Jocelyn Wiener, a very talented reporter for the Sacramento Bee, has written an amazing series on the members of the 1992 South Sacramento Raiders entitled Tackling Life. It tells, in a wonderfully personalized way, how tough life is for a black kid growing up in South Sacramento. How the families, many of whom have already been decimated by death, loss of the adult males to jail, drugs and poverty, try valiantly to keep their kids out of trouble. But trouble is what these kids' world is all about in South Sacramento. And the pull of the streets is too strong for many of them and their families, resulting in death for some and jail for others. And another generation left fatherless to be raised by grandparents or aunts or others as best as they can manage.

Thank you, Jocelyn, for adding faces to the terrible tragedy that is going on in Sacramento and many other cities around this country. In fact, around the world. How much different is this than the young muslims in England, who also have no jobs, no prospects, and the lure of the terrorist organizations is just too strong?

And for those who have commented that this is a problem of permissive parents, a race who has too many children and at too young an age, and LBJ's great society, get a clue. This is hurting each and everyone of us. If we could give all of our kids decent educations, with empathy and counseling and mentoring provided to those who need it most, and then offer them opportunities - either to go to college or to learn a trade - then we could certainly stop spending billions on jails and death benefits and aid to dependent children and on and on. If we found the money to fight a war in Iraq, couldn't we have found money to fight and win a war in our own neighborhoods? Leaving large parts of our society behind is not healthy nor ethical.

Please read the series and let's figure out how to solve this problem once and for all. The quote I heard recently from a guy who is doing just that in the worst areas of Dallas, negotiating peace treaties between gang leaders and then recruiting gang members to do positive things with their lives still makes sense to me. "When good voices are silent, bad voices sound good." Let's start the good voices resonating throughout the neighborhoods.

And many kudos Jocelyn. I have read all of your stories with great admiration. You are one of those rare journalists who knows how to get the community to face up to great challenges in their midst and give them the attention they desperately deserve. At least, let's hope so!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive