Writing My Wrongs

I had never thought about the fact that by getting locked up, I was also imprisoning everyone who loved or cared about me.

One of the greatest gift you can give another human being who is going through adversity is HOPE.

That’s why I’m asking you to envision a world where men and women aren’t held hostage for their pasts, where misdeeds and mistakes don’t define you for the rest of your life. In an era of record incarcerations and a culture of violence, we can learn to love those who no longer love themselves. Together, we can begin to make things right.

This is one of the costs of being locked up-inmates are basically left behind by the world.

In life, it’s not how you start that matters. It’s how you finish.

I believe the crack epidemic is partly to blame for the misogyny in our community, and in hip-hop culture. When I was growing up, it was nearly unheard of for men to refer to women as hoes and bitches, but in the streets, these terms became the norm.

Thousands of youths are making the same mistakes every day. But we weren’t born that way. None of our children are born that way. And when they get that way, they aren’t lost for good.

There is no way in hell you are giving up and letting them win,' she said. …'We are in it to win it. I will never give up on you. Giving up is not an option, Shatka.

Thinking back, those tears might be the best gift my father has ever given me. He showed me that real men cry, especially when they love deeply.

...besides, you can’t change a person for the better by treating him or her like an animal. The way I see it, you get out of people what you put into them…

We all felt the same nervous energy, but we kept it concealed under the stoic masks we had worn standing on the corners in our respective ´hoods. From the streets of Detroit to the organized-crime families in Chicago, from the dirty South to the gang-infested neighborhoods in L.A. and New York, we all wear the mask. It is one that says, "I am fearless, I don´t care, and I will destroy anything in my past including myself." But all of us know that beneath this mask is a vulnerable boy whose heart has turned cold.