There are many reasons Chicagoans must not allow the city’s violence to become a political pawn in the hands of President Donald Trump.
But two of them are particularly relevant right now—Takiya Holmes and Kanari Gentry Bowers.
Pause for a moment and say their names. Then think about how quickly and tragically their young lives changed—simply by being black girls on Chicago’s South Side.
We don’t need anyone to explain the unfairness or cruelty of their fate. At one moment, 12-year-old Kanari was playing basketball with friends on a schoolyard court in West Englewood when a stray bullet pierced her head.
Within a half-hour, in another neighborhood four miles away, 11-year-old Takiya was shot in the head while sitting in a parked car with her mother.
Now both girls are in hospitals fighting for their lives. Across the city, our children, more than ever, need to know we are on their side.
In this careless political climate, where Chicago’s shootings often are used as collateral in President Donald Trump’s lopsided campaign for law and order, it would be easy to pluck these little girls from the rubble to carry the mantle. But in Chicago, we are the guardians of all our children. Every child deserves better than that.
Girls, 11 and 12, fight for lives after being shot: ‘I don’t know what’s going to stop this’ Tony Briscoe
Twelve-year-old Kanari Gentry Bowers was playing basketball Saturday night with a few classmates at an elementary school court in West Englewood when the sound of gunfire sent the children scattering.
Minutes later, Kanari’s relatives received an unnerving phone call.
“Her friend had called around…
Twelve-year-old Kanari Gentry Bowers was playing basketball Saturday night with a few classmates at an elementary school court in West Englewood when the sound of gunfire sent the children scattering.
Minutes later, Kanari’s relatives received an unnerving phone call.
“Her friend had called around…
(Tony Briscoe)
Takiya and Kanari should command our full attention. Their stories cannot become entangled in the political web that assigns us to liberal and conservative teams, determined by issues of race and class.
This time, let’s not dismiss these two separate, violent acts as someone else’s problem. With two young girls barely clinging to life, isn’t it time all of us took the reins?
In the heated emotion of this tragedy, let’s not waste time debating whether African-Americans pay too little attention to black on black crime. Or Whether Black Lives Matter needs to redefine its goals.
Let’s not get bogged down throwing out useless statistics on the numbers of absentee black fathers, aimed at painting African-American men with a single stroke.
Let’s not get sidetracked by the political rants of a president who wants to use Chicago’s misfortune to advance his own agenda trampling on the civil liberties of others.
But don’t think for a moment that we are off the hook.
Girls, 11 and 12, critically wounded in Saturday shootings less than 30 minutes apart Rosemary Regina Sobol and Nereida Moreno
Two preteen girls were shot in the head Saturday night in separate incidents on the city’s South Side, within a period of 30 minutes.
Authorities first responded to a report that an 11-year-old girl had been shot in the 6500 block of South King Drive in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood. The injury…
Two preteen girls were shot in the head Saturday night in separate incidents on the city’s South Side, within a period of 30 minutes.
Authorities first responded to a report that an 11-year-old girl had been shot in the 6500 block of South King Drive in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood. The injury…
(Rosemary Regina Sobol and Nereida Moreno)
For once, let’s admit that Chicagoans share the blame for what happened to Takiya and Kanari.
As shootings soared across our city, we have served as silent accomplices to an all-out assault on our children. Last year, 76 of them under the age of 15 were shot, three of them fatally. We have not held anyone accountable, not our elected officials and least of all, ourselves.
We have not stood in the faces of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and our aldermen and told them that enough is enough.
We have not looked in the mirror and asked, "What can we do to help?"
Have we so much as written a letter or made a phone call?
Have we volunteered our time at an underachieving school? Have we mentored or tutored a struggling child?
Have we written a check to a cash-strapped after school program keeping wayward young people off the streets? Have we thought about something as simple as donating pencils, books, a laptop or tablet?
And those of us who live in neighborhoods consumed by violence, what will we do to help ourselves? When we know the name of a gunman who has pulled the trigger, will we call the police and turn him in?
This won’t end the cycle of violence fueled by poverty, segregation and discontent. But we might feel more hopeful by doing our part.
No one has as much at stake than Chicagoans themselves. We are fooling ourselves if we think someone will sweep in one afternoon and make it go away.
President Obama couldn’t do it in his own hometown. And neither can President Trump.
For many of us who care about our city, it was unsettling to watch Melissa McCarthy make light of Chicago’s violence on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, particularly as Takiya and Kanari are clinging to life.
"Eighty percent of the people in Chicago have been murdered and are dead," she quipped in her satirical portrayal of White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
The rest of the country might have thought it was funny. But in Chicago, shootings are never a laughing matter.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
