Speaking before a crowd of 400 people who gathered in Manchester last night to talk about violence and other community issues, City Councilman Sala Udin took the occasion to speak publicly for the first time about his son who was gunned down last month in the Hill District.
Mr. Udin spoke before a crowd of clergy leaders and community activists who had gathered at Bidwell Presbyterian Church for the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network meeting to lay out a plan to address social challenges such as affordable housing, violence intervention, and law enforcement accountability.
Several other speakers addressed the crowd on other issues, but Mr. Udin's heartfelt comments about the pain and the guilt associated with losing his son, Patrice Howze, 29, dominated the evening. Mr. Howze was shot several times.
Out of his pain, came a plea. "Excuse me ladies," he said, "but I need to speak to fathers."
The highest priority is reconnecting black males with their fathers, or reconnecting them with surrogate fathers. "They are all our children."
He spoke from the pulpit, but his heart was humble. "I've dedicated over 40 years of my life to improving lives of black and poor people," said the councilman. "Now, I can only wonder, did my divorce and moving to California contribute to my son's death?
"Was he in the streets looking for his father? Did he turn to hip-hop and street life looking for his father?" A reflective Mr. Udin could not answer those questions last night, but he acknowledged his pain is felt by too many in the black community. "Patrice is not alone. He has a lot of company in the cold graveyard."
In preventing violence, he said, black fathers must be present and have a close relationship with their children. "Ninety percent of the kids in the graveyards and in jail did not come from families where there are two parents," he said.
Violence is a monster, said the councilman. "It is too big and too complex and it will take all of us to bring it down."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
No comments:
Post a Comment