Poverty, Powerlessness, Guns

The title of this post today is my attempt at defining the elements of violence in Chicago neighborhoods. It is not Second Amendment run riot. It is not liberal design run amok. It is not bad leadership in the police department. It is not poor leadership in the city’s government.

Rather it is a confluence of social ills that have led us to the brink of a return to the Old Wild West.

It is also another example of – “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”

In every city in America are neighborhoods mired in stubborn poverty. Living conditions create complex sub societies where families turn away from themselves as one by one, the young explore larger social experience. There they are exposed to what can be, not what they have.  They see money and the things it buys; they see life styles money affords. They see power and influence they have not experienced themselves. They learn to want it and seek it.

How they do the seeking to fulfill the wants is variable. For some hard work, saving money, going to community college and later to a four-year college or university for a degree. They explore career options and build a life that slowly acquires a family, a home, and a life style with which they are comfortable. And happy.

A variable is this: find ‘friends’ similar to themselves living in similar powerless lives. Seek power through means of short duration – take, rob, fight in the presence of others for support. Gang life comes into focus. Strength in numbers. Companions in poverty and now in seeking power. A gun is flashed, and others are pulled from hiding places and waist bands. Soon an arsenal is in evidence and those not so armed are urged to get theirs soon.

An armed band of poverty youth in one neighborhood. And yet another. And another. And so it goes that several neighborhoods become populated by armed gangs with time on their hands and power to gain. Robberies spike. Turf struggles emerge, then violent fights. Drive by shootings happen to mark territories and enforce gang discipline. Money is earned from nefarious dealings and robberies. Crime grows as gangs fight for dominance. They now have the power they sought; but seek more.

Violence against people adds to the sense of power. Gun violence is but one aspect of it. Families shrink from the horror but in poverty have little resilience to move to a new and safer environment. What jobs they have is all they have and elsewhere is a gamble of unemployment. Renting or owning a home in the current ‘hood is more affordable than the cost of moving elsewhere where the cost of living is unknown and a job is not available.

So the status quo is kept. The family remains. They call the police when violence happens. And watch from windows when authority arrives to quell the violence. Only they witness more violence as police protect themselves in such violent surroundings. Innocent people get hurt and even killed. And the police are blamed for unprofessional conduct. Even jailed or stripped of their jobs. More are hurt and reduced to powerlessness in this dance of the macabre.

Now the police are powerless, too. The families – they are powerless and have been for generations.

Unless the guns are removed. Unless the poverty is lessened and eventually removed. Unless the power is returned to these neighborhoods and safety and peace along with the power returns with it.

Unraveling the reality of poverty, powerlessness and violence is not easy. It doesn’t come from elevating the violence and powerlessness that comes with National Guard or federal authorities.

No, it comes from understanding the cause, effect and result of social interaction and history. This is how mankind deals with its problems. It learns. It changes behavior. It improves on its circumstances. With feelings and minds engaged people work on these problems and fix them.

It was the lack of engagement that produced the problems in the first place. The engagement of the local family structures and neighborhood builds the power that solves the problem. Regaining a foothold will not be easy but it is the only way.

The only way. Forward, together, one household at a time. First one step and then another. Open the front doors along the block. Meet and talk and share hopes and dreams. Let light shine on shared problems. Let small steps ease the neighborhood back to a life self sustaining and safe. This is community. And yes, this is the power that has been missing.

That power comes from within and it resides there even now – used or not. It does not reside in the nation’s capitol or in the police precinct.

It resides in you and I – us.

January 30, 2017