Chicago Community Activists Ask Obama’s Help to Stop Killings of School Age Children
By Ani on May 27, 2009 at 9:30 AM in Barack Obama, Education, Obama Administration, President Barack Obama, Stimulus Plan
Doug Belkin’s WSJ article Chicago Student Killings Spark Appeals to Obama discussed the need for the President to take action regarding gang violence:
Chicago Community activists here are calling on President Barack Obama to address inner-city violence after a sharp increase in the number of killings of school-age children.
Total homicides in Chicago are down but with three weeks before the summer vacation, the city has tallied 37 killings of public-school children since fall, compared with 21 homicides during the 2007-08 school year. By contrast, 23 students have been killed this school year in Los Angeles, which enrolls nearly twice as many children in public schools. Most of the Chicago victims were black and Latino students who lived on the city’s south and west sides. None were killed in school.
Mark Allen, who helped teach Mr. Obama how to organize communities 20 years ago, is joining other activists in calling on the president to show the same passion he brought to the issue as a young man.
“He’s not the same Barack,” said Mr. Allen, a 47-year-old community activist. “He’s not doing what he said he would do when we were walking the streets together and talking about what we would do if we were in charge.”
About two-thirds of the city’s homicides this year have been drug- or gang-related, according to police. But students are getting caught in the crossfire, along with cases of mistaken identity.
Many of the community activists who worked alongside Mr. Obama in years past are calling for stricter gun control, more money for gang intervention and summer jobs programs, as well as a presidential summit.
Rev. Michael Pfleger, of all people, insisted “People are dying and [Obama] needs to use his bully pulpit to get this moving.” Pfleger pointed out that the swine flu provoked an immediate response whereas this crisis still demands attention. In response, President Obama’s senior advisor Valerie Jarrett indicated that his stimulus plan “will do more to combat the crime problem then just about anything else.”
The stimulus money contains “an unprecedented level of support” for law enforcement as well as a broad array of programs aimed at keeping children safe, she said.
I would hope so. But I am not clear how quickly this aid would get to the cities in need to help local government, nor does money for services get to the root of it either. This struck me as a rather cold response actually, and short on specifics. Further, it would seem these community leaders are asking for a more personal, hands on approach from the President in addressing this devastating problem. Gang violence plagues us in many cities, Chicago being one among them.
Frustration with the growing number of young homicides has prompted some people in Chicago to protest by displaying the U.S. flag upside down, a symbol of distress.
U.S. Army veteran and former executive director of the Cook County Department of Corrections, Spencer Leak Sr. said:
“With the metal detectors and police guards, the lobbies in the school look like the lobbies in the jails, I want to fly the flag to show the country we’re in distress. We need help.”
…
Rev. Pfleger is also encouraging congregants to wear flag pins upside down as a sign of distressPhillip Jackson, Black Star’s executive director, has been circulating a map of the locations of where the children have died in relation to Mr. Obama’s Hyde Park home. Most of the homicides occurred within an eight-mile radius, Mr. Jackson said. His point is to draw attention to the crisis and highlight Mr. Obama’s responsibility to address it.
Reaction to the map has been mixed. “People are protective of [Mr. Obama] in the black community,” Mr. Jackson said. “They don’t want to embarrass him.”
The split tends to cleave along class lines, said Mr. Allen, who worked with Mr. Obama in a South Side neighborhood shortly after Mr. Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. Middle-class blacks in safer neighborhoods are more likely to counsel patience, he said.
“But we don’t have any more patience,” Mr. Allen said. “This is an emergency.”
I agree with Mr. Allen. Violence against our children is an all hands on deck situation. I do not pretend to have the answers. I am curious to know your thoughts as to the best solutions. Is there a way local and federal government can partner together to remove violence from the equation? I cannot even imagine how we are to get all these guns off the streets, but more than that, how to create an environment in our schools and community centers that would lead children away from gangs rather than toward them, and certainly save them and many other innocent bystanders in the process.
Are Mr. Allen and Rev. Pfleger correct? Does President Obama need to use the bully pulpit to get something done here?
(Release: November 13)
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I would say, he is perfectly consistent.
