Hopeful Coverage of a Violent Scene

* We would like to commend you for Greg Hernandez’s reporting and Mark Boster’s photography in the story “Building Bridges--and Trust,” (Feb. 22).

These men brought sensitivity and hope to their reporting of our neighborhood reality and a genuine concern for our “at-risk” youth. We appreciate The Times’ concern in imagining creative approaches to empower people in violent situations to realize their capacity for goodness. There are possibilities for change when young people can envision alternatives for their lives.

The article accentuated the presence of us three priests on the street and our involvement in the lives of our friends. We and the very many unsung folk from the neighborhoods of Orange County who collaborate with us in the streets and in the meetings have received more than we have given, have truly been enriched by the young people who have allowed us to enter their lives.

Gang involvement is a very complex reality in our communities, and we have witnessed the new life which emerges when people speak with and touch each other in what becomes a mutual learning and conversion.

We invite the residents of Orange County to a new way of relationship--to see and encounter gang-involved kids, the youth of Santa Ana and other inner cities as real people with the same fears, wounds, hopes and possibilities as everyone else.

Might your readers, and other sisters and brothers in the various neighborhoods of Orange County continue the attempt to come to know the names of their neighbors and their pain and dreams? Might we imagine confronting seemingly difficult kids with confidence and hope and begin to risk sharing our dreams with them? Might we at least continue to wonder and question and dialogue together?

FATHERS STAN BOSCH,

BRENDAN SMITH

and CHRISTOPHER SMITH

Santa Ana