Two Black children were shot in Miami, and one died. Do not let silence thwart justice | Opinion

My column last week about Blacks caring for each other had not yet been published in the paper when, on Saturday evening, two beautiful Black children were shot in a drive-by shooting in the Brownsville area of Northwest Miami-Dade County.

One child, Alana Washington, 7, lay brain-dead in a hospital for three days, before she was allowed to go in peace. The other child, a 1-year-old, and two adults were still in the hospital as of Thursday.

What’s going on here? Why are some people acting like we live in the wild, wild West, where there was no law and order, and where people could kill you just because? I am sad and sickened by these shootings.

But I know my emotions won’t help the situation. What would help, I do believe, are stronger gun laws. Protesters should add stronger gun laws to their agendas. That would be one way to show our care and concern for one another.

Gun peddlers at gun shows and gun-shop owners need to be held accountable. They need to know there will be consequences if they sold their guns to just anyone. And law-abiding Americans need to understand that proper gun laws designed to protect everyone do not take away their freedom to legally own a gun.

It is hard to write this column, knowing that only a few miles from where I sit a family is planning to bury their little girl. As I looked at Alana’s smiling face in the picture in the Miami Herald, it pained me to think of all the things she could have been had she been allowed to grow up: A doctor? A teacher? An astronaut? A scientist? Somebody’s wife and a loving mother?

We will never know what she would have contributed to our society, as her young life was snuffed out by a cold, metal bullet. So hurtful, so shameful.

So, today, I’m thinking of Alana and all the other young Black children and teens who were victims of drive-by shootings. Two of the most celebrated young victims of 2016 were King Carter and Jada Page.

King Carter, 6, a first-grader at Van E. Blanton Elementary School, was shot and killed in February 2016, on his way to buy candy. Jada Page, 8, was shot in the head six months later in August 2016 and died after her first week of fourth grade.

In the decade from 2006 to 2016, according to the Florida Department of Health and Vital Statistics, 1,284 Florida youngsters died from gunfire. In Miami-Dade County, where a Black child is more than 12 times more likely to be killed in a shooting, 343 children died from gun violence during that decade — the most in the state. Many were killed by drive-by shootings. The killers of some were never caught.

I never heard of a drive-by shooting when my sons were growing up, unless it was in a scene from a George Raft gangster movie. While there were other dangers to shield them from, drive-by shootings were not one of them.

I never worried that they would be shot down while playing a game of pick-up basketball at the nearby park. While it seemed to be a safer environment, I still had to educate my sons on how to handle the racism that permeated our land.

Still, I never thought I should protect them from hateful, senseless drive-by shootings. It was simply unheard of at the time. But the times they do change.

So, when I learned that over the Fourth of July weekend, six children were killed by gun violence in cities across America, it was painful, but it did not surprise me. It almost seems as though killing a child — or anyone — in a drive-by shooting, and then running away and disappearing in the crowd has become a way of life.

It doesn’t have to be. It is up to us to stop the violence.

This month we have lost three wonderful civil rights icons — Rev. C.T. Vivian, Rep. John Lewis and Charles Evers. All faced death before and during the Civil Rights movement so we could have a better life.

But what kind of life will we have if we live in fear of each other? Unfortunately, racism will be with us for a long time. Still, one day, I do believe we will overcome it.

Meanwhile, we Blacks must fight two battles simultaneously — one with the seemingly faceless perpetrators of Black-on-Black crime, and the continuous fight against racism.

I am tired of fighting racism. I am tired of watching our beautiful Black children being shot down. I’m tired of watching Black parents plan theme funerals, like they are planning theme birthday parties. It’s just not fair, not right, people.

One of my favorite quotes from John Lewis goes like this: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.”

Somebody saw what happened in Brownsville on the night of July 25 as Alana and her family were getting out of that car. That somebody should say something.

The future of our Black children depends on it.

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 12:06 PM.