Hope for Inner-City Youth

Re “Hope Is the Only Antidote,” Commentary, Jan. 6:

Father Gregory J. Boyle’s theory that hope is the only antidote to the plight of the inner-city youth is almost indisputable, but to assail a proposed GOP crime bill on this point is disputable and raises the all-so-common question, what is the role of the federal government?

Boyle states, “Jobs, education, opportunity and attentive adults give an injection of hope to youth who have ceased to care.” I dare say that all of these factors are just as attainable to the inner city as they are to middle-class youth, except for the latter. This is where Boyle should be focusing his attention, not the federal government. For every homeboy that joins a gang I’ll show you one who has gone on to college, vocational training, armed services or simply just works hard.

If the problem of inner-city youth is that they can’t envision themselves in the future, there is little a federal bureaucracy can do about this. For almost every wayward youth, I’ll show you an under-aged mother and/or an absentee father. The federal government neither can nor should take on the role of a parent. All it can do is promote intact families.

Hope, discipline and a sense of one’s potential are not commodities that can be distributed like food stamps. They are nurtured and taught through strong families, churches and community-based leaders existing in a lawful and secure environment. These are all ideas being promoted by the leaders Boyle chooses to criticize.

AARON A. AGAJANIAN

Venice

Father Boyle most likely is correct when he says that he and others in the trenches “know more about the complexity of crime and its root causes than the 104th Congress ever will.”

He could have added “more than the 103rd, the 102nd, the 101st, et al. ever did.” That is the perception of an American public that has seen trillions of dollars spent on the problem over decades and has only seen the problem grow worse, not better.

The leadership of the 104th Congress is agreeing and seems to be committed to the very principle Father Boyle states: Allow local communities to decide best what should be done. When a patient is hemorrhaging, medical personnel try first to staunch the flow of blood before getting to root cause. Let’s hope this Congress is doing the same, and soon.

FORREST BONNER

Huntington Beach