Part of week of action to demand trauma center at Univ. of Chicago
Chicago, IL—(ENEWSPF)—May 22, 2014. As President Barack Obama returns to Chicago for Democratic Party fundraisers, a group youth organizers and University of Chicago students will attempt to deliver a letter to the President asking him not to place his library at the University of Chicago until it opens a level 1 adult trauma center. The delegation will hold a press conference at 3pm at N State Parkway and E Banks Street, near the Gold Coast home where Obama will be appearing at a fundraiser, they will then wait until the motorcade arrives and attempt to deliver the letter.
This action comes as the University of Chicago is preparing to submit its bid to host the Obama Presidential Library. Victoria Crider, a high school senior, who goes to school just seven blocks from President Obama’s house, says “we are delivering this letter because we want the President to know that the University of Chicago should not get the honor and prestige that comes with the Obama Library when they are neglecting the needs of black and brown communities on the South Side. Given the President’s roots and ties to Chicago, a South Side location for his library makes perfect sense. But until the University of Chicago shows real commitment to the surrounding community, the Obama library should be placed at another South Side institution.”
Ms. Crider notes that “President Obama has tried to stop gun violence and create opportunities for young black men, meanwhile the University of Chicago sits in the center of a gun violence epidemic on the South Side and has shown that it does not value black life, by refusing to open a trauma center and save the lives of the young black men dying at their door.”
Veronica Morris-Moore, a youth organizer, notes that “the Gold Coast home where Obama will be attending the fundraiser is on the mostly upper income white North Side and is just 1 mile and 5 minutes from the nearest trauma center, while where I live, in the mostly low income African American South Side, it is over 10 miles and over 30 minutes from the nearest trauma center. This is an issue of social and racial justice. Just like the University of Chicago didn’t allow black people to live in their surrounding community through racially restrictive covenants, by denying access to trauma care, they are continuing a history of racial exclusion.”
The letter delivery is part of a week of action featuring demonstrations by community members, students, nurses, doctors and faith leaders. On Monday, 7 young people from the U. of Chicago and surrounding communities formed a human chain at a construction site at the University’s new $740-million hospital to demand a trauma center. After halting construction for three hours, the protesters were violently dragged away by University of Chicago Police officers and one was hospitalized for injuries. See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1zlVCDlMU.
The week of action also comes after the University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer, the highest paid University president in the country earning $3.4M per year, last week announced that the University has launched a $4.5 billion dollar capital campaign. Despite this capital campaign and the University of Chicago Hospital’s $782 million dollar endowment, they claim they do not have the resources to open an adult trauma center. Exactly one year ago Kenneth Polonsky Dean of the University of Chicago Hospital said that the University hospital would support a regional solution to the lack of a south side trauma center, however, they have done nothing to make this happen.
The community’s demand for trauma care was sparked by the death of Damian Turner, a youth activist, who was caught by a stray bullet in 2009 four blocks from the U of C but was taken 10 miles away to Northwestern where he died. The call for trauma care is also supported bynew research by Dr. Marie Crandall of Northwestern Hospital on “Trauma Deserts” which shows that longer travel times to a trauma center increase your likelihood of dying.
The Week of Action is being organized by the Trauma Center Coalition, which includes of Fearless Leading by the Youth, Students for Health Equity and the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and allies.
