Dequante Hobbs Jr., a first grader, and Xavier Mudd, a second grader, probably never met, but one imagines they would have had some fun together, as little boys so easily do.
These boys were both in the news this past week, but for very different reasons.
At bedtime Sunday night, as excited public school children across Jefferson County anticipated the last three days of school, 7-year-old Dequante enjoyed a snack at his kitchen table while playing with an iPad — his mom and grandmother nearby.
He wanted a piece of cake, his mother told WDRB later.
This little first-grader will not have anymore cake. Nor will he have his last three days of school. He won’t have a carefree summer with popsicles that leave his little chin and hands sticky. He will have no more skinned knees; he won’t laugh so hard he cries. He’ll have nothing else a child his age ought to have.
Instead, he will have a funeral, a burial and a grave.
This precious child became Louisville’s 49th homicide victim when his life was stolen by a stray bullet May 21, fired, they say, during a fight in a nearby yard.
His was a senseless, tragic death that we must all mourn.
In contrast, a week earlier, little Xavier stood with his aunt at the intersection of 29th Street and West Broadway holding a sign that said, “Holy Family Church is Against Gun Violence.”
A few hours before, Xavier made his First Holy Communion. Instead of having a party to celebrate, he chose to attend Hands Across Louisville, an event meant to bring together people from across Louisville in solidarity against gun violence, the kind that took Dequante’s life.
Organizers of Hands Across Louisville envisioned a great coming together of people from around the area to join hands from West Louisville to East Louisville.
As Record reporter Ruby Thomas wrote in last week’s paper, participants covered about 22 blocks along Broadway, holding hands and signs.
Thomas opened her story by telling us about Xavier. His aunt, Beth Nett, said he chose to attend because gun violence “affects the whole city.”
“We live in a different area, but we wanted to come support the people who live here. We’re all part of Louisville,” she said.
Xavier and his family belong to Holy Family Church, one of nine Catholic parishes represented at the event. Attendance at the event — in its second year — was bigger than last. But it ought to grow even more, to include representatives of every parish and neighborhood in the Louisville area.
Lolita Ewing, a member of St. Martin de Porres Church who created the event, told The Record that constant gun violence in the West End has cast a shadow on the community and its people. Many, she said, have given up on themselves and the community. She hopes that Hands Across Louisville can help restore hope.
Hope is just what little Dequante’s family needs now. It’s also what little Xavier and his family need. In fact, it’s what all of us need, whether we realize it or not.
Getting together — bridging the gaps that divide us as a community — is one good way to begin. We should come together at next year’s Hands Across Louisville event for Dequante and Xavier — to plant the seeds of a safer, more peace-filled future.
And in the meantime, we ought to seek other ways to promote peace, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters across the area.
Eternal rest grant unto him,
O Lord,
and let perpetual light
shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.
MARNIE McALLISTER
Editor
