I WAS GLANCING at a back issue of Sojourners last night. Jim Wallis recounted the wretched events that took place in Chicago this summer ("Hearts & Minds," September-October 1995). I was pleased to see it mentioned because, at the level of sheer tragedy, there are few things more heart-breaking; few things that so graphically hold up a mirror to the land of freedom and guns. The 500 (mainly senior) citizens of Chicago died miserable, tenement-hall deaths because the single act of opening a window to abate the summer's swelter was too great an act of courage to muster for fear of being murdered. There will be natural disasters that will claim a greater number of lives, countless more acts of terrorism, but most won't come close to explaining how pathetic things are than those deaths in Chicago's inner city. I thought the column was right on.
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