Equal Opportunity Shootings

Black women in Austin take note. We are now slowly approaching our moment of true equality. It may not, however, be the kind of equality that we want. You see, in just the past two weeks we have had three females shot in Austin. Thankfully, 9-year-old Cathy Haywood, who was shot while at a family function in the 1000 block of North LeClaire, survived the bullet that tore through her leg. But two others weren't so lucky.

On July 17, in the 1600 block of North Mason, 28-year-old Tomiko Ellis was shot in the head. This past Friday night, 23-year-old Rosalyn Tripp was shot as she sat with relatives in a car parked in the 400 block of North Laramie.

I haven't found any news articles that tell of the capture of anyone responsible for the shooting of Haywood or Ellis. So we still have two people who don't give a rat's ass about somebody else's life while walking the streets of Austin looking for the next person to take out at will. But thankfully, when it came to the murder of Rosalyn Tripp, we know who the alleged killer is; 17-year-old Vincent Collier of the 300 block of North Central. I'm sure his parents are real proud of they way he got his name and picture in the news.

As I wrote last week, there is something very sick about the ages of the people who are doing most of the shooting - individuals in their mid-to-late teens. They've barely begun to live themselves, and now, because they were able to possess a gun, they have again taken someone else's life. I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but would sure love to see some of those young punks publicly flogged.

And if the person doing the shooting is under 21, charge their parents - even daddy if he's been out of picture - with "contributing to the delinquency of a minor." Publicly flog their butts as well. Public flogging, if instituted, would immediately send an excellent "butt whipping" message to those whose entire existence is dedicated to creating and maintaining havoc.

As many of you who read this column know, I am not a fan of Mayor Daley. While I was watching Channel 7 News' coverage of the rally that occurred after the murder of Rosalyn Tripp, someone asked the mayor about the effect of Chicago's murder rate on his Olympic 2016 bid. His response: "It has no effect because, first of all, you look at all the victims; they know each other and the offenders..."

Well, ain't that just dandy?

Our mayor, who normally spends his weekends in the peaceful calm of his Michigan summer home and away from the carnage going on in the streets, now justifies the murders of people because they "know each other?" Pay attention Chicago. The sight of Sherry Tripp crying into the cameras after having now lost a sister to gun violence - and previously a brother - doesn't strike me as the hurt of someone who was disparaging violence amongst acquaintances.

There is something very wrong and sick-minded when the man elected to lead this city dismisses the murder of anyone with such a snide remark. It is even more wrong when he does it in response to a question about this city's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. If our city does get the Olympics and we have an international incident between athletes from warring countries, will he dismiss the actions of the perpetrator by saying that the "victim knew their offender"?

One of the current, most widely accused crimes after murder is domestic violence. And yet, no one dismisses the seriousness of that situation with the crude remark that it involves a "victim knowing their offender."

The murders in Austin, as well as the underlying causes, are valid reasons for all to get involved stopping the atrocities. The victims are no longer just men. They are women and children. The perpetrators continue to be individuals who can't even vote, but elect to take a life as if they are God. Our elected officials are more concerned with their legacy than the murder rate of the citizens who elected them.

Pay attention Chicago. So that in February 2011, you can choose to send those who don't give a damn about your life to a new life - as an unelected official.

To Those Whose Facilitate the Carnage - You Must Pay Too!

Back on April 2, I wrote about already dreading the long, hot summer. Even before the weather broke, while the days were balmy and the sun shone for more than just a few hours a day, I was already predicting that this would be a horrific summer. The news over the weekend that seven people were shot in just one hour's time in Austin should have this entire community in an uproar.

One of the seven individuals shot Sunday night was a 9-year-old child. I don't care what is going on. There is no excuse for individuals to be doing drive-by shootings - ever. And when the unintended target of those shootings ends up being a child, the outrage from this community should be fast and swift. Everyone in this community should be ranting and raving about the violence. We should be demanding that those responsible for the carnage receive a punishment that would make a lifetime sentence at Tamms Correctional Center seem like a holiday.

Now, if the Chicago police had accidentally shot a 9-year-old child, the Austin community would have been outraged. All over the television, we would have seen a variety of livid West Side ministers. But let the sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters - or even some of their own church members shoot a child - and all I am hearing is silence. Even the online version of this newspaper didn't have it as a breaking news story. So let's all just be honest. We just don't give a damn.

