Antonio stopped by today and yesterday. I really feel selfish! But it just annoys me to think he thinks he can come in every day and clean out our refrigerator! First he asks if he can come in (see, he has this strategy of working up to things). Then he asks for potato chips; then he asks for sandwiches; then he asks for kool aid. He looks in our refrigerator for leftovers. He asks to be cooked for. When he left today, he said, "I'll be back tomorrow for more food, Jeanne.

I said, "Don't make this an everyday thing, Antonio."

He consumes amazing amounts of food – potato chips, three or four sandwiches, leftover macaroni, and two pieces of cake at one sitting! He's sixteen, he talks to himself or to imaginary people all the time. The kids in the neighborhood give him a rough time. I don't know he lives with his aunt, sister and two brothers on Broad Street. If it were Delores, she'd probably give him freely. Delores never takes any thought for her own comfort. I mean, if there's something in the house, like potato chips, for example, and someone asks for them, she'd say, "Sure, here." She would never think, "Oh, I'd better save those potato chips, so I can snack on them tonight after work, while I watch TV." I don't know why I'm so grudging.

I sent Ronnie a letter today. After talking with him on Thursday, I thought out all that I wanted to tell him about the value of education and wrote it down in a long serious letter Then I decided that it would be too hard to read; so I rewrote it in large print, with lots of humorous little pictures, with a lighter touch in a colorful little book form. It was kind of a creative challenge like Edith Schaeffer talks about in her book Hidden Art to see if I could make it interesting, easy to read, and still get the point across. It's neat to be creative with those you love and want to help. Reminds me of the little comic book on evolutionary theories I drew for my roommate Sharon to help her through the biology class we were both taking. Now I just hope he will get it, read it, and get the point. I committed it to the Lord's hands to use.

Barb thinks Ronnie might go back with his family for the summer and John wants to ask him about Jr. Counseling.

All Greg's wardrobe was taken that other night, not just his radio! Apparently Frostie did it because he blames Greg for his being put out. Poor Barb after directing camp for teenage girls all week and then delivering all the volunteer counselors and Jr. Counselors to their various doorsteps all over Pennsylvania, she finally got home dead tired at 8:30 Saturday night. She wanted to go to bed so bad, but before she could get out of the car, a family with a 7 month pregnant
14 year old girl asked her to take them to the hospital—the girl was having labor pains. She took them, got home, and in bed around 10:00, so tired she felt like crying. Would you believe she had to get back up and help with a situation
across the street. Ronald Skinner had been drinking and was threatening Thomas, Sondra's father. He got picked up by the police, and then Sondra's parents and Ronald's mother got into it. Barb took Ronald's mother down to the police station, but Ronald had been released. They found him passed out on the street. Ronald is only about 16. Anyway, Barb didn't get to bed till 2:00!

It was good to see Delores after her two weeks at camp! She has a nice tan. She's going out again this week in my place. See, we don't have enough summer staff girls this summer to fill all the counseling positions at camp, so the full time staff women have to counsel. Delores was to go out for two weeks, and then I was to go out for two weeks. I'm glad she's going out in my place I sure wasn't looking forward to it. Delores said she wouldn't mind going again. That was sweet. She had honor cabin the first week and all the problem girls the second week! This is her first experience with full week camping, because she came on staff a year ago November, and last summer full time staff didn't go out to camp at all.

Written to Ronnie, after I heard he had to repeat his sophomore year. June, 1973.

Dear Ronnie,

This is an important letter. If you have a hard time reading it get Barb or Greg to help!

I'm writing this letter because:
1) 1 love you and so I want you to have a life!

2) 1 want to rap about important things and I think you're old enough to dig it.

Today I called you to find out how you did on your report card. You said, "Oh, I failed."

First let me say that just because a teacher gave you a failing mark that does not mean you are a failure, dumb, no good, worthless.

You are just as valuable as any other human being! Nothing in the world can change that! God thinks so! He died to get you. That's a high price $$ to pay!

YOU**** are important!

