53 SHOT, 10 DEAD!!!

For the father of a beautiful seven year old girl who was shot while playing in front of her house on the southside of Chicago, for the best friend of the playful fourteen year old young man shot dead in his head while eating outside a pizzeria on the northside of Chicago, he won't be able to wake up tomorrow morning thanking God. For the mother of the thirty three year old US Coast Guard member who was pronounced dead when he arrived at Jackson Park Hospital, she tells the media, "I don't think the black male life expectancy goes past 25 now. He is 33. I thought I had got him past the hump." This is reality. Maybe not for us white people, but for millions of black people, this is what every weekend looks like. And this is precisely what it looked like in Chicago this past weekend. 53 shot. 10 dead.

The response? The Mayor and the police chief gave a press conference and said it's nothing new, cause they had the same number of shootings at this time last year, but they introduced a new approach to slow down the violence. They were going to go after the liquor and convenient stores where gang members and drug dealers hang out and clean house.  

And in the words of the Mayor, 

"we will go after you!" Threats and band-aids. And sometimes band-aids do work and sometimes we need band-aids, but Mr. Mayor of Chicago and to mayors across this country, this is no paper cut.  A band-aid may stop the bleeding today, but the cut will require surgery tomorrow.

The solution to this problem is easy. It is not fast, but it is easy. If we, as a society, truly want to end violence in urban communities, we could.  We have the will power to do so. The question is, do white people want to be part of the real solution? I am not saying that black people are off the hook for their contributions to the solution, but until WE (white people) put skin in the game, we, white people, will be content with the band-aid and threat approach. As long as we can contain the violence to the imagination of black and brown people, then we never have to worry about this nightmare. But, if we are to say that this country gives every individual the right to the pursuit of happiness, then we will invest in urban communities the same way we invest in white America.  We will build the best schools possible, the job-training programs that lead to long-term high paying jobs, end racist drug policies that house a disproportionate amount of people of color in warehouses that we call prisons, invest in local, small businesses that re-invest in the community, build infrastructure and energy policy that supports 21st century technology, tighten gun laws so these killing machines don't get into the hands of the wrong people and ensure access to high quality healthcare.  Not fast, but easy.

53 people shot in one weekend is unacceptable for a nation as prosperous as ours. It is unacceptable if the victims were white, black, brown or any other shade of the human complexion.  We must do better and we will. If we are to solve America's problems, then ALL Americans must be part of the solution. Just imagine, in the near future, one weekend when the gunshots are silent.