re: #625 HappyWarrior

When I was right out of college I worked on one of those “alternative incarceration” programs where the kids live outdoors instead of in jail cells. Program was a huge failure (IMO) but some of the things the kids told me have stuck with me for 2 decades.

All of the kids were from Philly or Pittsburg, and most were in gangs. They spent every spare minute drawing pictures of guns or writing raps about guns. I asked one kid about the allure of having guns and he replied, “Guns are respect. If I point a gun at you and ask you to do something, you will because you respect the gun.” I tried to explain that he had respect and fear mixed up. He said it was power.