Mourning on MacArthur

These are sad days for our community. This photo in today's San Francisco Chronicle says it all.

America is plagued with guns, poverty and violence. Rich people kill each other, too, but it seems the vast majority of murders happen among the poor. Saturday's killings were particularly noticed because they took the lives of four police officers as well as that of an ex-convict on parole.

I am very sorry for the dead and their survivors; I am sorry for the living in Oakland who face fear, crime and violence every day.

In these times I remember how bad life was in New York City in the 1970s. I visited there, I moved there and lived in a terrible neighborhood full of drug dealers running amok. (but shootings were rare in those days). I am not about to leave Oakland. In fact, my little area of Oakland is still serene.

Let us mourn our dead, and let us honor their memories by keeping up the struggle to make Oakland livable, lawful and just for all. Food, gardens, community are part of the solution.