On Saturday morning August 11, the people of Newark were gripped by emotion and focused on the funerals of the three college students who were murdered in the schoolyard of Mt. Vernon School a week earlier. It was clear that despite all the killings that had taken place before, this one was somehow different. Would people be sufficiently alarmed that they would be stirred to unprecedented action against the senseless and almost epidemic carnage? There was much talk that this was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

In virtually every neighborhood, grassroots groups, many of whom had been active in various “peace in the streets” initiatives before, redoubled their efforts. Some of them began to come together and consider collaborating. There was real momentum.

Yet, as weeks have gone by and as more killings have been reported, people have begun wondering if the window of opportunity to quell the fratricide and begin healing is closing. The challenge is to keep alive the determination to make the dreadful event of August 5 a turning point in the community’s tolerance of the madness.

As the events of that day all but vanish from the media, and as other reports of street violence crowd out people’s memory, the community must remain focused. The compassion and unified spirit that flourished in the days that followed the killings must be sustained.

This can be done by giving visibility to all the things that people are doing to maintain the momentum for non-violence. Jerry Gant, the prodigious Newark muralist, who guided kids in Bethany’s Freedom School in creating a “Peace Mural” on a wall on Hartford Street. The Stop Shooting Coalition, the Street Warriors, and others represent signs of hope that have burst out all over town. These and other gestures of community action cannot drift into invisibility and insignificance.

Concrete actions that allow people to express their feelings and to empower themselves to oppose the destruction that is eating away at the City’s soul must be encouraged and publicized. People power is essential to creating a sustainable movement. The more people feel they are contributing to a solution, the better.

So much of what happens in the coming weeks and months will determine if we can turn this monumental corner. There are short-term tasks and long-term requirements. The greatest of them all is to match current and emerging employment opportunities with the interest and skills of city residents. If people think they are permanently shut out of the legal job market, they will find other means to survive.

But right now, the violence must be stopped. The streets must be made people-friendly. Children must be safe. Families must not live with fear and intimidation. Commerce must thrive. And in order to make these and other things viable in the City, the violence must be brought under control.

Surveillance cameras and gunshot detection devices, such as those about to be installed in the seven square mile area of Newark where some 80 percent of the killings have taken place over the past several years, are not a solution to crime. But they represent a piece of the strategy that must be undertaken to turn things around. With civil liberties fully in mind, this project nonetheless has every potential of being a vital asset in the fight to take back the streets.

The “Community Eye” initiative (http://www.cfnj.org/page10000921.cfm), launched by the fledgling Newark Community Foundation, offers the perfect opportunity for people to make a difference whatever their income levels and stakes in the City’s future. This and other neighborhood initiatives can be real assets in paving the road ahead.

The moment must be seized now.

Rev. Dr. M. William Howard Jr. is pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark