Thursday, August 02, 2012
Can the arts help curtail the killing?
chicagotribune.com: On Monday night, following a weekend that saw 17 people shot in Chicago and with the memories of the shootings of 7-year-old Heaven Sutton and 10-year-old Kitanna Peterson fresh on everyone's minds, Scott Pelley of the CBS Evening News asked Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel why the Chicago murder rate was up by 38 percent.
"Well, first of all, Scott," Emanuel said, "let's give everybody — your viewers — a fair view. Crime year over year is down 10 percent."
That was an accurate but not a well-timed observation. Sure, strong political leaders know statistics can be manipulated for political or sensationalist ends and are hard-wired to put them in context. And it's part of the mayor's job to defend his city and those who work hard on its tough, complex problems. Still, you could almost feel Emanuel's many supporters cringing in front of their TVs.
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If you look back in history, entertainment and the arts have been apart of bringing people out of dark times. For example both Snow White and The Wizard of Oz premiered during the Great Depression. In the case of gang violence and kids, art is definitely a way to go. For them to be involved in drawing or painting or theatre would enable these kids to express themselves in a more productive way than shootings as well as use that freetime that they had to do it.
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