[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10447-10449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CHICAGOAN RITA SALLIE'S COURT STATEMENT BEFORE TWO MEN WERE SENTENCED 
                       IN HER DAUGHTER'S SLAYING

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 22, 2009

  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, it's my sad responsibility to call your 
attention to the anguish that Ms. Rita Sallie is experiencing. Hers is 
a pain felt by so many mothers and families across this great nation. 
Losing a child is a

[[Page 10448]]

tragedy that no parent should have to endure but, once again, an 
innocent child whose life was so full of promise abruptly lost her life 
due to gun violence in my Chicago community.
  Rather than add more of my own words, I'm taking this opportunity to 
enter into the record the entire statement by Ms. Rita Sallie. Somehow, 
she found the courage to speak through her pain and wrote a heartfelt 
statement to the Chicago Sun-Times--a statement aimed, directly, at the 
convicted murderers of her daughter, 15-year-old Schanna. It is 
important that history remembers her petition as it sadly resonates for 
millions of parents throughout the United States.
  Here's her statement, in its entirety:

       They stole the life of a beautiful, kind, free-spirited 
     girl and made her a statistic. Why? To get revenge for an 
     argument? A fight? The leader should have gotten over it and 
     walked away. But he was mad, you see, so the only reasonable 
     thing for a coward to do was to get an idiot to shoot up a 
     park where children play, only to hurt my child who was feet 
     away.
       She was born on Dec. 16, 1993, and was a cute, bald bundle 
     of quiet joy. She grew to be a sincere, respectful, loving, 
     selfless spirit filled with the joy of life. Her smile is 
     infectious and no one can deny her energy and pure heart. She 
     has a confident yet modest bearing and a smile like a balm to 
     the soul. I would not realize until after I saw her smile how 
     much I yearned for it.
       The child I anticipated seeing everyday was gunned down in 
     the middle of a park, behind Funston Elementary School, by 
     two nothings. She was supposed to start 8th grade in the fall 
     of 2007, but she never made it. She will never have the 
     chance to show herself to the world. I will never have the 
     chance to watch her make her way.
       Schanna has always been so full of life. Her energy and 
     vitality would leave me rolling my eyes in exasperation 
     because sometimes I just wanted her to sit still and take a 
     breath. They took the energy that left me breathless and left 
     her lying, unmoving in the park behind Funston Elementary 
     School where people could see her at her most vulnerable. 
     They denied her the right to live, breathe, laugh, love and 
     dream.
       Schanna has such a generous spirit. She thought nothing of 
     sharing her time or her possessions with you. She hated to 
     see others unhappy or angry. There was nothing that she had 
     that she wasn't willing to share. This child would take her 
     birthday money and buy Christmas presents for everyone else. 
     She was supposed to donate her organs so that others could 
     continue living, even though she would not. They denied her 
     that right, as well, because her heart stopped before her 
     organs could be harvested, leaving them unusable and the 
     recipients to wait and maybe even succumb themselves.
       I have always been amazed by her. Over the years I would 
     ask myself what did a barely passable person like me do to 
     earn the privilege of having Schanna as my child? Somehow I 
     was blessed to have a little girl with a brilliant mind, a 
     big heart and a generous spirit. Although I struggle with 
     being a better person, I do try to teach my children to know 
     right from wrong, to make principled decisions and to have 
     good moral character. Schanna took what I taught her and 
     magnified it. She not only listened to what I advised, she 
     put it into practice so much that she became the teacher, and 
     I, the student. She is the person that I have struggled all 
     my life to become.
       People have always been drawn to her. Even as a toddler, 
     people would stop me on the street to admire her and buy her 
     small gifts, a piece of candy, or lollipop. That never 
     changed. Up until she was taken from me, I would watch her 
     walk to school by herself and before she made it, she would 
     be surrounded by so many friends that I would no longer be 
     able to tell her apart from the sea of blue and white 
     uniforms.
       All I have left are memories. The memories of our life 
     before they intruded. The memories that I cannot call up 
     because they are pushed aside for what they did to her on 
     June 25, 2007. I saw my baby lying in the park, eyes open 
     staring, with bits of her favorite fruit scattered around 
     her. I struggle to recall the constant twinkle in her eye, 
     the bright smile and the distinctive cackle of her laugh. I 
     am embarrassed to admit that I try to avoid thinking of her 
     at all because I don't want to recall that day and all the 
     days that came after. I have to put her away, for now. Maybe, 
     in the future, but not now.
       She had a life plan at 12 years old and they denied her all 
     of her dreams and aspirations. She'll never experience going 
     to high school, or college, or even the 8th grade. She will 
     never be consumed by her first love and I will never have the 
     chance to help her through her first broken heart. There will 
     be no stories of her travels, the people she would meet and 
     the things she would see and do. She never even got the 
     chance to ride public transportation by herself.
       Over the years, people have told me that I was a strong 
