Quantcast

What about Chicago, Mr. President?

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune from Sept. 21: “Eight people were killed and at least 45 people were wounded in shootings between Friday evening and early Monday, making it the second most violent weekend in Chicago this year.”

And yet the President of the United States did not host a press conference expressing his disdain for Congress for failing to “change our laws.”

In fact, a Google search did not reveal any statement from the president on the violence in Chicago — his own home town.

Do Chicagoan lives not matter? Or was it not enough of a bandwagon for the president to pontificate from?

Additionally, the Chicago Tribune stated, that the only weekend that was worse was “July 3–6, when 57 people were shot, seven fatally.”

Silence from the White House again.

The president did, however, mention every school shooting and movie theater shooting in his address after last week’s mass shooting in Oregon, orating: “We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.” But the 2,213 shootings in Chicago — and that’s just for this year so far, and it ain’t done yet — didn’t merit mention the President’s litany.

How come?

He promised in his speech, “Each time this happens, I’m going to bring this up. Each time this happens, I am going to say that we can actually do something about it.”

Sorry President Obama, but why didn’t you “bring this up” last week about Chicago?

I’ll tell you why: those 2,213 shootings didn’t give him enough of a media buzz to get the attention of the public. And if it ain’t got that buzz then President Obama zips it shut.

If the president really wanted to change things, he should start with the mental health issues that plague the nation. You can take away all the guns you want, but if you don’t cure the disease, you won’t cure the problem. If someone wants to take another person’s life, the matter of a gun isn’t going to stop it. Just think of a suicide bomber.

“How can you make change if you take away the gun but leave the manic?” Thank you Mark Simone, on WOR 710 radio — for this spark of sanity.

Not for Nuthin™ according to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving website: “Every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (9,878 people in total in 2011).” Hey President Obama, how about change for alcohol control?

Joanna DelBuono writes about national issues every Wednesday on BrooklynDaily.com. E-mail her at jdelbuono@cnglocal.com.