I thought that I had just about heard it all. I thought that I knew every single sordid thing that gang members were capable of, until I talked to my mother yesterday. She was crying when she told me that somebody had stolen the spray of flowers she had recently placed on my grandfather's grave, on Father's Day...the first one to pass since he had died. I thought, "Well, maybe it blew off or something?" "No," my mother replied. "It was stolen. All of them in the cemetery were." And then she told me the story of how a man at a nearby flower shop actually pays gang members to steal expensive flowers from graves so that he can resell them. He makes a profit, and he cuts the gang members in for a little piece of the action for their work. He asks no questions about where they got the flowers, and they don't tell him. After all, he knows where they came from.

Apparently, this local florist pays children to adolescents involved in gangs to steal hundred-dollar floral sprays that are draped over the tombstones and grave markers at local cemeteries during important holidays. The florist pays them a little bit, they steal the floral sprays and bring him back to him. He then modifies the flower arrangements slightly and resells them. The florist, who has been spoken of by local gang members in Midland, has yet to be identified, but I think he is just as bad, if not worse, as the grave-robbing punks who stole the flowers from my grandfather's graves. They've gone too far to rob the graves of fallen veterans on Memorial Day and fathers on Father's Day. I think it's time that a serious crackdown is taken against gang members, much like the crackdown that was done citywide in several of the biggest U.S. cities, including New York City when Rudy was mayor. Kids need to get out of gangs and find their places in society. They need to get involved in after-school programs and quit running around with bad crowds who encourage them to participate in crimes that not only harm society but wound its spirit. Every time a person does something like this, it shows that there is no limit to the depths a human spirit can sink to. Gangs must be rooted out and dealt with harshly. There is no place for them in a decent society.

Gangs are a plague and a safehaven for soft-brains who deserve incarceration for much of what they do, even sometimes counting what it takes for them to just get into the gang. Gang initiation often involves beating up homeless people, stealing cars, rape and murder! Society doesn't deserve is to be hit with stray bullets from their illegally bought guns. Decent, law-abiding citizens do not deserve to be beaten bloody by members of gangs, or have their automobiles stolen.

Gangs are a plague on society, and now they have stooped to new lows by stealing flowers from the graves of my grandfather! I pray that if you are in a gang, you get out. And I pray for those of you who choose to remain in gangs, and to participate in all of the horrible things they make you do, have all of your evil deeds return to you one day. Who knows, maybe all of your bad karma and drive-by shootings could leave you dead one day. And who is going to care if a rival gang steals the flowers from your grave? Not me! Do the right thing: Get out of gangs while you still can. They say, "Blood in, blood out," but it takes more courage to leave a gang than it does to stay in it. Please, if you've read this far, find a way to do what's right. Get out of a gang before it is your undoing. It's never too late until it's too late.