“Youth isn’t always what it is touted to be.”
~Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Ms. Lydia Clark, 1999
This quote holds truth for Illinois’ youth. Within minutes of posting my vlog last week about 22 Chicago Public School Children having been killed since September, another CPS student was murdered. As of today, the number is up to 24. I am not surprised seeing that I predicted the killings would continue. Now, the buzz around Illinois this week is all the people who are choosing to wear a blue ribbon in public. Since I did not know what these blue ribbons were about, I went on a little info seeking mission.
Three trees at Fourth Presbyterian Church told me the terrible story behind all of the blue. In their effort to observe the fight against child abuse, the leafless trees in front of the church were covered in blue ribbons. The 7,879 ribbons reflect the actual number of child abuse cases investigated and proved in Cook County in 2007. After seeing the trees, I realized how desensitized I have become to violence in Illinois—it is something that I see everyday on the television and in the newspapers. It has become something I just expect. But, reality hit home when I saw that these trees literally had no place left to tie a ribbon.
For me, the scariest part of this entire scenario is that a total of 28,461 cases of child abuse were investigated and proved in Illinois altogether. Legal documentation shows that individuals ranging in age from newborn up to 18-year-olds have suffered from neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse in the last year. It is sad to think that most of the abusers are the victim’s parent.
In the wake of all this tragedy, I do not know where to tell Illinois’ youth to turn for help. Of course, there are hotlines for help and the police—but I am talking about serious policy changes. If Senator Obama and Senator Clinton really want the youth vote maybe they should wake up and pay attention! Yeah there is a war going on in Iraq, but we have another very real war going on in Illinois streets and homes. How are we going to put an end to this domestic war where the youth (this country’s future) are the casualties?
Blue ribbons might raise awareness and pay respect to the abused, but this problem is too big for blue ribbons to solve. We need to wake up out of this cloud of desensitization and get push for some new policies to protect our youth.
To view Jacqueline A. Ingles' video regarding Child Abuse in Illinois click here:
http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF00989E1E00170098EA3A/