Ending Violence
Continuing the Status Quo Is Not Acceptable
by Robert C. Koehler
“The status quo in Chicago is no longer tolerable,†Andy Willis said, summoning the violent headlines of the past year and the past week.
This was Palm Sunday, in a church basement in a big-city neighborhood, and the time had come to stand for something enormous. My God, a six-month-old baby, Jonylah Watkins, was shot and killed this month in Chicago, as her father held her on his lap while sitting in a parked van. That was just the latest shocker. Violence is the norm, in this city and so many others. The death of children is the norm.
“We can’t live with a status quo like that,†Willis said. “We know things are breaking down . . .†(more…)