Thank You, Mr. President: Finally, a Sensible Approach to Gang Violence
During the Clinton years, I received a call from the White House one week before a State of the Union address. I was asked if I would be willing to attend and sit next to Hillary, because the president was going to make some remarks on the gang issue. As someone who has worked with gangs for nearly two decades, I guess I landed on their short list.
Arrangements were made and I was scheduled to leave L.A. for D.C. But two days before I was to depart, a call came, with regrets expressed, to tell me that I had been bumped from my seat next to the first lady. A female police officer had won the slot instead.
In the end, I couldn't have been more grateful to have been axed, because when I tuned in to the speech and heard President Clinton's remedy for gang violence, I was very unimpressed. All he wanted was a fist made of stronger iron and tougher sentencing from here to Tuesday. I was very relieved to be sitting in my living room that night. Because tougher laws and longer sentences are not the solution.
Last week I received a similar call, this time from the current White House's faith-based initiative office, asking if I would be "opposed" to attending a White House event focused on gang violence. My only opposition would be if they tried to offer a simple solution to an enormously complex issue.
When I watched the State of the Union speech, I was surprised by what President Bush had to say about the gang dilemma. As a lifelong Democrat, I could fill these pages with the many subjects on which the president and I disagree. But this time, I was impressed. I have never before heard a president speak of gangs and then suggest that despair might well be at the root of the problem. He did. And he suggested offering "hope to harsh places" and said he wants to give "better options than apathy or gangs or jail" to young people in our cities, and especially young men. Not bad.
I believe assigning the first lady to the task of this proposed three-year, $150-million effort gives it heft, not just lip service.
When all is said and done, a president spoke of gangs without once speaking of tougher laws and more suppression. Perhaps nothing will come of it -- but a different language was used Wednesday night, and that's progress. At the moment of this writing, I've just left a hospital where a young man, Martin, was pronounced dead, and another, Michael, struggles with serious wounds. Martin was on his way to a job interview and Michael was driving him. Gang gunfire ended one life, and altered the other forever.
