Name: Don Black
Occupation: Program Director of 96.5 WQHH MacDonald Broadcasting
Hometown: Chicago
What are your thoughts on the gang violence in Chicago?
As I look at what is happening in my home town, I ask myself “What is the difference between now and when I was growing up there in the 80’s & 90’s?” I see some of the same conditions, complaints and actions. The only thing that is different is how we see it social media, 24 hour news channels, etc.
It hurts me to see this still happening. What is worse is the adults who act like what we see is something new. The cries of the fathers and mothers saying, “How long will this continue?” are still there. We have taken the place of our parents uttering these words. That shows me that we haven’t learned anything.
We all know who the bad people are. We know where the drug spots are. But we don’t say anything. We mind our own business and we have been doing it for years. How can we expect young people to have respect or value for their lives, if we don’t do anything to show that we care?
I understand that we may have to deal with a lot of things that our parents didn’t have to deal with but every generation of parents has to deal with that. Our job is to make sure our kids have it better than us. How quickly we forget what it was like to be a child and all the things we had to go through. Instead of talking down to a kid, how about explaining that we went through some of the same things they went through and how we dealt with it?
It’s sad that gang violence, or just violence period, is still a problem in Chicago, but it’s nothing new. The fact that we are still trying to figure out what we need to do about it saddens me more, because that means we haven’t learned anything.
Is it Chi-Town or Chiraq? Why?
To me, it will always be Chi-town. Chiraq is something that young people have adopted. Where do you think they learn this concept from? Us. Don’t think so? Talk about the nicknames we gave parts of the city because of crime and violence. Wild 100’s, Terror Town, etc.
I love my city, for all its beauty and all its faults. There isn’t any place like it.
