Latest Santa Ana Gang Outrage Fuels Sense of Despair, Desire for Change

After the big flood in Chicago that paralyzed so much of the business in the city and cost so much in lost revenue, I’m sure that city officials all over the country are running scared and taking measures to prevent this from ever happening again. We always wait until disaster hits the powerful to take action to solve problems. The media has exposed the state of disrepair that our American infrastructure is in for years now, but obviously, not much has been done.

On April 17 I read about the slaying of Mauro Meza in Santa Ana (“Man Killed, 3 Wounded by Santa Ana Gang Fire”). This brutal murder, and all others that we read about daily, are symptomatic of the state of our “human structure.” Are we going to wait until those gangs noticeably invade our “nice, middle class, mostly white neighborhoods” to take action?

We all know that we may assign half of our police departments to fight gang activity in inner cities and that the problem will still persist. We also know that we can incarcerate every single gang member today, but in a few months a new generation will come of age.

Sure, we do need to fight existing gangs, but we must put most of our money in keeping our youths out of them by offering them alternatives through education and a safe place to grow. Yet all we hear is budget cuts, budget cuts, budget cuts . . .

Mr. Reagan was really shocked the other night when a protester got close enough to take his award and shatter it. How does our “Education President” think children feel when they have to walk to school daily in areas plagued by these problems and without throngs of security agents ready to tackle intruders?

MARGARITA MIRANDA

Irvine