On this Mother's Day, somber thoughts intrude

For tens of millions of American mothers this is a day to be enjoyed -- to be pampered, showered with gifts, remembered as someone special.
And that is as it should be. Where would we be without our mothers?
We apologize for intruding on the serenity of this day by bringing up a painful, ugly subject, but it is necessary. Because while most mothers are enjoying this day, a relatively small number are wracked by the pain of senseless loss. However small the number, it is intolerable.
We are talking about that unfortunate sorority of mothers who saw the lives of their young children -- their babies and toddlers -- snuffed out by gunfire.
It happened again just this past week in Youngstown. Cherish Moreland, a 3-year-old described as full of energy, curiosity and mischief, was shot in the head, another victim of drive-by shooters.
There are others
She joins the youngest victims of Youngstown's crime wave: Jiyen C. Dent Jr., shot in the head at the age of 3 months four years ago while in a baby swing in his parents' living room; Luis Cruz, 4, shot in the head while in bed in an apartment in the Brier Hill Annex in November 1998, and Jessica Ballew, 3, of Oak Park Drive, who died after being shot in the head and chest on the porch of her apartment in June 1996.
In a little over 10 years, hundreds of men, women and teenagers have been murdered in Youngstown, and while there has been occasional outrage, the killings continue. If hundreds aren't enough to spur action, perhaps it is too much to ask that these four littlest victims should make a difference. And that is both a sad and frightening commentary.
There is no easy response to violence that seems to be permeating the culture. But unless elected officials, community leaders, religious institutions and every decent person in every home begin to stand up against violence, no amount of redevelopment, urban renewal or redefinition of the city will be worth the paper that those plans are printed on.
Could it be instructive that one of the accused gunmen in Cherish's murder is himself just 18 years old and is the son of Willie "Flip" Williams, a ruthless gangster who was executed in October 2005 for a 1991 quadruple homicide? That suggests the theme for a Father's Day editorial that would be even more sobering than this one.