Like many of you, I’ve been reeling and angry after George Floyd’s murder. I’ve been driving through the communities I represent and seeing with my own eyes what’s happened. But I’ve struggled to find the right words, and the last thing the world needs right now is yet another person with a title explaining suffering he’s never experienced.
Several of my colleagues in the Illinois Senate’s Black Caucus, however, have encouraged me to speak up, not because I have some particularly great bit of wisdom to share, but rather because members of the Black Caucus do. It is my responsibility to use this position to amplify their voices and support their efforts.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx spoke recently of the ‘casual acceptance’ of so many things that are wrong. Her powerful words should cause us all to rethink what we have too easily accepted – not just the death of another unarmed black man at the hands of police, but the system that allowed it to happen.
The COVID-19 outbreak showed the world the uncomfortable realities revealed in the disproportionate and immoral number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths put upon minority communities. It has exposed the willingness of too many of us for far too long to look away from the suffering happening in other communities.
When you take the time to write it out, the injustice is embarrassingly inescapable. But times of crisis also provide us with an opportunity to examine what our society should be.
If we are angry over the murder of George Floyd and the system that allowed it to happen, we need to be just as angry over a system that would tolerate taking years off the life expectancy of a child just because she grows up on the West Side without access to quality nutrition or health care or all the other things many of us casually take for granted every day of our lives.
These things cannot be tolerated.
The unity that we experience in times of crisis must propel us to bring about meaningful fixes. I pledge my support to making those changes.
We know our economy has been broken by this pandemic. Mr. Floyd’s murder reminds us that there is more broken in our society.
In the days ahead, we have the chance to re-invest in Illinois. Not to rebuild a broken system. Not to restore a sense of comfort to some. Rather, this is an opportunity to re-imagine what Illinois can be for all of us.
As we move forward, I am committed to listening to ideas and building partnerships to make those changes and give a voice to those who feel their voices are not being heard.
We can, we must and we will be better.
- anon2 - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 11:42 am:
Since the educational status quo perpetuates and reinforces inequality, Illinois could address that problem by permitting children to attend schools in other districts that have room without paying out-of-district tuition. If more poor kids can get into good, well-funded schools, they can achieve their potential instead of having it squelched.
- Linus - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 11:44 am:
This: “If we are angry over the murder of George Floyd and the system that allowed it to happen, we need to be just as angry over a system that would tolerate taking years off the life expectancy of a child just because she grows up on the West Side without access to quality nutrition or health care or all the other things many of us casually take for granted every day of our lives.”
It’s not about one problem, or another. It’s about all. the. problems.
- Downstate - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:05 pm:
The City of Chicago budget is massive. It seems like an immediate response for economic opportunity would be to double the required number of minority contracts for each segment of city services and expenditures.
- Hippopotamus - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:05 pm:
Well said. So, if the protesters are willing to risk their health to be heard, when will the Senate reconvene to address the issues and offer their solutions?
- Stand up for America (redux) - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:08 pm:
Casual acceptance of black on black violent crime that vastly exceeds police brutality; acceptance of deviant criminal behavior by decriminalizing shop lifting, “minor” drug possession and shouting down anyone who dares oppose the racial equity black lives matter secular religion. In the same way nobody admits to having voted for Trump this will waken the ghosts of terrified Americans who want law and order even if it is of the Wallace/LeMay variety.
- Donnie Elgin - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:13 pm:
“amplify their voices and support their efforts”
Then use the dem supermajority in both houses to pass new legislation. Nothing is stopping you.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:16 pm:
=== Then use the dem supermajority===
It’s odd - Donnie Elgin - you ignore the GOP’s silence.
You’d think someone would wonder why this isn’t bipartisan.
I appreciate you showing more and more of yourself.
Thanks.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:18 pm:
If he and the majority party want to do something now is the time. They have the votes they might as well use them. Otherwise it is all talk. Someday, probably not for a long time, they may not have the votes. Use it or lose it
- Donnie Elgin - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:20 pm:
“I appreciate you showing more and more of yourself”
Harmons “lip service” to this important issue says more about him than me or the GOP. He has the name leader before his title”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:23 pm:
===Then use the dem supermajority===
I’ve only seen the state Republican party tweet, three days ago about the past eight days.
