The lanky 15-year-old with the velvety skin flashed a deceptive grin at the man in combat fatigues standing near the curb. “You ain’t no good!” she shouted at the soldier. “You stealing these young people!”
Staff Sgt. Richard Guzman looked up from the crowd of black and Hispanic students clustered near the entrance to the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, a high school in East Harlem. Sidling over to the girl, he held out his hand. “Hey,” he said, his voice a sleepy mix of fine Long Island sand and honey.
“It’s nothing against you,” she replied without extending a hand. “It’s people like you.” Then she scurried across East 116th Street, another battle lost in the war for New York’s youth. But no matter. As far as Sergeant Guzman was concerned, the neighborhood remained ripe with possibilities. “Everybody’s thought about the military,” he said later as his dark eyes scanned the neighborhood’s pedestrian-clogged streets. “I mean, look at all the people here.”
Sergeant Guzman’s War (NY Times, via VVAWnet)
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.