To the Editor:

John Beresford's murder beside Ronan Park in Dorchester sent two chills through me. We all felt the horror and sadness of learning of his going to aid a robbery victim, confronting the robbers, and then getting killed by them.

I also remembered the night some twenty years ago when six teens came from Ronan Park to attack me as I walked home below it on Adams Street. I was lucky to get away unhurt and to still be living in a home at the other end of Adams Street today.

The big questions this raised for me were: Why is life so unfair to let this happen, why would a teen or young adult decide they can murder someone, and what must be done to reverse the hopelessness that can lead to such terrible crimes?

Who can answer the first question about why life is unfair for too many people? This kind of event shakes our faith at the same time it calls forward people to support each other and redouble their efforts to be a community and not let that be taken away from us.

Why would a teen or young adult decide they could kill another person over a handbag that contained forty dollars? We can look at their family upbringing and sometimes that looks like it is important evidence. Yet, there's plenty of cases where parents really do try hard to raise their kids well and then their kids still do big wrongs. All parents sometimes worry about their kids being killed in some senseless accident or doing some inexplicable wrong that could make them look like the faces we see on TV of those on trial for a terrible crime.

There needs to be many people who show they care for each child and teen for them to make good decisions in their lives. It's family, relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers, clergy and congregational leaders who all can make a difference. We know that in too many instances there are not many people there for some kids and that hurts and has consequences. We all need to think about how we could show more support to the kids we see often or even once.

I have, unfortunately, been attacked in crime incidents in Dorchester some five times during the 1970s and 1980s and once at an office I worked in on Massachusetts Avenue in the Fenway. I was lucky to have only been robbed and not physically hurt when many of these times I could have been. I often wonder where those who attacked me then are now and what they feel about what they did. Do they think about it like I do? Do they feel any remorse? Since then, what's enabled them to get on top of life and go forward and love others and what has kept them mired in bad times?

I remember reading the memoir of someone who rose to become a prominent newspaper reporter but as a teen had participated in many terrible criminal acts. He seemed driven by anger and hopelessness then. He remembered that when he was 12 he accompanied his father to his job as a gardener at big suburban houses and how angry he felt when his father was treated as a nobody without a name. His hot anger deadened him to his bad actions and unfortunately he didn't feel much remorse for what he did. Yet, it took some courage to admit to his past actions in writing.

What would change this story so there's not more senseless murders to come which we know there will be? Love our children. Enforce the laws. Give teens plenty of opportunities. Opportunties to be in recreation, education, and arts programs, to be learning about values in many settings, and for having many adults in their lives who care about them and challenge them.

Yes, it is also having more police and creative intervention with carrots and sticks to those teens who are causing serious trouble. Yes, it is about availability of after school programs, street workers connecting to kids who don't go to after school programs, and job opportunities. Because the state and federal funds for these programs have been cut, we reap the consequences now and will in the future.

Let's stand with John Beresford's memory in refusing to stop trying to make Dorchester an even better place to live. Let's try to match the dedication he showed to our community.

-Lewis Finfer , Adams Street