I never like being around my phone late at night.That’s bad news time.
But I’m the pastor, and I always keep my phone by my side for better or worse.It went off several nights ago, with a stream of texts coming in about a shooting at Washington Park.It’s not even a mile away from our community center on the South Side of Chicago.
It was a Saturday night, and families were gathering there for a reunion of former Robert Taylor Homes residents.For those of you who don’t know, the Robert Taylor Homes were housing projects that had been torn down, and many of these former neighbors had to find their own way.
But on this night, they had come back together and brought chairs, food and their children.It was going to be a fun night at the park at the end of a hot day.News reports said the crowd had remained in the park past its 11 p.m.
closing, and nearby police were helping clear it out.At 11:37 p.m., several masked men opened fire.
Someone shot back.After all the chaos and screaming, 15 people were hit by bullets, and Rontonio Guterz, a father of three young girls, was dead.
He had been shot six times.His family went from going to a party to planning a funeral.CHICAGO BLOODSHED LEAVES 3 DEAD, 15 SHOT DAYS AFTER MAYOR JOHNSON LAUNCHES NEW GUN VIOLENCE OFFICEBy the time the weekend ended, Chicago had seen more than 40 people shot and three people killed.
Gov.JB Pritzker posted on X that the Washington Park shooting "left Chicago mourning" and that "gun violence has no place here." Mayor Brandon Johnson put a statement out on X and highlighted the impact of gun violence.
That was about it.Blood on the streets and clichés from our leaders.What dismays me is not that the violence happened.
Rather, it is the tolerance.I’ve seen communities elsewhere in America go into an uproar over one death and demand lasting change. On the South Side, 15 people are shot at a picnic, and our leaders can’t even muster a sincere thought.
We have been trained into dystopi...