Our youth learn from everything we teach them, whether conduct or, ‘just words.’ Putting the onus on children in Chicago to clean up their act, in the city whose ‘leaders’ include Reverend Wright, Father Pfleger, (former) Senate President Emil Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Richard Daley (Jr. and Sr.), Robert Blackwell, Anthony Rezko, David Axelrod, Jessie Jackson (Jr. and Sr.), (former) Mayor Rod Blagojevich, and Barack Obama, among others, is shifting the burden.
“He’s not doing what he said he would do when we were walking the streets together and talking about what we would do if we were in charge.” Surprise, surprise.
That sentence jumped right out at me, too.
Duh, duh, double duh!
Didn’t any of these people know him long enough to know he is long on words, and short on actions.
Duh!
It is acutally sad to see all the people Obama is letting down that really believed in him; not just Chicago but around the country. Just maybe its time that they all realize like the many of us did many many months ago did, that Obama’s empty promises where just that, Empty Promises from an empty man.
Yes, it would be nice to see Obama working on Chicgo’s issues as he promised them. Yet I have a feeling that Chicago is not the only major city with rising crime problems. There is probably many many cities with rising crime problmes due to all the unemployment that is happening around the nation.
Does Obama owe Chicago special favors; in a way Yes.
But actually Obama owes every city with rising major crime problems not just Chicago help. Remember it was not just Chicago Obama he made all those promises to; it was the nation.
I agree with you. But certainly his addressing these problems, regardless of which city is asking at the moment, would have an effect nationwide. It was just heartbreaking to see that Chicago of all places, the city that made him, is the city making an urgent plea for his assistance.
The more I think about it, I was really disturbed by V. Jarrett’s response. Throwing money at the problem. There is a lot more to it than that. This is not a problem one can “govern” or even look like one is governing from a distance.
You are right there, but money is not the problem. Spoiled brat rich kids get into trouble all the time as well. There are dirt poor kids in Appalachia that never get into trouble at all. Money isn’t it. I think it is that these kids are raising themselves. I think it is lack of parenting. Often it is a lack of an effective parent at all. The government and the schools try to be these kids daddies, but it isn’t working.
He is doing the thing he is sure will do the most to fix the problem. Promote and try to fund abortions..Elizabeth Sanger and the early twentieth century progressives foresaw all these problems, and tried to fix it. If everyone would let go of the right wing pro-life stuff obama will lead the way to make it happen.
To backtrack everyone is just a stepping stone. Once he has used you to get somewhere,you are no longer needed and are expendable.
Has he ever done anything to help anyone in need? Remember the apartment buildings owned by Rezko.
Remember the money to the hospital where meeshell worked and her raise and the lack of care for the poor.
He even made his grandmother wait for months to be buried. Couldn’t be bothered to go to his mother’s sickbed when she was dying.
The man has no soul or conscience. He told you that during the primaries. You were not listening.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
Sorry, but when did the activities inside a particular city become the job of the President? The United States is a Federal Republic. The task of stopping the killings lies with the Mayor of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois. Unless Federal law is being violated I don’t see why we are insisting that this is the job of any President, Obama or Bush.
I think that Obama is in a unique position to speak out against gang violence.
He may not be required by law but you would think he knows it’s the moral thing to do.
My post is not intimating it is his job or not. I am posing the question to all of you.
But it does seem to me that his opening his mouth about the problem could draw more attention to it. The bully pulpit is a powerful thing. Do you think that might encourage more people to get involved within their own communities — that is, after all, what he used to do, and since the youth of American is so enamored of him…
You know, I laughed at Laura Bush when she was visiting the schools and trying to organize against gang crime and on behalf of the education of the children. (or at least I think that was it – sad to say I was too busy mocking her actually pay attention)
But at least it seemed the Bush lady made some kind of effort. She wasn’t more interested in her upper arms, and the Wednesday evening soirees than in the national interest.
So maybe it isn’t the actual job of the president to deal with city crime or the actual killing of the school children (and yes, in Chicago there is a horrendous situation – nearly epidemic). But he CLAIMS to call Chicago home. You would think that home means something.
Yet even when he lived here – literally mere blocks away from squallor and crime of the inner city – he did nothing but redraw the boundaries of his home ward and run for public office.
And the campaign continues
In that vein, maybe Michelle, the First Lady could address this problem.
It would be a good cause and even those that don’t like her would probably give her kudos for trying.
Very true.
