ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250055
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
MAD ABOUT young people falling prey to the drug culture? About gangs that suck from the vein of money and blood that flows freely around the illicit trade, parasites draining life from once peaceful communities?
Mad about the triumph of materialism that elevates style and cool over character? That exalts the good qualities of a car above the good qualities of a human being?
Mad that you have to worry that your own kid might be seduced into the drug business, or caught in the crossfire of those who are?
Mad enough to fight?
John Foster was. His son, a young black man, was badly beaten by members of a gang after he pulled into a gas station in Omaha, Neb., to fill up, unaware that his car's colors were the same as some rival gang's. Foster armed himself with a couple of guns and went hunting for his son's assailants.
Luckily, he didn't find them. Instead, Foster did something quintessentially American - more American, and far more effective, than strapping on a six-shooter and popping off bad guys in a spree of vigilantism. He formed a community group to fight back.
He founded Mad Dads. Armed not with guns but with walkie-talkies and cellular phones, they started patrolling neighborhood streets at night. That was in 1989, and the group has spread into other communities and states, into white neighborhoods and Hispanic. No one is shielded from the drug culture by virtue of race or class.
The Mad Dads, and sometimes Mad Moms and Mad Kids, aren't vigilantes, but they do more than the typical neighborhood watch group. They elbow drug traffickers off one street corner after another, until they are gone. The Dads also buy back guns, for $50 each, no questions asked. And they do a good business.
But more than that, Mad Dads take an interest in the kids who are hanging out, heading for trouble. Members try to shepherd children and youths who have no spiritual guide posts. Sometimes they teach skills - not how to stay alive in a shoot-out, but how to be a good father, how to get a job.
Rather than expect the police to sweep the drug problem behind prison walls, or wait for politicians to legislate it out of existence, these parents are trying to secure their families' safety by taking responsibility for everybody's kids. Parents can make a difference, when they act like grown ups.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB