One thing that’s been overlooked in Sen. Hendon’s proposal for two riverboat casinos for Chicago is his plan to spend some of that gambling money on afterschool programs.
“We got Granny having to shoot a young kid in the shoulder, a 12 year old who had nothing better to do than harass her for a year, throw rocks through her windows,” he said at last week’s community meeting, referring to a case in recent news. Charges against the 70 year old woman were dismissed.
“After school programs have been cut by both the city and the state,” said Hendon, who tried without success in the legislature to restore the state funds. “Now we got these kids running the streets like they own the neighborhood. They got nothing better to do.” Art, music, phys ed and even recess have been cut from many city schools. Kids have few constructive outlets for their energy and self-expression.
This week Michelle Obama was in the news advocating arts to uplift youth.
"We want to lift young people up," she told Harper's Bazaar in an interview in the magazine's November issue. "The country needs to be mindful that we have all these diamonds out there, and it would be a shame not to invest in those talents."
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