City of Numbers

Violence in the City of Brotherly Love

“We live in two worlds—they only notice each other when they collide.” The new play about violence at the Interact Theater is worth attending.  Those who are shot to death in Philadelphia and those who shoot them collide these two worlds. The story is told of one young man, who came to Philly last year to be a teacher and was shot to death for his Ipod. It makes one weep. He was white, from Minnesota. His murderer was Black, from a Philly ghetto. Victims and victimizers. Two different worlds. Sometimes.

There were 305 murders in 2009, down from 333 the year before (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/5/2010). Approximately 70% of those who are killed in Philadelphia are Black people killed by Black people. Mostly these are young men. Numbers. And increasing day by day as we lock them up out of sight. Lock their bodies up, and their hearts and souls too—until they serve their time and get out. To do what?

This is not a just sob-sister story about the basic humanity of prison inmates. Voices of victims cry out too. Victims often in the same world as those who harm them–ghetto worlds where children grow up on the street and learn to fight to stay alive.  Sections of the city—some black, some white, some Hispanic—where a common poverty creates the environment for selling drugs to make a living. Selling bodies too. Selling souls if the devil offers you the right price. What would you want for your body? Your soul?

This play shows the “numbers” racked up each year in Philly of the murdered and the murderers. It is powerful when it gets inside the heads and hearts of those who are in prison for these crimes. Thugs?  Brutal inhuman bastards? Heartless killers? More like you and me than we would think. The cry of the victims through the mouths of their survivors, pierce one’s heart as well. My son just wanted to teach, to help…

Numbers… None of them are simply ‘numbers,’ though the statistics treat them that way. They are flesh and blood. They are you and me. They are ‘Jesus Christ in prison’ if you have eyes to see (Mt. 25:36).

On the street you can be free as a lark, yet chained in the prison of your heart.

You can be chained in a prison dark, yet free as a bird in your heart.

Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. We live in two worlds here—we only notice each other when we collide. Where are you in these numbers? What can you do to reach across the divide?

-Fr. Paul Morrisey, O.S.A

The City of Numbers is Written & Performed by Sean Christopher Lewis and Directed by Matt Slaybaugh.