As an inner-city youth in the South Bronx during my senior in high school it was
understood that if you didn’t pass your classes you would not get your diploma.
For the general population, a man has a lifetime risk
of 16 percent that he will be diagnosed and a 3 percent risk that he will die of
prostate cancer. This risk increases with age.
Most of you have been watching politicians shuck and
jive in predictable ways to try and manage the even more predictable liquidity
crisis that has terrorized our financial markets.
Lawrence E. "Larry"
Walker, Sr., 50, had always been involved in the schools his two sons attended,
but when they entered high school he and other fathers began to see the need to
mentor African-American boys there.
Our popular culture has a lot of trouble delivering
affirmative feelings about what we once considered good, basic values. Consumed
by cynicism, we seem embarrassed by our own goodwill.