THE NATION IS TOLD TO `KEEP HOPE ALIVE,' BUT NOT HOW TO INVENT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE

As they begin to sweep up the debris of South-Central Los Angeles, President Bush and the Democrats in Congress have agreed on a touch of "disaster relief" for Los Angeles, throwing in some bucks for the flood in Chicago. It's akin to repairing the damage to the coastal beaches after Hurricane Hugo. Sometime our leaders will have to sit down and figure out what to do with the long term, root-cause problems. Putting up some quickie store fronts won't cure the urban cancer of America's inner cities.

We all know that Los Angeles is bound to repeat itself somewhere, somehow, sometime. The hopelessness, despair, and violence that existed in South-Central Los Angeles before the riot still blight dozens of cities across our land.

There is a rough consensus across the political spectrum on the basics of what government can do to alleviate these conditions, although the dollars may be in considerable dispute. Politicians like Bill Bradley, Jack Danforth, Jack Kemp, Dick Gephardt, Marian Wright Edelman, Carol Mosley Braun and Kurt Schmoke know some of the essentials.

Jobs. When GM closed an antiquated plant in North St. Louis some years ago, the company gave only superficial consideration to staying in the inner city. The open spaces of far-out suburbia always win out over the ghetto. The government could try to fashion tax laws to make urban locations "an offer you can't refuse" for businesses of all sizes. This is high risk, big buck stuff.

Education. Cut public classroom size in half and increase teacher salaries by 33 to 50 percent. Every instructor has to be fully skilled and fully compensated. Teaching should, as in Japan, be a profession for the best and the brightest and command public respect.

Law and Order. Double police protection in high crime areas, using high-visibility foot patrols and community-based police. Don't hire a consultant. Examine the basic methods and operations of Los Angeles and Chief Daryl Gates and do just the opposite.

Housing. Build more low-rise units. Sure, some emphasis on tenant-owned (mostly middle aged and elderly residents) is perfectly fine, but even a 17 year-old mother with two illegitimate kids has to be housed. All of the above means that the federal government has to help to "unbankrupt" the bankrupt old cities. Big bucks.

Yes, of course, there has to be more on the list. But the fundamentals are known. There is no need for another Kerner Commission. How much will it all cost? Less than putting every inner city black male under 30 in the penitentiary. Less than the Savings & Loan bailout. Less than perpetuating the SDI, the Stealth bomber, the Seawolf/Submarines and other senseless military pork barrel.

But even all that spending will not do the job. Government can raise salaries, create tax breaks and buy bricks, but it cannot legislate motivation, values and discipline. Government cannot legislate hope. Jesse Jackson says "Keep hope alive." He doesn't tell us how to invent it in the first place.