EVEN SOME DRUG DEALERS HAVE GOOD HEARTS


A sweet encounter with a drug dealer upon my return from Maryland.

The day after I returned from my trip to Maryland 5/18-5/23, I ran into one of the dealers coming up my street. He asked if he could speak to me. I said, "Sure. Go right ahead." And I moved closer to him.

He was really eager to explain that he is just trying to support his wife and kids and he has no part in the violence end of things.

I said I understood about the economics of the situation. "I really don't want anybody to go to jail," I said.

"I know. You are just trying to make the neighborhood safe," he said, after noting that I am very famous around here.

First we have to make the neighborhood safe, I said. Then we can try to bring in the jobs.

He said he was trying to find out who broke "my" windows. I pointed out that they weren't even my windows -- they belonged to 90-year-old woman and to a man who had just moved back here from Puerto Rico a few weeks ago.

The dealer (he gave me his name, but to protect him I will not use it here) was clearly surprised and upset to hear that.

It is obvious that there are good people here. Even many of the drug dealers are good people, but are caught up in conditions where there are few jobs and few choices. Otherwise, why would they stand (as they did in the winter) on a corner suffering a 10 degree wind chill while inadequately clothed for 12 hours a day, seven days a week?

This neighborhood desperately needs the help of the larger community of humankind. As do all the other neighborhoods like it.

Posted: Fri - May 19, 2006 at 10:08 AM          

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