We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
—Nelson Mandela
I met with Allison Luthe from Martin Luther King Community center a while ago. She told me that two of "her kids" had been killed in gun violence recently. In another shooting, Jordan Jackson a popular wide receiver on the Lawrence North High School football team was shot and killed. He was 17 and had 23 catches for 541 yards and four touchdowns last season. Since then 10 more people have been killed—if I counted right. It's hard to keep up.In every death there is a family that is in pain and a neighborhood that feels more violated and abandoned. Too often, these are young people who have promise and potential that will never be developed. Gone.
There is a great picture of a little girl holding a sign that says: "don't shoot, I want to grow up." Thing is, anyone who is tuned into this situation knows, the shooters are not just folks who picked up a gun one day and did something awful. No. They are almost invariably young men who have experienced violence many times in their lives. They have never lived in a peaceful environment long enough to claim a life that is peaceful and so they create chaos as a learned behavior.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Peace is not merely a distant goal…but a means by which we arrive at that goal." Peace begets peace. All this begins in the home. There must be safety, rules, and loving care. There must be a belief system that condemns violence and promotes family ideals and emotional support for each other.
The churches in the hardest hit areas must be brought into the inner circle to fight this scourge. These are the leaders who can help forge a plan that will work—not only to stop the constant bloodshed, but in greater part to intervene in the childhoods of those who might otherwise take up a gun in the future.
A childhood "free of violence and fear" is the most powerful way to safeguard our children's futures,
Jim
