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VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO

For the past year and a half, the city of Chicago has been ravaged by a wave of violence. In the previous 18 months, more than 500 Chicago youth have been shot. Nearly 40 Chicago Public Schools students have been killed in the 2008-2009 school year; slightly more than the numbers recorded in the academic season of 2007-2008.

Many neighborhoods in Chicago are no longer safe. Our children and residents live in constant fear, and the reputation of the ,city has been decimated as national news outlets report the rage of violence around the country. It is time for the people of Chicago to come together and MAKE PEACE HAPPEN in our city.

A CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE

On March 30, 2009, 20 people met in a living room in Hyde Park. They gathered to discuss an idea that had been in several of their minds for a long time; the idea that through an organized mobilization effort, the church in Chicago, the people of Chicago could bring peace in place of violence in the city streets. They gathered to discuss the possibility of a peace campaign for Chicago, whereby we could MAKE PEACE HAPPEN.

The meeting in Hyde Park was profoundly diverse. There was a range of ages from nineteen years old, to sixty-eight years old. There were grandparents, parents, and children; a college professor, and a former gang banger. There were pastors, students, business people, and a community organizer. This group agreed to go to work, to organize a campaign that would mobilize people to seek the peace of the city, to MAKE PEACE HAPPEN.

On Saturday, April 25 (just twenty-six days after that gathering in Hyde Park), more than 200 people gathered at Chicago Embassy around the same idea, we can MAKE PEACE HAPPEN.

MAKE PEACE HAPPEN

The Chicago Peace Campaign is not an anti-violence effort. It is a pro-peace effort. If a room is dark, the solution is not to curse the darkness. The solution is to turn on the light. The more light that comes into the room, the less darkness can remain. If the room is filled with light, darkness can’t even hide in the corner. In the same way, the Chicago Peace Campaign, while totally committed to ending violence in the city, is not focused on “anit-violence” efforts, but on coordinating and supporting activities that will establish peace in neighborhoods.

How do we stop the violence? We MAKE PEACE HAPPEN!