At the Woke & Winning Youth Action Workshop series event on Thursday held at the WasteShed, a creative reuse center in Humboldt Park, there was a lot of good conversation about the politics of gun reform and the impact of the divisiveness of the gun debate in America. In our group, which ranged in age from 16 to 55 and had a racial mix of black, white, and Latino participants, there was a strong feeling that the root of the issue is tied up in people's ideas of patriotism — W

As an educator and gun violence activist, I sincerely appreciate and am heartened by youth and teachers rallying for their right to live and thrive in a country that promises so much, but has done very little to safeguard our communal spaces and our families. Instead, we've opted for gun laws that require little to no accountability for persons to their communities. We've let politicians who are responsible for this legislation convince us time and again that they are advocat