Life is Priceless, Talk is Cheap

     After looking at todays' news in Chicago, I came away with three items that got my attention, and are worth commenting on. In the first news item, a Church Pastor and a Deacon were robbed at gunpoint. In the second item, Englewood Residents, "Love the Neighborhood, Hate the Violence". In the third news item,  The current Governor of Illinois and some church Pastors participated in a weekly "Peace March", where people who want to stop this wanton violence have chosen to do so by chanting slogans and marching in public. The Governor reportedly stated that "We area a family, and that we've got to stick together, and fight the violence".
     How can it be that a Pastor and Deacon being robbed and left physically unhurt be considered newsworthy? Because as news, it further emphasized the concept that armed robbers are less than human, and should be locked away like savage beasts. It serves the purpose of dehumanizing anyone who does something illegal, of an up close and personal nature, while at the same time, corporate and governmental robbers routinely go unpunished, and continue to live relatively comfortable lives. The more we stigmatize those who do wrong out of desperation, while looking the other way when financially and socially secure thieves plunder our financial resources at will, we absolutely ensure that our "society" will ultimately collapse.
     The residents of Englewood who so strongly hate the violence in this area must first come to realize that their hatred, in and of itself, is self-defeating. One of the things I taught my children many years ago was that, "It takes too much energy to hate". By that I meant that hatred is an emotion that solves nothing, and only prevents one from using logic, reason, determination, courage, and love to successfully counteract destructive behavior in others. A person cannot really love their neighborhood without first accepting all of its' residents as their equals. When those of us who "have" look down upon those who "have not", we fundamentally help to create the conditions that make our lives less fulfilling, and much more tension filled. By looking closely at the people who are committing violent acts, and how they came to be that way, we can remove the negative aspects of their day to day existence, and the influences in the neighborhood that serve to perpetuate hopelessness and violence from one generation to the next. When you actually Love Your Neighborhood, you must necessarily Love everyone in it, not just the people who are most like yourself.
     Slogan chanting and marching may have achieved some degree of success as methods to initiate social change fifty years ago, but in this situation, marching activists are largely wasting their time. Public protests of this kind can be effective in pressuring persons in positions of power to shift their use of financial resources to enhance the lives of workers, taxpayers, property owners, and voters, but protest marches aimed at influencing the behavior of persons who have nothing to lose if they're killed or incarcerated, is simply an utter waste of time and effort. The media attention given to these kinds of protests are worthless, and only serve as a way to further separate the "haves" from the "have nots", and are therefore counter-productive. There is a better way to counteract the negative and self-destructive behavior of others, and it begins with a clear understanding of the underlying educational, financial and social inequities that exist, and carrying through on ways and means by which those inequities can be eliminated.
     As Alderman of the 6th Ward, I can and will stridently and consistently pursue ways and means  which will enhance the lives of all Ward residents, not just some of them.