Shootings and Dr. Laura…
Chicago is a big city. There is a lot to do and a lot to see. It is a beautiful city with lots of parks, beaches on the lake, museums, interesting architecture and hard working, industrious, fun-loving people of all ages, races, cultures and social standings. The very first time I drove into Chicago I was gob-smacked by its history, diversity, and beauty. It was just…so much.
Originally, I didn’t come here to stay. I came here to work and planned to leave. Chicago would just be another city who had tried to cure my wanderlust… but…I kept coming back. I didn’t think it would last because it never did, but I finally decided to move here because it just felt right. This was over 20 years ago, and while I’ve moved within the city a few times, I still get a sense of wonder and warmth when I wander through this city, no matter what neighborhood. I don’t want to analyze why. There is probably some dark personal reason that would, somehow, mar the positive feelings I have.
However…It appears that there is one thing that may be starting to break through my love of this city. Crime…more to the point, unnecessary, pointless, juvenile, mostly gang-related, crime. Shootings, mostly… Shootings that have taken countless lives of young children whose only mistake were to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Two little girls playing jump rope shot in the head…surely, not the intended victims, but victims, nonetheless. Two five year old twin brothers playing in the house…one shoots the other in the stomach with a gun found in the house. The child is DOA at the hospital moments later. The gun was rumored to belong to a 17 year old cousin who may, or may not have, lived in the home…the question remains…what would a 17 year old need with a gun?
Every time I read a report about these types of murders the last stock sentence says: “No suspect has been arrested. Area police are investigating.” I’ve been reading these news reports every.single.day…
I have a friend who is a police captain in Calumet City which is a south suburb of Chicago. Even though I don’t live there, I did a bit of writing and created a website for her political campaign when she ran for mayor of that town, twice, and lost. Why? Well, she ran for office because she grew up in the city and she remembers a time when, as a child, she could play jump rope in her suburban street without fear of gangs and getting shot. Two previous mayors are in jail for graft and corruption, and the latest, who was trained by the previous mayor, could only keep her from getting elected by having her name removed from the ballot by creating a new city law preventing law officers from running for office while still serving.
About 10 years ago, for a brief time, my friend was the Chief of Police. During that time, she helped put in an after school program, and city bike patrols. It helped and she had planned to do more. When the current mayor took over, my friend was removed from the post, and all her changes were dismantled…and Calumet City continues to deteriorate. Oh, and the current mayor claims crime has dropped and continues to lay off city workers, including police. Last week an 88 year old Cal City man was found beaten to death in his garage.
One really big thing bothers me…the apathy. I think we all know if this kind of behavior were happening in one of the other, more affluent, areas of Chicago police officers would be piling out of cars like clowns from a VW. You know why? Because more money is spent on these areas, therefore, there is more money to lose…and votes. Votes from voters who have more power. Votes from voters who have money.
Money makes the world go ‘round, and if you don’t have it, you’re not included in the rotation. Are you a tax-paying citizen? So what, if you don’t make much money or have much else to be taxed…and even if you’re not paying taxes (yes, you know who you are), are you contributing anything to politics? Who cares if you have to eat …so do political pockets. Go to any school in Chicago’s northern areas, then go to a school on the south side…you will see a tremendous difference. Differences in every way…
I have a friend who lives on the south side of Chicago…rather, her father, a retired Chicago firefighter, lived there. She lives in a trailer park on the far south side, which, believe it or not is a step-up from her father’s neighborhood. Her father had a terminal illness and she wanted me to meet him, so when she scored some club tickets to see a White Sox game a few years ago I was invited to meet him. We picked him up for dinner and I was saddened by the fact that this man, who had served his city and neighborhood, now had to live behind bars.
Yes…you read that correctly. In order to enter his home, a gate with steel bars had to first be opened in order to open the front door. All the windows were closed and also had steel bars over them. On the inside, the windows were covered leaving his home dark and dreary looking. Why? He had been robbed and beaten several times in the past, and because he refused to move from the neighborhood for financial reasons, mostly, he sits in an old easy chair, like Martin Crane, except for the gun in his lap, watching local television stations and waiting to die.
We left his house and walked about a half block up the street to a tavern that apparently had a great fish dinner…all you can eat. We walked in through the front doors, through the bar area, where everyone at the bar waved or nodded to him, and into a small dining area in the back room. He was right. The food was great and Jack, my friend’s father was in his element. You could tell that he’d been around this place a lot over the years, but more importantly, you could tell that he felt as if time stood still here. He was not the ailing shut-in here and was treated with the respect and civility we all deserve…especially in our last days. I could almost imagine him sitting on a stool next to Studs Terkel trading stories about the old Chicago.
It was a fun-filled evening…the dinner was as good as they said it would be…the White Sox won…and I watched as my friend and her dad enjoyed bantering back and forth, as if they didn’t. As we pulled up in front of his home, he started getting more and more quiet and by the time we left him in his easy chair he was a different person than the one I’d gotten to know a little better earlier in the evening.
I don’t think he ever had to use the gun before he died. It seems the steel bars worked. And who knows what happened to it. Could it have been used to shoot an innocent child in the same neighborhood years later? I still drive past his house, and the tavern occasionally…the tavern is now closed and boarded up, as are many of the houses in the neighborhood.
The area needs change, but change will not come until people start to speak up and be witness to what is happening, at the very least. Right now they are terrified. They are being terrorized in their own neighborhoods and are afraid if they say anything, they will be next.
Last month, the police reported that in one day, when they did pile out of a VW like the clowns, there were no significant crimes committed due to their presence in the south side neighborhoods. This act (and, yes it was an act) got a lot of air play on the local news channels…and then it was forgotten. The general public (except for those in the same neighborhoods) was satisfied that the police were doing their jobs. The truth is…it was pouring rain the whole time. Even I don’t go out in the pouring rain, if I don’t have to do so. I’ll go without until it stops. Criminals are no different.
So, now another little 8 year old girl is dead. That little girl might have been in the 3rd grade. She might have even liked school. She may have met a teacher, or read a book that would inspire her to fight her way out of the neighborhood, eventually. She may have become a teacher, a writer, a business executive, or maybe a wonderful mother, herself. All we really know is that if she weren’t gone, she would have had a chance to experience all the joy and sorrow that life allows. Everyone deserves that chance even if there are ignorant people in this world who don’t appreciate that.
One more thing…off topic…
Dear Dr. Laura,
You apparently grew up in a non-loving, dysfunctional family. Until you deal with that, and all the mayhem you’ve created for yourself as a result of NOT dealing with it, you are no longer allowed to dispense “advice”, opinion or commentary and be taken seriously. Anyone who calls you or asks for your advice, opinion or commentary is an idiot. You are non-news, and non-sense. I will continue to get my outlook from Ann Rice.
Thanks,
Chidiana
