3/29/2021 0 Comments Vista Homeboys Gang Membership
I was wrong. Greg Boyle, S.J.March 28, 2017 Photo courtesy of Homeboy Industries I dont believe in mistakes.I have learned that you work with gang members and not with gangs, otherwise you enforce the cohesion of gangs and supply them oxygen.I know now that gang warfare is not the Middle East or Northern Ireland.
![]() I had mistakenly tried to save young men and women trapped in gang life. But then, in an instant, I learned that saving lives is for the Coast Guard. Me wanting a gang member to have a different life would never be the same as that gang member wanting to have one. I discovered that you do not go to the margins to rescue anyone. Louie was 19 years old, a gang member making money hand over fist by running up to cars and selling crack cocaine. After my many attempts to get him into rehab, he finally agreed to check himself in. He was there one month when his younger brother Erick did something gang members never do. He was crestfallen. I will pick you up for the funeral, I said, but Im driving you right back. In the dream, he tells me, the two of us are in a darkened room. Total darkness. We are not speaking, but he knows I am in the room with him. Then, silently, I pull a flashlight from my pocket and aim steadily on the light switch across the room. Louie tells me that he knows that only he can turn the light switch on. He expresses his gratitude that I happen to have a flashlight. Then with great trepidation, Louie moves slowly toward the light switch, following closely the guiding beam of light. He takes a deep breath, flips the switch on, and the room is flooded with light. With any luck, on any given day, we know where to aim them for each other. ![]() Show Comments ( 3 ) Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an articles initial publication. Charles Erlinger 3 years 11 months ago Wise and inspirational, too. Boyle in August of 2014 but I cannot post that link because it will not post.
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