While I hate to say I told you so, however I told you so. I predicted that the Chicago 2016 Committee would lose the bid for the Olympics. My reasons were clear, pragmatic, concise and on point. The Committee tried to portray Chicago as a world-class city, at least in the downtown and potential Olympic venue areas, while the rest of the city lives in Third World conditions comparable to Soweto, the Sudan, or Somalia. The wholesale killings in the city ravels the combat areas in other parts of the world. In the killing are let me quote some factual statistics about the violence in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS): September 08-September 09 = 45 deaths and over 398 wounded, September 8, 2009 to present = 5 deaths. Please understand that these numbers represent only students enrolled in the CPS. The statistics do not reflect crimes for people over 17 years old. So please excuse me, if I'm not exuberant or ecstatic about the White House's pseudo solutions and attention to this decades long problem.
The video of Derrion Albert being beaten to death with a wooden plank, horrified the rest of the world, while festive Chicagoans gathered in the Daley Center for the voting results of the Olympic bid. They could have cared less about the plight of their fellow citizens who live on the Southside and Westside of Chicago. However, our dirty laundry was aired before the world, and the response was revulsion and anger about the existence of these deplorable conditions in the city bidding for the 2016 Olympics. Unfortunately, America again looked unequal, and uncaring from a racial perspective, and the world liken it to the benign neglect of Katrina in New Orleans.
This morning a press conference was held at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Chicago by Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and the Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan. The breakfast was attended by community activists, clergy, school and city officials selected by ______? It was amazing to me at a time when spending of federal dollars should be kept at a minimum, Pres. Obama and his administration have no reservations about conducting the business in a corporate businesslike fashion with taxpayer dollars. The Four Seasons Hotel, very expensive venue to hold an event by any standards.
Pres. Obama and Sec. Duncan are not strangers to the issue of the youth violence in city schools, in fact, they are intimately aware of the situation because they both been party to the ongoing discussions about the youth violence issue over the last two decades. Some people familiar with the situation, even speculate that Secretary Duncan's policies as the CEO of the CPS is partly responsible for the fights and chaos in the schools. Pres. Obama knows firsthand about the killing of black children in Chicago because he served as an Illinois senator and our US Senator over the last 12 years.
The power of the cell phone video camera is unmatched. The person that videotaped Mr. Albert being beaten to death accomplished more in a few minutes of video, than the fact that over 200 students were killed, and hundreds wounded during the last five years. I have been discussing and trying to bring national attention to this phenomenon for over 9 years. I shared with then Congressman J.C. Watts during a visit to Chicago that while it was tragic one time event of 12 children killed at Columbine High School, in CO we had more than 12 children killed in a month in CPS, and Los Angeles was far behind.
Let me be clear, I think the White House was prompted to action because President Obama's hometown violence was broadcast around the world for all to see. It was extremely embarrassing for all of the public figures attached to the Olympic 2016 Committee. In Chicago, Black youth have been killed at alarming rates for the last two decades and no one has responded in a manner that will resolve this very dangerous issue. We consistently try to use outdated civil rights rhetoric and solutions to solve today's problems. I've heard it proposed by community activists and the clergy that we need to try to understand why these people are perpetrating violence against each other. Again a wasted amount of time and resources that could be better spent on students that are trying to do the right thing. A friend of mine Mr. Cox, said that, "the recommended solutions are like trying to determine why a fire started, without first putting the fire out.". I think that's an excellent analogy of liberal, non-confrontational solutions by people who really do not understand how to solve the problem.
These young people that are killing our Black youth are not children they are for the most part adolescents, and young adults. They know right from wrong. As one of my caller's pointed out; "why would do try to hide what they're doing if they did not know it was wrong!." I would have to agree wholeheartedly with the observation.
If someone asked for my immediate solutions to this problem I would say the following:
1.) Define and distribute what we expect proper conduct, dress, etc...
2.) Those not in compliance should be isolated, educated separately from masses
3.) Enforce the laws about school regulation, truancy, and behavior etc...
4.) There should be harsh consequences for trouble makers, not attention and $
5.) Set expectations for students based on their individual potential and desires
6.) Students deemed "problems" would be removed immediately and reviewed
7.) Protect our children by any means necessary from the Urban Terrorists.
These are real solutions that worked for Joe Clark in Philadelphia, and in Los Angeles for others. Our children are being killed and wounded as we speak, and live in terror every day with the threat of gun and gang violence. This situation exists largely because the people do not have the will, and courage to do what is necessary. We would rather march, and pray that the Urban Terrorist will just go away. We need to man up, and deal with the challenge.
Peace, Charles