the War in Chicago

Dear Mayor Daley,

On behalf of the children of Chicago, I am presenting a Call-to-Action to you and to your administration. It's time you wake up and reevaluate the game plan for the future of this city.
Taxes are high; transit is a mess and we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at the current moment. Aside from that, the crime rate for the city of Chicago is quickly reaching a Tipping Point of sorts and pretty soon, it will be too late to do anything about it.

The events of last week surrounding the brutal beating of Derrion Albert is terrible. My heart breaks for the family and friends of this poor boy who lost his life after being caught in the middle of a heinous act of violence. However, Mayor Daley, I encourage you to take the blinders off and face the music. This event, has rattled this city. But what has upset me even more is the indisputable fact that this is not the first tragic death of a child that this city has faced in the past month, the past year or the past decade. How many children need to die before you will wake up and start making Chicago's youth a priority for your administration?

Living in a city will always be a liability, for any one involved. The population is higher, there is higher competition for resources, including jobs and a higher concentration of all demographics. You talk about bringing the Olympics here, bringing an International population to the "fine city of Chicago" to at last seal Chicago's fate as a global major city.

The Olympic Bid will not be a magic wand to make Chicago's crime problems disappear. On the contrary, it may become the spark that ignites the fire. Our children are dying, Mayor Daley. The infrastructure of this city is crumbling, the schools are over flowing and this city cannot keep accepting this as a "expected" or "normal".

When you arrive from Denmark, with or without your precious bid, I hope you will wake up and see that aside from sky scrapers and Lake Michigan, Chicago has a lot of potential to become a super power that it hopes to be. But you have to start investing the tax dollars of the citizens in the actual city and not in your reelection campaign or any of the other under-the-table, closed door dealings we all know you are a part of.

Wake up.

Smell the pollution.

Your city needs you to start paying attention. In the mean time, I will continue to keep the families of those who have lost their children to violence in my heart and in my prayers.