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Give a damn about our fellow man - children and drug victims

Chapter 37

 

 

  

Or put your girl to sleep sometimes
with rats instead of nursery rhymes
with hunger and your other children by her side.

  

  

And wonder if you'll share your bed
with something else that must be fed

  

  

for fear may lie beside you
or it may sleep down the hall.

  

  

And it might begin to teach you
how to give a damn
about your fellow man!

  

  

The Americans I have the strongest feelings for are the addicts, who have been too sensitive and human to - survive the brutal American drive for success.

  

  

They are not only victims of that violence, but are capable of hitting back with all the viciousness injected into them by the "American way of life."  

  

  

Often on the roofs of New York I helped tie up these bound souls. On certain street corners in Harlem you see thousands of addicts every day waiting for heroin.

  

  

At night not even the police dare move in these neighborhoods from whose shooting galleries we sometimes could enjoy an incredible view of the "big needle" on the Empire State Building.  

  

  

In my vagabond years I could easily knock the guns from listless heroin addicts, but the far more dangerous crack today makes addicts so paranoid that they riddle everyone around with bullets.

  

  

These shooting galleries are condemned buildings taken over by junkies who are partly "shooting up" and partly "shooting down" anyone suspected of being a cop or a bustman.

  

  

Since the penalty for being an addict and the criminal existence it leads to - or in other words a victim - is the same as for being a murderer, they have no real choice.

  

  

They get a mandatory life sentence whether they act as victims or executioners. The shooting galleries are therefore extremely dangerous.

  

  

This man, who had been an addict for 16 years, suffered from malnutrition and running sores all over his body. He was unable to find any more healthy spots to shoot up in and therefore had to take the foul-smelling bandage off his leg to find a vein.

  

 

He suffered terribly and knew all too well that he had less than two years left to live. Therefore he had nothing to lose, and urged me to show the pictures to the world in order to frighten other young people so that they should never come to suffer like himself.  

  

 

AND IT MIGHT BEGIN TO TEACH YOU

HOW TO GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR FELLOW MAN !

  

  
  

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