Forum/Discussions

FRIDAY, MAY 16th AT 5:15 pm

Dear Friends,

Please be reminded that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hosting a conference call today, May 16^th, at 5:15 p.m. to further discuss ideas for the Faith and Action movement kickoff taking place on May 23^rd from 7 to 9 p.m. Even if you participated on the mayor’s first call last Friday, please join him on today’s call to hear updates on his vision for the 23^rd. If you are able to RSVP your participation on the call by dialing 312-744-6765 or emailing mayorrsvp@cityofchicago.org, we’d appreciate it, but you can still join the call even if you do not have a chance to RSVP. Please share the invitation with your contacts! The call is open to businesses, community organizations, faith groups, and all residents of our great city who are interested in helping us build a better and safer Chicago. Below are more details on the call. A flyer for the May 23^rd event is provided below and as an attachment. Finally, also provided below is an article by Mary Mitchell that appeared in yesterday’s Sun-Timesdiscussing the Faith and Action movement.

CALL DETAILS:

Date and time: Friday, May 16, 2014 at 5:15 pm (please dial promptly at 5:15)

Call-in information: Dial 1-800-230-1096 and provide your full name and the name of the call (Faith and Action)

Thank you,

______________________________________________________

Ken Bennett

Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Office of Public Engagement

Office of the Mayor

Mayor wants religious leaders to participate in citywide anti-violence effort
SUN TIMES // MARY MITCHELL
I've developed a dread of holidays that kick off the summer season.
Unfortunately, for nearly half of the city's residents, a day that brings people out of their homes and into the city's parks and backyards also is a day interrupted by sirens and weeping.
In 2013, six people were killed and 11 others were wounded over the Memorial Day Weekend.
In 2012, 10 people were fatally shot and 40 people were wounded over the same weekend.
This year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to get ahead of the carnage by organizing a citywide initiative that will focus on communities ravaged by violence.
"I want to get ahead of this holiday and this weekend," he bluntly told the group of faith leaders that gathered in his office last week.
"It's really about linking people up and making sure the imams, the rabbis, everybody of every faith in every part of the city knows they've got a faith partner," Emanuel said.
His idea is to bring faith and community leaders from different parts of the city together 7-9 p.m. May 23, the Friday before Memorial Day, to take over designated corners in neighborhoods where many residents have been beaten down by the ongoing violence. He said police also would be present.
"We need to do more than just call on young people to put down the guns," Emanuel said in a letter he sent to community leaders on May 8.
"We also need to call on one another to work together to replace them with opportunity and empowerment," he wrote.
Last Friday, Emanuel, whose sinking poll numbers suggest Chicagoans overall are as weary of political battles as they are of street violence, held a series of face-to-face meetings with activists, police brass and religious leaders to flush out some of the details of the "Faith and Action" summer initiative. That same day, he met with popular radio personalities, and hosted a teleconference for about 200 people from across the city, a spokesman for the mayor.
"My hope is that it is successful enough that we are going to do it on a sustained basis," said Emanuel during the live conference.
"The key is not to have a shot across the bow and walk backwards."
One of the people attending the "Faith and Action" meeting was the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the long-time pastor at St. Sabina in Auburn-Gresham.
Pfleger, who has led countless anti-violence rallies, as well as organized activities that keep at-risk youth off the streets, hopes churches, synagogues and mosques will join hands on the 23rd.
"Some of the churches don't know what to do," Pfleger explained to the group.
"When the churches go out and see that they make a difference out here, they may say we can do this once a week, or once a month. You don't need a grant. You don't need a seminar. You just go out and are present and talk to people. I am hopeful that this becomes a great universal thing," he said.
The level of participation in this anti-violence campaign will show how far the city has come with regard to race. The mayor isn't making this appeal only to the people who live in these predominantly black and brown communities.
He is calling on Chicagoans of all ethnicities and economic classes to join them in this effort.
"I know a lot of people within a mile of this building that have never been to Little Village, never been to Auburn-Gresham, never been to Englewood or to Woodlawn," Emanuel said.
On May 23, the city's residents are being challenged to come together with one voice.
If we can't do this, we've forgotten the most important lesson of the civil rights movement:
None of us are free until we are all free.