I often ask the young people I work with: "How many old drug dealers do you know?" The answer is none. There's a reason for that. These young men have been brainwashed into believing that their lives mean nothing. Unfortunately, many of their own families perpetuate this- we all know the stats of the single mother homes. No one seems to care about these kids, so they bind together, look to each other, and THINK they're replacing the family they never had with each other. What they're doing is holding each other back, and writing their own tickets to prison and death. A young man said yesterday at the town hall- and he was dead serious, and full of emotion- "I would rather die and go to hell than call 911 if there was an emergency at my home." Just think about that for a minute. What in the world happened to make him feel that way? Unfortunately, this is a multi-generational problem, and an entire subset of our community lives an existence that lacks hope. WE know there's a better way. They see doctors and lawyers all around them, but they don't believe that option is open to them. My goal isn't to pick sides or race bait. My goal is to teach them that they can be better, can do better. I don't know how else to do that without also hearing them out. I'm not preaching at them, I'm working with them.
