Can Mayor Johnson Have a Pope Francis Moment?

Thank you for all of your positive feedback on my last newsletter that got some great attention from local press. See links below to that newsletter, as well as the interviews it generated at the bottom of this article.

Police cars have a particular smell. At least they did in the 1970s.  The scent of the interior of that 1976 police cruiser is forever imprinted upon my olfactory receptors as if it was yesterday.  The vinyl backseat was massive.  It was late.  I was 13 years old, and I had a decision to make.

They say that scent memories are some of the most powerful, and that olfaction has served various purposes related to the survival of the species. I can attest to that.  I did not want to smell that smell again. That smell could be a challenge to my survival.

I was picked up for violating curfew for the third time I was 13 years old.  We were on a first name basis, the cop and I, so it felt a little parental when he said, “Mike, if I see you on these streets after curfew again, I’m taking you in to the station and your mother will have to come get you”.  As he drove me home, the sinking feeling in my stomach was not that my mother would have to come get me (after all, I was raised by a woman who thought Obama was a Republican), but rather from the flashbacks from the cop shows I would watch on tv.  The overweight, surly police officer hauls you into the station by the collar and lobs a million questions at you as you sit in the chair beside his desk, and possibly even – my worst nightmare at 13 – puts you in a holding cell. “Mike, what were you doing in the alley at 11:08 PM? Don’t lie or you’ll only make it harder on yourself. Who were you with”? I could only conjure up old episodes of Dragnet or Hawaii Five-O.  No phone call. No using the bathroom. No food. BOOK ‘EM DANNO! Did I lose some of you on that one?

Sitting in the police car, my mind was racing. I needed to become stealthier in getting home. Ninja like, you know? Get to know the gangways between the buildings and find all possible crevices where I could hide undetected until any headlights passed. Gates? Dogs? I needed to get better at this….or just be home by curfew. As I sat there pondering, I decided to go with the latter. That policeman did me, and my mom, a huge service. I had no business being out on the streets late at night.

I was raised free-range by a single mom. Maybe a little too much free on the range.  I hated school. The movie that unfolded daily on the streets of Chicago was far more interesting than my freshman Latin teacher Father Leroy Ryan. He once said to me,  “Conner, I know you’re thinking. I can smell the wood burning.” Far from hurting my feelings, I thought this was damn funny.  And it was the only time he had my attention.  It was not long thereafter that I dropped out of high school and moved into an apartment at 17 years old. That could be a newsletter in itself.  In most single parent households, the priorities run toward the basics of living. Housing, food, utilities, safety, trying to find a better job and keep your kids out of trouble. Nearly all your attention is focused on surviving. The slippage of parenting allowed me to wander off course, and some of my friends also with single parents wandered even further off course. The data regarding children of single parent households is irrefutable.

Consider these dire statistics from single parent households:

• 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders (Source: Center for Disease Control)

• 71% of all high school dropouts (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.)

According to the Single Parent Success Foundation, a national nonprofit that encourages educational opportunities for single parents:

• More than half of all youths incarcerated in the U.S. lived in one-parent families as a child

What children like me, as well as most underserved communities that have single parent households lack is not opportunity but exposure to opportunity. There is a difference. Opportunity exists throughout the city if you are looking. Most of us are not born understanding where to look, how to leverage, or how to seek opportunity.

As a nurture-over-nature believer, opportunity is all about nurture. Nurturing opportunity is rarely in the arsenal of the single mother. Poverty coupled with a single parent, and a lack of exposure to positive opportunity will often lead to criminal activity. Let’s be honest, depending on where you live, exposure to opportunity also leads to criminal activity.

Not all opportunities are created equal, and most certainly an “opportunity” with negative consequences can completely change the trajectory of a young person’s life forever.  Let’s not get off into the weeds but rather address the exposure to opportunity for kids today. When asked about a recent weekend of crime in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson was reported as saying, “…We have all known the pain of trauma and disinvestment and the impact that that has had in communities that have experienced torture, redlining, school closures, the destruction of public housing. You see where I’m going”.  These are truths that cannot be denied.  Remember back in 2013 when Pope Francis commented on homosexual orientation by saying to reporters, “…who am I to judge”? I mean, WHAT A DROP THE MIC…moment.  The leader of 1.3 billion Catholics told the world he could not sit in judgement of gay people. Pope Francis put the World as a whole first. Not religion or pressure from the church or constituents.  A bold hero move for sure.  

If Mayor Johnson had asked me what I thought he should say regarding questions on crime.  I would have told him Chicagoans want and need to hear that crime prevention and reduction is priority number one of this administration, and criminal activity will not be tolerated. The safety and well-being of all citizens and visitors to this great city will be front and center for this administration and law enforcement; that we want the people who call Chicago home to stay here, raise your families here; we want your businesses, we want you to live, recreate, educate, and work here. We want the eyes of the world upon us in appreciation of what we are. The cultural and financial powerhouse that has welcomed  the world to its shores forever. We want visitors from all corners of the globe who come here to enjoy this great city, contribute to our economy, and bless us with diversity to continue to do so – you are safe under the big shoulders of Chicago.   DROP THE MIC…….

What sort of leader would Mayor Johnson be though if he did not ask us to help address the root causes of most crime in Chicago?  Addressing crime without a long-term plan is shortsighted. We must look out for those who have suffered disproportionately and lack exposure to the opportunities that this city can offer. We have a great city, a magnificent city, but we are not without a long history of discrimination that has had a generational domino effect for these citizens.  Both narratives are true: call out crime and bad behavior but also recognize we did not get here overnight and correcting the root problem will take the entire city to help solve.   A show of confidence on safety and crime prevention would have done wonders in the business community. People may have held on before deciding to move. Investors would think of  doubling  down here. The city would have continued to attract the dollars it needs for future growth and development – including in the areas long overlooked and ignored and help combat the exact issues that are so important to our Mayor.

Can Mayor Johnson put the City as a whole first? Can he be as bold and brave as Pope Francis?