Blood of young Chelsea is on all of our hands

Add the name of Takisha Cromartie to the growing list of grieving mothers this Mother’s Day.

Her 8-year-old daughter, Chelsea, a self-described “amazing girl,” became the 13th child killed in the District in less than half a year.

If only Chelsea Cromartie were born Chelsea Clinton, perhaps her short life might not have ended so abruptly and abhorrently. Perhaps more “very important people” would become so outraged they’d bring more than sorrow to bear.

The Rev. Stephen Young Sr., who will deliver Chelsea’s eulogy at the Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People tomorrow, said, “The same attention [police] gave to Chandra Levy, killed up there in Rock Creek Park, should be given to every black child that [is] killed in this city. Why do you have to be an important person to get people to care?”

Chelsea, with that wide smile, was still in pigtails. She reportedly listed in her third-grade class “I am” statements that she was “a nice girl, kind, a good student, a sister, exciting, and good at double Dutch.” Chelsea, who by all account also had the gift of gab, was simply watching television Monday night cuddled up under her aunt when she was struck and forever silenced by a bullet fired during a gunbattle that supposedly started over a pair of shoes.

Such a senseless crime renders you speechless. Even a pastor, who has preached at the funerals of 30 victims of violence so far this year — three this week alone — said, “I’m still praying for a message.”

Who among us does not have a cherished Chelsea in our families, our classes, our churches or our communities? Who among us doesn’t want to wave a magic wand to save another mother from grieving over the bloodied body of another child?

We point the finger at too many guns, too many violent video games and parents too young, too lenient or too self-absorbed. We rail against not enough police patrols, not enough social services, not enough jobs and laws not stringent enough to act as a deterrent.

The public lights candles, marches in the streets and simply says, “Enough.”

But Chelsea’s family admonishes folks not to offer condolences and empty words but do good deeds to stop the violence.

“They need to put their guns down,” pleads a grieving father, Daniel Cromartie. He wears a T-shirt bearing his daughter’s picture and the words “I am a victim of circumstances.” Still, Chelsea’s death rekindles the quotable litany of lip service.

The politicians say the public should not tolerate such bad behavior. They promise to provide more “youth services” out of one side of their mouths as they cut those services, such as summer jobs, with each passing budget season.

The public says the politicians need to provide more recreation and jobs and police on the streets as they remain hostages hiding behind locked doors.

The police chief says his officers need community assistance to get the criminals off the streets and change “the culture of violence.” It escapes him that his department has no small part in breeding the outlaw culture.

The public activist says “we cannot hold children, who come from poor environments, responsible until we take full responsibility for the environment we allow them to grow up in.”

The prosecutor seeks a reduction in the age of legal responsibility.

The pundit says what we really need is to transform this public outrage into public accountability and action. We need to exchange every word we utter for an act we commit to eradicating what is a community and a country’s cultural crisis.

The pastor, too, preaches personal respect and responsibility. His telephone voice mail suggests “if it’s that important, start praying now.” Mr. Young’s church in the 5100 block of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE is a sanctuary for the desperate and the downtrodden. He said he often wears the uniform of the streets (Timberland boots, cornrows and baggy pants) to draw in younger people with whom his supportive, self-help sermons resonate.

Mr. Young gets so many requests to hold funerals for crime victims, many from people who do not want or cannot get their loved one’s services held in their home churches, that he has established a support group called the Life After Homicide Ministry.

No stranger to crime, he lost two sons to violence, one in a shooting and the other in a hit-and-run car accident.

“I can hate the sin, but I must embrace the person and bring him in and give him the same compassion that Christ would,” he said, even as it relates to those involved in Chelsea’s killing. In a raspy voice obviously worn from so much passionate preaching, Mr. Young said, “I’ve got clues but no answers to curbing crime. I commend anyone who can come up with an answer.” His impromptu sermon starts with losing sight of the proper priorities in personal as well as public life, and ends with the disparate treatment and delivery of services between D.C. residents east and west of the Anacostia River.

While there may be no definitive answer on how to curb crime, we’ve learned that we must continue along two tracks: parents, pastors, prevention and promotion alongside equitable public policy, policing and punishment to get the personal responsibility, promise and progress we seek.

The most important change must be one in attitude. We have to stop thinking that when little Chelseas are killed that it’s “their problem” that happens “over there.”

The “culture of crime” that Chief Charles H. Ramsey so often speaks of was not created east of the Anacostia River alone. So the solutions must come from across social, economic and racial barriers as well. Like it or not, we are in this sorry state together.

Chelsea Cromartie died in her mother’s arms, but we must all hold ourselves responsible.