Dayton killed a 12 year old

Dayton, the region, not the city. We’re all to blame for this travesty. Isabellas Amor-Carlos is dead. Her crime? Sleeping in her bed. Literally 5 houses away from a city of Dayton fire station at N. Main and W. Fairview Ave. She was 12 years old, and a student at Charity Adams Girls Academy. She had a future.

Somewhere, there’s 1 or 2 dirtball losers who were playing shootout at the OK Corral on W. Fairview the other night, but, we may or may not ever learn who was responsible for actually pulling the trigger. I’m still waiting for the police to find the murderer of an 85 year old war hero- and it’s been 15 years. But that’s beside the point, we’re all guilty. We’ve been pretending we’re running a functioning community for over 50 years when in fact, we’ve been working toward her death and the hopes of so many because we can’t seem to get out of our pretend world that thinks our economy is ok if it’s run by “Meds, Eds and Feds” instead of for the people, by the people.

Dayton is a small town. There’s a trivia game called “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” where the object is to be able to tie any actor in any movie in less than 6 steps to Kevin Bacon. I like to say to people, there’s only 1.2 degrees of separation in Dayton Ohio- and unfortunately, in this case, it’s true.

My neighbor, worked at Charity Adams, she knew Isabellas. I’m sure there’s other ways we’re connected, because, this is a small town. This shooting hurts. But, every shooting hurts, and there have been a lot of them this year. It doesn’t do any good to list them, because there will be more. It keeps happening, and we keep getting unsatisfactory answers from elected leadership on what the problem is.

People don’t run around with guns in other industrialized countries, only here. People have national health care everywhere else, but not here. People have affordable higher ed elsewhere but not here. People get paid a living wage in other countries but not here. Small businesses used to flourish in this country, hiring young people into their first jobs, in their neighborhood, but, those opportunities are getting wiped out by megacorporations that are allowed to create monopolistic power in both hiring and selling. Kids can’t even get jobs as “paperboys” anymore- which was one of my early jobs.

But none of these national issues is going to be fixed anytime soon to prevent the next child dying. So what can Dayton do to help ourselves? It’s not “a violence interruption program” or “work(ing) with the schools to try to get young people conflict resolution training so that they learn skills that can help them avoid violence” as Mayor Jeff Mims says. He’s been part of the problem for the last 25 years as an elected official. One who thinks that government’s job is to give our tax dollars away to developers, to demolition companies, to “Meds, Eds and Feds” instead of running a functioning city- which is something we’ve not seen in over 50 years.

Allow me to wave a magic wand over our fair city (or clusterduck of pretend little banana republics) and bring sense to our community. We don’t need 30 jurisdictions, with 18 different police chiefs (never mind the private and quasi-private police forces of Metroparks, the hospitals, the colleges). We need a sheriffs department that rules the whole thing- with about 3500 sworn officers to be put where they need to be, not by where they are paid to be.

We need one government- at the regional level (the county lines don’t even make sense anymore- as they were drawn centuries ago). We need one school district with neighborhood schools. We need one library system, one parks and recreation department for the whole region, one street maintenance division, one clerk of courts with one website, eliminating duplication and waste left and right so that we can get down to doing what a government is supposed to do- serve and protect our citizens.

It’s not our job to tear down someone else’s buildings- find out who owns them, and make them pay. It’s not our job to invest in flying electric helicopters, or new paint lines for the truck plant, or “create jobs”- or pick winners and losers- it’s our job to level the playing field. Just getting a building permit/occupancy permit in the region shouldn’t be managed by every different municipality differently.

I was talking to a neighbor today about how things have changed on our block for the better lately. It’s quiet, it feels safe. Kids bikes can be left in front yards and not be stolen, a guy has a brand new lawnmower in a box in his pickup truck bed- and it’s been there for a week- and not sprouted legs. How did this happen? Unfortunately, gentrification. The cancer on our block wasn’t removed by the city– who would send the police 20 times a year, but by an investor who overpaid for a house to flip. All the warning signs were there, and the pleas were made, but our government did nothing to stop the cancer. Just like they will do nothing to stop the shootings.

When we have neighborhood businesses to hire kids, when we have little leagues and scout troops again, when we have schools that kids can stay at after school for band practice or sports. When we have parents who can afford child care (when I first ran for mayor back in 1993 one of my proposals was Child Care as economic development. Then we may have a chance of starting to change outcomes and keep our kids safe.

The problems we have in Dayton proper need to be owned by every single one of us. Moving out of Dayton didn’t stop the cancer- and it will eventually spread. That’s what cancer does. We don’t have leaders who can see the big picture- who have dreams for a community for ALL OF US, not just those who fund their campaign coffers. We need to be having a serious conversation about why we pay so much in taxes – and get so little back- except for excuses.

Jeff Mims did get one thing right- young people “make up 20% of the city’s population but 100%” of its future” but, a real leader would realize, this isn’t just about the young people- it’s about all of us, making a decision about what works and what doesn’t in our community, and taking a real hard look at how to fix it.

Because like it or not, we’re all connected a lot less than 6 degrees in Dayton, this is on all of us.

Isabellas, I’m sorry I didn’t know you, but my neighbor said you were the best, and I believe her. We will try to find a way to turn your 12 years of being awesome into something more awesome, like what you would have done.

Song for the post: City of Promises by David Esrati