INNER-CITY WATCH : Help Wanted

It’s a sad and disturbing commentary on urban conditions when anyone can look at the landing of U.S. troops in Haiti and wish, even for a moment, even only half-seriously, that those troops were deployed instead on the streets of South-Central Los Angeles.

Dr. James Mays, head of Unity Survival Action for South-Central Los Angeles, this week called for an attack, of sorts, on the problems plaguing the area. He suggested that former President Jimmy Carter and retired Gen. Colin L. Powell come “out here and talk to gangbangers and criminals and tell them they’re coming to reinforce the police.”

Mays no doubt was using the hyperbole of the moment to make a symbolic point: The problems here at home are daunting too, and political leaders need to pay attention.

That’s certainly true. Government too often looks the other way rather than deal with the deep problems of poverty, discrimination and crime. Some of America’s urban problems are out of control. But what mustn’t get lost in the discussion is that some parts of life here still remain in the control of the people.

People here can and should demand something of their political representatives. They can work in large and small ways, as Mays and countless others do daily, to make life better. Many are doing that at block club meetings. Through community projects. At local schools. In sports leagues. In scout troops. By pooling financial resources. This description of urban America is no description of paradise. But it’s no description of Haiti, either.