A Christmas Wish for Carver Terrace

Last Saturday's front-page story in the Washington Afro-American newspaper about Carver Terrace did not herald the advent of a blessed season. The piece, by staff writer Valencia Mohammed, concerned more than 75 students at Charles Young Elementary School who were so fed up with the shootouts in the Carver Terrace and Langston communities in Northeast D.C. that they marched in protest through their neighborhood, shouting: "Put the guns down. Stop the violence. We love life and want to live." An accompanying photo caught the drama.

Consider what made those children take to the streets.

In the two weeks before the article was published, the Afro reported, 12 shootings had taken place in the communities, killing two people and leaving many others wounded. Those dispiriting statistics are matched by another soul-sickening thought: At a time when most children are looking forward to the joys and glad tidings of the holidays, what matters most to Carver Terrace kids is just staying alive. Thoughts of gifts and hugs give way to their simple cry: "We want to live."

The Afro story had another disheartening feature. It said Harry Thomas Jr., the Ward 5 Democratic councilman-elect, went to Carver Terrace last week to show his support for efforts to end the shooting and killing.

Fourteen years ago, The Post published another story about an outbreak of lethal violence in Carver Terrace. Another Ward 5 Democratic council member had rushed to the community then. His name? Also Harry Thomas -- the late father of the newly elected council member.

Two generations of Harry Thomases, 14 years apart, rushing to the same crime scene.

And once there, Harry Thomas -- the elder and the son -- heard the same lament.

Here is William Meyer, founder and executive director of Concerned Citizens of Carver Terrace and Langston Dwellings for Recreational and Educational Reform, speaking to the Afro this week: "It breaks my heart to listen to the children talk about being scared to go outside."

And this from the March 10, 1992, Post story: "[Carver Terrace] tenants no longer attend nighttime community meetings, and most of the elderly residents watch life from the window of their apartments, too afraid to venture outdoors."

The little marchers of Carver Terrace weren't even born in '92. The same, however, cannot be said of guns and those who pull their triggers. They and their successors are still going strong.

Yet as Meyer told the Afro, people living outside of the community shouldn't label Carver Terrace residents as unworthy of respect. I'm no stranger to Carver Terrace. William Meyer is absolutely correct. The families in those communities are concerned about the neighborhood. They want their children to have a safe place to play. They teach their children to respect others and themselves.

Would, however, that that respect were returned by their city. If it were, the Carver Terrace and Langston communities, with more than a thousand children, would have a decent recreation center. If the city valued those Northeast D.C. communities the same way it values baseball stadiums and the incoming middle class, those who live in Carver Terrace wouldn't be afraid to shop at the nearby grocery store once the police leave the area, reporters close their notebooks and the TV cameras are turned off.