We understand the cultural value, shared by many native peoples of the Americas, that the names of the dead should remain unsaid. One idea behind this belief is that saying the names of the dead calls or keeps their spirits here when they have better places to go. We certainly hope and pray that the spirits of all of the children being shot and killed in the St. Louis region have better places to go than here, where they were surrounded by so much senseless violence, and where so many of them were left tragically unprotected. We would not want to call or keep their spirits here.
However, we affirm the cultural value, shared by many African peoples, of naming the dead, of speaking their names to enshrine their memory. So, let us say their names: Kennedi Powell, 3; Xavior Usanga, 7; Eddie Hill, 10; Charnija Keys, 11; Ien Coleman, 14; Jaylon McKenzie, 14; Omarion Coleman, 15; Michael Henderson, 15; Myiesha Cannon, 16; Kristina Curry, 16; Robert Dorsey, 16; Jason Eberhart, 16; Jashon Johnson, 16; Derrel Williams, 16; Davaun Winters, 17. All were young people shot and killed in St. Louis this summer – and it’s terrifying to confront the fact that this list will likely get longer before the summer is over.
We sometimes face the criticism that we don’t cover violence or street crime. Our response is two-fold. Most other local media do cover violence and street crime, and newspapers like ours were founded to tell the many other stories that are important to our community but less likely to be covered by other media. And, in fact, we do cover violence and street crime in our own ways. We believe, with Aristotle, that poverty is the father of crime and revolution, and we cover efforts to help people and communities emerge from poverty alive and more intact. When we cover efforts to include more African Americans in educational and business opportunities, we are trying to diminish rampant violence and crime. In addition, we cover proactive community efforts to prevent crime and protect communities, waged by groups like Better Family Life and Cure Violence.
But there are moments when we must confront the fact that what we are doing – what any of us is doing – is not enough. At such moments, like this, it is not enough to cover workforce development efforts, improvements in public education, or community-rebuilding projects. In moments like this we must pause from our positive, proactive mission to uplift our community and take a more direct look at the wanton violence and death in our community and say the names of the dead.
Kennedi Powell, Xavior Usanga, Eddie Hill, Charnija Keys, Ien Coleman, Jaylon McKenzie, Omarion Coleman, Michael Henderson, Myiesha Cannon, Kristina Curry, Robert Dorsey, Jason Eberhart, Jashon Johnson, Derrel Williams, Davaun Winters – we fear that even more will come, that even more will go – we do not want to call your spirits back to this place of violence where we did not do enough to protect you. But we want to remember you and mourn you and express our condolences to your families and loved ones.
Like everyone else, we are unable to explain these senseless deaths or to outline a definitive strategy for preventing more. But we would like to offer a wider perspective. These children were killed in a state and nation with senselessly permissible gun laws. They were killed by people – sometimes by other young people – who do not manufacture or sell guns. They were killed on streets patrolled by police officers with guns. They were killed in a nation with borders protected at gunpoint, with immigration laws enforced by armed agents. This same nation spends $80 billion on armed detention centers known as prisons. More than half of this nation’s discretionary tax spending is devoted to war.
In 2010 there were more guns in the U.S. (393 million) than people (326 million). Currently, there are some 15 million military-style weapons in civilian hands in the U.S. We must accept the fact that these guns will be held by millions of people for years to come whatever limits to curb or ban their use may be imposed. In Missouri, which has some of the nation’s most senselessly lax gun laws, there is no hope for legislative restraint, so we have to look to national gun policy to restore some sanity – which is difficult to envision with this White House and Senate.
None of this explains the death of these children or exonerates their killers – who, we believe, should be named themselves and prosecuted (say their names, too). None of this forgives us for not doing enough to nurture and protect them. But an honest assessment of Missouri and the United States reveals them to be a state and nation settled at gunpoint by armed slave-owners, who maintained race-based slavery through armed violence for more of this land’s history than slavery has been outlawed here. The United States of America was created at gunpoint, and it is not only our children who are dying senselessly at gunpoint. This nation itself is dying senselessly at gunpoint.
