Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s 10 point program to address the “gang” issue. It was not only illuminating for its background information that gives historical context to the presence of gangs that have existed for over a century, but Mr. Adachi provides a pragmatic and tangible process for ending gang violence by offering positive solutions that are not about punishment and inflicting more suffering on our beleaguered communities but by giving the communities the tools and resources that they need to have lives of hope and success that don’t include creating a trail of victims that those forced into lives of crime create.
I just saw on the news today that when I walk to work tomorrow I will walk over the spot where a man was shot to death on Turk Street. Today my Mom attended the funeral for 17-year-old Tauvares Wooten murdered in broad daylight on March 9th. Though I know that he was not involved in gangs, and I know less about the Turk St. murder, I know this: young men are dying in catastrophic proportions on the streets of San Francisco. And all of the programs that Mr. Adachi proposes will not only diminish “gang” violence, but it will have profound benefits throughout the communities that will certainly increase the peace by reducing all the root causes of violence.
I really hope that the City of San Francisco, citizens and government alike will work to get all of these proposals funded and implemented immediately. We have a whole generation scarred by the war in their neighborhoods, and just like the Iraqi veterans, our youth suffer from PTSD and they deserve our immediate attention to resolve the crises.
Tami Bryant
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s comments on the justice of the twin towers horrors reveal his religious confidence in the judgment of God. They echo the religious faith of President Lincoln as expressed in his Second Inaugural Address:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Senator Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” may signal that the time for healing has finally arrived. He becomes a ying to Lincoln’s yang.
Joe Lynn
San Francisco
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