MS. TURNER was the next-door neighbor who, when I was growing up in Chicago, would have permission to smack me upside my head if she saw me doing something wrong or stupid - things like throwing rocks at windows, stomping across the neighbor's grass or running into the street.

Then she would tell my mother and Mom would smack me upside the head for making Ms. Turner smack me upside the head.

Ms. Turner comes to mind because it occurred to me that we've lost something as a community in Baltimore, something very important and sacred to our existence. We've lost our anger, that sense of shame that we used to have when one of our own would drift off track.

We as a community are allowing ourselves to be held hostage as drugs, crime and violence run rampant in our neighborhoods. We let somebody come into our block and, as soon as the sun goes down, take over a corner and conduct illegal activities that are so out in the open they might as well be advertising on TV.

We're afraid to walk to the store or let our kids ride their bikes around the block. We're terrified when our teen-agers go to a club and must walk to and from their cars.

So we live in fear, cower in terror as things go on around us that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

It's time to unlock our doors and windows, step outside the house and say, "Enough is enough."

We have, right here in Baltimore, churches in every community - nearly on every corner - filled to the rafters each week with strong, decent, caring people. We have community associations, large and small, that work together to help keep their neighborhoods tolerable places to live.

We have thousands of kids who work hard and go to school every day, though the few kids that choose to skip school and wreak havoc on the community get all of the attention from the local media.

We have government agencies that are paid to protect and provide services to us and, believe it or not, are filled with hard-working and well-intentioned people.

Add it all up, and we've got ourselves an army.

We need to find a way to come together, regardless of our differences, and take back our communities. We need to stand up and fight instead of lay down and die. We need to send a message to all the cowards and the thugs, all the dope dealers and killers that are preying on our community - that there are more of us than there are of you, that we're tired of you running our neighborhoods and we're coming to take them back, that your days of running things are over.

The beauty of it is, we can all come together to send this message. Even if you and I are usually on opposite sides in business, politics or whatever, we can all show that we can rise above our differences to fight for our community.

This fight is a common bond that we all share, and if we come together, it will be a powerful force. People talk all the time about how there is all this talk but that nobody ever backs it up or steps up to the plate to do anything. We need to change that.

A call is out for people of all ages, races and religious affiliations to join hands and form a human chain Saturday across North Avenue as a symbolic protest against crime and violence in our community.

Saturday is the 13th annual "Love Hands Across Baltimore," our chance to make a statement. What happens after that is up to us. We have to dig in and make a stand. But I'm betting that, if we come together Saturday, we'll figure out a way to do the rest.

We have the power. Let's come together to make a difference.

Steven T. Mitchell is an assistant state's attorney in Baltimore and president of the Monumental City Bar Association.