Just over two months ago, I lost a child, an adult child, but my child and the hurt is penitratingly deep. His was a needless loss and it is still difficult for me to rationalize this great emptiness. I don't think the hurt will ever go away. I started to think of all the young lives that are being needlessly lost in our major cities. Why aren't their names being read outloud somewhere, some place? I decided to see if I could find their names.
The Chicago Sun Times publishes the names of the victums, their race, where and the time of their deaths. I started to scroll through the homicides just in August, 2020. From the 1st through the 23, which is today. There were forty homicides listed. Most were male and most were black. No one is mentioning these black lives, I know they matter because I know the hurt of a mother who has lost a child. In the most rudimentary fashion, I compiled the times of the murders 88% were killed in the evening hours but most were in the wee hours of the morning. The solution seems so simple, a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am. Why isn't this happening? I couldn't read the circumstances of these senseless murders because the Chicago Sun Times blocked my entrance after reading a few, wanting me to subscribe. My perfuncory interest was not enough to pay the fee. The few details I was able to read, told of people sitting or standing and a car comes along, and opened fire on these people. Like I said, I only read the details of three. Besides the listed deceased, there were usually others who were hospitalized. This kind of trauma affects so many, an entire community.
I decided to see who is the major of the city. It is a black woman, Lori Lightfoot, married to another woman, Amy Eshleman raising a daughter. Certainly she has had challenges. Why isn't she doing something. It seems so simple to me, impose a curfew. Arrest those who violate the curfew. That simple act which a major could institute could have saved 37 lives. Why isn't she honoring these dead? Why don't the Republicans in this political year, at their convention, have an ongoing list of these deaths to bring awareness that their lives matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment