ELLENWOOD, Ga. — Violent crimes victimizing and killing young people day after day, across metro Atlanta, has children, parents and community leaders in pain — and angry and fearful; many are becoming activists for solutions, working as fast and as smart as they can to save their children’s lives.
“I did a triple funeral, of three children" who were victims of a violent crime, said Pastor L.C. Wheat.
And, he told 11Alive Thursday, most of his funerals now are for children — children who were crime victims in metro Atlanta.
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A week after the triple funeral, he said, the young son of a friend of one of those children’s families was also killed.
“He got shot, and this young boy was 11," Wheat said.
His most recent funeral was for a 19-year-old.
“I mean, a lot of young funerals," he said. "It’s all become so normal. But y'all can't really sit around and think this is the norm, there is nothing normal about this.”
Pastor Wheat, along with Jay Hall of Union City and Kevin Jones of Clayton County, are spearheading a mission they call “Operation P.U.S.H. Too” (Praying Under Severe Hard Times), to intervene in children’s lives before they are lost to violent crime and gangs.
“We’ve got to get it under control,” Jones said.
“It’s real personal,” Hall said, “that I wake up every morning and see another one of our kids gone, to gun violence.”
Hall’s son was shot and killed 15 years ago, and Hall couldn’t go to the funeral because he was in prison.
And it haunts him every day.
“If you know better, you do better,” Hall said. “Some of the kids, they don't know better. And we as people got to come together and teach them better. Because I always didn't know better. So I learned the hard way. And I'm telling the world you don't want to learn the hard way. So we got to take our kids back.”
“We're going to offer other alternatives,” Jones said. “That's the only way. We're getting them set up for jobs, and just being there to physically mentor them. So we trying to play a part in these children's lives.”
Their plan to save children from violent crime includes being mentors and recruiting mentors, and joining forces with other groups working to mentor children; going into the schools to tell their own stories of failure and redemption; and helping parents, not trying to replace them.
“We're rebuilding the village,” Jones said. “We're trying to get enough people together that everybody can help everybody. Just to know there's help. We're coming with the help. So when you need help, bring your kids down, see what we can do. Just come down, talk to us.”
“That’s what we want to be, that village, to be their support," Wheat said. “See, you used to run to an uncle or a cousin or a brother” for help and advice and guidance. “That no longer exists now, because they’re not living to be uncles and cousins, because they’re dying, now.”
In a couple of weeks, Wheat said, they’re going to announce their kick-off events, and from there, begin trying to rebuild the village that they’re sure can save children’s lives.
For more information, Pastor Wheat is asking people to email him at operationpushtoo@gmail.com