European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday november 21, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 139-year old schooled in world of hard lessons Chicago a the Day Dantrell Davis died Karen Mccune wrote a i thought my life would be better than what it turned to  that summing up of a life was made a month ago by a 9-year-old. Today Karen is a 47-Pound Miracle of resilience. She is More than a match a so far a for the pounding that cities give childhood in this Era of Urban regression. The shooting of Dantrell might have elicited a a so what a shrug of this City a Broad shoulders. After All Chicago averages a shooting every 34 minutes and a murder every eight hours and the More than 13,000 shootings so far this year have killed 17 children under 14. Dantrell was the third Pupil at Jenner elementary school shot dead this year. One of Dantrelle a schoolmates said Quot i Hope that next time it wont be somebody that i  he assumes there will be a next time a fourth time. Dantrell was killed by a sniper firing from a nearby High Rise As Dantrell and his Mother began the 40-Vard walk to Jenner from their High Rise through the killing zone of the Cabrini Green housing project. Today beneath the Lead Gray sky of a Chicago november the hard wind off the Lake is gusting razor like rain horizontally and Karen is chatting in a classroom overlooking a growing puddle on the spot where Dantrell fell. George f. Will Cabrini Green is 70 acres of appalling Public policy less than a mile from Michigan avenues magnificent mile. About 7,000 people live in the 31 High rises and 60 other buildings in this Public housing project. More than half the residents Are under age 20. Nine percent of the residents have paying jobs. Karen her hair neatly braided her White Blouse and Blue jumper the voluntary school uniform that most pupils Wear immaculate her eyes Bright and her smile dazzling patiently tells a columnist that life s not so bad if you stay indoors. Quot my Mommy wont allow me to go outside. I stay up in the House and read  she usually stays away from windows. A i be scared because my bed is by the  but the apartment where she and some siblings live with her Mother is on the seventh floor Safe from most gunfire. However a when the bulls won the National basketball association championship a car ran into the store across the Street from her apartment and they were shooting up and my Mommy had to Duck  Jenner school shows its 90 years but is a wonderfully clean Haven for children from a neighbourhood run by armed children. For now there is a truce Between the gangs a result of a heavy police presence since Dan theirs death. The truce is a respite from the recurring need to move children into inner hallways on whichever Side of the school shooting has erupted. Karen who even in repose has the Happy can to Stop wiggling my shiny Black leather shoes fidgets of the Normal 9-year-old, nevertheless practices the prudence of the Street Wise Urban child. Quot i done to Wear any starter a Brand name jackets because they re bad for  six Days after Dantrell was killed a 13-year-old from another school was killed evidently because he was slow to give robbers his Miami hurricanes jacket. Twenty years ago Jenner had 2,500 students. Today it has 630. Some of them have symptoms a Short attention spans difficulty sustaining relationships a tendency to think Only in Stark opposites a often associated with survivors of a Battle area. Small wonder. Shortly after Dantrelle a death Karen shared with a local newspaper reporter the soil of memory that Marks childhood in this other America Quot they  find my friends Mother. They looked liked but the a and her body Mushy and it Stinker real bad. In a glad Danny Wasny to and looked but they  find her. Finally one a they found her body stuck in the sewer. It was a of like  her prescription for neighbourhood improvement is common sense and contrary to Public policy Quot take the gang angers gang members out and take away All the  with an imperious sweep of a spindly Arm in the direction of the High rises she decrees mow Down those buildings. Done to need to be High Rise. Five floors  social scientists debate the concept of a a culture of poverty a the inter generational transmission of passivity and fatalism. There is such a culture but it has not claimed Karen. Her Small face wreathed in a huge smile of Serene certainty she announces that she a going to College Quot in a not going to have no Boyfriend or no husband or child when in a 15 or 14 or 13. I m going to wait until 1 get real real big until in my a a she plucks a number from her imagination a �?~27.�?T a a one of her Best friends is a boy who wants to be a lawyer a the uses big words like  a a Karen says she is going to be a teacher. She already is. C the Washington pos jewish philanthropy alive and Well in . The students families pay $4,000 for each child a tuition at Yeshiva Beth Yehuda in Detroit but that leaves the 650-student orthodox school Short $1.3 million. All season Long the sponsors of the 75-year-old school Seine for this and that contribution but the bulk of the Money is raised at an annual affair a dinner at a Large hotel. The Host chats about jewish philanthropy and about recent politics and How they affected jewish americans in the area of Detroit where he says 80 percent to 85 percent of the jewish vote went for president elect Clinton. A How does that compare with the election four years ago a he was asked. Quot Bush did better then by 20 pouts a. A. A was it Bush a stand against the $10 billion tax credit to Israel a year ago that did it a ,. A no it was something else. It was on sept. 12, 1991, when Bush said that he was surrounded by lobbyists and he gave the impression that he was being tormented by jews with their own particular interests. Besides a the sponsor winked Quot we knew Bush was going to lose anyway and when a loser loses Well people done to crowd around him to try to hold him up. Me id like to see the jew up. Me. Ish vote split 45-55. Much More leverage that  one of the hosts undertook to help the Clinton Campaign in a Way that struck the visitor As Barnum amp Bailey showmanship. Clinton was in town Ana you could get an invitation to pass Down the line and shake his hand a for $25,000 per couple a you think that is a lot that Isnit the most we can do not by a Long  but surely that kind of Money represents a sacrifice a no no. That kind of Money coming from there a the sponsor pointed to the guests in the main dining room a for them that is a lot of Money. For people up Here a he. Pointed to the two dozen dais guests a that is not a lot of Money. That is just a sign of Good  it continues to astonish. Ethos of philanthropy in the United states. When in 1986 the top tax rate went Down to 28 percent it was widely predicted that charities would suffer dreadfully because now a gift of $100 would Cost the giver $62, whereas before it would Cost him Only $50. But charitable contributions continued to Rise passing the $100 billion Mark in 1988 there is something about America William f. Buckley or. Non americans the and something special about jewish americans that Stokes the fires of civic concern. And this concern to help Isnit limited to things and people american. The restoration of Versailles was substantially a project of the Rockefeller. And one remembers the poor diffident Young Duke of Gloucester propping himself up to pitch to a Little party of new York City a glitterati asking for contributions for England a stately Homes and gardens. A seasoned Money Raiser had observed a there is no sensation to match that experienced by someone who becomes what i Call the a decisive  a a the term was being used to define the person whose gift was critical to the materialization of that dormitory or Library or auditorium. A when i told mrs. J. That the theater would be built or would not be built depending on whether one person came Forward with $5 million she looked Down and then she looked up and she said ill put up $5  the thing to remember is this from that moment till the building was completed three years later she was the happiest woman in the  you could see this sense of Cor grate Pride among the supporters of Ieth Yehuda. That mornings newspapers carried the news that the average protestant is giving 2 percent of his income to his Church Ana that the average Catholic is giving Only 1 percent. The Cor responding figure for the jewish Community is not at hand but one warrants that it is substantially larger. And probably one reason for it is the end Oramous spirit within a Community that feels that its identity is threatened. More than one half of american jews marry outside their own Faith and inasmuch As 60 percent of the jewish population is secular a Hundred years of that and Judaism in America would become a Mere memory. A distinguished jewish economist whispered Jock Early Quot a Little bit just a Little bit of anti semitism is healthy. It keeps us animated and strokes the Esprit de  it would be hard to doubt that the dilution of the Catholic Faith in the generation since Vatican ii has contributed not Only to the reduction in religious vocations but also to a reduction in philanthropy it was indigent Catholic Irish and italians who built the tens of thousands of parochial schools and churches sprinkled throughout the country. One needs to care a lot. At Yeshiva Beth Yehudah the visitor was introduced to a the lady we Call miss jewish educator Quot an animated handsome woman. A she gives us $100,000 spor a a a cd and is a very Happy human being. Every year Quot the sponsor whispered. Manifestly she Caret c in tax Al Preu Syndicate