|
|
 REACHING PEACE FOR YOUTH AND CITIES |
|
TRAVELOGUE - CHICAGO DAY 2 "Where would Jesus keep his gun?" Chicago, L.A. Episcopalians join New York
Congresswoman By Bob Williams (Chicago, Saturday, May 4, 2002) "Where would Jesus keep his gun?" This question was raised on lapel buttons worn here today by several participants in an interfaith forum during which a New York Congresswoman and L.A. panelists urged an end to gun violence that claims some 30,000 lives nationwide each year. |
|
|
|
"What I am trying to do in Congress is make sure
criminals don't get their guns, and that children [cannot access guns,]"
said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Long Island), who won her late husband's
former congressional seat after he was fatally shot and her son severely
injured during a lone gunman's 1993 rampage on a commuter train bound for
Long Island.
"My son did survive, but he was shot in the head; he was left partially paralyzed," McCarthy told those gathered at downtown Chicago's landmark Fourth Presbyterian Church for the third annual symposium hosted by the city's Interfaith Initiative Against Gun Violence. Of her son, Kevin -- who is now 34, married, and the father of two children McCarthy said "every single day he has to struggle to go to work or to pick up his child. As a mother, watching him, as proud as I am for all he's been able to do, the pain that is there [is intense] because [the shooting] shouldn't have happened" and yet this happens every single day in this country. |
|
McCarthy's remarks came two days after 15-year-old Mikhail Makhlis of the suburban Chicago city of Skokie brought a loaded semi-automatic handgun to Niles West High School and reportedly threatened to kill other students before turning the gun on himself. Makhlis remains in custody without bond after being charged as an adult with two counts of felony unlawful use of a weapon. "No one talks about those who have survived, or how many of our young people who are in rehab hospitals [and] will never come out," or the related healthcare costs that are associated with these types of injuries, said McCarthy, who also has some 30 years' experience as a registered nurse. "Kevin's medical care over these last few years has reached over $1 million," she said. "That's one person. And yet the voices of reasonable gun safety are being drowned out continuously." |
|
|
|
Before turning over the podium to L.A.'s
Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno and the young Southern Californians traveling
cross-country with him as part of the L.A. diocese's "Hands in Healing"
anti-violence initiative, McCarthy pledged her resolve to continue
introducing legislation calling for stricter regulation of gun sales in the
United States, and vowed to press on to close the so-called "gun show
loophole" that makes the purchase of weapons easier for those seeking guns
for criminal purposes.
She urged the use of a federal database to prevent the sale of weapons to the mentally ill and others unsuited for gun use, such as the man who opened fire recently in a Roman Catholic Church in McCarthy's district, shooting a priest and an elderly woman. Everyone can make a difference in speaking out against gun violence, McCarthy told her audience, calling each to advocacy and action. |
|
L.A. panelists speak from experience "I couldn't help noticing this brochure [titled]' Is there a gun where my child plays?'" Luis Garibay Jr. of L.A.'s Episcopal Cathedral Center told the assembly. "About three years ago there was a gun where my son Luigi, then about five years old, was playing at my mother's house next door. We came home and the first thing Luigi had said was, "I found a gun, Daddy." And I said, "Whoa! Where?" My son was playing in my mother's bookcase, where there were toys, and there was a stash that somebody had fixed up there, and he was able to get his hand on a 45. I thank God that he didn't pull that trigger." |
|
|
|
"About 15 years ago, I was 11 years old when my first brother committed suicide," Garibay added. "He was only 17, and he had gotten a hold of a 357 magnum; at one point that gun was a toy for him. Then on November 14, 1987, about 11 in the morning we heard a gunshot and he was gone, that quick." "A year and a half later, my other brother, a year older than me, took a shot to the head with a shotgun, and it was very hard. Took a shot possibly from another young kid, possibly his own age. My brother was 14 years old at the time. I got to see him as he lay in the car, sitting shotgun, with half of his head on the ceiling of the car. "I couldn't cry; I was full of anger; all I could think of was picking up a gun or going to inflict pain on someone else," said Garibay, who explained that he overcame that urge for violent retaliation. "I try so hard for Luigi, my son," Garibay added," to be aware that guns are not meant to play with; guns are meant to kill. I've come so far that Luigi doesn't play with water guns; Luigi doesn't play with toy guns; Luigi doesn't touch any sort of gun. I don't care whether it's green, blue or shoots water or shoots bullets: Luigi does not touch guns."
