Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE:

THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE

Stock footage (DNAinfo)

Gun violence continues to plague Chicago's communities and with it comes a strange anonymity regarding both the dead and maimed as well as the shooters. Over the weekend, 21 more people were shot, 2 of them fatally. I hate to relate this story simply in terms of numbers because the huge weekend shooting count published in the press every Monday morning, along with the stock footage of yellow crime tape, keeps us from seeing this horror in personal terms. This for example is from this morning's report from CBS 5 morning news:

A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were shot in the right foot, and a 19-year-old man was shot in the left leg. All three victims were taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition.

The worst part is that, like the Vietnam War's body-bag count, these numbers become the 

Weekend Quotables

Courageous Saucedo student speaks out against ISAT.  Sun-Times editorial...CPS damaged its credibility with parents, and undermined the trust that is so essential to good schooling, by choosing, foolishly, to interview small children on such a sensitive matter without even informing their parents — the ones who made the final decision on skipping the test. CPS had the law on its side, but wisdom w

by Mike Klonsky / 1h