Latest Rose controversy only hints at the true issue

Let's not forget that the problem is gang violence, not Derrick Rose's gang signs.

For most of us, 28 Chicago public-school students being slain this school year is as distant as, say, the war in Afghanistan.

Yet in a perfect world you still might hope that some good would come of the latest controversy swirling around Rose.

We're talking about gangs and violence on the sports pages, so clearly the world isn't perfect.

Rose, the Bulls' precocious point guard, was photographed flashing gang signs at a party during his only year at the University of Memphis.

The incident should heighten awareness of the gang epidemic in Rose's native Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, in urban America in general and in some suburban areas as well.

Just imagine what it's like to grow up in an environment where innocent kids aren't secure walking down the street, sitting on front stoops or playing in the playground.

My neighborhood wasn't like that when I was a kid in the city decades ago and most suburban neighborhoods out here aren't like that now.

No wonder that it seemed that less attention the past week was on the core problem of gang violence than on Rose, the basketball player, and how fans, media and advertisers will view him now.

Will the negative publicity dilute his positive image? Will it distract from his preparation for next season? Will it disrupt the Bulls' mission to improve?

For too many of us the real story - gang violence and 28 dead children - is an inconvenient backdrop to a more manageable athletic drama.

It's too unsettling to dwell on the hopelessness in some urban areas: High unemployment, high dropout rates, high crime rates, poverty, homelessness, hunger, drug trafficking as good a career choice as any and violence translating into self-esteem.

As usual, sports are something to care about that doesn't matter and real life is something to care not to care about even as kids are dying.

Until gang violence turns the corner, marches down our street and climbs up to our doorstep - well, how 'bout that Cubs' hitting slump?

If a couple dozen murdered children don't weigh heavily enough on the rest of us to penetrate our own everyday worries, why would a Bulls player flashing gang signs?

The Rose controversy will pass, he'll play on relatively unscathed and the news cycle will keep on spinning toward the next celebrity scandal.

Meanwhile, gangs still will be prevalent in America, innocent youngsters still will lose their lives and society still will be deprived of their potential.

In a perfect world the frowns over Rose's indiscretion would spark widespread outrage over so many lives being lost to so much violence.

In a perfect world Rose - himself not much older than the slain - would use his athletic platform to fight the gang epidemic in his neighborhood and others like it.

In a perfect world all of Chicago's pro sports franchises, which already do considerable good in the community, would combine to solve the gang problem that politicians, law enforcement and social workers haven't dented.

Except, every next murdered child demonstrates how freakin' imperfect the world is.