All Deaths are not Equal

All Deaths are not EQual? Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

 4 Marines in TN, 216 Anonymous Blacks in Chicago .

Four marines, now five, were killed in Tennessee last week.  They called it terrorism and our eyes all focused on this shooting.  In Chicago, 216 people have been murdered in the first six months. That is about 35 people a month, or about 8 people a week, or about a person everyday.

By the amount of time our news media gives the dead marines, they are obviously very important people, worth a great deal.  The 216 people killed in Chicago, not so much.

All bodies are not equal. All deaths are not equal.  All people are not equal.  All people are not worth as much as other people.  How people are killed and by whom gives their death more meaning and their lives more value.   REALLY?

Blacks in Chicago Don’t Count as Much as White Marines

Should I point out the people killed in Chicago are mostly black.  I’m sure that doesn’t have anything to do with it.  They are also the forgotten poor in this country, but I am sure that has nothing to do with it.   The marines are all white, but I doubt that has any impact down in Tennessee.  I am sure we would have cared just as much if they were black Marines.  I am sure our military values all lives equally.

Being Killed Almost in the Line of Duty

Perhaps their deaths, the deaths of the marines, were more noble because they were killed, not quite in the line of duty, but kind of in the line of duty.  Well, the Chicago people were just killed in their ordinary, poor, private lives.  Their children and family will hardly miss them or grieve for them … because they are used to it, right?

The Role of Compassion

Compassion takes the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of those that we are having compassion for, or NOT.  The trouble is as WASPS we have very little affinity and understanding of the black man living in Chicago that is getting shot. An article, “The Black and White in Chicago Schools”, let’s us take a little peak into their schools.  We like to think they have a choice not to get involved in gangs and drugs.  But, I am not so sure that is the case.  Many can not find employment.  Well, you argue they should have finished school.  But, have you ever gone to a school where guns and knives were normal.  I didn’t, but here in Elkton, MD (safer perhaps than Chicago) my daughter witnessed a fellow student being stabbed in the chest plus dozens of fights.  In my school, back in El Paso, fist fights were usually reserved for after school, not during school.  But, imagine a place where guns and knives in school is not rare and it's normal to encounter them on the way to and from school. Imagine a world in which is it is normal to be in fear all the time.  If we could do that, perhaps it would be easier for us to imagine that we might not do any better than the blacks in Chicago if we were born into the same neighborhoods.

America is no longer a land of opportunity for all

For the bottom 40% of Americans, America is no longer a land of opportunity.  Odds are many will not make it out of high school, they will not be employed and they will spend some of their life in prison. Their fate will be to be one more tick of the death counter in Chicago … an anonymous death.  At least, we know the name of the marines and a little of their story.