Word: ganges
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Principal Harris makes a funny observation, but a shrewd one, about why her well-ordered Catholic school works. "We provide the same thing a gang provides: family, code, color, belonging and activity." And her gang is growing. Enrollment at St. Adalbert's increased by 41 special students this year, to 413, thanks to the most closely watched educational experiment in the country. This month Cleveland becomes the first city in the nation to allow children from poor homes to attend private schools, including religious schools, using government money to cover most or all of the tuition. State-financed school-choice...
...author's message was headlined APOLOGY and inserted in 250 fresh-off-the-press children's books given to guests at last week's Congressional Black Caucus Foundation luncheon in Washington. "I apologize to you all for the atrocities which I and others committed against our race through gang violence," wrote Stanley ("Tookie") Williams, who in 1971 co-founded the nation's largest and arguably most violent street gang, the Crips. "I pray that one day my apology will be accepted...
...founder's atonement, of course, is overdue. By current law-enforcement tallies, Crips colors fly in 42 states, and the gang is linked annually to thousands of murders, robberies and drug deals. But if Williams, 42, has much to regret, he has also done more than apologize. Writing with stubby pencils from San Quentin's death row in California, the convicted murderer published this month the first half of a 17-book series titled Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence. "You can learn from my mistakes," Williams advises readers in simple, effective prose. "It's the best set of books...
...fatally shotgunning four unresisting victims during motel and convenience-store holdups. But his transformation, he insists, should be judged separately from his crimes. Arriving at San Quentin in 1981 as a feared gangsta godfather, Williams was content for years to watch sullenly from death row as gang violence spread--and with it, an urban nightmare...
...much about was based on intimidation, not self-respect. I had been involved in madness." Interviewed in 1993 by author Barbara Cottman Becnel for a history of the Crips and Bloods, Williams asked a favor in return. Becnel carried a videotaped speech by Williams condemning violence to a 1993 gang "summit" in Los Angeles. The audience responded with a standing ovation. Next, Williams told Becnel he wished to write children's books. "I hear this rhetoric about helping one child," he explained. "That's not enough. I wanted to help thousands...