Baltimore struggles to overcome homicides, and gun violence. The horrific death of Stephen Pitcairn, brilliant Hopkins student, with a knife to his chest ("A promising life is cut short," July 27), is an open wound in the heart of Baltimore. How many young lives cut short by brutal violence will it take before we, as citizens, parents, grandparents, city and state leaders, begin to teach the ethics that life is sacred, that violence to one is a reflection on us all?

Theresa Reuter, Catonsville