There was an Alderman in Milwaukee whom some would characterize as radical if they were kind or crazy if they were out of touch with the realities that he was dealing with each day in his district. Michael McGhee Senior was by no means unintelligent, but he was frustrated. I remember being part of a tour of the 10th district which was organized by a local interfaith group. It was an hour van drive through one of the poorest areas in the city. We would come back to a local church to talk about what we had just witnessed. We were a group of about 10 people. What I saw was absolutely disheartening. The look on the faces of those who lived in that district I will never forget. Men standing on street corners with their hope wrapped in brown paper bags, women on corners trying to sell their flesh to the highest bidder. Unemployment in that district was high even then. I remember saying to my colleagues I can see why Alderman McGhee resorts to some of the antics that he does. I can understand his frustration and even his anger. What do you do when you have done everything humanly possible to bring awareness to the great need that you see everyday-that you live with and nothing significantly happens to address the problems systemically and from a policy point of view. Fast forward to 2013 and the economics and the consequences of the economics have grown worse. The violence has become more severe. The despair and the rot have grown deeper. The question and the concern have grown to include this entire city-this entire state. A city is in trouble. There are cracks if not deep fissures that threaten not just the security of those who live in the city but that threaten the security of this state. It is time for all who care about the quality of life and the health of our city, our neighborhoods, our state to act-to act with an urgency that bespeak the crisis which is ours.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 21:24:07 +0000