Rough Waters

Hello. Here I go, trying a new blog at a site where I can focus on my "experiment" with trying to help some young people. For background purposes I am posting the link to my MySpace where I began blogging a little, but i think the audience is more social there -- and I hope this to be a little more intellectual. Also I've been looking for like- minded people but have yet to find any! Everyone says I'm crazy, or "that's great what you're doing but I couldn't do it".

Yet my vision won't go away! The vision was to start a youth center for these very difficult kids --- when I say "kids" people imagine cuddly little ones but I'm talking ages 13 and upwards, to 18 & 19; the latter two are the ages of the three boys who are currently staying with me. They have criminal records, they are on probation or parole, they were/are in gangs. They don't know how to work (legal jobs), didn't finish high school, come from backgrounds that include violence, addiction, lack of stability and of course, poverty. So I took a few in... temporarily. Then the vision expands to OK, maybe I should start a youth center and a shelter or group home type of deal. But there's more, you see, because I feel they are misunderstood, ignored, not given the help they need... so I think, I need to start a movement.


I know I should start at the beginning but I'm in the middle of it, so that is where I am starting. And please, do not interpret my saying "misunderstood' delinquents to mean they always need to be pitied and treated gently. Believe me, I am a softy, and I let them get away with a LOT, but I know if I am too soft they will stomp all over me! Even so, most people think I should be tougher on them, and maybe they are right -- I think it depends on the kid, on the situation... hence, the term "experiment". Yet this is my life. Who turns their life into an experiment!! My mother always says I do things the hard way, and it's true. What's life for if not to take risks, have challenges?


So, welcome to my world, and be warned. We are in dangerous waters and there is rough sailing ahead.