COVID AND CARNAGE
It’s a case of cheer and fear.
It’s the Christmas season’s most deadly couple: COVID- 19 and gun violence.
The coronavirus may have claimed the lives of 3,850 Chicagoans through the middle of this past week, but the violence of the gun has now resulted in the shooting of nearly 4,000 people in Chicago.
Gun violence, notes anti- gun activist priest Michael Pfleger, has killed nearly 750 people this year so far.
Angered by these alarming stats, Sneed is told Pfleger plans to repeat his 2016 New Year’s Eve march down North Michigan Avenue, when cross- carrying protesters draped themselves with names of Chicago’s 2016 murder victims.
Only this time Pfleger will be leading protesters carrying Chicago flag replicas riddled with bullet holes and “dripping” with blood.
“We can’t just be silent over this murderous carnage in our city,” said Pfleger, who is pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, located in Auburn Gresham on the South Side, which has been devastated by violence.
“The shooting deaths are now on their way to a move upwards,” he said. “These numbers are not acceptable, must not be acceptable.”
“When Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson was in office, the numbers were consistently going down monthly. Since the beginning of 2020, under an interim top cop plan, they have been on the rise!
“We seem to be ignoring this fact in the midst of the COVID pandemic, which has already tragically claimed so many lives.
“Although it’s apparent we are focused now on COVID- 19, we can also walk and chew gum. We cannot ignore all these lives destroyed by violence. We can and must fight COVID and carnage at the same time.”
The march is scheduled to begin at 435 N. Michigan Ave. at the Tribune Plaza and end at Michigan Avenue’s uber- chic shopping emporium sporting boarded- up windows in the aftermath of looting following police brutality protests last summer.
A Pfleger feast . . .
Food for thought.
On Christmas Day, a special South Side table is being set.
It will be laden with all the holiday trimmings dispatched to 11 shelters housing 1,000 homeless coordinated by St. Sabina via seven South Side Black business owners struggling to survive during the pandemic.
The free, homemade feast at multiple locations — which will include Christmas presents for all 150 children — was the brainchild of Pfleger after he realized COVID- 19 restrictions and social distancing requirements led to the cancellation of their annual Christmas feast at their St. Sabina school hall.
“I learned years ago, it wasn’t unusual for some shelters to send their workers home on Christmas Day to be with their families, which many times resulted in the serving of plain non- Christmas- y dinners for the people who lived there,” he said.
“So we found a way to unlock that door and feed more by bringing food TO the shelters and support Black businesses at the same time!” he said.
“The Black businesses will prepare all the meals; our church members have enlisted cars to transport the food to the shelters ... placing fresh turkey, ham, sweet potatoes and all the fixings on their Christmas tables,” he said. Miracles.
The true Christmas gift.
Sneedlings . . .
The stork patrol: Congratulations Luka and Gina ( nee Stefani) Illic on the birth of daughter, Milania Petra. Grandparents Phil and Karen and Pero and Gordana are over the moon. . . . Belated best wishes to Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief Pat Maloney, who retired on Veterans Day after 39 years of service. Perfect timing for a U. S. Marine. . . . Saturday birthdays: Alyssa Milano, 48; Criss Angel, 53; and Jake Gyllenhaal, 40. . . . Sunday birthdays: Jonah Hill, 37; Dick Wolf, 74; David Wright, 38, and happy birthday to Marc and Rick Malnati’s beloved mother, Jean, who turns 91 Wednesday.