demanding of peace on the streets of Chicago.
I am glad that I can say that violence hasn't played a major role in my life...unfortunately there is a city full of people who can't say the same. If for no other reason this is why we must demand an end to the ridiculous violence that is making life in my city tough for everybody.
2 comments:
Mario,
Third-generation southsider here, just two or three neighborhoods over from you. I love Chicago, but more specifically, I love the south side, and I love the house that my wife and I bought after saving for ten years. I have great neighbors, and I can put the lie to every bad cliche about the south side being "the hood" simply by walking out my front door and waving hello to them. They feed my cats when I'm out of town; My former neighbors in uptown wouldn't.
I share your wishes for peace, and I also am appalled by the violence that occasionally punctuates my neighborhood. I'm doubly appalled by the typical attitudes that "it's like that all the time down there", or "they're just animals; let them wipe each other out."
You and I know that it's not like that all the time; it's not like that at all.
Anyway, I like your blog a lot, and I figured you should know that someone's reading.
Take care.
thanks...tell the others...
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