That was the theme of today's Get Out the Vote/Heal the City rally. Several prominent Democratic officials and candidates shared the stage in what was originally intended as a pre-Election Day event but was transformed at the last minute into another kind of call to action.
One speaker after another, from Superior Court candidates to Congressman Fattah to Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter spoke about the need for mitigating the poverty that drives people to such desperate acts AND for the personal responsibility necessary to make the right choices.
Nutter had several such moments in which he attempted to recapture John Kennedy's famous inaugural exhortation. He challenged the crowd, made up mostly of white, building trades workers and union members, to ask themselves how they could make a difference in their communities and in the lives of young people in the city. In an eerie coincidence, just as Nutter began his speech, he paused for several seconds as an ambulance made it's way past LOVE park, speeding north on 16th street.
"After the events of the last few days, many of will think differently when we hear such a noise," he said, "rather than just considering it a truck with lights and loud noises, it'll be symbol that one of our fellow Philadelphians is in trouble."
At the end of his speech, Nutter referenced his wonkish reputation. Gesturing towards City Hall he said, "When I worked across the street, many people said that I was all about the numbers. Well, I have three numbers for you today - 18, 25 and 45. Forty-five percent of our students graduate drop out (corrected. Must have misread my notes from Friday. - dp) from high school. We have a 25 percent poverty rate. Eighteen percent of our city's residents have a four-year bachelor's degree."
He went on to say that those three numbers are connected and that while there are many things that government can't do, it can affect those three numbers.
Other interesting moments:
- Chaka Fattah pledging to do everything he can in Congress to bring back the resources that "the next mayor, Michael Nutter" will need to improve Philadelphia. He then shook Nutter's hand.
- Lynn Abraham noted the name of the artist who is designing the expansion to the Free Library.
- Nutter, mentioning all of the alternative activities that could help keep children and young adults off the street corner - "where two things can happen, either we [the cops] will pick you up or somebody will shoot you" - mentioned boy's and girl's clubs and specifically mention "the scouts." Interesting, given all of the controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts lately.
Comments (10)
To Adults :
Be thankful you aren't a child in today's Philadelphia life.
Because its bad enough being an adult with the worries a child is and will bear.
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | November 2, 2007 2:24 PM
Nutter has his stats mixed up. 45 is the percentage of children who DON'T graduate. Actually its 44.5% who don't and 55.5 who do.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-06-20-dropout-rates_x.htm#grad
Posted by Patricio | November 2, 2007 4:33 PM
Brilliant, my correction post doesn't get put up but the lightly veiled racism in the tribune thread gets a heads up.
Again awesome.
Posted by Patricio | November 3, 2007 3:27 AM
Maybe it's because you post the same thing over and over again so they start to ignore you. Mabye it's because you post the same thing over and over again so....
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 12:08 AM
Patricio, I don't see where you posted anything that has misspellings. Are you sure you're not just trying to trump up some veiled racism?
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 12:09 AM
I think the postings in the Tribune bit make an important point, and it's no different from the points made in several recent books by black academics and intellectuals.
"More jobs" as a panacea -- when is the person that calls for this going to address that jobs are just what Jerome Whitaker and Mustafa Ali had?
"Systemic racism that shuts blacks out" no matter what they do -- Mustafa Ali had a business, in addition to a job. He also lived freely in diverse areas. He also went to Drexel for two years.
"Slavery" is some sort of invisible force from the past that prevents people from succeeding, yet John Lewis seems to have had more than one chance to get a free high school education, to try for a GED, and applied at many jobs.
He didn't get those jobs because of systemic racism and some internal effect of slavery? Or because he has a serious criminal record of theft, drug dealing, and the like?
Do we know if he could have gotten those jobs if he had a clean record and a GED?
His mom and grandmom are doing quite well for themselves, so by extension, their son and grandson had the benefit of their wisdom and good work ethics.
