A Rabbi's Letter

The following was written by a local rabbi in response to the Backer tragedy. My comments on it will follow.
This Tisha B’Av our community mourned twice. One was our national mourning over the destruction of the Batei Mishkanos and all they represent to us. Mourning over the great hester panim and Shchinta b’gelusah and over our lack of closeness to the RB”SO. Although each person is an individual and mourns in his or her unique way the basic concepts are the same.
We mourned a second time for a young treasure that we had here in Baltimore that was taken away from us due to an accident. A treasure, because all of our children are treasures, or potential treasures. Rarely have so many people participated in a levaya here, and rarely have we seen such an outpouring of grief.
Many young people grieved for the loss of their dear friend who was plucked away from them. There were many friends who were there who were friends of the families who are mourning. I saw however many hundreds of people who were there who had no personal interaction with the niftar or his family. Why were they there? It is true, we acted as a community should when one of our own suffers such a terrible tragedy. However, I think that something different was happening. What we saw as an outpouring of grief due to what is happening in our community. Young boys and girls, disenchanted, who are unhappy with life, unhappy with their families, unhappy with their leaders, unhappy with their schools and unhappy with themselves. The levaya made a very deep impression on me,seeing so many of them.
What are we doing wrong? What can we do that will make a difference? Due to my position as a Rav of a Kehilla I fall into the category of “leaders”. I urge you to please come forward and let me know how you think I could do things differently. I welcome constructive criticism and look forward to it. I welcome your ideas about any other aspects of this problem.
A fire is burning in our community (as it is all over) and we must do something about it.
A Gutten Shabbos,