Last May I posted on WPXI’s Facebook page the day of the Great Race about how people who live in Homewood and in different communities came together to pass out water to the runners who made their trek thru Homewood.
This post had well over 30,000 likes and people from as far as Singapore commented. My post was to bring awareness to people who never step foot in this community to say it’s really not as bad as the media portrays it to be and there are some upstanding citizens who live there.
To a degree I still believe there are good people in Homewood. I still believe it is Pittsburgh’s last surviving urban community and I still see beauty in this community.
But last night’s shooting at a local bar in the community makes me wonder do the residents share my love for this community as I do?
I’m from the Hill District. It’s not the Hill District that I remember roaming projects, streets, homes, etc with my friends. It’s gone or should I say its soul is gone; A big grave yard that even looks cold in the dead of August when the temp index is at 98.
I see the end of Homewood coming too if they do not take their community back.
People who bring destruction to their neighborhoods should not feel comfortable walking the streets or attending a summer barbeque when months, days, or even hours earlier they murdered someone in broad daylight or know where there are witnesses.
Those that protect these people know they care nothing about you. They only care for themselves, not a child who will never reach adulthood, a young man who will never be a grandfather, a mother who will not prepare her children for school, and a community that has given them love.
It’s time to stop these people who commit atrocities in a place where we call home. Not now, but RIGHT NOW!!!
Eric Magwood
Pittsburgh
