by KYW’s Steve Tawa
A Philadelphia state representative is asking religious leaders to help make 2007 a year of peace, in contrast to the upward surge in murder and violence in the city that has marked 2006.
While there have been more than 400 homicides this year in Philadelphia, State Representative Curt Thomas says there has not been one act of violence inside a house of worship:
”Our places of worship have remained sacred ground.”
He wants churches to ring in the new year tolling bells, as a “testimony to the victims, and as a testament to peace” in the new year.
On the legislative front, Thomas says when members of the general assembly are sworn in on January 2nd, he wants lawmakers to make regulating illegal guns a priority:
“Move immediately to adopt and get to the governor's desk reasonable regulations that limit the accessibility of illegal guns.”
Thomas also will sponsor legislation that would make violent offenders work every day behind bars, and have proceeds of that labor go to the victims' family for medical expenses.
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