9.08.2006

So Safe

The Mayor walks around with a bodyguard. A man gets gunned down in front of City Hall. Another man dies on his front porch, killed by a still on the loose murderer. Boys continue to die daily in the streets of my neighborhood and the police chief says we’re safe.

I don’t get it. What is it going to take to make this city wake up and smell the coffee? We are not safe and haven’t been safe in a long, long time.

The problems go deeper than just getting the guns off the streets and drug dealers off the corners.

More has to be done than finding money to build a new jail to warehouse people or putting up a bill board expecting criminals to read where to get help.

Parents need to step up. The schools need to get real about education instead of simply asking for more money.

This city needs to deal with the needs of all of its citizens, not just the young professionals who have decided to re-inhabit the downtown. What about the others being pushed out by gentrification?

Can’t blame the media. It reports what it sees.

It sees a city riddled with crime. It sees a city with a lousy school system. It sees a city that cares more about its sports teams then it does about its citizens. It sees a city that is losing out to Kentucky because it can’t get its bureaucratic act together.

It sees a city that is more focused on image rather than substance.

It sees a city that continues to live in the past rather than figure out a way to step into the future.

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