Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’
After 11 are shot in 24 hours, Philly’s homicides aren’t someone else’s problem. They’re ours
Eleven people were shot in less than 24 hours in Philly this weekend, and if we continue at this pace, we’ll have 600 homicides in Philadelphia by year’s end. That’s 600 funerals, 600 grieving families, 600 futures erased—600 lives lost in a cycle that is vicious in more ways than one. This is not someone…
Read More You want to stop gun violence? Listen to the streets
Gun violence has taken our peace, our prosperity, and our people. It’s left far too many of us in a constant state of fight or flight, wondering if the next moment might be our last. In a city where 499 homicides took place last year, we can’t sit here hoping things will get better. We…
Read More The ‘twice as good’ rule for Black leaders brings unfair scrutiny to Danielle Outlaw that Thomas Farley dodged
We have to be twice as good to get half as much. That key verse from what I like to call “The Big Book of Black Home Trainin’” came to mind as I watched twin controversies grip the city over the last few weeks. One scandal involved the Black female police commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who…
Read More Philly Fighting COVID disaster strikes another blow to vaccine trust in Black communities
The Philly Fighting COVID debacle, where a group of self-described “college kids” with little-to-no medical experience was given a city partnership to run a mass vaccination program, is more than a national embarrassment. It could very well worsen the Black community’s mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine—a mistrust our community can’t afford. Having watched for months…
Read More Kids and guns don’t mix–lessons from a childhood tragedy
As a father, my heart breaks because a 9-year-old girl was shot dead by another child when they were left alone with a gun. It happened Wednesday morning, when police responded to a report of a shooting on North Bouvier Street. Officers found the girl in a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the…
Read More Walter Wallace Jr. would still be alive if he were white
When I watched the video of Walter Wallace Jr., 27, being gunned down by two Philadelphia police officers on Monday, I was overcome by sadness and rage. Then a sense of calm certainty overtook those roiling emotions, because I was sure of one thing. This would not have happened if Walter Wallace Jr. were white.…
Read More Watch Solomon’s exclusive interview with Kamala Harris
Hours before a presidential debate that erased the boundaries of decency, I spoke to Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris. I asked her about the concerns of Black Philadelphians—a community that could very well decide the election. The need for Black votes makes Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian heritage, more…
Read More What Kamala Harris told me when I asked about her and Joe Biden
On Thursday, Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris came to Philadelphia, and in a surreal twist of fate, my block was one of the stops on the campaign trail. But it wasn’t the time that she spent on my street that told me the most about Harris. It was what happened in the hours before. Around…
Read More Trump is killing us, but gun violence is doing it faster
There’s so much happening that sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed. The president is lying about coronavirus, the homeless are camped out on the Parkway, fires are raging in California, and the most important election of our lifetimes is less than two months away. But in Philadelphia, the most immediate danger is gun violence. Gun…
Read More It’s about time somebody addressed the soda tax scam
I was glad to hear that City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez introduced legislation that could phase out the soda tax, because I believe the soda tax is a scam.
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