"How I could just kill a man"

"How you know where I'm at when you haven't been where I've been,
understand where I'm coming from.
When you're up on the hill, in your big home
I'm out here, risking my dome.
Just for a bucket, or a fast ducat
just to stay alive, aiyyo I gotta say "fuck it".
Here is something you can't understandHow I could just kill a man" ~Cypress Hill~

I understand, but I honestly wish I didn't.

As an American tragedy plays itself out in cities all across the country, those of us who are charged with addressing the problem-or making others aware of it-continue to sit on our collective asses.

Here in Philly we have already equaled last year's murder count of 297, and there is still over thirty days to go in the year. This summer was particularly brutal for cities like Chicago and Camden, where young bucks picking off each other became a more popular sport than a game of pickup basketball. Chicago is President Obama's hometown, but he never talked about it, and neither did the chattering class whose job it is to make Americans aware of what's going on in the country.

Some would argue that this is a dog bites man type of headline that is hardly worth reporting. Young black males killing each other is such a common occurrence that it doesn't even get a raised eye brow from Joe Citizen reading about it in the local paper. Still, it doesn't make these events any less compelling or newsworthy. We all are paying, in one way or another, for this epidemic of violence. Homicide detectives and trauma surgeons do not work for free; somebody has to pick up the tab

Still, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. In Washington D.C. they are on pace to have less than a 100 homicides this year. This is a remarkable stat when you consider that in the early nineteen nineties they were racking up almost 500 murders per year. And here in Philly our City Council finally seems to be addressing a problem*fingers crossed* that many grass roots organizations around the city are already aware of. (I guess it's better late than never)

These are all positive signs, but nothing will change until the homes where these young men are coming from start becoming....well, homes. Outside organizations and politricksters can only do so much. The folks who created these future killers and victims need to start talking a serious look in the mirror.

"..cause we're like the outlaw stridin
Suckers are hidein
Jump behind the bush when they see me driving
by"

I think I speak for all law- abiding citizens when I say that we are all ready to come out from behind "the bush."