My dad has never been around My mom is always working So I was raised by the streets I’m only nine years old but the teenagers around here gave me drugs I took them because I didn’t wanna look like no fool I see and search anything and everything on my phone No one cares I fight anyone who is not in my gang I bully anyone I can Why should I care, if no one does? ——————————————
Your mom is trying to pay bills to keep a roof over your head, she cares. Your dad, maybe he doesn’t know how to act in a way he has never been taught. Maybe his dad wasn’t around for him you know. Not excusing him, but it’s kinda hard to be someone he never had an example of. And those dudes offering you drugs, I know it’s scary to say no, not only because they can make fun of you but because of getting beat up, but you know you don’t have to take them. If anyone actually cared about you, they would tell you not to do them. Don’t do it kid, they care about getting people addicted to make money, they look at you as dollar signs, they need to learn to look at you as a person. Saying no, teaches others through example that there’s another way. People aren’t objects, it might seem like that on your phone. People have feelings, fears, and desires. They’re just great at hiding their feelings, we’re great actors, some better than others. What are you fighting about, if you actually took the time to know each other, instead of fighting one another I guarantee you’d make a friend and not an enemy. We’re all trying to make money, to pay our bills, to live. We want to belong, to be listened to. We’re afraid of death, pain, being and feeling trapped. You see how we’re all the same behind the veil Humberto? I see you want someone to care, and then you would care. How about if that person is you, what if you are the first to care, and through your example things change, what if? ——————————————— I met this young man when I used to go with a group of people to some apartments to help with food and to tell stories to the Hispanic community in Richardson. This changed how I look at people. Behind every person I see a past, a past that affected them. A past that should things have been different, their actions and world-view would as well. Some overcome the odds and do become pleasing, productive, and harmless; others succumb to the pressures of their surroundings. It has been seven years since I had this conversation with this... kid... nine years old. I hope with all my heart that he is alive, okay, and out of trouble. People need examples of what it is to be kind, what it is to be respectful. Without examples the human mind doesn’t know it was possible to even act in a way that suppresses our selfish and egocentric instincts. Be the example. But never forget behind that person you “hate” there is a kid, a kid who maybe was never spoken to, never redirected, or never had the luck to meet someone like you to show them the way.