If I’ve missed an Illinois GOP leaders, in the General Assembly, that’s on me, but I’ve been looking, my hope is I’ve missed many more responses by the leaders of the Illinois Republican leaders.
These issues… divided among party… reinforces more that deciding to make racism political… won’t bring the necessary change.
The sides to racism aren’t political, and when they are, that’s institutional racism existing.
- RuralKing - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:23 pm:
I’m a white, rural born and raised guy. I have no idea what it is like to be black, or born into poverty, or raised in an urban setting. I only know what I have been told by my African-American friends and acquaintances and what I have seen on TV.
Culturally, it is hard to find very many things that I have in common with a cohort that has been raised in an inner city environment except perhaps a love of sports and religion. And this goes beyond race, because there are people of all races living under the same conditions.
So with that being said, here is what I think are the major discrepancies between myself and those who have been less fortunate.
1. Education. My education was good. I had good teachers, parents who had high expectations of me (and my school), and I was surrounded by classmates that had the same. So better educational opportunities (school choice, charter schools, etc.) in impoverished communities would seem a top priority to lift people up.
2.Safety. I have never been scared for my personal safety…ever. I have always had a deep respect for authority, be it law enforcement, my parents, school administrators, my employer, or whomever it was that had authority over me. I didn’t always agree, and I sometimes pushed back against it, but I always had that respect. So teaching respect to authority AND having those with authority earning and gaining that respect would help too.
3.Opportunity. Through hard work and diligence I have been somewhat successful in life. I’m not wealthy, but I do ok. I have had mentors along the way to help me along. A program of mentorship for those in impoverished communities who need employable skills (plumbing, automotive, construction, etc…) so that they can afford a car payment, tv, and earn a living.
I could go on, but this is how I see it from my side of the fence
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 12:25 pm:
=== Harmons “lip service” to this important issue says more about him than me or the GOP.===
Read that, re-read that, think on that for a second…
Whew.
- City Zen - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 1:01 pm:
==Illinois could address that problem by permitting children to attend schools in other districts==
Vouchers? You’ve stepped on the third rail.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 1:02 pm:
===Vouchers? ===
No. The idea, which has been pushed by folks like former Sen. James Meeks, is to just open up the boundaries.
- Bazinga - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 1:14 pm:
*open up the boundaries.*
Not sure how boundaries are drawn in Chicago, but that’ll never happen in the suburbs and downstate while schools are funded primarily by property taxes. There too much “my taxes pay for my school and your taxes pay for your school” sentiment at the present time.
- Thomas Paine - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 1:50 pm:
The path forward can be, ought to be, a bipartisan path.
If Republicans are a little slow to get on board the train, we ought to give them a hand up off the platform, not rush the train out of the station to leave them standing embarrassed on the platform.
As for our leaders, a historian on The News Hour this week said it’s almost impossible to get an A in crises of this magnitude, but it is easy to get a B: show up, bring people together, project empathy and compassion.
So, give Harmon a B for this leg of the marathon. The real test is what happens behind the scenes in the legislature.
- Humboldt - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 1:51 pm:
RuralKing - I volunteer mentoring some middle-school kids on the west side of Chicago. Should I let them know one of the best solutions offered is to take them out of their neighborhood for a better school? Or should we focus our attention on improving the local schools and offering enough after school opportunities for activities and leaning as exists in other parts of the city and state?
- Shytown - Thursday, Jun 4, 20 @ 5:29 pm:
Well intended but falls a little flat. The idea of opening up boundaries to let kids attend better school districts misses the whole point around how school districts across the State are broken (for multiple reasons) and need to be fixed – you don’t do that by simply sending kids to other “better“ schools. You fix the schools that have the challenges.
- anon2 - Friday, Jun 5, 20 @ 4:05 pm:
While we’re waiting for the challenged schools to be fixed, another generation of youngsters face unequal opportunity.