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July 25, 2005
NCCEV Press Releases
For immediate release: July 25th, 2005
Rally challenges a violent reality
At Summer of Peace, young people will teach ways to avoid violence
By ASHLEY JOHNSON
asjohnson@journalsentinel.com
After watching two teenagers perform a skit on violence, Tanya Cromartie-Twaddle
had a practical question for the young people seated around her.
"If someone's playing basketball, where's their gun?" she asked.
"In the car," someone replied immediately.
"Right here," a teenager said as he lifted up his shirt and
gestured toward his waistband.
All Cromartie-Twaddle could say was, "Wow."
"This is their reality," she recalled thinking. "We have
to do something now. It's urgent."
Under the guidance of Cromartie-Twaddle, 32, and Fidel Verdin, 27, about
45 Milwaukee young people have met for an hour every Wednesday for two
months to plan the third annual Summer of Peace Citywide Youth Rally,
scheduled for 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday in Kilbourn Park.
The effort comes amid a surge in homicides in Milwaukee. As of Monday,
there had been 75 homicides this year; 25 of the victims were 21 or younger.
During a recent planning meeting at the COA Youth and Family Centers,
909 E. Garfield Ave., the young people developed skits to perform at the
rally to initiate a conversation on how to avoid violence.
One of the short plays told the story of a one-on-one basketball game
that turned deadly when a player pulled out a gun in a heated dispute.
For 18-year-old Shannon Angline, one of the people who answered Cromartie-Twaddle's
question, the concept was all too real. He said he once saw a man's gun
drop from his clothes during a basketball game. It's also not uncommon
for people to carry knives, he said.
Angline's familiarity with gun violence surprised Cromartie-Twaddle and
underscored the need for the rally.
She and Verdin organized the first event in 2003.
This year, most of the people helping out are in their teens or early
20s.
"If we get the young kids, 16 and under, on this phenomenon now,
they can live it out and make it a lifestyle instead of just an event,"
Verdin said.
The rally will include awards for youth and community leaders, rappers
with a positive message, an essay contest and games for children.
Cromartie-Twaddle said there will also be a mock cemetery filled with
cardboard headstones and peace symbols to serve as a visual reminder of
the cost of violence.
"The day will be full of celebration and it will be fun, and I don't
want to take the chance that the message will be lost," she said.
"Death is real, and it's final, and we are dying, and we're killing
ourselves."
And death is not always physical. She said she has seen young people
become hardened by the constant news of violence.
Verdin's brother, Julian Curlin, 17, a Summer of Peace organizer since
2003, said he hears about fights or shootings at least twice a week.
"I know it's sad, but you really don't feel an emotion when you
hear about it now. It's like, 'Oh well,' " said Curlin, who attends
Vincent High School.
Such desensitization concerns experts.
Steven Marans, director of the National Center for Children Exposed to
Violence at the Yale University Child Study Center, said youth exposure
to violence is a public health issue - not just a community concern -
because people often avoid their emotions instead of facing them.
"In our effort not to acknowledge that we felt helpless, we may
pay a high price," Marans said.
The cost can include the healthful development of children, who Marans
said often experience feelings of anxiety, insecurity, chaos and danger
because of community violence.
Beth Herman-Ukasick, school psychologist with Milwaukee Public Schools'
Violence Prevention Program, said the effects manifest in schools.
"From what I hear anecdotally, I think there's a very high rate
of depression among our kids," Herman-Ukasick said. "I think
it goes back to what they're seeing in their communities, a feeling that
they can't make a difference, that things are just happening. It's a feeling
of helplessness."
But she said adults can help alleviate that feeling by reaching out to
youth - which is what Verdin and Cromartie-Twaddle are trying to do.
Besides empowering young people to help stop the violence, Curlin said,
the rally provides a necessary contrast to the image of young offenders
often seen in the news.
"If it weren't for the Summer of Peace, then all the negativity
in the media would completely take over," he said.
Ife Olatunji, 21, decided to get involved with the rally after she attended
a similar event at the Latino Community Center last summer. She said violence
is a form of expression; people use a fist or a gun because they do not
know a better way to express emotion.
"If you're involved with your community and you're constantly thinking
about the value of life, then (violence) will be the last thing on your
mind," Olatunji said.
Although he has been surrounded by violence for much of his life, Angline
said he tries to avoid trouble. He recently graduated from Bradley Tech.
At one of the last Summer of Peace planning meetings, the youth created
posters for the rally. Angline was the first to stand up and share.
He held up a silver poster with a drawing of a hand dropping a gun into
a garbage can.
Then, with his free hand he reached toward the ground, brought his arm
up and made the peace symbol as he echoed the words on the poster.
"Drop the heat," Angline said. "Pick up the peace."
From the July 25, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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