More Violence, Less Playtime
Chicago Sun-Times
Kudos to the Chicago Sun-Times for their extensive piece on how the increased violence is affecting children in neighborhoods where much of this violence is taking place. Although I thought it could have gone further in-depth in writing about the violence as a generational cycle, they did a great a job in letting the children speak for themselves, as evidenced by the responses they posted from children saying what they would do if there were no more guns in the city.
Reading about 11-year-old Maria Rivera’s fear of playing outside reminded me of moments in my own childhood. For the most part, my neighborhood (Chatham) was a safe place, but it had enough negative elements to make my mother and grandmother limit where I was allowed to play. I could never walk anywhere by myself, even to the park that was just three blocks away. The farthest I ever went was my old elementary school playlot across the street from my house. But each time over there I found myself looking over my shoulder every now and again; something that slowly became a normal routine. A good chunk of my playtime was relegated to playing baseball or catch by myself in the backyard. It was probably the one place other than inside my house I felt safest.
It took awhile for me to appreciate my family’s protective nature. Getting robbed one block from home at the age of 14 might have sped up that realization, but better late than never.
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
