treat children like adults. We act as if the children are monsters, when they have been hardened by their lives.We are effectively killing the fruit of a poisoned tree, instead of healing the tree. Prison is little more than the warehousing lost souls and wasted lives. Especially when we live in a society that inspires hope throughout all of the free world, but grants only second class citizenship for those tarnished with the scarlet letter of a felony. With so much at stake, and the penalties so severe how is it that more and more of our youth are being trapped in these destructive cycles of violence and despair? The answer is that it is hard to focus on the big picture, when your day to day life is a struggle. This is a story of the beautiful struggle that is life in urban America. This book tells the story of a couple of kids Usten and Debra that could easily have been lost in the system, with their lives destroyed, but still they rise. They live in a world where violence is an everyday possibility, and questions of life and death are resolved on decisions made and opportunities lost. A place where beautiful things die all the time, and you become desensitized to the violence and crime. But still there is a spirit yearning to be free. A beautiful fullness beyond what the eye can see. This is their story of inner-strength and beauty in the face of adversity. This is their story about finding gems and pearls in common places, gems and pearls with common faces.

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