City In Need of Brotherly Love

We go from one extreme to another. We go from selfish suburbanites, see Dark Roots, to someone like Frank Baseman. In Needed: Sponsor for a message of peace, Monica Yant Kinney, explains:

Whenever I write about Philadelphia's homicide crisis, I hear from suburban readers who think it's a waste of space.

Poor black people killing poor black people, thugs shooting thugs - why should we cry?

With alarming regularity, folks living outside the city suggest they'd rather ignore the horrors inside it.

Then there is Frank Baseman.

The Jenkintown graphic designer is obsessed with the death toll - already over 200 - even though the bullets aren't flying anywhere near the home and family he holds dear.

So he turned on the computer. . . he made a poster remembering the 406 people killed in Philadelphia in 2006.

From top to bottom, their names, ages, races and manners of death jump off the page, done in blood red for the bloodshed.

In the middle of this memorial? A gun, since nearly all of them died because of one.

* * * *

The most provocative poster you've never seen has evolved over the last seven months.

Version 1.0 targeted Philly-based Urban Outfitters for selling $6 handgun Christmas ornaments in a city ravaged by bullets.

Then Baseman remembered: Toy guns aren't the problem.

He needed a real weapon. So Baseman tapped photographer and fellow Philadelphia University professor Todd Vachon and, with Rausch's help, set up a photo shoot.

* * * *

Baseman sees bus shelters as outdoor information stations where powerful messages can grab the masses while they wait.

"At 4-foot-by-6-foot," he said, "that gun is going to be huge."

Even the fine print will be big enough for people on the street to scan the list for lost loved ones.

Victims are color-coded by race. Asians are identified separately by police, but Hispanics are not.

Rausch knows that will provoke controversy. So will the predominance of black text, more evidence that homicide is what she calls "an epidemic" in the African American community.

"Some of our staff said the white names stand out," she admitted, "like they're more important."

Whether anyone else will be similarly shaken by the blunt facts of death depends on whether the posters ever get hung.

Rausch said Clear Channel agreed to display the posters at cost, which means AVP needs to raise $1,000 to hang 10 or $10,000 for 100. (For maximum impact, Baseman would love to see 500 or 1,000 go up for three months.)

"We asked businesses with an urban market, whose customers are being affected by violence," Rausch said. "No one was interested."

Baseman realizes the posters are "not a feel-good thing," but that's why they need to be seen.

"Homicide is a loaded topic. It's not pretty. It's not pleasant."

Thanks, Frank, for the effort. I hope he is able to realize his goal.

I noted some time ago that Pennsylvania leads the way with this ignominious "honor" of having the highest black homicide rate in the country, with a per capita murder rate of more than six times the national average, see We're Number One. No doubt it's due mostly to Philly, which has logged murder # 203 to date. We need all the help we can get.

For information on the Urban Outfitters gun ornament, see my post, Trim a Tree.

Note: For information on the poster, contact the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia at 215-567-6776 or www.avpphila.org.

Tags: Philadelphia, Philly