Those of you who read my last post know that I asked you to listen to how the mass killing in Connecticut was going to be portrayed and then to imagine how this same mass killing would be portrayed if it had happened on the South- or West- side of Chicago.
Then my favorite line that is always spoken in the light of these tragedies started being said. “This isn’t supposed to happen here.”
117 children have been killed in Chicago this year (so far–let’s not forget that there are two weeks left in the year) through gun violence. If 20 children aren’t supposed to die at a school in Connecticut, were those 117 children in Chicago supposed to die? Is violence only supposed to happen to “those people” and not “people like us”?
I am not saying that the deaths of these 28 people don’t merit attention. I am asking why the almost 500 people who have died in Chicago through violence don’t deserve the same attention.