Have you ever watched something on television, or in a movie, read something in a book, or newspaper, that continues to haunt you for days afterward? I have had that experience just recently. I was watching a segment of Nightline regarding the explosion of shootings by gangs in Chicago. This segment went on for two nights and ended with the gangs getting together to try to stem the bloodshed of not only gang members but innocent children, grandmothers, people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The numbers are astounding. Literally, 419 people just this year - more than all the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined!
But what haunts me is the excerpt from a young man who pleads for America to help him and others like him to have a chance at life. A chance to grow up and have a job, home, children. He doesn't want to be in a gang, he simply feels he has no alternative. It is either be preyed upon or be the prey. As we go into the voting booths in the next few weeks, we need to think about the America we want to pass on to our children. We're at a crossroads. Our choices are going to determine whether we turn our backs on these young people, or we stand together and insist that things change. It's time to make our representatives responsible for We The People, and not multi-national conglomerates that want to up their profits by controlling our Congress and sending our jobs overseas. If we don't start investing in the people of this country, instead of the Military Industrial Complex, Chicago is coming to a town near you.
Please watch this 1.5 minute segment and look at this young man's face. It's haunting, and also, strangely... sweet. He's just a kid. Somebody's little boy. He deserves a chance to live.
No, he deserves a chance to thrive.
4 comments:
i feel you...there are def people here in the states that could use help...investing in people...gang violence is pretty crazy, but what are they looking for when someone joins a gang...perhaps that is the answer to addressing the issue as well...
You are so right. There would be many fewer kids drawn into gang activity if they had decent opportunities. And we seldom have the opportunity to look them in the face and see what is being lost.
There are so many things...almost everything that is really important...that is not even being mentioned in the upcoming election by either paties. The last thing I watched was the documentary Inside Job...just made me lose faith and hope of anything good coming from our "leaders"..I still believe we can change the world...I have just made my world much smaller.
Thrive. That pegs it.
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