chicago...

...you're breaking my heart! why the violence? why the crime? ...

this has been something weighing heavy on my heart since i fell in love with chicago during my work-training last year. the city is beautiful, vibrant, young, fun, and yet it can be so dangerous. anyone knows not to travel to south chicago. why? gangs, violence, gun crimes...anyone knows that on any given night someone (likely many) will be shot, people will die.

since the beginning of 2013 there have been 40 deaths in 30 days. did that sink in? 40. deaths. now imagine if that were happening in your city. imagine for a moment that the deaths were not black-on-black gang crimes but rather white people walking home from their private schools. THEN would people take notice? one example getting media attention this week: there was a young girl killed in south chicago who was simply standing under an overpass to take shelter from the rain with her girlfriends after school. she was shot in the back by a drive-by shooter and she died later in the hospital. she was an honor student and she had just performed at president obama's inauguration in washington, d.c. as a majorette in her h.s. marching band. (article: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57566690/teen-girl-who-performed-at-obama-inauguration-killed-in-chicago-shooting/).

i don't mean to get so heated, and i know that race is such a sensitive issue and i don't want to offend anyone...but this is something that our country needs to recognize.

what can we do? how can we put an end to this? i don't know. i suppose no one really knows what to do or else these these things wouldn't continue to happen. i know that every city has dangerous 'spots' and i know that not all violence will cease to exist...but this? this is just too much.

maybe some profound idea will come to me, but in the meantime i simply hope to bring awareness to these tragic occurrences. so yes, my twitter will likely be reflective of these crimes. does it scare you? make you sad? then let's do something about it!