Michelle - Chicago needs involved adults, good schools, a supportive community and a safe neighborhood.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

First lady wades into debate over gun violence

CHICAGO (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama made a deeply personal entrance into the gun debate Wednesday, the eve of a showdown in Congress, by comparing herself to the honor student from her hometown shot to death a week after performing as a majorette in the presidential inaugural parade.

Mrs. Obama told a conference on youth violence that the new gun regulations her husband proposed in response to Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting deserve a vote in Congress. But she says reducing daily gun deaths in places like Chicago, with its 500 homicides last year, also will require an intensive effort by community leaders.

As part of a rare foray into a policy debate, Mrs. Obama highlighted the case of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, shot in the back Jan. 29 while hanging out with friends at a park, about a mile from the Obamas' South Side home. Mrs. Obama attended Pendleton's funeral and said she was struck by how familiar the Pendleton family seemed to her own.

"Hadiya Pendleton was me and I was her," Mrs. Obama said. "But I got to grow up and go to Princeton and Harvard Law School and have a career and a family and the most blessed life I could ever imagine."

Mrs. Obama said the only difference between herself and the young people killed on the Chicago streets is that she had a few more advantages — involved adults, good schools, a supportive community and a safe neighborhood.

"That was the difference between growing up and becoming a lawyer, a mother and first lady of the United States and being shot dead at the age of 15," Mrs. Obama said, her voice gripped with emotion.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-politics-whitehouse/20130410/US-Michelle-Obama-Gun-Control/

Edited April 11, 2013 by The Patriot

[Penny Lane 8,159]

She is correct. It needs all of those things. In an ideal world, all communities would have them.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Reading the transcript of the speech now. This paragraph is true for NYC too.

Chicago is truly a city of neighborhoods, separated by parks and boulevards. It’s a city where walking just a few blocks can put you into an entirely different world of experiences. Cut through a park, and you go from English to Spanish, black to white, Puerto Rican to Polish. Cross a few streets, and you go from historic homes and manicured lawns to abandoned buildings and dark street corners.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Very beautifully put. I wish she talked about stuff like this more and less about eating lettuce.

I was born and raised in South Shore. Our neighbors were teachers and secretaries, city workers; also a few professionals, doctors, lawyers, business owners. Most folks weren’t wealthy. A lot of people never went to college. And we generally couldn’t afford things like private music lessons or tutoring.

But thanks in part to this city, our lives were still rich with opportunities. We had decent public schools. I am a product of our public schools. We attended the Chicago Park District summer camps. Got a lot of ribbons from those camps I’m quite proud of. (Laughter.) Played basketball on city courts. Our churches ran programs to expose us to music and the arts. So we didn’t have to be children of privilege to get the opportunity to enrich ourselves.

And back then, our parents knew that if they loved and encouraged us, if they kept us off the streets and out of trouble, then we’d be okay. They knew that if they did everything right, we’d have a chance.

But today, for too many families and children in this city, that’s simply no longer the case. Today, too many kids in this city are living just a few El stops, sometimes even just a few blocks, from shiny skyscrapers and leafy parks and world-class museums and universities, yet all of that might as well be in a different state, even in a different continent.

Because many of our children have never been to the Art Institute or Millennium Park. Many of them don’t even know that the University of Chicago exists, let alone dream of attending that university -– or any university for that matter. They haven’t strolled along Navy Pier. Some of them have probably never even seen the lake. Because instead of spending their days enjoying the abundance of riches this city has to offer, they are consumed with watching their backs. They’re afraid to walk alone, because they might get jumped. They’re afraid to walk in groups, because that might identify them as part of a gang and put them at risk.

At Harper High School in Englewood, where I’ll be visiting later on today, a newly-hired teacher noticed that when classes ended in the afternoon, kids would leave the building and walk right down the middle of the street. Now, at first, she thought this was just typical adolescent misbehavior. But one student explained that it’s actually safest that way, even with all the cars whizzing by, because it gives them the best view of any fights or shootings, and they have more time to run.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

At Harper High School in Englewood, where I’ll be visiting later on today, a newly-hired teacher noticed that when classes ended in the afternoon, kids would leave the building and walk right down the middle of the street. Now, at first, she thought this was just typical adolescent misbehavior. But one student explained that it’s actually safest that way, even with all the cars whizzing by, because it gives them the best view of any fights or shootings, and they have more time to run.

I can't imagine that being my life as a kid.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Thread title police needs to intervene. Per the new TOS, thread title should read: First lady wades into debate over gun violence

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I'm glad the FLOTUS is addressing this, Chicago is a war zone for kids.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I'm glad the FLOTUS is addressing this, Chicago is a war zone for kids.

I'd feel much better if that could be discussed in a thread with a proper title per the new TOS.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I'd feel much better if that could be discussed in a thread with a proper title per the new TOS.

Conformist.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I'd feel much better if that could be discussed in a thread with a proper title per the new TOS.

Hater

[Love's JAA 100]

Conformist.

I like contortionists better.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Conformist.

Just poking a little. I mean either the TOS stands or it doesn't. Selective application stinks.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Just poking a little. I mean either the TOS stands or it doesn't. Selective application stinks.

Funny how that works. We should be getting a clarification from Kathryn soon, but generally once one of her mods sets a precedent, and another mod runs with it to excess, we are stuck with it, at least until folks stop reporting that particular "violation".

Edited April 11, 2013 by The Patriot

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Funny how that works. We should be getting a clarification from Kathryn soon, but generally once one of her mods sets a precedent, and another mod runs with it to excess, we are stuck with it, at least until folks stop reporting that particular "violation".

I think the thing to do is make me a Mod.. I would make all you leftist Jihad Areola posting anti-redneck wine sipping Birkenstock wearing peacenick fowerchild dope smoking heathens tow the line

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I think the thing to do is make me a Mod.. I would make all you leftist Jihad Areola posting anti-redneck wine sipping Birkenstock wearing peacenick fowerchild dope smoking heathens tow the line

tow the line? really? how does that work?