Monday, May 24, 2010

Guns, A Grenade, And A Child

Aiyana was seven when it is alleged that a grenade went through the window of her home where the kid on the couch was shot, apparently with a gun.

A packed Second Ebenezer Church flowed with tears, chants and the search for "Somebody in the Neighborhood Who Can Fix This," one preacher pronounced and pleaded passionately.

President Obama was also sent a letter, another preacher said, to come to Detroit and "heal this problem, as you go to Iraq in war there."

The plot is thick and the possibilities greater to "fix" this pathology, this problem, Pastor Edgar Vann pleaded.

Words are insufficient.

By their fruits, we shall know them, Jesus said. By now, the rot is rat infested with talk.

Action needed now. Together.

Time magazine featured Clement Kern on its cover decades ago when the Corktown pastor of Holy Trinity in downtown Detroit wanted the people "no one else wants."

I cry for them.

Imagine the solution they could bring to the table. If only we would welcome the warming and hospitality center folks of St. Aloysius Church where Archbishop Allen Vigneron works nearby.

Novelists, other writers, community leaders, teachers, parents, psycholgists and the other finest minds can fix this fractured infrastructure, Kern believed as he challenged contemporaries to come together and imagine the way out of this desperate situation.

Saint Rita is the patron of desperate situations. Her feast day celebration and roots run deep in relationships with us. She was plagued with domestic violence from her husband. She found a way to work it out.

Desperate people do desperate things.

We're desperate enough by now.

Somebody in the neighborhood can fix this problem.

Bring 'em on now.

Now.

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