I carry with me the awareness that many don’t realize the true scope of: the situation in inner cities. During my four years at Habitat for Humanity in Newark, every time I volunteered there I saw the stark contrast of the environment and atmosphere compared to my comfortable suburban neighborhood. After watching the media and seeing what is usually represented, I realized that the situation in the inner cities cannot be fully realized until you experience it for yourself. Until you speak eye-level with the citizens and hear their stories, you won’t realize how bad some parts of our country really are, even though they are hardly fifteen, twenty miles from where you live. I think that it’s absurd that people who live so close to me live in
