City must come together in love and justice
Last Wednesday was a hard day to be black in Chicago. When I heard the story about Laquan McDonald, my heart felt so heavy in my chest. It is a truly unforgivable, disgusting fact that a young man can be shot in cold blood for the color of his skin in 2015. I was running that morning, and a young girl wearing my high school’s sweatshirt and shoes that could have been mine spit on the ground in front of me. I looked into her eyes and tried to tell her everything I felt in the two seconds it took for us to pass one another.
I am so sorry for this. I am so sorry you have to wake up in a world that has refused to care. I am sorry that I have let this go on by not raising my voice where I saw injustice being done, and I am sorry that you have to fight this battle against ignorant hatred. Knowing this, I will be fighting beside you. No matter that I could never possibly begin to understand the hardship you face, I want to be your right hand anyway.
I felt like I deserved that gesture, for what are empty words without actions behind them? This boy and no other human like him will die in vain; Chicago must come together in love and justice to change our culture and to change this country. This is no longer the bigoted nation of our great grandparents, this is our home and it should grow up as we have — unified and stronger. This is my call to all the kids like me in this city: Black lives matter, and we should know better.
Charlotte Lantz, Oak Park
Why no protests for those killed over Thanksgiving weekend?
Where are the demonstrators? Where are the demonstrations for the eight people killed and 20 wounded over the Thanksgiving weekend? Almost 3,000 men, women and children are known to have been shot in Chicago thus far this year; none have been on the Magnificent Mile.
The shootings occurred primarily in the West and South side communities. That is where the problem is, and that is where positive action is needed. Blocking a store on Black Friday to prohibit entrance is not the solution; it exacerbates the problem by loss of needed taxes.
John Culloton, Norwood Park