Struggling to find solutions to Philadelphia's seemingly intractable wave of violence, regional leaders including Mayor Street and Cardinal Justin Rigali held an unprecedented summit meeting at City Hall yesterday.Why is a meeting concerning the rights of the people closed to them? And why does that "wall of separation" between church and state we're always hearing about conveniently disappear whenever it serves the purposes of the rulers?
The two-hour, closed session ended with no new initiatives, but participants hailed it as an important step in quelling the gun violence that so far has claimed 232 lives this year...
"Hopefully, God will give us more wisdom to address this problem more effectively than we have in the past," Rigali said before the meeting.
And how come Philly still has a "gun violence" problem, anyway? We were promised "Project Exile" would put an end to that.