Mothers' Pleas to Perps of Gun Violence Will Fall on Deaf Ears...

Sorry to say so, but anyone who watches the news
even two times a week over the years knows  mothers
have pleaded, cajoled, demanded, etc. that this madness
ends so their children can grow up minus shooting scars
--and actually reach adulthood.

I was struck today by Chicago's NBC 5 story about
Imani Williams, still alive after being shot in her
abdomen. A cell video shows her to be upbeat, planning
to make the serious effort to survive such a horrific
occurrence. I wish her the very best, will pray for
her too, but:

One of the interviewees stated that since they are
suburbanites, they are not familiar with gun violence
in Chicago, especially the West Side where Imani went
to visit. P.S.: the Western Suburbs are not violence free
either, by the bye, which is where young Ms. Williams
and her family reside.

As I watched I could not avoid thinking--Really?
More evidence of the Middle Class not watching/
reading/hearing the news, which can indeed be
QUITE INSTRUCTIVE. I guess the "Yuppie" profile
is still alive and well--people obtaining enough formal
schooling and/or  training to earn those salaries which
enable flight from the troubled, over-populated urban
center to lead a decent (I suppose) private life free from
many of society's ills... Hmmn.

I don't have answers beyond the comprehensive,
complicated and overlapping ones suggested by smart,
caring and involved adults I have observed and even known
over the decades in Chicagoland: it will take most of the
parents, most of the teachers, most of the Chicago Police,
and most of the local legislators working intimately,
persistently together--not the sporadic press conferences
by CPD Police Chief Eddie Johnson, Anthony Holmes
and Father Pfleger, all good men...and the tears of the
families we are shown. Human interest interviews, long
a staple of journalism, are inadequate, to say the least.

Herding cats is probably easier to achieve than the
abovesaid solutions which I am sure are the ways to
defeat poverty, gangs, racism (-tribalism), et al.

Meanwhile, same story, different day; the names
and faces change, but little improves.

                **************************

                     
                        Personal aside:

(If I met an interesting new person in the Loop or at
an event, and we wanted to continue our association,
I would have to ask what community they called
home. I would then propose further meetings in
locations where I felt reasonably safe. Right now,
although no public place is safe, I will not
go to homes on the West Side, Albany Park on
the North Side, etc. No matter what the ethnicity,
I seldom see anyone at their homes in any case,
for a variety of reasons--and virtually no one would
care to visit mine, tiny as it is.)

Survival to a ripe old age takes awareness, effort,
luck and research, research, research--but wait!
That's not fun, is it? Fun, our national religion,
insists fun is the goal. Loved ones' tears keep falling;
pleas for nonviolence won't be heard, due to the USA's
irrational affair with fun and the gun.