Rev. Michael Pfleger

Priest | 58 | Auburn Gresham

As the leader of St. Sabina's church for 30 years, Pfleger is well known in Chicago as an outspoken community activist who, along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was arrested in south suburban Riverdale last June during a gun-violence protest outside Chuck's Gun Shop. Criminal trespassing charges against him were dropped.

The No. 1 thing I've seen change is the development of the city's neighborhoods. I've seen a real growth from when I grew up in the '50s-'60s to today -- major steps toward people coming together.

One of the things that amazes me in Chicago is it's a marriage of races, ethnic groups and ages at the festivals. If we can do this for these days, then why can't we do this every day in the city?

The first thing that has to change is attitude: to an attitude of involvement and responsibility. The greatest paralyzing reality is being overwhelmed by all the problems we see, like violence.

If everybody decided "I am going to get involved in my piece of the world, with my neighbors in my block, in my city. I'm going to make a difference," they would make a difference.

As adults we have to wrap our arms around children and protect them. ... We have to say we are not going to tolerate if a parent ignores curfew. We also need to legislate gun control, educate kids better at school and put police in unsafe neighborhoods. We have to say, "We're not going to just shake our heads and put up balloons and teddy bears where they've died!" ... Just being saddened isn't enough.

We need to continue building bridges between people. We are so isolated from each other! If we ever reconnected as human beings who call ourselves Chicagoans it would put a big dent in homelessness and education problems. If we really saw ourselves as a family of Chicagoans with no division between North Shore, South Side, or east or west, we could take down these invisible walls.

I believe we are on the threshold of the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. We can look at housing problems, incarceration rates, war and instability and be overwhelmed or say there has never been a greater opportunity to effectively change things.

The Olympics could be a great thing for the city but my thing is: What are we going to do now to make us a great city to bring them to? We are presenting ourselves to the world, and if we want to invite the world here, let's make a city without police brutality, classism, or violence. I think we can.

As we walk through 2008, every person's gotta recognize you need something bigger than yourself to help you solve things. I don't care if you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim or non-denominational, if you don't have a relationship with a god, sooner or later you're going to be overpowered. What are you passionate about? Dream again! Dream about what you want to do and be and how to make your dream real.