BOB HERBERT: A Voice Raised in Chicago

[kevinmc]

Senator Barack Obama took his presidential campaign to Chicago Sunday, where he addressed an agonizing issue that has been largely overlooked by the national media — the murder of dozens of the city’s public school students since last September.

Speaking to an overflow crowd of worshipers at the Vernon Park Church of God, Mr. Obama, a resident of Chicago, said:

“I asked to come here because I wanted to talk with you about the spate of violence that’s been robbing the city’s children of their future. In this last school year, 32 Chicago public school students were killed, and even more since the school year ended. This past week alone, two teens were shot in a South Side schoolyard.”

You’ve probably heard more than you wanted to about David Beckham and Posh Spice in recent days, but not a lot about the deaths of these children and teenagers in Chicago. Black, Latino and poor, they are America’s invisible children.

“In one Chicago public school,” said Mr. Obama, “a teacher was calling attendance, and when she got to the name of a particular student who wasn’t there and had missed a lot of classes, she asked if anyone knew where he was. And the answer she got was, ‘He’s dead.’ ”.....

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/bob-herbert-voice-raised-in-chicago.html

[Skittles]

1. it is indeed a national tragedy

this is the kind of story that should be presented on national TV, not garbage like Paris Hilton

[Lindsay]

2. I think this shows another lesson learned

by the corporate media from the 60s - don't let the peons see or hear the truth. It's liable to rile them.