Passover, Good Friday and Easter Sunday will soon arrive to connect us to our tradition and to teach us the lessons of the rewards reaped from long-term commitment. This year’s festive season, we know too painfully, arrives at a time of worldwide hardship and strife. It is too easy to get lost in the harrowing reports of war and bloodshed and seemingly too difficult to maintain our energy for the long-term goal of a world repaired. This year, especially, we need these holidays to give us hope and direction.
Easter Sunday brings the reflective season of Lent to its conclusion, focusing on the possibilities of spiritual rebirth from personal sacrifice toward a larger goal. Lent is a 40-day journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter, focused on reflection and renewal of commitment to lead a life in keeping with God’s call.
Likewise, the festive Seder comes to teach many lessons about labor and reward. Like the Lenten journey, the onset of Passover commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian servitude, the onset of a 40-year march homeward to the land of promise. But the Passover Seder also commences the 50-day historical journey to Mount Sinai, the metaphorical site where the Jewish people received the Torah, the laws and traditions that gave shape to their journey, their culture and societal structure. Like the journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter, the procession of Passover reminds us to set our sights on working for good in the long term.
Working for the long term is precisely what brought the four of us together: Each of us separately toiling in our own communities, we were working to end the scourge of gun violence in Chicago. We united, with other faith leaders, to form a coalition to bring about a permanent solution to our city’s perennial problem. As discussed many times in the Tribune, we united to establish a permanent, funded Office of Gun Violence Reduction. Uniting best practices in public health and offering further support and coordination to the community violence intervention community, an office would serve as a Chicago department with a set strategy that would not change according to political winds or mayoral whims.
Multiple mayors indicated that they supported such an office, but each of them, post-election, decided to create their own impermanent infrastructure. For example, Mayor Brandon Johnson, who promised during the campaign to establish such an office through ordinance, instead installed Garien Gatewood as the deputy mayor of community safety. Gatewood was technically the first person to have this title but effectively served in a similar position previously. Despite Johnson’s claims to the contrary, it was a distinction without a difference.
More Top Picks Best Cross Country Skis
And so our coalition, early in Johnson’s administration, met with the mayor and deputy mayor to establish the office through ordinance; since October 2024, the mayor has backed away from the effort and remained silent and nonresponsive about this necessary strategy.
That is why we have such serious concern over the recent firings of Gatewood and Manny Whitfield, the director of violence prevention and community safety, especially with summer a few months away, when Chicago violence historically increases. This level of turnover at such a critical moment, and the shift in strategy and focus it surely signals, is deeply troubling and underscores what we have said for years: Chicago needs a permanent Office of Gun Violence Reduction.
From the beginning, we have called for the creation of an office because we know short-term appointments cannot carry long-term solutions. Chicago needs a structure with guaranteed funding, clear accountability and sustained strategy that outlasts any single administration, political moment or staffing. The post of deputy mayor of public safety has consistently experienced high turnover, and with every transition comes a shift in strategy (driven by ego, politics and personal idiosyncrasy). Our communities cannot afford to have violence prevention efforts disrupted and reset every time leadership changes.
We particularly cannot lack such an important leader as we head into the most vulnerable season of the year. The firing of the deputy mayor signals to us a dereliction of duty.
Gatewood reported being told that the mayor wants to pursue a new direction, “to work more on policy.” While we welcome that stance, we are befuddled that — in the nearly three years since Johnson’s election and nearly 18 months since he cut off conversations with our faith coalition about passing permanent policy — not only has the mayor taken so long to focus on policy but also that he feels the need to tear down current leadership in order have this new focus.
Johnson has failed to follow through on what remains an empty campaign promise. Instead, the rollout of a “first” deputy mayor for community safety was celebrated, despite the fact that this role has existed before. Renaming positions is not reform.
Chicago must move beyond symbolism and establish a permanent office for gun violence reduction. We do not need a 40-year journey to reach this promised land, especially with the warmer weather of summer and its spikes in gun violence approaching. We cannot afford instability when lives are on the line.
The time for a long-term, accountable public safety strategy is now.
Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and the Rev. Michael Pfleger joined the Tribune’s opinion section in summer 2022 for a series of columns on potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. The column continues on an occasional basis.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].
More Top Picks How To Reduce Eye Strain Working From Home All Day