Well Done

THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE--all its leaders and all its people--have shown strength and character in their response to last Monday's sad outburst of violence at the city high school.

Feelings ran understandably high after Anthony Colosimo and William Graham were stabbed in a closed-off wing of Cambridge's Rindge and Latin High School, but the peace was kept. Beyond that, city residents, reacted constructively--gathering in many forums to discuss openly the problems, including the racial tensions, that trouble the city.

The list of heroes is a long one. Among them are the father of the dead boy, whose pleas for "no retaliation" set the tone for a week of complete calm, Father George Vartselis of East Cambridge's Sacred Heart Parish, who prayed with and led his community, and the school administration, which took a deep breath after the tragedy and set purposefully to work at the job of reopening the school.

Unlike their Boston counterparts, Cambridge political leaders tried to hold the city together instead of dividing it for political gain. School Committee Chairman Alice Wolf, and School Committee members Glenn Koocher '72, and Henrietta Attles, City Councilors, Walter Sullivan, Francis Duehay and Alfred E. Vellucci all displayed particular sweat and courage. And the city administration functioned smoothly and tirelessly, the mechanisms in place to handle the crisis before it happened.

One not-so-herioc contribution came from Harvard University. A one-paragraph release signed by President Bok and released four days after the stabbing commended the city for its calm; an immediate telephone call offering communications equipment, meeting space or other material support necessary would have been more useful.

But the citizens of Cambridge, more than anyone else, deserve praise for showing unity and restraint in a potentially explosive situation. The city has many difficult issues to talk out in the months ahead; the most important is its commitment to meaningful racial integration of all city schools. But the spirit and the strength shown over the past week suggest that meaningful change may come from a sorrow shared by the city.