"We Want to Live" walkers
Activists stop in Gary on campaign to recognize violence as a public health issue
Contributed By:The 411 News
"We Want To Live" Walk from Chicago to Wash., DC
After Wednesday’s kickoff in Chicago, the "We Want To Live" Walk from Chicago to Wash., DC was welcomed to Gary, Thursday, by Mayor Jerome Prince.
The purpose of the walk, said Pastor Anthony Williams, is to ask President Biden to sign an executive order declaring violence as a public health crisis and attack it with the same energy and tools the country used to attack COVID-19.
“While we work our way through COVID-19, we must address the other pandemic and that is violence is a public health crisis. The CDC has called violence a public health issue. I want the president to stop just talking only about gun violence,” Pastor Williams said during the press conference on the steps of Gary’s City Hall.
Gun violence exacted a heavy burden in 2018 when his son Nehemiah died from gunfire. The pastor knows about it from the families living in Chicago and its suburban neighborhoods where he has worked as an anti-violence activist. Williams is senior pastor of MLK Community Church in Dolton.
“Gun violence is only a symptom, racism is a symptom of the structural violence this nation faces. Voter suppression, redlining, and economic inequality are symptoms of structural violence,” Williams said.
Pastor Williams said the nation can’t survive unless violence is recognized and only the president can do it. “He doesn’t need Congress. We are saying to the president, we want to live. We want to live healthy and safe lives. We don’t want to live in fear.”
Structural violence is a concept for a form of violence where a social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs.
Pastor Williams was a major force behind Illinois HB 158, signed by Governor JB Pritzker in April. “Illinois is the only state that has declared violence as a public health crisis. Now we’re going federal,” he said. The bill calls for the state’s Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Services to look at how to identify high violence communities for program funding and economic development.
“It's legislation that moves the needle in America," Williams said, “not conversation.”
Walking with Pastor Williams are Kimberley Egonmwan of WVON radio, Marlon Watson, faith leaders Bob Israel and Willie Samuel. Egonmwan said movement for the legislation began in 2020 when Mercy Hospital, on Chicago’s south side, wanted to reduce its services in the midst of the pandemic.
Next stops for the campaign are South Bend, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore and DC.
Harlette Washington, front, came from Chicago to support the walkers Marlon Watson, l-r, Kimberley Egonmwan, Willie Samuel, Bob Israel, and Pastor Anthony Williams
Story Posted:06/24/2021
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