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All the Children of Auburn Are Worthy of Our Support |
After you have lived in a small town long enough, you start to take things personally.
I guess that’s the point I’ve reached because these days when I read the local newspapers, more and more frequently I can see the faces of the people whose stories are being told. Often I’ll know the person personally, will have met them in my restaurant, or I will know of them through a family member or friend. There is a connectedness that I seldom felt back in the days when I lived in a big city.
There are roughly 12,500 people living within Auburn’s city limits, and thousands more residing in adjacent communities that are technically in Placer County. We’re all in this together, though, and we’re often close enough to share one another’s joys and sorrows. It’s nearly impossible to read stories about your neighbors with statistical detachment. It’s just all too close and all too real.
And when the headlines are about young people in trouble, it’s hard not to suffer sympathetically with the biological parents. Life’s randomness can be brutal and unforgiving ... and “there but for the grace of God go I,” takes on so much more meaning when you see the faces in your own mind’s eye.
I suspect we are in agreement on at least this: for those lucky enough to have them, nothing—absolutely nothing—is more important than our children. No matter how difficult, how belligerent, how irascible, how unintelligible, they are sprung from our flesh, and we will do whatever we can for them.
So, two stories making headlines last week were particularly disturbing to me. Two young men, both graduates of Placer High School and essentially trouble-free growing up, are facing immense challenges. Britton Reed is in the Intensive Care Unit of Roseville Sutter Faith Hospital, struggling for his life after barely surviving a savage, early-morning encounter in an Auburn parking lot. And Francisco Evangelista continues to languish in the Placer County Jail, awaiting sentencing on a weapons charge and a determination of his immigration status.
Everyone makes choices, and 21-year old Britton Reed chose to be in a local bar at last call on Monday morning, March 17. The exact sequence of events is not clear at this moment, and, for the purposes of this column is immaterial. What is important is within a few minutes of exiting the bar, this young father was lying on the blacktop, clutching his gut and fighting for his life after being stabbed as many as 17 times, according to a family friend (a published report set the number at 12).
Reed was stabbed in vital organs, including his heart and lung; surgeons were compelled to remove both his spleen and appendix. His blood loss was significant, and though he is recovering and has even walked for the first time, his ultimate survival is a day-to-day concern. No question, this is one tough kid, and like many other people in Auburn, I’m praying for his full, speedy recovery.
The reason why is because I know his older sister personally, a talented young artist who is about to graduate from Sacramento State University. She was on the service staff of my restaurant and was not only a hard worker, but a sweet person and a pure delight. I know she is a great mom, too, and we were sorry to see her move to Sacramento. She brought Britton in a couple of times, and he seemed like a stand-up young man.
And I know both of Britton’s parents. I’ve talked to his mom when she visited my joint in Old Town, and I know his dad after meeting him at a couple of gatherings at the home of friends around town.
I cannot imagine what the Reed family is going through at this moment, but I know this: putting aside the details of what caused the confrontation, the loving parents of this community ache as if Britton was their own. I know that’s how I feel.
And then there is the continuing saga of young Francisco Evangelista, a 20-year-old who has been locked in Placer County Jail since August 30 of last year for brandishing a BB gun on the high school campus (he pled “no-contest” in a hearing last week). For seven months, this impressionable kid has been confined in the same facility with murderers, meth dealers, child molesters, con men, petty thieves and the worst offenders our society can contain in one building. And for what? For stupidly carrying a toy gun with no lethal power ... an object that has never been recovered by the police.
Francisco was originally charged with carrying a gun on campus, a felony, and was jailed on $500,000 bond. With absolutely no resources and a public defender, the youth was stuck in the slammer. When his bond was mercifully reduced to $25,000, he was unable to post because now he’s also under an immigration hold by the Feds. Apparently he entered the country illegally as a child, and now that comes back to haunt him, even though the education system likely has been aware of his status since he entered grammar school.
As a parent, what is troubling to me about Francisco’s case is sure, he did something stupid, but so will just about every kid growing up in this town. And so what if he is illegal? As a community, we have enabled his life in Auburn, and now he is one of ours. For an offense that any kid with financial means would have earned a pass, Francisco is facing three years in jail.
Francisco is likely a friend to many of the young people in this town. He is well known by many teachers at Placer High School, and I haven’t heard a negative word spoken in connection with his name. His brother is a current student and athlete, and well liked.
I do not know Francisco personally, nor do I know his family or anyone associated with him. But I do know this: he should not be abandoned to the system; we should protect him as one of our own.
Britton Reed and Francisco Evangelista are both at a crossroads; in a true sense, they are both fighting for their individual survival.
As children of this community, they deserve our unwavering support.
Gary Moffat is a journalist and he owns Carpe Vino in Old Town Auburn. He can be reached at
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