My reason for writing this book is to share my experiences with the hope that someone reading it will appreciate the fact that one can change for the better. Our young men and women are facing insurmountable odds of surviving in our communities.

I read a report from the Centers for Disease Control, which states the US saw the highest rate of gun-related deaths in more than twenty-five years. Firearm murders increased most among youth and young adults--40 percent for those ten to twenty-four. The increases were also highest for people of color. Rates of homicide involving Black males ages ten to twenty-four years were already twenty-one times as high as white males of the same age. Crime as a whole is on the increase.

Long-standing systemic inequities and structural racism limit economic and education opportunities. They contribute to unfair and avoidable health disparities among some racial and ethnic groups. So I'm sending out the SOS (Save Our Seeds).