back to school

Its easy to think of Chicago as a safe, friendly city.  That is until you starting watching the local news.  I do feel safe in my neighborhood, and for the most part, around the downtown area in general.  I feel safe driving to work, even though I usually travel on the fringe of a less than desirable neighborhood.  I don't generally think about safety or violence, but I have to admit, wherever I am in this city, it is somewhere in the back of my mind.

The first time I ever came to Chicago was when I worked for Brach & Brock Candy Company.  I started working with Brock Candy Co., and small family-owned company with a long history in the Chattanooga area.  Two months afterward, the announcement was made that the Brock family had sold out to the much larger E.J. Brach company out of Chicago.  The decision by the new company to move their corporate headquarters from Chicago to Chattanooga was a bit of a shock to everyone.

So the first of my several trips to Chicago to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and management was due to this change.  I remember clearly the briefing I received prior to the trip; put my purse in the trunk of the rental car, keep doors locked at all times, don't roll the window down for anything or anyone.  The instructions were due primarily to a recent drive-by shooting at the Brach plant where the corporate headquarters were also housed.  But also because the neighborhood - on Cicero Ave - was like a dark alley you just know you don't want to be in after dark.

After this and the many follow-up trips, I shouldn't be surprised at the actuality of the risks of living here.  It's just so easy to forget...until you're reminded.  School started this week in the city of Chicago.  The first fact that got my attention is that there are 425,000 students in the city school system  That's something like 100k more than people in all of the Huntsville metro area.  Not students....PEOPLE.  That brings some amount of brevity to the more negative statistics, but it's still tough to hear that over 30 kids were shot and killed in Chicago high schools in the 2009 school year.

I haven't been able to pin down the number of total shootings, but just think about the subject at it's simplest form - - - there are kids with access to guns in the city schools.  How you aren't able to control, or crack down on, guns at school is just beyond me.  Understanding that there's no budget to put scanners in every school, I still am in awe of the possibility of guns in schools being just a fact of live.

Only a few days into the 2010-2011 school year, the count is 1.  One teenage boy killed.  One teacher stabbed.  The first week of school.  Can you just imagine how difficult it must be to go to school every day knowing your well-being is not much different than if you were walking into battle in Afganistan?  Would you not just want to pull the plug at the first opportunity?  No wonder drop-out numbers are high, and unemployment and welfare recipients are high.  Can't get far without a high school degree, but how far can you get going to battle empty handed?

It's not just in schools, it's not just South Side or near West, it's not just one race or another.  But the victim and perpetrator are almost certainly black and from south of the city proper.  Police here met with leaders of known gangs to try and encourage peace; they caught a lot of backlash for the meeting.  I understand that it seems an oxymoron to meet with gang leaders, but maybe that's a way to get the message to the gang members.  If they don't control, they will be the ones to pay.

I keep going back, though to how it feels to be faced with this danger every day of your life.  How much courage it must take to play jump rope in your front yard (where a young girl lost her life recently).  How difficult it would be to break the silence and rat the assailants out at the risk of your own life.  It's hard enough to consider how, at any time and place on any day in a city like this, you could be the one caught in the crossfire.  Even downtown, in a good neighborhood, surrounded by good people, or driving to work through good neighborhoods, or riding the L any place in town.  Tragedy, violence, or mishaps can hit no matter where you are, but when the odds are a good bit higher, maybe we just need to be a little more cautious and aware.  Hard to do when you're caught up in the magnificence of all that surrounds you, so the question remains - do I avoid the magnificence because of fear, or do I embrace it in spite of?  Can't live much of a life avoiding the hard stuff, and I like to think that is how students are able to continue going to school every day.  Hopefully it's a quality that is carried with them through the rest of their lives, as long as they're able to survive past Senior year.