Urban Warfare in Urban Life

After reading There Are No Children Here, I was awestruck and totally dumbfounded at the events that occur in our own backyard, you know, being a white kid from the suburbs and all. Yeah, you hear about the violence on the news but most people have no idea the sheer gravity of the situation. For me, this put things into a completely new perspective. Following the family around opened my eyes to just some of what happens that most people have very little idea about. Finishing the book left me with more answers than questions. What happened to the housing after Lane took office? What happened to the rest of the family? I could go on, but you get the point. Something else that stuck with me throughout the entirety of the book is how it seems that there is a type of urban warfare occurring every day. Even grabbing the attention of local news, it has recently even been called a “warzone.” (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-is-turning-into-a-warzone-20150518-embeddedvideo.html)

It seems as though there is a clear distinction between two different types of people, exemplified by the characters in the book as well as the link above. First, there seems to be the innocent bystander, both like Pharaoh and the man from the video. Secondly, to me, there seems to be the people who are “sucked into the streets” much like Rickey and maybe even Lafeyette. Again, it seems as though, going back to Chicago as a warzone, there is a connection with what happens in other countries, such as the events that happen in Syria. Unfortunately, for many of the people on both sides of the Chicago turf/gang wars and for the armed and unarmed in Syria, many of the casualties are unarmed bystanders and civilians (http://www.dw.com/en/death-toll-in-syria-tops-55000-in-2015/a-18953548) (although many people debate where the line is drawn in Chicago between gang motivated and gang related shootings, as in, “So-and-so claims to be in a gang, but was not partaking in criminal activity, so are they really in a gang?”)

Whatever the case may be, it is absolutely undeniable to see the staggering statistics of homicide rates in Chicago, much like was characterized in the book. Whether they were in a gang, as Bird Leg was, or simply an unfortunate bystander, like Craig, there is no question that Chicago, indeed, is under stress and is becoming more and more like a warzone. Even watching the news for five minutes shows a brief insight to the issue that is running rampant in the Windy City. If the city is actually turning into a wasteland of death and destruction, where is the aid? After all, it seems as though the U.S. is pretty generous when it comes to foreign aid. So, where is the aid for the domestic issues? Depending on whom you ask, you will get two totally different answers on how that issue is being handled. Some people say too much is being spent overseas and not enough here or vice verse. Whatever the case may be, unfortunately, much like in a war, there is no clear-cut end in sight. No matter how much aid and resources are pumped into the system, there will always be a certain level of violence that lingers, and there will always be two sides to the story: that of the bystander and that of the ones who lose themselves to the streets.