Why would he care about the people of Chicago? He didn’t care about them when he lived there, why would he care now? When Rezko put up those substandard public housing complexes, with Obama’s full support and recommendation, did Obummer walk, or drive, the mile down to the projects from his home to see how things were going? No, he did not. When Obummer’s constituents sued Rezko to get heat and repairs, did Obummer speak out for them? No, he joined Rezko’s defense team. So why would anyone think he gives a rat’s ass about anyone in Chicago? After all, they served their purpose as far as he is concerned, and now they are irrelevant. This is a pattern he has followed his entire life, and in his career. Why don’t his close associates, past and present, notice this rather nasty side of his personality?? Oh, that’s right.. He is “The One”. Gag.
I agree. In a hurricane situation the local/state government are responsible for the safety of its constituents. But, if the problem over burdens them, the fed. govt. steps in. I can’t imagine that in a country whose murder rate (by firearm) is the second highest in the world, after S. Africa (if I remember my FBI stats correctly) that the fed. govt not step in with some viable programs and genuine interest in finding a solution.
What to do about the current situation, would be up to “experts”, but I would recommend a civics class instituted into the public ed. programs to teach children civic responsibility to themselves, their fellow students, their communities, etc.
The problem with that idea is that by the time kids get to that level in school, they are already lost. What we need is to re-institute, in some form, the extended family. If Mom and Dad have to both work, or Mom has to hold two jobs to feed the family, then Grandma should step in and do the parenting, like they used to in the olden days. Children get their basic moral patterns before they are seven years old, and those are the ones they will reference throughout their lives. Therefore, school will reinforce what they have learned at home, but it will not teach them the basics of good manners and morality. They learn that at home when they are young. If their parents bother to teach them, that is.
It’s not the job of the President.However, this particular POTUS gave a famous race speech and then more speeches on fathers taking care of their children, then more speeches on service in communities and more speeches on taking responsibility in our neighborhoods and let’s not forget that 95%of AA’s voted for him buying into his message of hope and change and creating a new America. Well isn’t addressing these kind of problems what he needs to do to change the status quo Larry or is it politics as usual?
Larry. I must respond to your and others comments. Please forgive me for the length of my comment but I feel so strongly about this issue. First, I am AA and I lived in Chicago for a brief period (1969-1971). I was raised in the south and returned there in order for my husband to finish his degree after his mandatory service in the US army. We were taught hard work, not to expect handouts, to be of good character, to get an education and respect others and their property, etc. We obeyed our parents, respected and obeyed our teachers and elders. These values were what sustained us.
During my stay in Chicago, I taught 8th and 9th grade math and science in a poor, economically distressed area. There were gangs then although they were not as violent. Many of the gang leaders were sent to the “local boards” and conscripted into the army by then mayor Richard Daley, Sr.
I could readily see that if the trend of single parent, out-of-wedlock births continued and spiraled out of control that there would be vast trouble in these AA communities. I was hired about 6 weeks into the school year. According to the principal the students had “run off 2 teachers”. I made a vow that they would not “run me off”.
The first day in the classroom a student threw a 45rpm record at me missing my head and ear by less than an inch. I turned around and asked who threw the record. I immediately corrected myself and told the class not to ever tell me who threw the record. I then told the class that who ever was the owner of the stack of records to get them and put them away. I turned back to the blackboard and moments later another record came very close to my ear. I did not say a word to the class. I walked back to the person with the stack of records, took them to the front of the classroom, and proceeded to smash each and every one of them one by one under my high heels without saying a word. And then turned back to the board.
I felt I worked very hard to teach my students and tried every trick in the book to get their parents involved in their education. One of my techniques was to call each and every parent of the student at the beginning of the school year to merely “introduce myself as their teacher and directly ask them for their help in their child learning and behaving in school. All of them were stunned that the “teacher had called for something other than a complaint about their children”. In the classroom I used many techniques such as group problem solving, help your partner, what did we learn this week, etc. I shamelessly quoted MLK often to encourage them. Another one of my favorite speeches especially to the young men was to analogize their circumstances to a football player by telling them that their generation had the football in their hands now; that my great grandparents’ generation was able to advance the football from the 1 yard line to the 10 yard line because they were unable to read or write and had practically no avenues to success. My grandparents’ generation advanced the ball to about the 20 yard line while my parents’ generation advanced it to the 50-yard line. Because I had a college education and participated in helping to secure the voting rights act and civil rights legislation my generation advanced the ball all the way to the 10-yard line. I told them their generation had the ball for a first and goal on the 10-yard line. I then challenged them as to what they would do with the opportunity. Will you fumble the ball by dropping out of school, getting in trouble, etc. or will you commit to slowly grinding forward inch by inch until you reach the graduation goal line. By the time I finished you could hear a pin drop in the classroom.
