“Now is the time to prove that we care”
Tuesday, Nov 3, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The murder of 9 year old Tyshawn Lee in Chicago has garnered a lot of media coverage today. It has also prompted a press conference by Voices for Illinois Children and other groups…
This morning, the day after nine year old Tyshawn Lee was murdered in the Gresham neighborhood in Chicago, Voices for Illinois Children was joined by the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and a community representative from the Local School Council of Scott Joplin Elementary in Chicago, IL, Tyshawn Lee’s school.
Voices for Illinois Children issued the following statement:
This morning we join Chicago in mourning the unnecessary, violent and traumatic death of nine year old Tyshawn Lee.
As advocates, Voices for Illinois Children and the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago fight alongside policymakers to invest in programs that our children and families need to succeed.
In communities, afterschool programs are symbols of hope, and the support youth receive can be life-changing. Afterschool programs like Teen REACH keep youth safe and get them on track for high school graduation, college and career success.
But since July 1, no state dollars have been spent on Teen Reach afterschool programs, including two programs in the neighborhood where Tyshawn lived. That means that many communities have been without afterschool programs that keep their children safe between the hours of three and six–the afterschool hours considered ‘prime time for juvenile crime’ by law enforcement.
The safety of children and families is not a partisan issue. Ultimately, it’s important to remember and understand that all of us, regardless of political persuasion, care deeply for the children and families of Illinois.
But now is the time to prove that we care. We have to put aside things we don’t agree on and move forward on what we do agree on—we all want families and communities in Illinois have the tools they need to succeed. It’s time for lawmakers and the Governor to work together to pass a budget with new revenue to invest in programs like afterschool in order to move Illinois forward.
They’re not blaming the child’s death on the lack of after school programs, but it is a powerful reminder that those programs help get kids out of harm’s way when classes end.
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:43 pm:
I posted this link earlier today, but worth posting again in relation to this story. Thanks Rich for continuing to give a place for the voices of the People of Illinois.
http://www.ymcachicago.org/programs/teen-reach-program
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:43 pm:
I would refer everyone to the preceding post for the Rauner and Republican response.
- Excessively Rabid - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:49 pm:
==Due to these cuts the Y has been forced to shut down its Teen REACH programs at the McCormick Tribune YMCA, Rauner Family YMCA==
Irony meter pegged.
- Dome Gnome - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:50 pm:
But how can we be compassionate before we are competitive? Gravity demonstrates that even caring trickles down.
- Big Joe - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:59 pm:
I guess we should look into restoring the funding for programs like these, but only AFTER we embrace Bruce’s Turnaround Agenda.
- Big Joe - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 2:59 pm:
By the way, that previous post was total snark.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 3:37 pm:
If the answer to this is after school programs and not asking ourselves how we end up in a world where this happens then we have truly failed.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 3:45 pm:
===If the answer to this is after school programs and not asking ourselves how we end up in a world where this happens then we have truly failed. ===
It’s both.
We gotta keep kids out of harm’s way while we attack this mess.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 3:58 pm:
Rich
Very True…
But if the latest report that just came out saying it was done as part of a gang rivalry is accurate, we need to take a long hard look at the world we have created in parts of Chicago, created long before people spent their time calling the governor a sociopath.
- Tone - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 5:12 pm:
Awful post Rich. Gang bangers killing innocents has nothing to with state funding.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 5:15 pm:
===Gang bangers killing innocents has nothing to with state funding. ===
Never said it did. It’s about getting innocents out of harm’s way.
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 5:36 pm:
===Gang bangers killing innocents has nothing to with state funding. ===
Sorry, it has everything to do with state funding.
The time between school getting out and parents getting home from work is when teenagers are most likely to get into trouble.
Whether it is drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy or crime.
It is true in white suburban communities, rural America, and our cities.
But some of those communities have the resources to provide after school programs on their own, and some don’t. Some communities you are less likely to get shot than others.
It’s a choice. The governor owns the choice, the potential consequences of that choice were clear, and he ought to accept responsibility for the consequences.
The line item veto pen was his to use. He could have funded teen reach. Instead, he wanted to use youth violence prevention programs for leverage.
- fly on the wall - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 5:40 pm:
At what point are parents responsible for their own kids; we did not have all these programs 40 years ago and we did not have these issues. Maybe the government is part of the problem. Let us keep more money to take care of our own children. And what about holding the actual criminals responsible for their actions. Seems Chicago and National media want to ignore the record number of shootings in the city.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 7:42 pm:
– we did not have all these program forty years ago and we did not have these issues. –
Fly, you should be ashamed to spread such ignorant nonsense on an issue of public safety.
Forty years ago, the 1970s, was the most dangerous period for violent crime in Chicago and U.S. history — until the 1990s.
We didn’t have “all these programs” then, but the “issues” were twice as bad. Want to make a connection now, with actual facts.
By the way, the record for homicides in Chicago was 1974, followed by 1992. The number has been halfed since then.
Since 2000, violent crime has dropped by 50 percent in Chicago and the country.
Forty years ago, you didn’t have the google.
What’s your excuse today? Educate yourself before spouting that pious crud.
- illinoised - Tuesday, Nov 3, 15 @ 8:07 pm:
A governor should equally address social and economic issues. The budget impasse was a calculated move by this governor in order to further his economic agenda via shortchanging funding for educational and social programs. Running a government like a business is a recipe for furthering the gap between the haves and have nots. I believe income inequality can lead to an environment which features enhanced chances for violent crimes. The governor has proven himself to be a business servant but has a long way to go before I consider him to be a public servant.
- Earnest - Wednesday, Nov 4, 15 @ 7:52 am:
I think that many people imagine themselves growing up in a poor and violent neighborhood and believe they would still be themselves, law-abiding and what they would define as upstanding citizens, without any government supports.
That picture doesn’t take into account the fact that they would be growing up without seeing middle class role models, so not knowing other ways to live or to learn how to culturally fit in. It doesn’t take into account the home environment they would grow up in, or the lack of quality food and learning opportunities.
Deeply impoverished, violent neighborhoods don’t spring up overnight. They are products of generational poverty. If kids grow up without nutritious food, opportunities to experience middle class culture, structured activities, decent schools, they will not break the generational cycle. In the 90s, employers and social service agencies learned it was more than just taking someone from TANF and getting them in a decent job. It took a lot of case management support and teaching in money management and other areas.
If you think you could grow up under such circumstances, without the positive experiences of your upbringing, you’re dreaming. It takes generations to fully break the cycle and a lot of social services.
Where people may have hoped Rauner would make this better was not by decimating the social services system. They hoped he would be true to his word of making Illinois the most “compassionate and caring state in the nation.” His contribution could have been to making sure funding was producing results and that, grant funding in particular, was not going out based on political connections.
- Ferris Wheel - Wednesday, Nov 4, 15 @ 11:07 am:
Fly -
How exactly did Tyshawn Lee’s mother fail him?
I don’t know what news you’re watching, but the daily/weekly body count in Chicago is definitely making national headlines. I have friends who have never even been to Chicago asking me what is going on or am I okay because of all the media coverage surrounding this.
Wordslinger has very eloquently outlined the factual disparities in your comment, so I won’t rehash them here, except to suggest that perhaps the problem in the 70s (I wasn’t there, I don’t know for sure) was a lack of media coverage and awareness then, not currently.