Pastor Corey B. Brooks at the site of his Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center in Chicago

Eight people were killed and nearly forty injured by gunfire in the city of Chicago over the Juneteenth/Father’s Day weekend. In response, city leaders, both civic and religious, are calling for a city department dedicated to reducing gun violence in the Windy City. In the meantime, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to talk about the relatively obscure crime of violence against transgender women. Yes, you read that right. Over a weekend when 39 of his citizens were shot and eight murdered, all of them African American, Mayor Johnson wants to talk about the “epidemic” of violence against trans women. So far as I can ascertain from the reports, none of those shot or killed over the weekend were trans. One was a 14-year-old boy.

To be fair, the situation has improved significantly from three years ago, when 75 people were shot and 13 killed over the Juneteenth weekend. Perhaps Mayor Johnson regards only 39 shot and eight killed as something of a victory. President Trump has offered to put the National Guard on the streets of Chicago to assist in the effort to reduce crime. Trump insists that his doing so in Washington, DC has transformed that city from one of the most violent to one of the safest in the country. Crime has declined in DC, but it was declining before Trump sent in the National Guard. Still, the numbers suggest that the Guard has contributed to a reduction in crime. If I were the governor of a state, or the mayor of a city with a high crime problem, I would accept all the help I could get, even if it meant taking that help from Donald Trump. But today, what matters is not the safety of the citizens, or the quality of life in our cities, or even a reduction in crime. What matters is that politicians like Mayor Brandon Johnson or Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker are not seen within 100 yard of Trump, much less that they give anyone reason to accuse them of agreeing with Trump, working with Trump, or accepting one of, or even a part of Trump’s policies. That is anathema to the far left extreme of the Democrat Party, which now effectively controls the Democrat Party. Johnson and Pritzker are both Democrats, so they dutifully ignore federal assistance, even at the peril of the citizens of Chicago.

Fr. Michael Pfleger, eternal pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, rebuked Trump for claiming that, if Chicago leaders asked, he would send people and solve the gun problem in Chicago in a month. Fr. Pfleger said, “Shut up, Donald!” He demands that Trump return the money he says Trump stopped sending to Chicago and other cities intended to mitigate gun violence. Respectfully, Father, I’m not sure that the current batch of Chicago’s leaders have the political will or competence to combat gun violence, even if given the money.

There are efforts in Chicago that seem to be having some success in reducing violence in Chicago neighborhoods. Community Violence Intervention organizations, such as Peacekeepers, made up of community volunteers who take personal responsibility for being present in “hot spot” Chicago neighborhoods have, according to reports, made a significant impact in reducing violence and even in resolving conflicts that could have potentially escalated to violence. These are the kinds of efforts that will, in my mind, have the greatest chance of succeeding – ones that involve the community and are the result of people and police working together.

Pastor Corey B. Brooks’ Project H.O.O.D. is another community-based effort to reduce violence in Chicago by increasing opportunities and, thus, investment in the community by those at risk of becoming part of the cycle of violence. Pastor Brooks is well on his way toward collecting the $25 million he needs in donations to build a Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center in one of the rougher neighborhoods in Chicago. The root of so much violence, especially among young men in economically depressed neighborhoods, is a lack of investment in themselves and in their communities. This is rooted in the lack of opportunities these nieghborhoods offer, as well as the epidemic of broken homes and fatherless homes. Social research has proven again and again that children who are raised by their biological parents who are married to each other are far more invested in their communities than those raised in broken or fatherless homes. When you don’t feel that you have a reason to invest in yourself or in your community, when you think your future has little to nothing to offer you, than it’s easy to fall into despair, to shrug one’s shoulders and ask, “what difference does it make?” and then answer that question, “it makes no difference at all!” When a person is convinced that he or she has no reason to go to school, no reason to learn a trade, because there will be no opporutnities in which to apply that learning or skill, then it’s easy to adopt a cynical attitude toward earing a degree or learning a skill. When there is no fatherly guidance or love, the gang becomes an easy substitute.

Creating opportunities means creating investment, in one’s self and in one’s community. This is the long-term solution, and a necessary one. This means changing a culture, a way of thinking. This is how society’s get turned around, one individual at a time, one block at a time, one neighborhood at a time. But there will be resistence. Those who control so many of the streets of our inner cities will not give up their territory easily, nor their recruits. Every person who successfully escapes the cycle of violence and neighborhoods of despair is one less pawn in the kingpin’s arsenal of low cost labor working for high money profits – for the kingpin. In other words, the cartels and gangs will do all they can to keep opportunity and investment from growing in these neighborhoods of despair, toward the goal of keeping their own riches coming.

So, more is needed than simply the creation of opportunity and investment. What is needed is to take the cartels and gangs down. That will not be done by community volunteers making their presence known on street corners and “hot spots.” That will take police work and, if necessary, bringing in the National Guard might help. Cartels and gangs are equipped to go up against community volunteers and, in too many cases, even the police. They are not usually so well-equipped to go up against the U.S. military. Let’s hope not, anyway.

But that will not happen. The leadership of Illinois and Chicago are not interested in federal assistance, so long as that federal assistance comes from Trump. They must oppose all things Trump, even if that means rejecting resources that could potentially improve the quality of life of their citizens.

Fr. Pfleger would do well to focus his efforts on announcing the good news of His Lord and Savior. Social justice work is necessary and fruitful. But it is not a substitute for the gospel. People need ultimate meaning. Ultmate meaning has the power to sustain a person even when more temporal goals seem out of sight. There is more to life than what this world has to offer, and Jesus is the only way to connect with that ultmate meaning, because that ultimate meaning is found in our sharing in the divine nature. We come from God, and are drawn to God. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord,” St. Augustine of Hippo said, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

It seems there are many restless hearts in Chicago.