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Ok I went to one of the "middle of the road" schools here in Austin... Half of the students came from what seem to be nice homes both parents around, never without food, car for 16th birthday yada yada. Others came from "the other side" mom or dad never around for this reason or that...gang violence in their neighborhood at the school...
Some perfectly stable homes were shattered during my high school years because this all American boy or girl who had plenty of friends and was one of the "cool" kids wanted to be "cooler" to more people so they befriended gang bangers started doing drugs selling drugs,skipping school etc. Some people want more attention and when they see that acting out gives them that notoriety... They want more and more and more...

As for me... I was a small circle of friends guy... 8-10 people I just saw the gangs as stupid... Hearing so and so got busted for drugs... So and so got stabbed... Then the shocker hit me... On my way home from school...robbed at gunpoint by a guy from the same school... 380 beretta stuck right between my eyebrows at the bus stop (metro not school)... Lucky for me the gun misfired or wasn't loaded. Because after he took my watch wallet and everything I had except my books in my backpack I heard the sound "click" that's when I realized gangs don't just affect gang members, gang violence effects people, neighborhoods, cities, states. I hit him with my fist and knocked the gun from his hands and ran as fast as i could(he was as shocked as i was that it didn't fire)That young adult never was arrested... He was killed 2 days later running across a street after an attempted robbery.

He came from the same "neighborhood" as me... Stable home good grades... Until he started "acting a fool"

When people say these (poor blacks,poor hispanics, kids with a single parent) are the only people effected by gangs. It makes me sick stable families have children, mothers fathers killed robbed beaten etc during gang related activity...I will not go as far as to say those in gangs are there because of a moral deficiency... Some are some aren't.

What was this going on about? ... Every person makes choices in life... Those choices make up who we are...that will never change... Unless the person looks into who they really are and wants to change.

Community mentor programs rely on mentors... If a mentor doesn't step forward for a particular child the child will get that mentoring somewhere else(good or bad)