Gang Membership

So you want to live forever? Or at least to a ripe old age? The answer is simple: Be born female, stay out of cars and gangs, avoid sex and drugs, and try not to get depressed. Do this and the odds are quite good that you'll live into your 70s or 80s. Not practical? There is still a variety of things--most of them related to lifestyle--that you can do to lengthen your life and to make your old age healthier.

As state officials plan to expand a database containing the names and photographs of reputed gang members, a state arm of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union are questioning whether minorities in Orange County are being unfairly targeted by the project.

Candi Diedrich, coordinator of the city's volunteer anti-graffiti and self-esteem building programs for youths, has been honored for her work by the Orange County Department of Education. Diedrich is in charge of the graffiti paint-out efforts of Fullerton's CUFF (Community United for Fullerton Safety) program. The 4-year-old program's goal is to combat youth gangs by presenting programs designed to build a sense of self-worth while providing positive alternatives to gang membership.

Re "A Six-Year Test With High Stakes," March 21: Your article detailing the results of a comprehensive program challenging a selected group of average South-Central sixth-graders was profound. With an annual investment of only $2,000 per scholar, these children were enabled to pursue college at USC or other options that would not have ordinarily been open to them. This seems a small price to enhance the future of a child. The cost is much less than the price of incarceration for those whose options are so limited that their only choices might be gang membership or other antisocial behaviors that put them behind bars.

Gang-related killings in Orange County last year plummeted by 40% to a five-year low, but drug offenses and gang membership continued to climb, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the Orange County district attorney's office. The 28-page document outlines an overall drop in violent gang crimes throughout the county--gang-involved slayings decreased from 70 in 1995 to 42 last year.

I was outraged to read another article about the United States' social injustice, "Los Angeles' Gang Culture Arrives in El Salvador, Courtesy of the INS" (by Luis Rodriguez, Opinion, May 8). I am a citizen of El Salvador who came to this country in 1972 at the age of 8 with my mother and a younger brother. We grew up in a single-parent household in the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles. Despite having to hold down two jobs, my mother was able to raise two children who went on to graduate from college and obtain responsible positions in the community.

Legislation giving public school officials the power to require students to wear uniforms on campus was approved Monday by the state Senate. Billed as an anti-gang measure, the bill was sent to the Assembly on a 28-6 vote by an unusual coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. Traditionally, bills that would allow schools to impose uniforms on public school children have met hostile receptions in the Legislature. But Sen.

Officials hope next week's first countywide summit on spiraling gang problems will "throw a lifeline" to schools, police and parents, who for years have seen their children become more vulnerable to gang membership and its violence. In a county where gang membership has grown by 35% since 1991, Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said Monday, a generation of children already might be lost. "Without question, education is the answer to this kind of problem," said John F.

Law enforcement and community officials Monday urged that Orange County begin developing a regional anti-gang strategy that crosses the county's many municipal boundaries. In preparation for a countywide summit scheduled for November to address gang violence, Orange County Gang Prevention Alliance members are linking police officers with educators and business leaders with court officials in an attempt to build coalitions that would address the problem.