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" I'm not always optimistic, but I am hopeful. "

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" Young people can change and grow. Every parent knows that. "

" We are less than honest and commit a grave error if we insist that what happened to Rodney G. King was isolated and an exceptional case. The poor know better. "

" My church is in the detention facilities where I preside and celebrate the Eucharist. To me that's the church. That's the people of God. "

" I have a lot of people in my life, and I think there's something key: the thing that leads to intimacy and relationship and connection is tenderness. "

" It has become an accepted tenet that kids will rarely listen to their parents but seldom fail to imitate them. Communicating the message has never been a good substitute for 'showing up' and embodying the message. "

" At its best, an injunction creates a kind of vigilant heat that moves kids toward the light. "

" Does God feel like that same-sex marriage could happen? I don't think anybody who has a connection to God and God's understanding and depth of compassion who's gonna say 'no.' "

" God is compassion. "

" The Church should say, 'I'm frightened that women will be ordained;' that's honest, say that. But don't say, 'It's a grave sin,' because that's nonsense. "

" You stand with the least likely to succeed until success is succeeded by something more valuable: kinship. You stand with the belligerent, the surly and the badly behaved until bad behavior is recognized for the language it is: the vocabulary of the deeply wounded and of those whose burdens are more than they can bear. "

" The business of second chances is everybody's business. "

" The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them. "

" As much as I dislike the suggestion of single solutions to complex problems, jobs are as close as we will get to a single, effective answer to the enormous problem of gangs. "

" Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with the 'demonized' so that the demonizing will stop; it stands with the 'disposable' so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. "

" The poor evangelize you about what's important and what is the Gospel, and that that's where the joy is. "

" The powers, conditions, and desires that propel Mexicans and Central Americans into this country are so fundamental, so vast, that no action, legislative or other-wise, can discourage this flight. "

" The arms of God reach to embrace, and somehow you feel yourself just outside God's fingertips. "

" I wouldn't trade my life for anybody's. "

" The power of community policing is in the relationship. This can happen only if an officer sticks around for a while. "

" So complex are all the ingredients that cause gang membership that it seems virtually impossible to isolate one solution that can address them all and thereby manufacture a hope for the future upon which these kids can rely. "

" God seems to be an unwilling participant in our efforts to pigeonhole Him. "

" Like the suffering child, gang members act out of their despair, and their actions are all the more alarming now for our not having heeded their cry long ago. The shortsighted neglect that keeps us locked up in our outrage has also kept us from viable solutions. "

" We don't need a specialized gang unit. We need patrol officers who specialize in knowing their community. "

" What is ultimately compelling for our children in helping them conjure images of a future for themselves is our willingness to walk with them as they do it. "

" Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done. "

" The draconian spirit that seeks to enhance penalties and to lower the age at which juveniles will be tries as adults, is part of the 'whole cloth' of three strikes. Our failure to address the depair of our inner-city youth is only delayed by our over-confidence in a stance that is 'tougher than thou.' "

" I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine. "

" I have never seen a hopeful person join a gang. "

" Kids are different from adults. They are not as developed as far as brain science, controlling impulses, and maturity, and fall prey to all kinds of pressures. "

" Me wanting a gang member to have a different life would never be the same as that gang member wanting to have one. "