Get up, Derrion

[scott smith]

My apologies in advance for any cynicism that leaks out.

I am not sure of how much mainstream media coverage this story has gotten internationally, but this child's tragic death has already started to slip off the radar of traditional media in the US. There is, however, a lot of discussion in the blogosphere and on Twitter (where #stoptheviolence and #derrionalbert are trending topics).

This resembles, on slightly smaller scale, the buzz about #iranelection and #neda where there was a tremendous amount of interest in the situation in Iran and the brutal death of a young woman that was also captured on video. I remember reading many, many Tweets that were addressed "to Neda" saying that her death was not in vain. Then Farah Fawcett died, then Michael Jackson.

The Iran election and Neda slipped into a relative obscurity as far as the US (and probably other countries) was concerned. The same government is in power, and their president is just as vitriolic as ever. Did Neda and others die in vain?

Sadly, the interest surrounding Derrion Albert's death will dissipate for many of the wrong reasons. I've already seen that "Jon and Kate" are gaining ground on Twitter's trending topics. Thus, I have somewhat low expectations that much will change in Derrion's neighborhood, in Chicago, or in cities around the world.

The energy and interest levels surrounding tragic events such as the deaths of Neda and Derrion seem to peak just after the event. They seem to wane within a few hours to a few days depending on other news and events.

Is there a way to transform these seemingly boundless, though fleeting, energy bursts into action (before the next celebrity death, big football game, reality TV show premiere...)?

[Ellen Pham]

Hi Scott,

I must really be out of the news loop, because I stumbled on the video of Derrion through a... well, a friend from Spain had sent me a funny change in the Madrid Olympics Logo that was circling after the city lost out to Rio, and I was clicking around looking for a funny response from Chicago, and the first link I clicked on was a youtube video memorializing the students that have been murdered on Chicago streets in the past years. I found my way to the Derrion video, and left thinking the Federal government needs to come in and take over the Chicago Public School system until it's restored to some basic level of humanity and safety for its students. It's too far gone for the city to handle. The problems with violence have been talked about for years, and there has been no improvement.

I also think it must be a civil rights issue for the students who attend school there, and could be brought to the Supreme Court as such... it is just hard to imagine that this is allowed to go on and on and on.

My level of involvement and belief in my own power/effectiveness does not really expand beyond my own city. I think this is a pretty usual individual view. To give an example from another area, my son was recently hospitalized with a life-threatening infection in the city where he attends school- Tacoma, WA. Some of his nursing care was just this side of horrendous. After awhile, I felt like all I could do was stand watch, physically, in person, to try and protect him. If we were in Portland, I would feel like I could have much more of a public effect. I could call friends to see who knew who that worked at the hospital, I could talk to the city newspaper, I could call or visit my city and state representatives, the health department, the mayor... I didn't even know where I was in Tacoma. I have more of a sense of my own power in my home court. It seems that the people of Chicago have lost this sense of power even in their home city.

Well, I'm not sure where this is going, except at some point the peoples' hopelessness is too much. When city and state governments are dangerously negligent in their responsibilities to their/our citizens, it's got to be brought to the Federal government for remediation. Maybe we can look back into the Civil Rights movement to see how this was done then.

[Ellen Pham]

I think to capture and harness the empathy people from outside the situation have, whether that be the death of a young woman in Iraq or a young man in Chicago, there needs to be something specific and immediate that individual can be directed to do- call this number, send this email, or some other course of action. Like a map.

For long-term commitment, I think it generally needs to hit closer to home- geographically, financially, through personal relationships(affects our personal security) - or some hook where the individual gets to feel part of a powerful movement (fulfills our basic need to belong or some other ego identification we have or desire to have)- or the individual needs to be on a higher spiritual plane : ).