For example, did you know the National Centers for Disease Control are tracking the death rate of young black males in this country as an epidemic? Just imagine, enough people die from gang-related violence for the CDC to keep statistics on it, like cholera or flu.

His presentation was filled with fascinating statistics and information, with a few gory pictures thrown in to really get your attention. The scenes showing a young girl being branded with a pitchfork emblem (using a clothes hanger heated over a stove burner) were bad. The dead bloody body of a young boy shot by a liquor store owner when he tried to rob the place for his initiation into a gang was worse. But the real kicker was the shot of a live 10-year-old boy. You couldn't see his face, just his arm with the t-shirt sleeve pulled up to his shoulder to reveal a huge chunk of flesh ripped out by a fragment from an AK-47 assault rifle. The wound, in his upper arm, was half-moon shaped and about as big as your fist. It has scarred over but left a huge gap in the arm. Nawojczyk said the kid, from Little Rock, had said the wound taught him a lesson: Never get caught "slipping," or going out without your gun.

Hmm. If it had been me, I would have thought the point was to get out of town, now, and to never have any more contact with gang activity. I guess I'm just dense. I can't understand why anyone would want to be in a gang. It might be nice to have the feeling of love and brotherhood, especially if you don't get that at home, but the risks are just too great.

Nawojczyk said that "we may have lost an entire generation." He may be right. There's a whole other culture, a whole other mindset and system of values, out there that a lot of us have no idea about, no matter how well informed we think we are. I thought I was pretty well-versed about gangs, but I had no idea how to interpret the graffiti or throw the signs. Now I know just enough to be paranoid. I'll never look at anybody wearing the British Knights tennis shoes or a Michael Jordan jersey the same way. Did you know that leaving a shoelace untied can indicate disrespect for a particular gang? And cocking your hat slightly to the left or the right? I may be disrespecting some gang as we speak without even knowing it. Hope I don't die for my ignorance.

Here's what we can't do: We can't let prejudice or stereotypes guide our thinking about gangs and we can't assume they won't happen here. Nawojczyk's presentation was proof that they can. I'm not afraid to walk down the streets, but I don't ever want to be. We shouldn't be afraid of taking steps like using metal detectors or requiring students to wear uniforms. As Nawojczyk pointed out, doing such things are not in indictment of a town, they just show that people are being realistic.

If anybody's tired of the saying, "It takes a whole village to raise a child," it's me, but it's true. People have to come together across political, racial and socio-economic lines to raise all of our children in such a way that they won't need gangs to feel love and self-respect. "For every Billy Bob, there is a Billy X," Nawojczyk said, "but we've got to quit pointing the finger of blame and all work together."

Maybe it would help if everybody could see and hear the story of Tim, a member of the Crips gang who was interviewed by Nawojczyk in 1992, just two days after the funeral of a fellow gang member. He said that he would tell people considering joining a gang not to because "it's no place for them." He got in himself because he didn't have anything better to do. In the video, Tim was decked out in full gang regalia, wearing a blue flannel shirt, blue bandanna and blue knit cap. He was drinking a 40-ounce and was surrounded by his homeboys, who kept throwing signs for the camera. He was eighteen then.

Later in his presentation, Nawojczyk came back to Tim. This time, in 1995, he was wearing a suit and tie -- no symbolic clothing, no 40-ounce, no signs -- and he was lying in a casket.