don't trip, this little nigga just a stupid-ass kid
I don't know very many people my age in H.P. with jobs. At the same time, welfare benefits and job training programs are being cut. That's the recipe for a financial crisis/panic in the ghetto. Money is harder to get these days, and harder to hold onto. The gloves are coming off and people are fighting in the streets to get every dollar they can. Every dollar YOU have is one THEY can't have -- unless they take it from you.
My younger brother can testify to that. He was shot by a 15-year-old late last year after cleaning out a dice game. A veteran of street life, a husband and father of two, my brother commands respect. Not enough, though, to shield him from some youngster's bullets.
In an article recently published in the city's largest daily newspaper, a 46-year-old resident states that he doesn't let his 12-year-old daughter leave the house alone. You probably can't even imagine life in such a place, and for that I envy you. Growing up (and expecting to die) in Hunters Point killed any and all hope I had for my future. I ended up being a writer only because a friend (R.I.P. Dom) had enough hope for my future for the both of us. But I'm looking more like the exception every day. Despair and desperation are common threads in a web of crime, death and drugs smothering nearly everyone in the community.
Charles Jones/ Pacific News Apr.19.04
