Erratic charity

After Sunday morning worship I was driving down the street, my eyes almost blinded by the sun's brightness. In the distance, I saw silhouettes of three people standing on the corner outside of a mom and pop convenient store. I drove nearer. It was three of my boys. I pulled over. "Hey, what's up?" I asked "What's up T.?" "T, we broke," one of the boys said. That was his way of saying, "The program’s over." "T, you want to be the driver?" (Referring to a drive by shooting) What he meant was, "We're back to what we were doing before." Seeing them standing on the corner reminded me of a line I read in a book. "When facing systemic disadvantages such as these [poverty, inaccessible or poor health, inadequate education, and rampant crime], erratic charity can't even things up."
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