Oh Dear God. What kind of country are we? Our wounds are deep. Our wounds are many. I wish I had the gift of expression to adequately portray the horror, outrage and despair I felt after reading this.
Bob Herbert’s behind-the-firewall commentary in the NYT shines a clear light on the moral bankruptcy of this nation.
…there was nothing particularly unusual about schoolchildren getting blown away in Chicago’s black and Latino neighborhoods. Since September, when the last school year started, dozens of this city’s public school students have been murdered, most of them shot to death. As of last week, the toll of public schoolchildren slain in Chicago since the opening of the school year had reached 34, including two killed since the schools closed for summer vacation.
Kids. Nine years, twelve years, fifteen years old. Getting gunned down in schoolyards, on busses, outside libraries.
This situation, of course, has been barely covered by the mainstream media. This slow bleed of hope and promise is not as dramatic as the sudden killing of several students at once. This slow bleed of hope and promise is not as sensational when the victims are black or brown.
We would not be staying the course in the war on drugs if this was happening in Wilmette or Barrington. In the rich white suburbs, cathedrals and synagogues would be overflowing with mourners and news vans and helicopters would be everywhere. Phones would be ringing of the hook in the offices of politicians, principals, pundits and policymakers.
These kids, these babies, are our children too. The children in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta. When did we stop caring about each other? When did we stop caring for each other?
Immigrants, the uninsured, wounded veterans, the homeless. Are we so used to their plight – and so overwhelmed by it – that we accept it as a part of the fabric of our society?
The solution to any one of these problems is complicated and costly – in terms of both financial outlay and brutal assessment of our complicity in the situation. But no change will come unless we demand it.
Regarding the killings, Arne Duncan, the chief executive of the Chicago school system, said, “That’s more than a kid every two weeks. Think about that.”
Yes. Think about that. And do something.