By Dr. Lisette Bauersachs Santa Monica
As a resident of the Santa Monica community, I attended Saturday’s forum hoping to learn something new and provide my input. I left very disappointed at 11:15 a.m. and did not achieve either of my objectives. The program started over 35 minutes late. This is not acceptable for those of us who dedicated our morning to give our hearts, time and mind in honor of Eddie Lopez. The next 15 minutes was political nonsense. Over 15 minutes was wasted introducing everyone in attendance. Finally, the first speakers up to the podium proceed to tell the audience about all the great things the Santa Monica community and Virginia Park are doing. Again, this is not the place to pat ourselves on the back when we are assembling, because a beautiful young man was killed on Pico Boulevard. What we are doing is clearly not enough. The gang violence plan that was put together a year ago is clearly not working, if we meet on the one year anniversary of its inception over the memory of a murdered child. I left in such a state of shear disappointment, disbelief and disgust. The failure of this community to address this gang violence problem continued last Saturday morning at this forum.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 23, 2006. Read the original PDF.