Round Table: The Concerns of African-American Leaders About Their Community : Mark E. Whitlock: Executive director, Los Angeles Renaissance Program, First A.M.E. Church

We have to instill in our young people an understanding that there is an alternative to violence as a means of resolving conflicts. I have some real problems when I hear people talk about “the American Dream” consisting of a basic house, a basic education or a basic job. We should have more than just a “basic” everything, and we should have it now! Furthermore, we have to develop a realistic life plan to make sure we get more than the basics.

Anthony Samad: Syndicated columnist whose work appears in the L.A. Watts Times and the Herald Dispatch The problem of racism is most apparent when We have to honestly acknowledge that the people have been unable to traverse the boundaries that separate the cultures. Most of us are interested in the same thing. We want to make the city a better and safer place to live, but we don’t trust each other because we don’t know each other. The problem is made even worse when we look at the way some groups are portrayed in the media. I do not think it has to cost one ethnic group anything for another ethnic group to make social progress. The problem is not a shortage of resources, or a shortage of manpower. The problem is how the resources and the manpower are being used. We are told that there are no resources and no manpower to fix this or to fix that, but that is absolutely not true. It is a case of an organized lie becoming more effective than the disorganized truth. We cannot give up on the system. We must remain active and we have to support each other.

Rev. Daniel W. Pinkard: Pastor, Grant A.M.E. Church The economic conditions of our society are such that many of our families need dual incomes to maintain an adequate lifestyle. In such an environment, children are often left unsupervised. The result is that this generation of youth is not learning the social values of a home, they are learning the social values of the streets. When you add the absence of supervision and the reduced influence of the parents to the kinds of things that our kids see in the communication media, you get a situation that is potentially explosive. It is understandable that our young people are confused. When the heads of financial institutions misuse millions of dollars held in trust, and elected officials lie to the public, it is easy for young people to rationalize that it is OK to sell a few drugs to help pay for a college education. Morality is not relative. It is absolute. We have to instill the same philosophy in our young.

Dr. Louis Simpson: Psychiatrist A lot of the people I see express an ill-defined feeling of helplessness about what is happening around them. Things “just happen” to them, and they can’t do anything about it. They don’t make decisions about their lives because they aren’t in charge. It becomes a vicious cycle, and sometimes the only way to get them out of the cycle is to force them to begin making decisions. It doesn’t matter how small the first one is. The key is that they must do something. We have to assume the responsibility for what is happening in our community, and the sooner we start doing that the sooner we can start fixing some of the mess that surrounds us.