Summer Of Gun Violence

Last night, July 26th, nine people were shot at a bus terminus at 79th and Western in Chicago.  This savage episode marks yet another sad chapter that is unfolding in my birth city, a town I still love and call home, even though I moved away to Tucson in 1987. We had judged it as unsuitable to raise a child then and nothing has changed our minds since.

 

I was born in Chicago and saw my share of butchery on the streets as a kid. When our son was born in 1986 we just felt that things were only going to get worse and not better. We had the werewithal to get out, and we did. It broke my heart to leave because I love all things Chicago; the food, the attractions, the neighborhoods, and its sports teams. So this current wave of gun violence feels so tragic to us.

 

Last night's incident is one in a string of shootings have become the norm in Chicago. Thank God no one was killed, but in recent weeks three Chicago police officers have been killed. Most of the violence is gang-related but bullets know no gang members when shots are indiscriminately fired in the streets. Most often the ones who are hit have nothing to do with the gang feud.

 

What scares me most is that I have a good friend who is a beat cop in the Southside neighborhoods most afflicted with the violence. I worry about her every day.The police commissioner, Jody Weis, has mandated that every cop in the department do some street time to supplement the patrol force, but all this seems to have done is to raise bad feelings within the department. We've heard all kinds of crazy solutions, including putting National Guard troops on patrol. They are untrained in urban police work and would simply be moving targets.

 

Calls for stricter gun control are irrelevant. Chicago has one of the toughest gun laws in the nation. It is nearly impossible to register a gun there. The shooters don't use legally owned guns. It's the people in the communities who need to become vigilent, reporting suspicious activity and standing up to the gang activity by working with the police.  Additionally, folks have to get their kids off the street at a reasonable hour and keep them home and out of arms way. Until the people themselves take ownership of their neighborhoods the shootings will only escalate.

So What Did You Look Like In High School?

I was looking through some old boxes today and came across my old high school year book and our wedding photo album. I'm definitely dating myself now but I graduated high school on June 19, 1975. I was 18 years old about to turn 19 on the 23rd of that year. I wasn't dumb, I just started late because my mom held me back a year so that I could go to school with my sister. We lived in a hard neighborhood. At one time I had a little natural going and I wore outrageous clothes: four inch stack shoes, wide bell-bottom pants and paisley shirts. Yeah, it was a seventies thing.  Of course I was in Army ROTC too, graduating with a brevet second lieutenant's commission. I never went into the army.

 

The second pic is nine years later, at our wedding. That was in my in-laws back yard. We had a small wedding with family and then a small reception afterward with friends and colleagues in a favorite Chicago Chinese restaurant, Cantonsia.  That date? August 17, 1984. I met Linda through a newspaper ad, in the decades before internet dating was born. We'd both been using newspaper ads to meet new people and struck gold on the third date for each of us, though I had a relationship just ending with a woman I had met through the ads months before.

 

Linda and I met in February of 1984 and we were engaged within two months. Everybody thought we were going too fast but 26 years later, I'm looking back and saying that we probably didn't move fast enough. It's just worked out. She looks just about the same of course, except for some gray hair. I have lost mine and put on sixty pounds. The weight I can shed; hey I can even fix the hair too if I chose to, or just shave it all, lol! At my age you can look back and feel bad or look forward and feel great. I choose the latter!

Prized Students

Today I had one of those opportunities that means more to me than extra paychecks, and that was the chance to see deserving. talented and prized students receive the adulation they deserve. Yes it is something only a dedicated teacher would say; of that I must plead guilty.

I had been contacted by my superintendent in late May, inquiring as to whether or not I had a student or students available to perform the National Anthem at the Arizona Association of School Business Officers convention luncheon to be held on July 22nd in JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson. School is still not in session and I was mindful that I may have had difficulty finding anyone, but of course I had two very talented ladies (names/photos must be withheld) whom I could trust with preparing for this, especially since the organizers subsequently requested additonal music.

My two young ladies are seniors this year and among the most serious and responsible students that I have ever had. I contacted them via email exclusively and asked them if they could be available, and they readily agreed. I advised them to prepare additional music if they could in addition to the Anthem, which they sing as a duet beautifully. Both intend to prepare for careers in musicals and opera in college, so I gave them freedom to choose from that repertoire something appropriate. There would be professional sound in the hall so an accompaniment CD would be great if they had one. I asked if they needed any help and they both replied "No Mr. H., enjoy your summer, we'll take care of it."

With today's kids that's an awful lot of trust because kids are distracted by so many things nowadays that they can forget. Not these students, who are throwbacks. The prepared a fabulous routine to accompany selections from the Sound of Music and other famous shows, including a script and an excellent presentation. The thousand or so conventioneers in the hall were flabbergasted at the professionalism of the duo and of course heaped praise on the wrong person; me. I just typed a couple of emails, they did the rest.

It's working with students like these two that make my job enjoyable. Not easy, but enjoyable. I know that every school must have a few students who are so dedicated and so organized, but it's great to see them hard at work at my school. I have a feeling that this is going to be a great school year! Opening bell August 4th!