Meetings aren't making city better

Wouldn't it be nice if 700 people showed up for a meeting in Greeley to discuss how to get 500 young people in our community out of gangs?

Wouldn't it be nice if 700 people showed up for a meeting of Mothers Against Drunk Driving?

Wouldn't it be nice if 700 people showed up for a District 6 school board meeting to address public education in Greeley and Evans?

Those were a few of our thoughts after two meetings earlier this week were conducted on the same night in Greeley. One, which attracted about 200 people, was supposed to discuss how to bring a diverse community together. The other, which attracted about 500 people, was supposed to discuss the impact of illegal immigration on crime.

We wonder about the effectiveness of both meetings at really addressing the important issues in our community.

We applaud any effort to bridge the gap among diverse members of our community. And we don't disagree there is a crime problem in Greeley and Weld County.

And it's not surprising that 700 people in our community are riled up about illegal immigration, which is the underlying issue behind both meetings. We have long criticized the federal government for its inaction on this important issue, and the longer that problem isn't solved, the longer communities all over America will be angry and divided.

But we are still waiting for solid evidence that either meeting moved our community forward in addressing these important issues.

The Realizing Our Community group believes that open dialogue about our community's differences can help bring us together, and we have supported that effort from the beginning. But we think it's getting close to time for ROC to come forward with specific actions that can help bridge the gap in Greeley.

We stated our concern earlier this week about the meeting organized by District Attorney Ken Buck that focused on crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Nothing happened at the meeting that changed our minds.

What was gained, for example, in talking about drunken-driving accidents caused by illegal immigrants? The truth is that legal citizens and immigrants alike cause far too many alcohol-related crashes and deaths in Weld County. Far too many citizens and immigrants alike are still driving on our roads with multiple DUI convictions and suspended licenses.

Of the 42 traffic deaths in Weld last year, one-fourth were caused by the deadly combination of drinking and driving.

A meeting that focused on that story might be a more effective use of our community's time.

The truth is that a small percentage of crime in our county is committed by illegal immigrants. Sheriff John Cooke says about 18-20 per-cent of people incarcerated in the Weld County Jail at any time are foreign-born. But Cooke also acknowledges that not all foreign-born inmates are illegal. An estimated 7 percent to 10 percent of inmates are illegal immigrants.

Other national studies also suggest that immigrants are incarcerated less often than U.S.-born men. A national study of incarcerated men 18-39 years old found the incarceration rate of the United States-born males, at 3.51 percent, was four times the rate of the foreign-born males, 0.86 percent.

We're wondering why our district attorney and sheriff don't schedule a meeting on that untold story.

Greeley and Weld County are not unlike many communities across the country. Many are angry about illegal immigration and the federal government's inaction on this important issue. But communities such as Greeley cannot solve the immigration problem by themselves. We encourage northern Colorado residents to speak loudly and clearly to our elected representatives at the federal level that it is far past time to address the immigration problem.

Meanwhile, local issues such as gang violence, drunken driving and the performance of our schools -- to name a few -- deserve our serious attention. We challenge community leaders such as Ken Buck, John Cooke, ROC representatives and others to schedule meetings on these important topics instead of one that points the finger of blame at a specific segment of our community.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get 700 people to attend meetings on those issues?