From InsideBayArea.com:
Hey kids, know what's not cool? Getting shot. Ask Arthur Renowitzky, he knows. The 21-year-old paraplegic told a rapt group of teens at a Boys & Girls Club in East Oakland on Tuesday that despite what some hip-hop heroes may say, there is nothing glamorous about gun violence.
"It took just one to put me here," Renowitzky said from his wheelchair. "One shot, one bullet and I'm paralyzed. A lot of people see Tupac and 50 Cent, and hear raps about how it's cool to be shot — it's not. It won't get you more girls. ... I'm lucky just to be alive."
It all went down Dec. 2, 2007. That Saturday night had turned into a wet Sunday morning, and Renowitzky was leaving a San Francisco night club in a good mood, with a "couple of numbers" from women he had met. Turning a corner into the dark alley where he had parked, he heard a loud voice: "Give me your wallet and chain, or I will kill you." He saw a flash, heard a bang. Felt the pain and the panic — I've been shot!
During his 40 days of rehabilitation at the
hospital, Arthur decided that things happen for a reason. Not deeply
religious but Christian, Arthur believes that God has a plan for him. And
he believes that plan involves teaching youths about the damage a gun
can do, and thus began the Hayward-based nonprofit Life Goes On
Foundation. "I didn't want the same thing to happen to another
happy, innocent kid like me," Renowitzky said. "I didn't think things
can happen just like that. I'd see them in street, you know, the guy in
a wheelchair, but you never know that it can happen to you just like
that." He said he wants to change a mindset that glorifies the gun, making it seem like little more than a toy or status symbol. "It's
so easy to pick up a gun these days, and people think it's OK," he
said. "They don't know the effects of gun violence. ... If they could
live one day in my position and see what it's like, I think they'd
change their mind." Continue reading this story here...
Comments