The wealthy good leader thing, I have to agree. For the longest time...like Justin, I didn’t give poor people a second thought. Literally…I didn’t think about it. Mike met Mason and I was like dude…what is your problem? Then pop met her and he was like she’s cool. I was like dude…what is your problem? She’s black, a single mother with four kids, just not on our level at all. I’m just being honest. I was nice to her but Mason know I didn’t agree with my brother seeing her. She was cool though she didn’t seem nervous or anything.
Then we met Sir Paul and everything changed. Sir Paul didn’t care for Italians so we got our first taste of our own medicine and we were reminded we aren’t really white. I was like Bro…you might be all right after all. Then pop died and Mason and her family were so very supportive of our family and mom. It impressed MG and she came to the US to meet them. She looked at me and said …ragazzo sciocco…qual è il tuo problema. Anyway…I’m glad someone opened the door for us to come down from the hills and visit the people in the village. It allowed me to meet my second half, something I had given up hope of ever doing.
Mark…you are a good leader because you step out of your comfort zone and helped many of us step out of our. Then I met my wife and I was like....idiot what was your problem. Anyway, I’m glad someone opened the door for us to, come down from the hills out into the village so we could see how bad it is for ourselves. I was as shocked as Justin. The people looked at us stangely, they knew we didn’t belong there. Justin was so disturbed some teenage young men stopped to ask him if he was all right. One of them asked him if someone had done something to him. Justin couldn’t speak and tears rolled from his eyes. He held out his hand toward the youth and the youngster took Justin’s shaking hand and smiled. He told Justin everything was going to be all right. I though, this kid has hope living where he lived. All I could do was rub Justin’s back and try to comfort my wife. He finally told the youth he had never seen how they live and he apologized. It made them emotional too and they actually embraced Justin and told him not to worry it was all right.
I looked at Mark and that was my strength. I pointed at him and Justin looked at him as well and he took a deep breath. Mark said that was why they were there and Justin nodded. One of the mother’s came out and asked if her son had done something he had no business and Mark told her no. He told her he was a well behaved young man. They knew...they knew we were wealthy and we were reminded we arrived two limos. Mark and Justin don’t drive anywhere.
She asked us why we were there and Mark told her...to help. I was paralized at that point. Mark reached for his tearful wife’s hand and approached the mother, as a few other adults came out. One of the males had a bit of an attitude and one of the females told him to be quiet. She told him some whitefolks was down there actually looking at how they live and he was trying to talk shit to us. Mark just smiled and nodded. He told him he had a right to be angry and we represented who he had a right to be angry with.
The man said he had a daughter that wanted to go to a better school and Mark asked him what school. He told Mark what school and Mark told him he would make sure she went to that school starting immediately. He asked Mark how was he supposed to get her there and Mike asked him was he prepared to move. He didn’t know what to say. He looked at his wife who tearfully nodded and sad hell yes. Niobi told her they would move as soon as a suitable home was found.
This man worked hard and couldn’t do better for his family than he was doing and Mark knew it. He told him it was over. His ship had finally come in and the man nodded. Mark told him he didn’t want to hear about how would he afford it, all he wanted him to do was pack up his family and get ready to go. Mike and I agreed to get them all new furniture, and Justin told him he would get them a new car.
We took care of four families that day and it didn't put a dent in what we have. It’s that easy to help change someone’s life. They knew what we stood for and we knew who we could help. Who we were there to help. It was a feeling...Mark told us to pay close attention to those type feelings. They are all doing good to this day and it is so fulfilling to do things like that. We do other things but that was the first time for me to actually see a ghetto and it’s pretty bad. I was reminded that Virgil in UE went into these areas and transformed them and we are trying to get things like that started. Ghettos need to be really taken care of and not just to give to white people.