A strong turnout for last week's peace walk in Springdale was an encouraging sign.
Community people, joined by city and school district officials, displayed the kind of direct involvement that might help counter violence experienced recently on those same Springdale streets.
Irvin Camacho, a city resident, led the walk and worked with friends to organize it. The idea was to initiate a conversation about preventing such violent situations.
It has surely done that, presumably extending into the homes of neighborhood residents and many others in Springdale and elsewhere in Northwest Arkansas.
Two young men, Fabian Rodriguez, 18, and Jimmy Rodriguez, 20, died from what police believe were gang-related shootings less than a month apart in the neighborhood near downtown Springdale.
That's two too many deaths, of course; but Springdale is not Chicago or any of the other major cities where drive-by shootings are daily occurrences, a fact of urban life.
Springdale can do something to change what is happening on its streets. And the effort was renewed last week.
The peace walk, which began in Luther George Grove Street Park, attracted several hundred people. They walked through the neighborhood by each of the addresses where the young men were gunned down and some others were injured.
Mayor Doug Sprouse and other city officials, Superintendent Jim Rollins and others from Springdale School District joined the mostly Latino crowd for the walk.
These were not the first violent incidents experienced in Springdale, but they came so quickly and so near to each other that residents are naturally fearful, even though there have been arrests in both cases.
All of the suspects are teen-agers, including one as young as 13. The others are 17- and 18-year-olds, all suspected of gang involvement.
On the day he buried his son, Jimmy, Martin Rodriguez said "gangs were always bothering my kids," but that they wanted to be left alone.
Still, Camacho insisted last week that Springdale is not a haven for crime. These shootings, he said, were isolated incidents.
"The image that we are trying to get: The community united, not just Latinos," Comacho said as he promoted the peace walk.
There was some evidence of unity, including the involvement of city and school district officials. But the people most directly affected, those who live in the neighborhoods, are the ones who can make the most difference. And they made up the bulk of the marchers.
Springdale Police Chief Kathy O'Kelley said at a news conference before the walk that it takes a community to make a difference. And she called the walk itself "evidence that that seed has been planted."
Importantly, the city has a plan to help with the situation.
Mayor Sprouse said the Police Department will hire seven more school resource officers next school year, funding them with a federal grant. The addition will strengthen "an already positive program," he said.
Resource officers work within the public schools, establishing relationships with students and providing security in the school environment.
Additionally, Sprouse said the city will add 10 patrol officers to the Police Department. More officers should allow more frequent patrol of neighborhoods.
Police are also working with residents to organize a neighborhood watch, although that effort was delayed last week when the meeting was publicized. Police want the meetings to be small and private.
Nevertheless, all of these efforts -- within the community and by the city -- are rightly aimed at greater vigilance and more open communication.
The goal is to ferret out problems before they erupt into violence like that that cost two young men their lives.
A question asked at Jimmy Rodriguez' funeral hangs heavy.
"We can determine what kind of generation we are going to be," said Associate Pastor Juan Guido at the St. Raphael Catholic Church service.
"Are we going to be the generation of hate and violence?"
The people who marched in Springdale last week answered with a resounding "no."
Commentary on 04/26/2015