Opinion: In today’s pages: Mahmoud and Hugo meet, Homeboy Bakery comes back
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The editorial board welcomes back Homeboy Bakery, a gang outreach effort, eight years after a fire shut it down:
As the ribbon-cutting neared, young men and women scurried through the building, pushing mops and polishing glass to the tune of a mariachi band playing outside. Workers handed out gift certificates and programs and showed off their new ovens, tattoos peeking out from beneath their uniforms. The mood was festive -- the air wafting with a blend of cleaning solution and freshly baked bread -- but with hints of tragedy. Too many of those in attendance navigated in wheelchairs. Homeboy is mostly about work -- it thrives on the idea that ‘nothing stops a bullet like a job’ -- but Boyle’s creation also rehabilitates its clients with tattoo removal, counseling and classes.
The board wonders if making the death penalty more humane will actually encourage executions, and cautions Orange County against building a toll road through a state park and wildlife preserve.
Inter-American Dialogue’s Daniel P. Erikson notes that Latin America--and especially Hugo Chavez--are giving Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a far warmer welcome than New York did. Contributing editor Max Boot says contractors may need more oversight but there’s no getting rid of them in war. Cecil Fergerson, an L.A. Living Cultural Treasure, argues that an African American firm’s art auction betrays its legacy and the community.
On the letters page, Chatsworth’s David Holland reacts to presidential candidate John McCain’s claims that the U.S. is a Christian country: ‘As an agnostic, I am not a part of McCain’s ‘Christian nation’ and will resist all efforts to make the United States a theocracy.’