What keeps Obama safe could protect the rest of us
On Wednesday night, I was part of the press pool that covered Barack Obama when he arrived in Chicago.
Basically, what that means is a couple of reporters and a camera crew are allowed to watch Obama from a distance so we can report if he trips on the curb.
Because usually when Obama jumps off the campaign trail, he gets a haircut, works out at the gym, runs errands -- as he did Wednesday night when he took his older daughter to the 57th Street Bookstore -- or takes his wife, Michelle, to dinner.
In other words, he does the kinds of things you would expect a person to do when he or she has to spend a lot of time away from home.
My biggest challenge was staying awake while sitting in a stuffy van.
When I pulled up near Obama's house, though, I immediately noticed a drastic change in the neighborhood.
Concrete barricades now guard both ends of Obama's block, while metal barricades, like the ones used to hold back crowds during parades, are lined up on Hyde Park Boulevard.
Whatever you do, keep moving.
Secret Service, sheriff's deputies, Chicago Police officers and plainclothes officers are scattered throughout the area.
Frankly, I felt like I had just entered the safest zone in America.
For the first time -- in a long time --while on the South Side, I didn't worry about leaving my car parked on the street or about walking back to it several hours later in the dark.
Obviously, law enforcement is doing what needs to be done to ensure a presidential candidate's safety.
But it does make me think.
Obama's neighbors have been forced to give up certain of their personal freedoms in order to ensure his safety.
Unsuspecting pedestrians are questioned when they go around the barricades. Similar to a gated community, guests who visit Obama's neighbors have to identify themselves.
Although I'm a journalist, the presumption on the part of the Secret Service is the same as it is for the Fruit of Islam who guard the Nation of Islam headquarters a few blocks away.
An agent rifled through my purse and searched my backpack.
More than a few dog-walkers strolled past without so much as a backward glance at my outspread arms as the agent checked me with a hand-held metal detector.
Aldermen and activists who are struggling to stop the bloodbath on the South Side may have to resort to the same aggressive policing that is being used to protect Obama.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the city this year because of street violence.
It is a crisis.
And a crisis requires drastic intervention, not rhetoric.
There's no telling how many guns would be taken off the street in gang- and drug-plagued neighborhoods if police were to set up roadblocks and search everyone going into those areas.
For those of you who argue that what I am proposing violates basic civil rights, forget it.
When you go to an airport or into most schools, you have to walk through a metal detector.
This is Chicago, not Alaska.
Gun-toters here aren't hunting wild game. They are hunting human beings.
When armed gang members and drug dealers walk into spaces occupied by law-abiding citizens, they should be searched, and if armed, their guns should be confiscated.
These are our children who are being gunned down.
And we are responsible for them leaving here before they get a driver's license, or vote, or realize their dreams.
Adults who are stuck--- and many of them are stuck -- in crime-stressed communities have to make a choice.
They can continue to watch as their children are killed, or they can get the guns out of the hands of the killers.
There is a subtle lesson about community in what's taking place in Obama's neighborhood.
Unfortunately, in too many neighborhoods where armed thugs are in control, residents often act like they care more about their personal freedoms than they care about their neighbor's life.
Listen to Mary Mitchell on "Chicago Speaks" every Sunday from 6 to 8 a.m. on V-103.