You have GREAT POWER to bring your family and friends closer to God or to drive them farther away from God.

SO, get it out of your head that Ronnie Williams is a failure that's the devil's lie!

What your mark does mean is that something happened somewhere to turn you off to school.

Ronnie, did you know that in the slave days, if a slave learned how to read, he got the death penalty? Why do you suppose those old slave owners were so of letting their slaves read?

Could it be that if slaves could read, they might find out something the slaveowners didn't want them to know?

If slaves knew how to read, they could read the Bible which says all men are equal in God's eyes. And no man should put another man down. They could read the constitution and find out that they had rights

***life

***liberty

***pursuit of happiness which they weren't getting!

They would ask to be paid $$$$ for their work. And the slaveowners just couldn't do that and live as good as they wanted to! So, he was going to make sure his slaves didn't know how to read, so they would believe anything he told them.

See, they had to believe him because they couldn't check it out for themselves because they couldn't read!

In other words, the old slave owner was getting over on his slaves! Are you thinking, Ronnie? What does all that have to do with you learning history? The same thing! People who know can still get over on people who don't know!

Because people, educated or not, are still greedy.

Ronnie, you may think you know enough now to get along in your world.

But your world is bigger than Phila., Pa.! There are all kinds of people and places you should find out about besides just your kind of people and your way of doing things.

School stretches your mind from this size to this size:

Ronnie, a good mind is a gift of God. An education is a chance to use it to find out about this world He made! Learning about each other is fun! And learning about this world is interesting!

Your education is your ticket out when you want to leave.

Look at Barb. She isn't stuck here because she has nowhere else to go. She's here because she wants to be, not because she has to be. And if she should want to leave, her degree will take her just about anywhere she wants to go!

Without an education, you're like a sheep someone else decides where you stay and where you go.

Finally, think about this. God bought you with a price.

So you belong to Him your mind belongs to Him! What kind of shape is it in? Do you think God is happy with a lazy, ignorant mind? After all, His name and reputation is at stake with you. People will look at you and say:

or

How about it? Do you love Him? Are you thankful for what He does for you? Then don't drag His Name in the mud.

Love from your sister in Christ,

Jeanne

Footnote: August 17th 1976

I got the idea for this letter from a book written by Edith Schaeffer, Hidden Art. The gist of the message was that you may not be able to create masterpieces, but you could incorporate art into your everyday living. One of her suggestions was creative letter writing. After I talked with Ronnie on the phone and found out he had to repeat 10th grade, I was afraid he’d be too discouraged to want to try. So, I wanted to encourage him. Also, I wanted to turn on that mind he has. I don't suppose Ronnie is brilliant or anything. But he does have a quick, sharp mind. He’s charming. And witty. One of the first things I noticed about him after I first met him was that he'd have gotten anything I said almost before I got through saying it, when most other kids' response was to take two seconds for it to sink in. Also, I don't know if this is part of scholastic intelligence, but Ronnie is intuitive or sensitive. He can look at all the words on the page and catch the sense of what is being said, even if he can't get all the words. But that mind and intelligence lies so dormant and empty to this day. It's like there's a deep gap in him, or part of him missing. Because his mind has never been turned on. The black Muslims say that is a common plight of black people at least of ghetto dwellers, I would suppose. They teach that what each person must have is a "resurrection of the mind." That's what Malcolm X had when he was put in solitary, in prison, and what changed him or brought him more alive, or something. Malcolm has written too that if most black people would pay as much attention to their minds as they spend time on their hairstyles, they would be a lot better off.

Well, anyway, back to the idea of the letter. I knew I could express myself better on paper than in verbal confrontation and that I couldn't express myself verbally anyway, in a way that Ronnie would be willing to listen to or accept. So I conceived this letter. I chose each word with care, trying to use ones he knew, or could figure out easily from the context, or sound out easily. I added and did as much as I could to make the letter interesting and readable, by decorating the words and adding pictures. In its final form, I made it into a little book with illustrations and color, and all that. This copy here is just a rough draft