     woman. On June 25, 2007, I was exposed as a fraud. I'm not 
     the strong woman I've always considered myself to be. My 
     armor is only as strong as its weakest point. My weakness is 
     my family, my children. They not only put a chink in my 
     armor, but shattered it and left it lying at my feet, leaving 
     me fearful and weak. I have gone from a strong, independent 
     person to someone who would like nothing more than to crawl 
     into a dark hole and lick the wounds that will never heal. My 
     sleep is restless. I am overly emotional and struggle to make 
     the simplest decisions and have felt no true happiness since 
     that time.
       Since losing her, I have tried to find some sense of 
     normalcy to my life. But I can't, because I know that I'm 
     supposed to kiss three children before I go to work, not two. 
     I know that I'm supposed to cook for four people, not three. 
     I know I am supposed to hear three voices when I come home 
     from a long day. I know I'm supposed to talk to three 
     children about what is going on in their lives. I know that 
     I'm supposed to hug three children. It's impossible to return 
     to normal when you know these things in your heart and mind 
     and that knowing is not enough. Her absence is the 800 pound 
     gorilla in the room that everyone notices but tries to 
     ignore, hoping that someone else will mention it first. The 
     emptiness is physical and must be kept at bay.
       They left me powerless. I would do everything to help my 
     children through crises real and imagined, and they knew it. 
     They took away my power when they hurt my little girl. I had 
     to leave her in the care of the paramedics, police, hospital, 
     morgue and funeral home, only to lay her to rest in a 
     cemetery surrounded by strangers.
       She could forgive people for anything. Make her sad or 
     angry and a few minutes later all would be forgiven, whether 
     you apologized or not. Knowing her, she's probably forgiven 
     them. For years I wished I were more like her, but I'm not 
     and despite my best efforts, I never will be. Schanna is a 
     better person that I am in every way. She may have forgiven 
     them, but I hate them. I have a fiery hatred for both of them 
     that I know will one day consume me. The anger eats away at 
     my mind and heart, knowing what they did to her, I seethe at 
     the very thought of them as part of our history, that they 
     are an asterisk on my family tree. We don't want them there, 
     but they are, forever.
       When the situation occurred, my imagination made them seem 
     big, menacing, nearly otherworldly. Upon actually seeing 
     them, I realize they are two nothings. One, a pint-sized, 
     arrogant wannabe outsider and the other, a stupid and 
     spineless follower. Two insignificant, pathetic nobodies who 
     barged into my life and took away my child. They had no right 
     to decide if anyone lives or dies, yet they took the liberty 
     of walking away with the life of my child.
       The leader made the fateful decision to have his lackey 
     discharge a weapon in broad daylight into a park behind a 
     school where scores of children congregated because he was 
     mad. Even after hurting my child, he neither ran like the 
     coward he is nor admitted his involvement like the man he 
     should have been; rather he stood on the street and drank 
     alcoholic beverages as though hurting a child made him 
     thirsty. The circumstances surrounding the loss of my little 
     girl makes me light hearted with nervous rage.
       The leader came to my country, my state, my city, my 
     neighborhood, took my child's life and stole her future. 
     Because he was mad, he committed an act from which none of us 
     can ever recover. Not my family, not the shooter's family or 
     even his family. His arrogance and leadership over those in 
     the gang made for a potent mix and we, my family and the 
     community, paid the price for it. He came here thinking that 
     he could do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted, 
     whenever he wanted and would suffer no consequences. This 
     makes him extremely dangerous to the general public.
       After the guilty verdict for the shooter, I happened to run 
     into Susanna Rosa, who proceeded to tell me that that shooter 
     was a good kid and that the gang threatened him. They told 
     him to do it or else they would kill him. She let me know 
     that he'd graduated from high school and everything. Well, 
     the shooter is stupid and lacks moral character. He let a 
     person who is of no importance tell him to commit an act with 
     wide-ranging consequences. Why? To defend him from an 
     argument that he could have and should have walked away from. 
     The only person wielding a gun out there was the shooter. He 
     hid near a car like a 2-year-old and came out gun blazing 
     like an Old West villain to defend someone else. Nothing Ms. 
     Rosa told me changes my opinion at all. I will accept no 
     excuses. My hatred has not dimmed but flares white-hot at the 
     idea of the destruction he's caused in our lives, throwing 
     away his own in the process for a nothing, a nobody.
       I had the opportunity to observe the shooter and watched 
     him smile. He neither smirked nor grinned, but smiled a big 
     smile when he sat at the defense table towards the end of the 
     trial. My stomach clinched and my skin became flushed. I was 
     mad, just like his leader, the arrogant nobody who he came to 
     rescue, but I did nothing, nor did I try to enlist anyone to 
     do anything. The leader and his defender should have done the 
     same thing and none of us would be here today and my little 
     girl would be finishing her first year of high school.
       During the trial, the shooter had a number of family 
     members and friends at court to

