"We all have the same pimp!"
"You met on the street corners of Oakland? You're kidding me? Right?" Nope. Then they started telling me their life stories and showing me their various scars and tattoos just in case I might have any doubts. By the time they got done, I had absolutely no doubts -- and no illusions -- left. Trust me on that one.
One girl pulled up her sleeve and showed me a knife-wound scar. Two of the girls told me how they had moved from foster home to group home to foster home all of their lives. Another one told me about her life as a gang-banger. Another one's mother had been on crack. They explained all about the street-corner life -- what prices they charged, how they used the back seats of cars, renting cheap hotel rooms by the hour, the Johns, the pimps, getting arrested.
Hearing these girls' stories, I just wanted to hug them and cry -- but they just laughed. They liked being whores. They thought it was glamorous and edgy. And they liked shocking me too. And I WAS shocked. If I hadn't heard the stories and seen the scars -- one even had a bullet wound on the side of her abdomen -- I would never have believed that these all-American girls....
These girls ARE Survivors. But unlike on TV, they are playing a very dangerous game. And the winner is NOT going to take home a million dollars and a new car.
Unlike William Manchester, I'm finding it really difficult to be objective here. An African-American girl. A White girl. An Asian girl. A Hispanic girl. Which one will survive?
And what can we do to protect them from modern-day Pied Pipers?
"You met on the street corners of Oakland? You're kidding me? Right?" Nope. Then they started telling me their life stories and showing me their various scars and tattoos just in case I might have any doubts. By the time they got done, I had absolutely no doubts -- and no illusions -- left. Trust me on that one.
One girl pulled up her sleeve and showed me a knife-wound scar. Two of the girls told me how they had moved from foster home to group home to foster home all of their lives. Another one told me about her life as a gang-banger. Another one's mother had been on crack. They explained all about the street-corner life -- what prices they charged, how they used the back seats of cars, renting cheap hotel rooms by the hour, the Johns, the pimps, getting arrested.
Hearing these girls' stories, I just wanted to hug them and cry -- but they just laughed. They liked being whores. They thought it was glamorous and edgy. And they liked shocking me too. And I WAS shocked. If I hadn't heard the stories and seen the scars -- one even had a bullet wound on the side of her abdomen -- I would never have believed that these all-American girls....
Unlike William Manchester, I'm finding it really difficult to be objective here. An African-American girl. A White girl. An Asian girl. A Hispanic girl. Which one will survive?
And what can we do to protect them from modern-day Pied Pipers?
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