Life expectancy and the summertime
With summer upon us, I remember a Washington Post piece from a few years back, which included the image that accompanies this blog post. It shows a 33-year difference in life expectancy for those born in Friendship Heights, DC (an upper-income part of town) compared to Barry Farms (a lower-income part of town).
The truth is these differences are present in almost every city in the United States. Though Friendship Heights, DC is about 10 miles away from Barry Farms, DC, the life expectancy at birth is 96 for the former and 63 for the latter. In Baltimore, you only have to travel 3 miles to lose 10 years. Being born in the Clifton Berea neighborhood gives you a life expectancy of 67. If you are lucky enough to be born in Homeland, you get a life expectancy of 84. The difference is income, economic opportunity. The difference is poverty.
What can you do about this? That sounds like a good question. But it’s not the right one. The right one is: How can you not do something?
Why is it relevant now, with the onset of summer? Because murders will increase significantly around this country, and mostly in low-income neighborhoods. And the people who get shot may be guilty of simply sitting on their front steps or just taking a shower. If there are windows in the bathroom, they are at risk.
Do a search for when people are shot, where they are shot, and why they are shot. You will find all the answers intimately tied to economic scarcity and a lack of opportunities. You don’t even have to research. You can just listen to the young people involved in this violence and they will tell you - every time.
One evening a few years back I was watching a piece on television about violence in Chicago. The individual doing the piece gathered together five young men to ask them about the conditions in their neighborhoods. Why, he asked, did they have so much violence compared to other parts of their city and their country? They each shared that they were in local gangs and were involved in violence. Imagine putting yourself on television and saying that. Imagine how much they must want change - deep down - to put themselves in that position. And here is what the main spokesperson said:
“We need resources and programs. We need investment in our communities. We want to work; we need jobs. Without all of that, we reach for guns. It’s survival.”
Imagine if there a shooting in your neighborhood. What would you and your neighbors do? Now imagine that there were three - maybe in a year. How would you feel? In Chicago this past weekend, there were 54 shootings. One weekend. One city. And many in the same neighborhood. When city leaders tell the press that it’s gonna take all of us to solve this, they’re not just passing the buck. They’re right. And that’s what our national plan is about. What are you about?