again:
Don't this bring me back a long time, don't I feel a yen for that kick? Don't I feel a something like him, like my eyes want to follow that fuckin' needle's thirst and trace the push and current of the tecata through the highways and byways of my man's coughing veins. Like I feel way down deep somewhere the urge to put my arm down beside his in humble-pie attitude and take my place among my boys . . . (Thomas, 1991, pp. 328-329).
The story of Piri Thomas is not simply the story of one half-black, half-Puerto Rican man struggling to survive in one inner city of the United States; it is the story of every individual who not only struggles to survive in poverty and crime and despair and drugs and terror and rage, but who uses the tools available to begin to climb up the long road to recovery. The "answer" provided by this book to the problems experienced by Thomas and his family and friends is two-fold. First, no individual can make it out of such conditions on his own. There must be community resources available to help the individual. Second, e
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