Philadelphia Antiviolence Group Takes Its Message National With Two-Day Conference
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia-based antiviolence group is hosting a national conference on the issue today and tomorrow in center city.
"Mothers in Charge" has been a leading voice against violence in Philadelphia, but founder Dorothy Johnson-Speight says it's a national problem. So she has organized this week's conference to help find solutions.
"Everybody's got to get involved," she said today. "It can't be just Mothers in Charge or groups like us. It takes each and every one to find out what they can do to make a difference."
The opening panel offered a number of ideas. Many involved complex policy issues, but Dr. Elizabether Datner of the emergency department at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital requested that communities simply stop accepting violence as the norm.
"It's not okay to have violence as part of your life," Datner said. "It should not be okay for our kids to think it's a normal part of their lives."
