I want to start off by apologizing to Pastor Corey Brooks for a misunderstanding, I did not in any way want you or anyone else to think that the cause you are working on was the problem. The problem is in the obvious, two similar projects from the same city for the same cause from two people that met before but only one remembers the conversation. I am not mad at you but I feel like there are some things hiding in the dark and if you stand back a bit from the issue your Political Science degree should kick in and see what I am talking about. Mind you that I am NOT the only one that sees it that way because I have been asked by many people what was going on and their first question was, “did he call you to join you?”
Let’s talk about people reaching out for a second…I was truly waiting for you to reach out since my previous attempts went unanswered and you were always unavailable to see me when you were on the roof top. You could have peeked over the edge and said Hi and told me when to call you but instead it was via one of your guys on the sidewalk through a phone call he made to you. Why would you call other people about what I wrote? Did you honestly think that making THAT phone call was going to silence me? Did I ever say that I moved on the command of someone else?
Just as easily you made that phone call you could have gone to my website:
( www.walkingtopeace.com ) and done the same thing if what I wrote really bothered you. I was prepared to publicly apologize if needed because as a man of God I am always able to stand correction. So when I sat down with some of my closest people and told them what had happened they all asked, “Why hasn’t he called you?” Then one of them said “well he must be hiding something if he is unwilling to talk about it with you!” I’m not going to accuse you of hiding anything but will say that you must have not researched very well and that does happen. The significance in that is when one is doing something like this you don't want to hinder someone else by doing the same thing. I searched for 12 hours before I bought the website 2 years ago and started planning and since then I keep my eye open for others doing similar things so I could reach out to them...maybe I'm the only one with a conscious...
So now let’s talk about the building you are looking to put right across the street from your church…$15million! WOW! I know of some buildings not far from downtown that go for less so why $15million what makes it that price? See what I am trying to get at is that how is it that ANOTHER building is going to be the model to “end violence” in Chicago? I love research so I did some of the area around your church and here is what I found:
On a basic search on Google for churches in the area I found within a 1.7 mile area from your church 71 places of worship…71!
On a basic search on Google for churches in the area I found within a 1.7 mile area from your church 71 places of worship…71!
Since 2007just within 1 square mile of your church there have been 66 homicides here’s the link: http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/search/?d=1&address=6600+S.+King+drive That is just shy of FIVE people to make it one person per church in the area! Do you not find that disturbing? How is it that there are so many places of worship and most likely in buildings and with all of those buildings violence has not ended? Is the power of gangs and drugs bigger than God Himself!? We got people that pray in tongues and shout to the Lord but all of that has not touched on the pulse of violence within the community? I’m not making fun of how people worship but I have had a couple of pastors that say people that do that worship the right way. What is it about this $15million building that ONE church is unable to do with the Power and Faith in God? I’m sure there’s a great political answer to this and I could even come up with one but then I would be lying and showing the world that No with Jesus NOT everything is possible unless you have a $15million building sitting across the street from your church.
There are two elementary schools within blocks of your church and one does better than the other but they both have asbestos issues…how could $15 million affect that? Here are links to the info in case you might want to address the issue:
http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=610065
http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=610065
Within your zip code the percentage of vacant housing units is 13.51% that’s 3389 potential places of crime, drug houses, etc… If you were to take $15 million and invest into half of these property’s (which is1695) you would be placing about $8850 into each home. The average property value in the area falls within $50,000 to $99,000 and considering that these properties are vacant possibly due to the housing crisis you might get them for cheaper. Wouldn’t you think reducing the vacant properties by half in a community is more effective than building ONE $15 million building?
Park Way community Center is located at 500 East 67th street about 2 blocks away from your church. This center was part of Jane Addams Hull House and as all of Chicago knows that place closed its doors recently. Here’s a thought, rather than letting another building just sit there indefinitely why not figure out how you can obtain that building and you won’t need the $15 million! Isn’t that a great idea?
Here’s my point, you will not end violence by building a $15 million dollar building and it is not a lack of faith on my part but more of a lack of faith for those that believe $15million is the answer.
Pastor Brooks I am challenging you because when we met you admitted that all of this was new to you and all you wanted to do was the right thing. I still believe that somewhere in you that is alive and one thing I told was that there are plenty of pastors in Chicago with empty lots but never do anything. How did they get them? Because they did a favor of standing behind the mayor at a news conference and they were blessed with buying a city lot for $1 dollar and I said don’t be one of those pastors…
You are an educated man and you know as well as I do that another building is NOT the answer to violence. If the building has the sole purpose of giving affordable housing or opening a day care center to replace the shutdown of Park way center then it is just that but to say you will end violence by using this building as a model is just another story that many of us out on the streets have heard before. You want to create change that will affect the community to deal with our society’s ills? Why not build a healthy grocery store that buys from local farmers and build a roof top garden to teach youth in the area the importance of eating right so they can pass that along to their families? These ideas I’m offering to you and would hope that you could acknowledge that I am not mad at you just disappointed that you fumbled what could have been.
At this point I do not expect you to reach out because you might have people around you telling you not to in fact I'm sure she's telling you that and you know who I mean.
At this point I do not expect you to reach out because you might have people around you telling you not to in fact I'm sure she's telling you that and you know who I mean.
Pastor Brooks I wish you well in your journey and I truly hope that you look deep down inside and think about what I am saying here. I have my past as well and it is rooted on the streets and I do not shy away from that. I also have a deep spiritual background and have been in church my whole life so when I speak I use the fact I can find and write from my heart. I didn’t seek millions for my project because that was not the purpose the purpose is to address the root causes of violence. I welcome you to reach out if you care to and next time you need to address something I said talk to me not someone that you may think will handle me.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