|
| South African-born Lester Mackenzie of Advent Episcopal Church in Los Angeles recalled his experiences with guns as he grew up under apartheid: "My exposure to guns were soldiers coming down our streets with assault rifles, initially firing at schoolchildren, mothers, youngsters with rubber bullets or buckshots, birdshots, and then eventually progressed to live ammunition. | |
|
|
"The closer we got to voting for democracy in 1994, the more violent it became. There was a demonstration once in Johannesburg when armored vehicles would pull up to women singing songs about survival and strength, and they just opened fire, and a lot of kids died. "I was running home from school, and my friend got hit in the face with buckshots," Mackenzie said. "Another experience would be my uncle, who owned a [namebrand] 38; I don't know what he tried to do, but his friend ended up getting shot in the head, and he lost his friend, and he went to jail for manslaughter. He came out of jail, and his life was taken away from him, and every day, even today, he still scrubs his hands because he can't get the blood off. |
| "So, what gave me hope is yesterday we went to a high school," Mackenzie said, recalling the Hands in Healing forum at Roberto Clemente Academy in Chicago. "We met some cool kids who said that even though they see the violence every day around them, they say no to it. So what is really awesome is that if we join hands in healing, maybe my uncle could stop scrubbing his hands." | |
|
|
Frances Moodie of St. John's Church in Los Angeles, added her perspective: "When I was 12 years old, my cousin was murdered, and it's really difficult to talk about that to this day. He was my favorite cousin, my favorite person in the whole world. I fell, and it's taken this trip, and a lot of time, a lot of support from friends and family to get me to stand up. What keeps me going is the love and support, and knowing that if I give love, and I give support, and if I'm able to teach people to love, it won't change the past, but it will change their hearts: today will be better and certainly tomorrow will be. "Gun safety is a really important issue to my heart," said Moodie, referring her listeners to the corresponding section in the Hands in Healing Violence Prevention Guide, a booklet that the L.A. travelers are distributing in each location on their itinerary. The guide also offers steps for addressing domestic violence, child abuse, gang activity, elder abuse and terrorism. |
| Recalling his years as a Burbank, Calif., police officer prior to entering the priesthood, Bishop Bruno recounted his experience of fatally shooting, in the line of duty, a man who had opened fire on him and his police partner. (A related account of this incident will be posted in a future article.) Going to confession was strategic in his healing process, Bruno said: "absolution freed me," and thereafter "I was able to sleep for 12 hours straight without waking up screaming." | |
|
|
Bruno will preach tomorrow in Sunday services at St.
James' Cathedral here as the Hands in Healing itinerary continues, reaching
toward Detroit next weekend, and New York thereafter, also bringing the
travelers to Washington, D.C., for Memorial Day weekend when on Sunday, May
26, Bruno will also preach at 11am at the National Cathedral. In Chicago, the Interfaith Initiative Against Gun Violence is a coalition of congregations "dedicated to common-sense solutions to gun violence." Member congregations include Holy Name Roman Catholic Cathedral, Chicago Temple (First United Methodist Church), Chicago Sinai Congregation, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, St. James' Episcopal Cathedral, and Fourth Presbyterian Church, where forum participants were today welcomed by Pastor John Buchanan and Initiative executive Alec Harris. |
|
Return to Itinerary Previous Stop - Omaha Next stop - Detroit Hands In Healing Home Page Video Presentation |
|
