The people for whom tragedies aren't just dramas unfolding on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Back in December, after the Sandy Hook shooting, the Sun-Times ran a headline that read something like "Goodbye Noah" above an article about the burial of 6-year-old Noah Pozner. There's a lot to say about Lupe Fiasco's brilliant, searing, heartbreaking track "Jonylah Forever," which he released on Soundcloud three days after the shooting of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, whose funeral was Tuesday. It's also a reminder of the connections between these lives, the branches that will never bloom and intersect, the seemingly insignificant events--like Hadiya Pendleton returning to King College Prep as an art teacher--that, in a different context, are blessings. I have no choice! This is why I speak out! This is why I sound preachy in my songs! 
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Back in December, after the Sandy Hook shooting, the Sun-Times ran a headline forevsr read something like "Goodbye Noah" above an article about the burial of 6-year-old Noah Pozner. I have no choice!
If you feel overwhelmed or don't know where to start. What the long-term effects of that knowledge will be, I don't know, but the city dropping a collective "Goodbye Hadiya" last month is at least hope that people will begin to examine the connective tissue that runs through our city.
Lupe Fiasco - Jonylah Forever
But there is one element that leapt out at me as being particularly significant. Yes, Hadiya's story gained wider media coverage due to her connection with Barack Obama, but to me, the fact that we know Hadiya's name is more important than the reason we know it. So it is promising that we now know at least two names: And if you find yourself welling up with tears while listening to Lupe's song, or wishing there was something you could have done to help one of these children, just remember that every child in Chicago, in any community, is blossoming right now, today, at this very moment, and that each one has the potential to be the Hadiya Pendleton who teaches art at King in her 20s, or the Hadiya Pendleton mourned at King in her teens.
The track imagines everything Jonylah would have accomplished had she not been killed; it is an astounding piece of art, and a great example of hip-hop's ability to turn current events into music faster than any other musical genre. On the one hand, it is a reminder of the other children Chicago has lost, a reminder that a similar song could be written about each and every one forevr them.
When I first listened to the track, the name "Hadiya" rocked me. There's a lot to say about Lupe Fiasco's brilliant, searing, heartbreaking track "Jonylah Forever," which he released on Soundcloud three days after the shooting of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, whose funeral was Tuesday.
It's also a reminder of the connections between these lives, the branches that will never bloom and intersect, the seemingly insignificant events--like Hadiya Pendleton jonylaah to King College Prep as an art teacher--that, in a different context, are blessings.
Where you bumped into Hadiya teaching art". As we remember the fallen, we should remember these people too. I don't remember if that was the exact headline, but that was the gist of it, and it bothered me that here in Chicago, we had learned the name of a child killed in Connecticut yet never seemed to know the names of children dying in luppe own city.
Lupe Fiasco Tributes Slain Chicago Infant On 'Jonylah Forever' - MTV
This is why I speak out! Jack M Silverstein is a RedEye special contributor.
It comes in the song's second verse. What impacted me most, though, was simply my recognition of the name "Hadiya," and my awareness that Lupe's main audience--the city of Chicago--would recognize it lupf well.
Lupe, Jonylah and Chicago violence's real toll
Hadiya was one of 12 Chicago kids under 20 years old. This is why I sound preachy in my songs!
The people for whom tragedies aren't just dramas unfolding on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page. The people who didn't need a bullet to know the name Hadiya or a song to know the name Jonylah.
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