07/22/01
We’re connected
The cynic says we’re in this alone. That it’s best to look out
for No. 1. That what happens in the next block or the next town,
doesn’t matter. Unless it affects No. 1.
The Christian says we’re in this together. That No. 1 is just
one among many. That what happens in the next block matters a
great deal.
When 4-year-old Robert Anderson III was shot and killed in a drive-by
on the West Side in early July, people were appropriately outraged.
But outrage that becomes action deserves honor.
Meet Father Tom Walsh. Walsh, who is white, has been pastor for
eight years at the predominately African-American Presentation
Parish.
The shooting didn’t take place in the parish boundaries; it was
several blocks away. Anderson and his family weren’t Catholic.
And the small Presentation community has problems of its own.
But Walsh discovered that the family was “loosely related … niece
or nephew sort of thing” to a parish member. And responding to
violence in the community is something he and his congregation
have long done.
Walsh visited the site of the shooting; parishioners raised reward
money, joined a community march to let gangbangers know their
violence was an insult. “It’s about justice,” he said. “We’ve
got to stop this stuff from happening.”
Marches sometimes seem like grandstanding on the evening news.
After the marchers pass by, the bad guys slink out and retake
the darkness.
But the visible connection of the community is powerful, Walsh
said. “Every time brings a change; it’s never the same. People
will join from their porches. They want to be involved; they can
feel the power.”
That ought to make the cynic—who believes only in No. 1—squirm
just a bit. Because the truth is that we are connected. The violence
that happens on the West Side does matter to other blocks, even
other towns. There have been too many shootings like Robert’s.
Walsh and his community already know that. It’s up to the rest
of us to recognize it.
Tom Sheridan
Editor and General Manager
Following the funeral held for little Robert Anderson, Walsh wrote
about his feelings about the spirituality of this “connection.”
His powerful comment appears on Page 24.
That connection also is apparent—and perhaps unappreciated—in
another bit of news. At press time, reports were that the agreement
settling the racism-tinged controversey between St. Sabina and
the Southside Catholic League was unraveling, threatened by the
unwillingness of some to visit the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood,
despite assurances of safety, for games.
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