As we walked to the neighborhood corner store last week, my eldest daughter, who is 6, expressed her fear of being shot. This was in response to the recent shooting of a young man at 23rd and Edgley streets. We live at the cross streets of 22nd and Diamond, less than one block away from the crime scene. The young man was killed after a quarrel over an All Terrain Vehicle; his blood is still on the sidewalk.
While I try my best to protect my daughters from the horrors of society, I recognize that I cannot protect them from everything.
My motherly instinct was to tell her that of course we would not be shot, that everything would be okay. However, for the first time, I hesitated. The shooting occurred in broad daylight on a street filled with our neighborhood families and friends. When those shots went off, everyone scrambled for their lives. Who is to say a stray bullet couldn’t have flown through our window or we couldn’t have been hit by one as we walked to the park?
Unfortunately, I can’t promise my daughter we are safe, and other parents in Strawberry Mansion are faced with the same sad reality. Our children are in desperate need of a better quality of life.
Enough is enough.
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