So what to blame now then? He lived in a segregated neighborhood? He didn't. Neither did Ali. Neither did Whitaker, whose relatives live in SWCC. Solomon Montgomery not only lived in Philly, but California. He had wide exposure to possibilities.
Lewis went into rehab/detox. The drug charges against him that time were dropped because he completed it. Who pays for that? The dreaded "society" does.
So it just makes no sense anymore to keep saying all that people need are housing, free education, free detox, and that society is holding people down.
People have to take advantage of what they get -- high school -- try harder. College -- get a scholarship with good grades and take advanced placement courses for college credit in high school. AA males can get full scholarships if they show good character and basic good grades. Full all the way, plus the military has tuition reimbursement.
There are ways to make it, but people who get themselves multiple offenses for drugs and theft, who have no high school diploma, (bad schools are bad because they are so easy, so if you can't get a diploma from a rotten school, it really bodes ill for your employability), or who has no interest in starting a business or working from someone who knows you who has a business, there's no real way for that person to help himself due to his own actions.
If people think they can rob, cheat, steal, sell drugs, and kill because they didn't do what they needed to do when they needed to do it, they will be very sad most of their lives, as will their families who appear to love them dearly.
I can't prevent someone from choosing to throw his life away after many attempts by a social system set up to rehabilitate and convey skills to him.
Is the problem racism or love of that easy money? I think St. P. is right on this one.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 12:26 AM
Lewis had juevenile charges that are obscured from public view to a potential employer. He was given a second chance.
What did he do? Even if he's not the Cassidy shooter, he set right out to getting adult charges from age 19 to the present.
Is the reason he can't get a job because he wasn't given a chance by a "racist society"? Come on, people!
Do some reading outside your comfort zone, specifically "Come On, People" by Bill Cosby. How about "Enough!" by Juan Williams? They make the case that once the basic social contract is covered, others have to keep up their end of the bargain.
That's not saying we can't improve and tweak that social contract. That's saying that the adherents to that social contract have obligations that they have to fulfill, otherwise, all bets are off.
As Nutter says, "18, 25, and 45." 18% of Philly has a four-year college degree. 25% live in poverty even during an economic boom. 45% graduate from high school.
There's no reason anyone has to commit a crime in Philly.
As long as people make excuses, young impressionable people will think there is.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 12:57 AM
If you have a theft charge, you're never going to get a job in retail.
If Lewis really was eager to take "any" job as his grandmom says, not to contradict that loving person, but what prevented him from doing odd jobs, getting references, picking up a broom, doing construction laboring or landscaping?
Not only do people hire those with records, they hire those with no citizenship.
But that means that chubby, spoiled momma's boy Lewis has to quit playing video games and get up at down and work in 100+ degree heat outside.
Consider who you're competing with. If the immigrants are ready to go at 4:30am when you come get them, guess who gets left behind?
How are you going to drive a cab if you've done grand theft auto? How are you going to stock shelves in a drug store if you dealt drugs? How are you going to work near a register if you've robbed some? How are you going to get a bank loan if you've robbed banks?
If you don't want to be treated like a felon -- don't commit a felony!
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 1:09 AM
get up at dawn and work in 100+ degree heat.
America is the land of opportunity, and that's why the immigrants are leaving lands where they are not minorities to come here and be a minority!
That includes a huge number of people in Philly from various African nations who have no sympathy and mince no words when they describe their homegrown AA neighbors.
Are black immigrants racist too? Is everyone a racist who says get off your butt and do the right thing? I hope the Democratic party moves to a more centrist position on the issue of poverty programs, criminal justice programs, and housing/great society ideas, because the old line "here's the reason and you don't need proof in spite of all the evidence you see around you to the contrary" is losing support.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 1:14 AM
There is no law that says anyone has a right to live in Philly no matter what. If people can't afford to live here, can't find jobs here, can't make it here, feel free to move about the country.
If people can't live here without committing crimes, they don't need to be here at all.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2007 1:16 AM