Trial Illustrated Deep Divisions
* The sentence concluding the final phase of the “paint roller” series of cases (“2 Sentenced in Murder of Teen Killed by Paint Roller,” March 29) satisfied no one completely but gave all sides a bit of something.
A casualty from the whole matter was human relations in San Clemente (and elsewhere in the county). There is the often questionable practice of law-enforcement entities in their treatment of Mexican-appearing youth, whether citizens, documented, or undocumented. And there is the chasm in society typified on one side by Kathy Woods and her family and friends in their grief and anger over their never-to-end loss and on the other side by the Hispanic families in their grief over their own loss for many years to come and their sons’ subjection to the terrors of prison.
As a witness (with my wife) to the trial and the sentencing of Saul Penuelas and Rogelio Solis, I was struck by the intensity of feeling on both sides: frustration, grief and anger, against despair and grief.
Such feelings work against the building of a truly good city (and county and beyond) where peace and goodwill prevail among people of varying economic status, ethnicity and culture. Our own lives and the character of our cities deteriorate unless reconciliation and compassion replace division and hate.
NAT BERCOVITZ
Newport Beach
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