A shining star is dimmed

Long before Barack Obama branded “change” as his campaign’s mantra, a young man named Matt Garcia ran for city council in a Bay Area town with the motto and won a contest that ousted an entrenched incumbent.

When Matt recently met Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, he said Matt was “the future … the new generation.”

Matt’s friends weren’t surprised when he became the youngest person ever elected to the City Council of Fairfield, a city of more than 100,000 that includes Travis AFB, the Air Force’s largest airlift base. He always said he wanted to be mayor of Fairfield, his hometown, and his friends believed him because he was authentic, honest and driven beyond his tough family beginnings.

Matt Garcia

But Matt won’t get the chance to fulfill his dreams and the dreams of his city. While visiting a girlfriend on Monday night, an assailant got out of a car and aimed a .22 caliber rifle at Garcia. The killer unloaded eight rounds and one hit Garcia in the head. He fell to the ground, and the hope for the kid from Fairfield fell with him.

Garcia, 22, died, plunging Fairfield into a historic darkness that brought grown men to their knees and broke the heart of a family, friends, youth and an entire city. Matt was a special young man who raised himself, with the help of his beloved grandmother, out of the depths of madness and despair visited upon his family by his gangster dad and friends who also chose crime as a way of life.

His father went to prison as a gang member, leaving Matt to learn how to be a righteous man without a righteous father figure. He turned to his grandmother and Jesus, who made up his family. She was there with him when he was elected to the City Council, and she was with him as doctors pronounced him brain dead.

Matt’s killer should rot in the hottest corner of hell. Police must capture this assassin and then corner him with justice for Matt and the city of Fairfield.

The pain of Matt’s brutal death is so overwhelming because he was a true leader, a family man in a family that had lost its bearings. So many like Matt litter the gang-infested barrios of Los Angeles and the projects of Oakland, Calif. If not for his strong soul, his grandmother and Jesus, Matt could have been a statistic, too.

Instead of drugs and gangs, the lure of which caught up some of his friends, Matt turned to government in high school. His infectious smile really made others smile. Before he won his unlikely election in 2007, Matt had made friends with all kinds of people, from high school students to the elderly. His gentlemanly demeanor seemed like something out of another era, yet he was cool with the kids.

A lesser human with a weak mother figure might have given in to the gangs that haunted his family and friends. Matt wanted a change, a real change. Not the kind Obama pretends to embrace. Matt knew the down and dirty world of his father. He saw it creeping into his hometown.

He wanted to help the kids, give them a future. He regularly visited the local high schools to speak with students about their needs and their fears. He walked downtown Fairfield and did the same with anybody he met on the street. He relentlessly pursued the things that would change the town into a safe and healthy haven for teens and children.

He proved that a poor Latino student did not have to wear gang colors to earn respect. One Hispanic girl called Matt a Mexican fairytale. He wanted all people from all backgrounds to understand their worth as human beings and to believe that his life wasn’t just a Cinderella tale.

Matt turned his back on gangs. He dissed them, as they say. All of this was too much of a threat to the gangs that wanted the power he held. He was “the man” to them, an authority figure. They despised that an American of Mexican ancestry would become a city leader without their help, then make moves to rout them from his beloved city.

Matt’s story is the story of what could have been a disastrous family life, if not for his strong grandmother and his love of God. It is a story of strong moral clarity and vision for his city, which gangs and drugs had weakened.

The assassins’ bullet will not end Matt’s legacy. He has inspired a generation of new leaders. He has made the youth of Fairfield and surrounding cities understand that one person can change things. Real change.

The Fairfield Youth Commission immediately held an emergency meeting when word came that Matt was shot. They showed tremendous strength and sturdiness, inspired by Matt himself.

Matt’s family and friends have started the “Matt Garcia, Keep the Dream Alive Foundation,” to continue his work. The people of Fairfield and of the entire nation should learn something from this young leader whose life on earth ended far too early: Life is hard, but you can beat the challenges and help others.

Matt left with unrealized dreams. He met Sen. McCain and rubbed elbows with powerful people around the country as they heard of Matt’s rise from darkness. Even Oprah Winfrey loved his story and considered having him on her show.

Matt loved being with people, laughing and thinking. He still had one wish, a wish that has now come true for the young man of Fairfield.

On his MySpace page, Matt wrote: “Who I’d like to meet: JESUS MY LORD AND SAVIOR.”