As an incentive for working hard and doing good work I promised them an end of the year school trip to Washington, DC. They worked hard and they and their parents raised some of the money for the trip. I solicited businesses near the community to contribute as well. These kids from the ghetto behaved themselves admirably on the trip even though I was somewhat ill and could not watch them like a hawk. I told them everybody at school remark that I am crazy to take a chance on taking them to DC. Let’s show them that they are wrong. I told them I was sick and I could not watch them. I let them know to have fun but don’t get into trouble and reflect badly on yourself, your parents, your school and me. They were superb throughout the trip.
I continued to work on young people’ issues here in Jackson. I worked hard to organize a community approach involving the school, church, parents, educators, and local politicians, to address school dropout problems, jobs, gangs, etc by using the “hands on” approach as much as possible. The necessary key to it all is parental cooperation, community commitment, and daily effort.
I said all of that to say yes Obama does have an obligation to speak up, put up, shake up, encourage, etc these communities. Young people are watching him. For example I know a young dropout named Al who is always in and out of minor trouble. After the election he told me he would have to” shape up because Obama was now president.” I did not nor do I now support Obama because he is a liar and a George Wallace type racist, that is he uses race to further his political agenda. The black community was taken in by a charlatan. I forever remain one of the 5%.
Brava Wisewoman! Your courage, persistence, fortitude and wisdom was obviously an inspiration for those students who had the good fortune to be in your class. You worked hard and showed you cared and it had a profound effect. There’s nothing quite like a gifted educator.
It’s so sad to see young AA men hobbled by their low pants waists — it’s a trend that’s lasted far too long and betrays a losing self-image — the look of incarcerated men who’ve had their belts taken away from them. That the gangster life has been romanticized and glamorized to the extent that it has, has unfortunately created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Defeatism is the enemy.
As an AA male, the POTUS is in a unique position to make a difference — the plague of gang warfare isn’t limited to only one municipality.
Wisewoman, your story was very inspiring and gives, it seems, the only solution to our problems–especially in the schools. As a former teacher in a continuation high school in a city that once had one of the highest murder and gang violence rates in the country, I know the power of parents, teachers and the community to make a difference.
We can not wait for the federal government to step in. We need to take control of our own communities. What I have seen from the disillusioned Democrats who disavowed their party and now increasingly from obots is despair that things can or will ever change (they’re slowly waking up) and that our country is going the way of Rome. The dirge is that “CHANGE®” is now just a slogan, not a realistic goal.
But the one idea that makes any sense and is starting to rumble out there is WE need to take care of OURSELVES. Politicians will not take care of us. Government/institutions will not care for us. We must care for each other. If we turn the passion and energy that we spend on national politics and elections and put it into our home towns and schools, we can rebuild main street. That’s real grassroots activism and could have real results.
Simple kindness, as your story reminded us, from one individual to another is a mighty powerful thing.
I too worked in economically disadvantaged schools – up to 100 free lunch starting just ten years later than WiseWoman. Parents were not to be found. Many had no telephones or transportation and, sadly, most had no great interest in either their children or education. Most were at least second, if not third, generation welfare parents. They saw welfare as their lifestyle and career. Many of the children got themselves to school on their own. The first school I worked in was 60% minority, predominately AA. This school was in a city in the pacific northwest.
One parent who consistently frequented the school was the local pimp. This was a elementary school! My first room mothers were local ladies of the evening. Home life was so chaotic for most of the students school became the place to unwind and to get away from oppressive criminal and abusive situations. Any pressure put on students to excel academically was often met with behavioral problems. It was indeed a vicious cycle. Most of those students would only put forth effort if there was a reward attached to it. I realized then that those attitudes were going to be with them the rest of their lives.
Fast forward to today and my suspicions have come true. Obama is a prime example of someone who is incapable of giving or performing without a reward somehow attached.
He is absolutely the worst example for young people beyond the American Idol facade. I feel for the AA community. Those that took advantage of opportunities for a better life deserve so much more. We all deserve so much more than Obama.
Wisewoman, as always, I thank you for your beautiful post. And thank you for the wonderful work you have done. I hereby nominate you Secretary of Education. We could use your wisdom and expertise.
That’s a very noble deed you showed to your students.Involving parents for their children’s future is one of the best tools a dedicated leader can do.The Obamas can provide this simple task.Few minutes of his free time is not asking too much, give me a break. What about one Wednesday evening, instead of the “frat style” party time, deal with this rising crime in the nation. Freebies must be earned.
Wisewoman,I wish there are more like you.I enjoyed reading your post.
I am always somewhat cynical when Obama’s allies start publicly thrashing him. From the reverend to this, something is up. Is this the basis for justification for the anticipated civilian militia, which is just as well funded and trained as the regular military?
Agreed. Obama is constantly building his utopia. A civilian army is just another goal of his to foist upon the country. He reminds me of a bottom feeder fish that is constantly sucking up this and that to be used for his own purposes.
Trust Obama? Why?
Yes even with the carbon tax. He could give a flip about the environment. The environment is just a vehicle by which to enact an oppressive redistributive tax. So it is with these kids. He was in those neighborhoods as an organizer and represented them as a state and then U.S. senator. What did he ever do for those kids in all that time? Why now? Except that the kids are a marketable vehicle for something larger.
Larry
you are right and I understand what you are saying.
But backtrack made promises to the people he was using to get ahead. They really thought he meant to keep them. They forgot his theme song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmIoBYzvYCI
They did not listen to what he really said only what they thought he said.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
True, but pretty insulting to Kermit to be compared to backtrack!
You are perfectly right, Larry, but remember the lady who thought Obama would pay her mortgage. He has ridden a wave created by poor simple people.
How long do simple people keep believing when nothing in their personal life changes? What happens when they all get disappointed?
We live in interesting times.
One of the things they seem to be doing out here is to have pods within a school – like different colleges within a university. That way the kids don’t feel like they’re going to such a large school, because their own area is smaller and they can be more known by teachers and other students. I don’t know a lot about it, but it seems to have some face validity.
I think another thing officials can do, of course, is to have more funding – more teachers, so that they have smaller classrooms and can have more control, connect with the kids, and have more ability to shape them into good citizens.
But I think the article said that the killings haven’t been on schoolgrounds. Those gangmembers doing the killling may not even be in school, even if the right age. They say that kids join gangs to feel a sense of belonging, because for whatever reason, their families don’t provide it. I guess you’d have to institute some large program which targets at risk families, to help prevent kids from joining gangs – maybe something like a Big Sister/Big Brother program. Research shows that if a kid has even one stable adult to count on, someone who isn’t a relative and who believes in them and encourages them, it really helps them to become resilient. A good book is by Mark Katz, it’s called Playing a Poor Hand Well.
[...] http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/05/27/chicago-community-activists-ask-obama%E2%80%99s-help-to-…Michael Pfleger, of all people, insisted “People are dying and [Obama] needs to use his bully pulpit to get this moving.” Pfleger pointed out that the swine flu provoked an immediate response whereas this crisis still demands attention. … [...]
Addressing President Obama directly about the issue of youth violence is certainly one approach, but I expect he’s busy with the economy and wars abroad. We also need to be imploring our other elected Representatives and Senators to give this important issue some priority. There are at least two measures before Congress right now that are designed to reduce violence within our borders – the Youth PROMISE act (H.R. 1064/S. 435) and the Department of Peace act (H.R. 808). You can learn more about both of these bills and send your Representatives letters asking for their support at Change.org (http://bit.ly/Y085M) for Youth PROMISE and the Peace Alliance (http://bit.ly/XpdqE) for the Department of Peace.
Ted,
Thank you so much for posting this information here.
Obama never was “of the hood” in Chicago. He was a poser who used a gerrymandered district to get elected. Read about it. He made sure he had the rich Gold Coast folks who could back him incorporated into his South Side district.
He should be standing up and demanding an end to this violence. Won’t all the gangbangers just swoon at his super-powers of persuasion? Well, he knows that it is next to impossible, so he won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Yes, I do think he has a moral responsiblity to step up and try to address those issues. But as Father Pfleger now knows, it’s under the bus with you when you have outlived your usefulness to him. Why doesn’t he do a gangbanger summit like his Muslim summit? Tell those people “yes you can.”