Our community faces many, many problems. Among the highest priorities, two are interestingly connected.

Natchez has lost far too many young men — mostly black — due to unnecessary and childish gun violence over the past few years.

Headline after headline recounts how shots rang out and someone is either airlifted to trauma experts or, worse still, deceased.

We’ve long questioned how in the world can these young people be lured into this lifestyle of violence. The truth is, they don’t know any better, and in some cases, they don’t have much better to look forward to in the future.

Many of these young men simply don’t feel they have a means to escape their circumstances. Having a gun in their pants leads them to a false sense of power and importance.

Blaming the parents is the obvious answer, but sometimes it’s not simply that simple.

Our community’s second biggest problem — recruiting and retaining top-notch teachers — may provide a longer-term solution to the violence.

Excellent, inspiring teachers are rare. Our community, perhaps more than most, needs more of these special teachers than we have.

Our public school districts seem to struggle, of late, to attract the best and brightest to teach here locally. Not unlike the law enforcement officers who roam the streets and protect us from threats, teachers are not extremely well paid — even though teacher pay has been vastly increased in recent years.

We believe firmly that a strong investment in the quality of our public education system will eventually reap a continuing crop of better, more peacefully minded graduates who will build up the community rather than tear it down. That effort will take the entire community’s involvement.