Barking to the Choir

Boyle opens this chapter with an anecdote about the time he appeared on the Dr. Phil show. During the theatrical segment, troubled young men with vaguely-defined gang ties were bidden to look at two expensive set pieces—a casket and a jail cell—in order to warn them of the consequences of their choices. To Boyle, this is wrong-headed. He told Dr. Phil, “[These young men] don’t need more information. They are not awaiting some new data. They know it will lead to death or to prison. They just don’t care that it will” (130). 

In Boyle’s experience, “no hopeful kid has ever joined a gang...No kid is seeking anything when he joins a gang, he’s always fleeing something. There are no exceptions” (131). He says gangs are the last resort for children who are fleeing the pain and anguish of their lives. “But in thirty years of walking with gang members, I’ve never met a bad guy. One would think that I would have by now,” he writes (131). 

In all 63 years of his life, Boyle never killed another person. While it may be easy to assume he has not done so because he has a strong morality or enough emotional intelligence to handle conflict in a way that does not lead to murder, Boyle disagrees with these conceptions.