Zaeem Wallace-Parker Advanced Essay #4

What is war? What do you see when you think of war? Philadelphia is a city that has been under the influence of war for decades now.  It’s not an ordinary war such as  blacks against whites, nor criminals against the government, it’s the citizens of Philadelphia versus the citizens of Philadelphia. Violence, neglect, and pain is the outcome of it all as the city battles itself. The city has been prayed for by many of people, the government has been act to be more strict, miracles has been wished upon, all to stop the war. No one really understands the war of the city of Brotherly Love.

The annual average  of homicides for the past decade in Philadelphia is 283. This means at least over two hundred people have been killed per year since 2006. These numbers consist of people of all races being murdered by people of all races. Many and most of these murders were committed by Philadelphians on Philadelphians. Moreover, this war has carried on for more than 10 years however, families, friends, and loved ones have all been victims to the war within the city. It’s not just violence that carries this war on either. The School District keeps taking money away from the budget because they believe students don’t want to learn. However, this belief is contradicting because it counts out for those who really do want to learn. It takes away many opportunities for all of students in total. Athletics, Lunch/Breakfast, and of course Education are the 3 major factors when it comes to school. If the School District of Philadelphia keep taking away money that they’re supposed to spend on these 3 things for the school and putting it else where, how will the schools be successful? Science Leadership Academy is one of the most successful public schools in Philadelphia and it’s location allows the students to be exposed to many different things. However, the school doesn’t have or own any location for any of its sports teams. Now, why would one of the best high schools in Philadelphia not have at least 1 facility for at least 1 of its sports team you may ask. It’s because the School District of Philadelphia is failing and the more it fails, the more students began to take the wrong path. With that happening, the more the war increases.

Another major piece of the war is the tension between the government, mainly the law enforcers, and the citizens of Philadelphia. In the picture above, it is an image of a dark figure (preferable black) shooting and murdering a cop (preferable white) inside of Philadelphia police car. Why? What may have caused a man to commit such a crime? Now in the specific example it is a black male, however this not the scenario for this case. Whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc. have all been engaged in this fight with the police of Philadelphia. The police of Philadelphia have been historically known for their overly authorized activity. There are records on records of cases where police have violated the rights of citizens of Philadelphia. However, due to their position within the city, the cases are normally won by the police and the result of all of this is just more war.

Now, with all this war going, how do the citizens of Philadelphia continue to live within it? Citizens born and raised within the city of Philadelphia have so much pride for the city of Brotherly Love that they don’t see the war, as a war. It brings you back to the question of what is war? Statistically, war is believed as “love for ones nation/home”. The people of the place that is going at war will never really see the negativity of the war due to their love for their home. Kevin Cook is 25 year old photographer who one day woke in the middle of the night to gunshots outside of his home in North Philadelphia. The next morning the family of murdered victim were grieving at the corner of Kevin’s street and Kevin decided to take photos to promote the sympathy for the family. During his new interview Kevin talked about how the violence in Philadelphia needs to come to an end but he then followed up on with those statements on how much beauty he sees within Philadelphia, regardless of the whole reason he was given an interview. I’m not saying the pride of the citizens of Philadelphia is bad but, the pride holds majority, not all, of the citizens to make an effort to stop the war going on. Our government is democratic, so if we can’t get the people to be against the war, it’ll just get worst.

The people of Philadelphia has endured so much of this war. However, the effort of the people to prevent the war has been very weak due to many different reasons. The war causes a lot of the issues that goes on in the city today and it’s getting to the point where it is becoming unstoppable.