Recently in Miami, a woman living in public housing held a birthday party for her 20-year-old son. More than 200 young people were in attendance. The occasion had been advertised on Myspace.com. The party filled the streets with the individuals setting off fireworks, downing drinks and listening to the beat of the DJ's blaring rap music. Shortly after midnight on that Sunday night, according to police, "shots were fired from at least two directions and that six guns were used - five pistols and an AK-47 assault rifle." In the end, 12 people were shot and of those, two died. As a result of the shooting, the woman was evicted from her public housing unit. Officials in Florida cited, "criminal activity" and "drug and alcohol abuse" as the reason for the woman being asked to leave.

I thought about that after hearing of the latest carnage not only in Austin but all over Chicago. The individuals doing a lot of the shootings haven't even been here two decades. They are not taxpayers working to better this society. For the most part, they have been the recipients of taxpayer's dollars. So maybe we as a society and community need to take a tougher stance. Maybe have a zero tolerance when it comes to the criminal activity of those whose feed off the public trough. If your family member is involved in "criminal activity" and /or "drug and alcohol abuse," should that lead to the family becoming permanently ineligible to receive any public assistance forever? Should the entire family have to pay the price for the actions of one member? Is it fair to continue to give Link card benefits to people who use those services to maintain their life of crime?

Of course, there is the possibility that the individuals who did the recent shootings in Austin are working for a living. But I'll bet a couple of dollars that they don't work. But they are eating, and the source for that food is probably off of public dollars. They are sleeping all day and doing their carnage at night. They are not looking for work or standing around thinking of ways to create work. Rather, their entire life is obsessed with whatever kind of havoc they can generate. They are living in their mama's house or living in their girlfriend's house, but they are not living on their own and paying rent. Their idle time allows them to obtain guns, drugs and alcohol while doing little to better themselves - monetarily or educationally.

I understand that some may take issue with my point of view. I take issue with watching any of my tax dollars abused, by politicians and criminals alike. As a member of this society, I'm sick and tired of those whose life's goal seems to be nothing more than creating and maintaining havoc. Those who supplement them in that lifestyle need to be penalized as well.

The woman in Florida lost her home. Although she didn't pull the trigger, she made the carnage possible by hosting an event that should never have taken place in a home. Two hundred people at a house party; dancing and drinking in the streets? That wasn't a party; it was a disaster waiting to happen. There are some individuals here in Austin who are housing other disasters waiting to happen.

When the disaster does strike, we need to make all those who help contribute to it pay.

Chicago 2016 Is Starting To Have A New Meaning

I think that the City of Chicago should invest in producing some public service announcements. Those announcements should be run on every regular TV and cable channel. The announcements also need to be on every radio station and texted to anyone with a 773 or 312 cell phone number. Billboards all over the city should be used to display the announcement, as well as signs on CTA buses and trains. Even taxi cabs, which are literally extinct in the black community, should carry the message.

Even Commonwealth Edison and Peoples Gas, which mail bills to anyone with a 606 zip code prefix, should join in.

All of the police cars should be emblazoned with this message. All the ambulances and fire trucks too. In fact, all city-owned and leased vehicles need to carry the message. The city should reach out to all the major fast food businesses to ask them to support it by having every food wrapper, bag and cup stenciled with the message. And if we have to, we can hang the message down both the sides of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock building. Even City Hall can hang the message from its roof.

What message does this entire city need to get so badly that I am advocating it be hung from every rooftop and doorway? The message is quite simple: "Chicago 2016" stands for our attempt to get the Olympics for that specific year and is not a message telling people to make it the murder rate for the City of Chicago.

I don't know if you've been paying attention like I've been telling you, but for the Forth of July weekend alone, in one six hour period we had four individuals killed and 20 two people wounded. For the entire weekend there were more than a dozen people killed and more than 30 people shot. And even though very little of the mayhem was covered by the media, the honest truth is that the majority of the murders and shootings occurred in the black community. Black-on-black crime is now so rampant, prevalent, and common that when individuals are murdered, hardly anyone blinks an eye. This situation is so "normal" that even the murder of 9-year-old Chastity Turner last month - shot in the back of the neck as she washed some pit bull puppies with her father at their South Side residence - didn't cause this city to grind to a halt to stop the violence and nonsense engulfing us. And no outrage by the fact that those charged in Chastity's murder are the ripe old age of 17 and 19.