[[Page 10449]]

     support him. He didn't consider those same people who sat 
     behind him and gave him them their strength. He didn't think 
     about those people then. No. He thought only about rescuing 
     his leader from an argument by using armed violence. High 
     school diploma or not, if he's stupid and dangerous enough to 
     let someone convince him to hurt others, then he needs to be 
     taken off the street for the rest of his life.
       They took away her life and her future, her sister Joyce's 
     best friend, her brother Antwun's protector and my dearly 
     loved child and teacher.
       What they did is nothing less than an act of domestic 
     terrorism. They took Schanna Danielle Gayden, just 13 years 
     old, and left in their wake a destroyed family, distraught 
     friends and a traumatized community. Despite their actions, 
     Schanna actually brought the community together. People 
     recognized how special she is and they came together for her 
     and for us. They stood vigil with us during the darkest hours 
     of our lives and they stand with us still. Schanna touched 
     more people in her 13 years than I have during my entire life 
     and continues to do so. She has an intangible gift for which 
     people would recognize and respond.
       A tree was planted and a stone set up in her memory in the 
     park where she suffered such a terrible hurt. The park has 
     also been dedicated to her memory. This is the same park 
     where so many children came to play or just watch the world 
     go by. In fact, had they been just a little earlier, I could 
     have been their victim, and my Schanna would still be here to 
     continue the path she set out for herself. I've done all I'm 
     going to do in this life, whereas she hadn't even begun. But 
     it says something about her as a person that a park would be 
     dedicated to her and a memorial tree and stone placed in her 
     memory. On June 27, 2009, there will also be a tree planted 
     at the cemetery where she has been laid to rest. It will be 
     dedicated to her and all of the children lost to violence. 
     These actions say that she is not disposable, the damage done 
     is not collateral. She is important, not just to her family, 
     but to her friends and community.
       It is fortunate for them that I was not responsible for 
     charging them with a crime. If I were, they would have been 
     charged with aggravated theft for stealing my baby's life, a 
     gift which is truly priceless and cannot be replaced; and 
     attempted murder, for all the people who were there who could 
     have also been victims. Were it up to me, life without parole 
     is nothing less than they would receive. With that sentence, 
     Your Honor, I am being generous.
       However, I do request that because of their deplorable and 
     thoughtless actions, sickening behavior and blatant disregard 
     for all life, and the convictions that stemmed from these, I 
     am respectfully requesting that you, the Honorable Judge 
     Nicholas T. Ford, sentence both defendants to the maximum 
     punishment allowed by law.
       Thank you for your consideration.

                          ____________________