INSANITY

Yet another child cut down like a forest full of trees to make way for the next expressway. Seems as if children are being seen as expendable and sacrificed for nothing. Aside from the obvious injustice this latest tragedy displays the more over reaching problem as I see it is the NON-action from the neighborhood. How long are you willing to sit by as children are being sacrificed to people with no regard for their actions? How long will you allow your children to be sacrificed for people you don't know. What purposes are we sacrificing the children? What better or more noble cause are we getting in exchange for our sacrifices? Abraham sacrificed his son in order to be obedient to God's word & to display his love and in return he was rewarded and his son was spared. I have been trying to figure out who's command we are following by allowing children to be sacrificed and wasted here in Chicago? Whose reward are we seeking?

The dictionary qualifies sacrifice as: "the giving up of something valued for the sake of something else." The initial part of the definition is clear. We are giving up something sacred. Children are always sacred and always a gift. However, I struggle to see the latter portion of the definition. We are giving up something sacred but for the sake of what exactly? The definition implies the exchange of one entity for that of a greater one. In these senseless acts of ignorance and selfishness, we are forfeiting that greater entity. We are donating children for nothing. We are essentially throwing them away. Atop it all, we briefly mourn them yet do nothing to honor them.

When soldiers or policemen are killed the public generally honors them by finding the perpetrators or starting an organization to educate or something similar. There are often campaigns enacted to keep the incidents from recurring. But for the children we get nothing, we DO nothing. We state by our in-action and our refusal to assist in the appropriate apprehension of wrongdoers that we are "okay" with it. We hide behind some self-deprecating, made up street slogan to justify our cowardice. Yes, there will be crying and a few street corner shrines or prayer vigils and there will be a few 30 second highlights on the nightly news documenting a mother's tears but not much more.

Demons are killing children right in front of us as the children participate in the basic elements of childhood like jumping rope and yet we do nothing. We turn a blind eye. We hide our faces and hands just as Peter did. Oh the hypocrisy in it all. We will scream, shout, and fight the teacher, policeman or neighbor for chastising our children but do NOTHING when a stranger kills them. Black people, where are your souls? What has blackened your heart so that you feel nothing for two innocent little girls struck down and sacrificed while playing in front of their own homes? Do we hate our children so much that we would allow strangers among us to defile our communities and create the atmosphere for more violence?

Where does it end, people? At what point do "YOU" stop the hemorrhage and cauterize the wound? There is absolutely NO honor in allowing children to be sacrificed for nothing. There is no "code" that is important enough to do nothing in situations like this. Do we even think about who made up this so-called "code?" Who stands to benefit from the "code?" The same demons that have killed your child are who benefit. Are they worth your soul? Are they worth your dignity or the life you will live withOUT your baby? And if you still think it is worth it ask yourselves what kind of life will you have? Surely it will be plagued with unfulfilled and sleepless nights and for what exactly? So you can say; "I didn't snitch?" A ridiculous position considering the stakes.

No snitching was highlighted in  the 60's to prevent people from giving information to corrupt police in order to prevent them from building unfair cases against innocent people (Black people). This doesn't apply here, people! How have we allowed our positions originally designed to protect our people from harm to morph into something that destroys our people? This is craziness NO, it's insanity and has to be eliminated.

It's definitely time TO Snitch! Our children depend on it!