St. Patrick's Day was a blast. I really wanted to go to the parade, but my friends who were downtown for the dyeing of the river all said it was too chaotic and crowded and left. So, I ended up at a bar in West Loop with Nancy and some of her friends. Even that was crazy! I can't imagine what some of the more popular areas were like. It was pretty much the warmest St. Patrick's Day ever, which was part of the problem. The first few weeks of warmth make everyone crazy.
Luckily, things were pretty chill at our bar, and I had a great time with Nancy.
But all day, I just had this bad feeling. I even sent a text to a friend that evening saying that trouble was afoot. (Can you tell I'd been drinking for 10 hours at that point?) I had a few guys walk me to my car that night, which I pretty much never do. There was just this negative undercurrent. Sure enough, the next morning I saw in the newspaper that there were 16 shootings that day. 50 people total were shot over the weekend. According to Nancy's boyfriend, so far in 2012 Chicago has seen 408 shootings and 94 murders. So far in 2012 in Afghanistan, 60 U.S. soldiers have been killed making it safer to be deployed in a war zone than living in Chicago, especially the south and west sides.
This is ridiculous. This needs to stop. I'm going to find my community organizer and get involved. Where are the Violence Interrupters???
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