Last Chance

Before Brad Braxton goes to a gangster's final destination, he has a choice to make.

A A A Comments By Luke Turf Thursday, Sep 22 2005

...continued from page 5

It's quiet in the classroom, almost too quiet. But there's always one, and Brad orders a boy running his mouth to come sit by his side. The kid's one step away from being forced to do a set of push-ups, two from being sent to Rev's office. "Sit still," Brad tells the boy, who has the same dream of playing professional football that Brad had at his age. "Read about boats."

At the end of the session, Brad asks the kid why he didn't read.

Jim J. Narcy

Brad Braxton is now working with the Reverend Leon Kelly at Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives.

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"I did," the kid says.

"Oh, yeah, then tell me something about the book," Brad replies. "Tell me one thing, one thing, from even the first page, the first paragraph. Tell me one thing."

The kid stares at the ground and tries to keep a grin off his face.

"Yeah," Brad says. "You can't slick an oil can."

Brad makes no secret of the fact that he's after Rev's job.

"Brad has the raw ability to do it," Kelly says. "He has the street knowledge and ability to lead, in his own way." Kelly saw Brad committed to the gang. Then he saw Brad committed to his family. Now he sees Brad committed to the kids.

But Brad still has work to do, Kelly says. He needs to polish his communication skills. He needs to learn to use that charisma in a positive manner. He needs to get his diploma and maybe even some higher education, so that he knows how to run an organization. Those skills can all be acquired, though, and Brad will pick things up as he continues to mellow out from gangster life.

Rev knows. He's been there himself.

"So many are strong in one area and think that's all it's going to take, but it's not," he says. "I know how it is to keep the old man contained and suppressed. The way we used to do things in the past, that old man still lives inside of us, inside all of us."

Kelly has seen so many gangsters who think they can survive the life but end up in jail or dead because they can't live within the limits of the law. After Kelly got out of prison, he saw someone who had tried to shoot him dead before he got locked up. That old man inside him got going and wanted revenge, he remembers, but he walked away instead.

Someday soon, Brad will cross paths with the man who shot him.

Kelly prays that Brad will be able to walk away, too.