When a 17-year-old accused murderer escaped from the new San Mateo County Youth Services Center recently, the outcry began. How could this occur at what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art juvenile detention center that cost $150 million in taxpayers’ money? The details of how the young man managed to break out of the facility, located in the hills near the Highway 92/Interstate 280 interchange, are coming to light. And the county officials responsible for security at the center are having to come up with some answers. That’s all well and good. But the incident should also be an opportunity to come to grips with a reality that not many in leadership roles want to address: The level of violence being perpetrated by some Peninsula youth, particularly ethnic gang members, is a very real and present danger to the entire community. So the primary function of the county’s juvenile probation people is not rehabilitation of the inmates, it’s the safety of the community at large. That’s why the center has fencing and other supposed safeguards intended to keep the young offenders away from the law-abiding citizenry. Make no mistake, far too many of the current crop of young law-breakers are not your garden variety shoplifters or purse snatchers. They are violent and an imminent threat to society. For too long, county authorities have patted themselves on the back for creating a “campus” instead of a “jail.” It’s time to re-think that approach. If that’s not being sufficiently in tune with current trendy approaches to dealing with juvenile criminals, so be it. Sadly, the Peninsula has changed a great deal in just one generation. As a result, the therapeutic kid glove treatment doesn’t seem to be working.

He’s gone now. Tom Lantos, a San Mateo County congressman for 28 years, died Feb. 11 in Bethesda Naval Hospital due to complications from cancer. He was 80-years-old. Over the better part of three long and momentous decades, Lantos became what amounted to a Peninsula political legend, revered by many, despised by some. As the county changed, he became unbeatable in an election. Republicans quickly realized that trying to oust the native of Hungary was tantamount to throwing good money after bad. It just wasn’t worth it. They tossed in the towel. Lantos was a sure thing. But his critics were adamant: His devotion to Israel and corresponding enthusiasm for the use of American military power in the Middle East and elsewhere made him anathema to those on the bitter and angry left. But Lantos was unmoved. He never wavered. Even when cracks appeared in his tough foreign policy posture (a pre-Gulf War I allegation of Iraqi atrocities in a Kuwait hospital proved to be particularly inaccurate and wildly provocative), it didn’t matter after the dust had cleared. Lantos, a lifetime foe of worldwide radical Islamic terror, fascism and communisim in all of their many forms, persevered. It was rather ironic. He represented what has become an anti-war, almost pacifist 12th congresstional district and there he was advocating the use of the U.S. military, whether it was in the Balkans, Afghanistan or Iraq. The frustrated and addled left couldn’t abide him. They marched. They protested. They wrote letters. They whined. They sulked. Forget about it. They could not find a candidate to stand up to him. Not even close. Was Lantos perfect? No. Was he a patriot? Yes. We will not see his like any time soon.

In some ways, it was a walk back into San Mateo County history. Dick Vermeil, the highly successful former NFL and college football coach, returned to the Peninsula last week. He did so to honor the memory of Homer Zugelder, a friend and one-time colleague when both men were on the faculty of Hillsdale High School in San Mateo early in the 1960s. Vermeil, whose St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000, is retired from coaching now. He travels throughout the country giving motivational speeches and doing some commentary work on football telecasts. Vermeil, as he was as a teacher and a coach, is a superb public speaker. During ceremonies to name the Hillsdale gymnasium for Zugelder, Vermeil spoke for perhaps 15 to 20 minutes. It was riveting stuff. He discussed the basics, the qualities that make up true leaders and people of character and substance. In a very real sense, it was a talk devoted to those, like Zugelder, who don’t put on airs and who remain grounded in their friends and families. In other words, they are quite the opposite of the usual sad parade of terribly flawed oddball celebrities on whom American culture spends so much time and money. Vermeil has never changed. For those of us who knew him nearly a half-century ago when he first arrived at Hillsdale, it’s refreshing to see and hear him now. An emotional guy, he’s the antithesis of the likes of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Dennis Rodman. Vermeil doesn’t crave the limelight. Instead, he tries to deflect it. He’s been a class act from the start. No wonder his message tends to resonate. In excess of 300 folks turned out for the Hillsdale event. There was more than one standing ovation for Vermeil. It was a memorable occasion.