http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1091285,CST-NWS-violence05.articleThis article really gives you a look at how these poor kids live in fear.
• Nearly three-quarters have heard gunshots in their neighborhood.
• • Half know a friend or relative who has been shot at, with the vast majority of those knowing multiple people who have been fired upon -- as many as 10, 11 and even 13.
• • More than a third know a friend or relative who has been shot to death.
• • Well over a third have been shown a gun.
"If you ask kids living in Sarajevo during the war or living in the Gaza Strip the same questions you asked these kids, you'd get very similar answers,'' said James Garbarino, director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. "These are very much what kids report in situations of war zones.''
It so sad that most people just turn their backs to what's happening in their own city or even country.
Some of the unedited responses the Chicago Sun-Times received from nearly 500 first-through-eighth-graders at three Chicago public schools.
"to die with violence" -- first-grade boy, Talcott.
"to be shot on the heart" -- second-grade girl, Little Village Academy.
"a gun that shoots everyone" -- third-grade boy, Talcott.
"the friend of my friend, there big, about 16 or 18, they have guns" -- fourth-grade boy, Talcott.
"to see someone aim at me! or kill me!" -- fifth-grade boy, Talcott.
"being killed for no reason" -- sixth-grade boy, Sexton.
"a person with a big gun because you don¹t know if that person likes you or not" -- seventh-grade boy, Sexton.
"My greatest fear is that my older brother gets shot. The reason I think this is because in the community we live in, it is not hard not to get shot" -- eighth-grade girl, Little Village Academy.
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When you see the poor kids drawings it really is just so sad.