What we need as a city and a society are some blunt, in-your-face pictures, statistics and reminders that the killings and shootings happening day in and day out in the black community are done by people who look like us and live with us. The victims are not just names and "nice" pictures in the paper. The victims should be seen just as they are in the morgue, coroner's office and funeral homes. How many of us could look at an autopsy photo of a 9-year-old shot in the back of the head and still eat our dinner and talk bull-crap on the corners? How many of us if we had to look at her lifeless dead body could remain silent and harbor the criminals who live amongst us? How many churches would have their members' aghast if instead of the church bulletin, the members were handed crime scene photos of last week's murder victims-pictures of them sprawled on the ground, dead in their own blood and by the hands of some of those very members' relatives?

The carnage that is going on in Chicago isn't going on in a vacuum. It is being carried out by those whose ages get younger and younger as their crimes become even more vicious.

Chicago 2016 will soon be our actual death toll if we don't do something soon.

Cook County Board - Yes You Can Save KiddieLand

When my daughter was little, I can remember the long drive from the North Side to Kiddieland. I remember getting to the amusement park early and paying an extra fee for her to play in a special area in the back. By late evening, when I was exhausted from watching her have fun, she still didn't want to go home.

Years later, I moved to the West Side and gave birth to my son. Kiddieland was an even closer destination and one where, during his younger days, I took him to get his first experience with fun rides. So it is with sadness to hear that Kiddieland will be closing on Sept. 27 because of a family dispute.

One part of the family runs the business. The other part of the family controls the land. It was heartbreaking to hear a member of the family that runs Kiddieland say they'd love to continue to keep the park operational but moving the rides would be very difficult.

Anyone who has been to the corner of First and North avenues knows that Kiddieland sits on the northwest side of the street. But on the northeast side is forest preserve land - land that is paid for and maintained by the overburdened and overtaxed taxpayers of Cook County. Land that is hardly used at that corner. Land that - if the Cook County board wanted to - could be leased to move Kiddieland across the street and therefore preserve for generations to come one of the last vestiges of an old-fashioned amusement park for children.

Our children are the youngest and most vulnerable of all Cook County residents. Every generation has had their local amusement park. For me it was Riverview. For others it was FunTown at 95th and Stony Island Avenue. For little children, it has always been Kiddieland.

Right now, our current Cook County board has a less-than-stellar image. Most of the news coming out from the board hasn't been good. So I'd like to offer the Cook County board a chance to get some of the best positive press that it hasn't had in a long time:

They can get that press by reaching out and making sure that Kiddieland doesn't go away. Kiddieland has over the years given hundreds of local teenagers employment during the summer. As a business, Kiddieland has also contributed to the county tax base via both sales and property taxes.

A move across the street would be a win-win for everyone. Little children could still have their park. A business that is a source of revenue for the county could stay afloat. And a small sliver of rarely used forest preserve land could be given the opportunity to bring joy to all.

Michael Will Be Loved and Forever Missed!

How does one say goodbye to someone who has always been a part of their entire life? An entertainer whose first song "Big Boy" is one that the mainstream press doesn't readily acknowledge. But that is the first Jackson 5 song that I do remember. I still have vivid memories of the first time I heard that song. I was standing in the doorway of my row house in the Cabrini Green projects and the song came on the radio.

It was a warm spring day and I can recall the pride in hearing that a group of young black brothers out of Gary, Ind. were singing a song on the radio. It was wonderful growing up with a group like The Jackson 5. For every young girl, there was a Jackson in your age group to fall in love with. From the tall and handsome Jackie, to Jermaine - who was the heartthrob for my age group - to little Michael. There was a brother to fulfill any young girl's fantasy.

I only saw Michael Jackson perform live once in my entire life. And that was as an adult. I was leaving a Jewel store on the north side when an older woman approached me. She had won Michael Jackson concert tickets and asked if I knew anyone who would be interested in seeing the performance. My daughter was seven at the time and I felt it would be a good opportunity for her to see the hottest entertainer in history. So I paid the woman the money she wanted and took my daughter to the Rosemont Horizon to view the show.

