“Army of Mothers” Presence Brings 5 Weeks of Peace, Hopes to Address the Real Issue Instead of Guns
Via Andrea V Watson at DNA Info
When Tamar Manasseh formed Mothers Against Senseless Killings to patrol the neighborhood after a murder in the 7500 block of South Stewart last month, she hoped to stop any retaliatory violence.
They see the city’s shooting epidemic as merely a symptom of the real problem, which can only be solved with a change of mindset, Manasseh said, and not by just simply taking away the guns. “It’s like Englewood is the land that time forgot,” she said. “It’s the land that has been forgotten, but I have hope, I see hope here.”
Manasseh said her ultimate goal is to inspire an example for more community patrols all over, and she is planning on gathering these patrols in the future to teach conflict resolution and strategic placement.
However since they began the patrols over a month ago, they haven’t had any growth in moms or adult volunteers. But one thing they have had is a growth of teenage volunteers, who also want to make a stand to keep their neighborhood safe. Johnny Banks, an executive director of a local community group focusing on family advocacy and workforce development has been also urging people to volunteer but says many are afraid.
With encouraging communities to come together and community police, Manasseh and her fellow moms hope to keep her children safe as well, but she wishes more parents would participate.
“It’s like some people want to put their children in a bubble because they have good kids,” she said. “They want to separate their good kids from all of these bad kids, but your kids are going to grow up in the world alongside those very kids that you tried to shield them from. So wouldn’t it be better if you tried to save them all instead of just yours?”
Donations always help and you can do so at getbehindthemask.org
People this is EXACTLY what needs to be addressed, this is exactly where we need people to take action. Even during the violent week of the 4th of July in Chicago, these moms proved that by addressing the problem in Englewood, a huge difference is made. They made preventative action in one of the most crime infested areas of the country even.
Miguel Faria is an associate editor-in-chief and a world affairs editor of Surgical Neurology International. He is a retired neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, editor and author, medical historian, ethicist, public health critic, and is pro Second Amendment. He critiqued recent studies done by the infamous David Hemenway and others attacking guns as the issue, and he believes this is exactly where people go wrong.
Faria highlights how firearms are always attacked as a smokescreen of the real problem, saying “No other societal causes are remotely considered for the endemic violence in the U.S., such as the decline in educational level, the influence of the popular culture, TV violence, increasing rates of single parenthood and broken families, drug trafficking and gang-related violence, permissive criminal justice system, the state of dependency and alienation fostered by the welfare state — a veritable cultural regression perpetuating immorality and violence that journalist Cal Thomas wrote in a recent column is morally “rotting from within.” This is exactly what I believe.
Guns are tools, they’re nothing but materials that make up an object, you cannot put blame from crime and violence solely on guns.
Unfortunately they will get in the wrong hands, but the criminals need to be addressed and preventative measures need to be made in society to stop crime before it even happens. These moms are addressing the real issue, and are stepping up in such a dangerous situation to ensure that people get love, hope and someone who cares before bad decisions are made.
She is attacking the issue, and we need to join her in bringing these issues to light. Both lives and time are lost by removing guns from the peaceful citizen’s hands who ensure lives and discourage future criminals by exercising their right to bear arms.
