Opinions

Dear Editor,

This past week my friend Jamel Blount and I met at Ed Vincent Park. The
meeting was followed by a visit to my home and a short conversation. The
last time we had seen each other was in the Army base of Q-West Iraq. We
both served together for a year in a tough infantry unit that protected
convoys in the northern sector of Iraq. For most of our tour we traveled
to the dangerous city of Mosul, a city that has yet to be fully pacified.
We worked together for the whole year and depended on each other to get
through it.

Jamel and I are friends and we will probably be friends for the rest of
our lives. It doesn't matter that he is African-American and that I am
Latino. I think our friendship is a perfect example of how people can get
along when they work together. Our shared city of Inglewood is a diverse
community where people live and work side by side. It benefits all of us
to get along and to help each other. It should not make a difference what
language our neighbor speaks or what the color of that person's skin is,
we should learn to respect and support each other.

I think the time has come for all of us to work together to help make a
difference in our community. We can start by saying hello to our
neighbors and by respecting each other's culture. We can move on to learn
about their goals and fears. If we really want to make a difference we
need to work to help with those goals and to assuage those fears. I think
that if we get closer and learn more about each other we will find that we
all want the same thing. We all want to live the American Dream, which is
pretty much the dream of the world.

One of the fears of the Latino community is lack of representation in the
city. A few years back when I used to write a column for this paper I
learned that the Latino community in Inglewood, for the most part, felt
that it was not taken very seriously. I think this is one place where an
honest effort can be put forth by everybody so that Latinos do not feel
left out.

I would like to thank Mr. Willie Brown for making this return possible. I
think we both share Dr. King's Dream and we want to do our part to see
this community come together. A special note of thanks to all those who
supported me during the past year by sending packages, books, letters,
cookies and even a simple e-mail. At my own school district I would like
to especially thank Dr. Bruce McDaniel, Ms. Susan Ramos, Dr. Morales and
all of you who have made my transition possible. To the Lennox School
Board and all those who put me on stage, thank you for the recognition, I
will always remember it.

Luis
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