If memory serves me correct, the concert was on a school day. And my daughter, being a young child, fell asleep halfway through the concert. But I was awake and enjoyed the entire performance.

Like many people, I have followed Michael Jackson's meteoric rise to fame. Unless you're under the age of 16, you remember when Michael Jackson broke the major color barrier on MTV. He was always at the forefront of groundbreaking initiatives in terms of artistic development. His music videos for "Billie Jean," "Thriller," and "Bad" Black, and on and on, will live on forever.

I recently got the chance to watch a rebroadcast of Martin Bashir's Living with Michael Jackson interview from 2003. In light of his death, the interview was even more chilling than when I saw it the first time. Considering that Michael Jackson was never convicted of child molestation charges-and the first boy that accused him has since recanted, according to several Web sites-I won't focus on that part of his life. But what I will look at was just how gifted Michael Jackson was.

He was gifted with the ability to be a commensurate entertainer. Put Michael Jackson next to anyone who has studied dance their entire life and you never once took your eyes off of him. His moves were so smooth, pure and fresh that he outshone everyone else.

I also heard the pain in his voice and in his mind as he retold Bashir the story of being teased by his father during his years following puberty. The nose and acne jokes were taken very seriously by a young man who had basically grown up in the public spotlight. If Michael's death serves any purpose it is that the black psyche isn't as strong as many in our community assume. There are young children who are brilliant, but who are pained by the harsh words of the adults in their lives.

I got a text message last Thursday that told of Michael Jackson's death. The text was more accurate than the regular media, who were still reporting him just being in the hospital. The news of his death was shocking and devastating. He will be always loved and forever missed. None of us know when our time on this earth will be up. But while we are here, let us honor Michael Jackson's message of love for one another.

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Daley Puts Our Butts On The Line For His Olympic Nightmare

There is a parable that I can remember hearing in church. The story goes that a man is lying in bed dying. His entire family has gathered at the house to mark the occasion. Sitting at his bedside is his young son who wants to be with his father as much as possible before the father passes on. All the other men are in the living room. All the women are in the kitchen preparing food.

The dying man who is struggling to live smells an apple pie that someone has just taken out of the oven. The dying man musters up enough strength to tell his young son to go to the kitchen and ask his mother to send him a piece of that freshly baked pie. The young boy runs off to do as he is told. He returns minutes later empty-handed and tells his father, "I'm sorry Papa; Mama says the pie is for the funeral."

I thought about that parable when I read where Mayor Daley has taken it upon himself to sign an agreement before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to possibly put us taxpayers on the hook for the Olympic Games. Like the man in the story, this city and many of its residents are struggling to hold on. We are losing out to unemployment, inflation, crime, lack of resources, over taxation and on and on.

As we ask for things that this city needs now, like streets repaired, quality schools, police protection, snow removal in the winter and street cleaning in the summer, what we get from the mayor is like the mother in the story, we're told to hold off on our share of the pie until the 2016 Olympic Games. And even when the pie is cut, will we be around to partake in it?

The Games will last only 14 days. But in the meantime, everyone will have their lives affected by the process leading up to them and our pocketbooks will surely be reached into afterward.

We are expected to ignore the fact that the mayor touted how ours would be a privately funded undertaking. Remember that the mayor went and got the Three Negroteers - Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Barack Obama - to tout Chicago to the IOC. And like the wonderful bait and switch artist that he is, the mayor after baiting the IOC with those millionaires has now replaced them with average folks like you and I to foot the bill. Ain't that sweet?

Well, here's something I'd like to see: All those members of Chicago's 2016 committee, as well as every single alderman and politician that is so gung ho for the Olympics, putting their checkbook and house titles on the line the same way the mayor is putting the rest of us on the line for his Olympic quest. Let's see how many cost overruns and nephews making millions off of city contracts will go on if everything they own can crumble if the Olympics aren't a success. Let's make the mayor sign a lifetime commitment to live in Chicago so that he too will feel the bite long after he is gone from office.

Do I really expect the mayor to personally risk his economic future on the Olympics? Yes, I do. I am tired of those who don't live the average life always telling the rest of us how to live and what to do and then after leaving office move to some place else to get away from the mess they have created.

The moral to that parable was that you don't always get what you asked for. And that you might not be around to get what you asked for when it does become available.

Pay attention Chicago. Pay attention!