WEEKEND MEMOS

'Weekend memos' give our editorial writers a chance to express their own opinions, comment on topics they have been writing about, or take a lighter approach. The opinions in 'Memos' do not always follow the Enquirer's editorial positions.

The power of the human will can do wondrous things.

It built a new nation and achieved westward expansion. It produced nuclear bombs. It ended the Cold War. It has liberated Iraq.

We've heard for years that we can do anything if we put our minds to it, and work at it hard enough and long enough. If this is so, then on a very basic level, why can't we use the same power to reduce violent crime in our neighborhoods?

It's not summer yet, but Cincinnati is on a torrid pace to top last year's homicide rate. Twenty-seven lives have been lost to violence this year - a 35 percent increase over the same time last year. At this rate, the city will shatter last year's 15-year-high.

On Wednesday night alone, three men were killed in gun violence in Cincinnati. In one gunfight, five people were shot at; luckily none was hit. But mass murder could have easily been the result.

Amazingly, police arrested one suspect and found that he wore a bullet-resistant vest under his clothing. Soldiers, heads of state and law enforcement officials routinely wear such body armor, not 23-year-old private citizens.

Fighting this kind of crime ought to become our highest priority, or it will be our long-term downfall.This has a direct relation to business growth and our culture - the way we all think, feel and behave in the future.

Cecil Thomas, executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, a former police officer, correctly sees the elimination of crime as a top concern for the whole community.

One solution, he said, if for citizens to stop being reluctant to help police spot troublemakers in our midst. That's the kind of cooperation needed to unify the community.

"The most precious entity is life, and that should supercede anything else that may divide us," Thomas said. "Here is an opportunity to show that we care about not only this city, but the citizens who live in this city." The big question is whether we have the will to do it.

Byron McCauley