I don't understand...

While flipping through the channels tonight between reruns of Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls, I got caught up in Wideangle on PBS. This episode was called 18 with a Bullet, referencing the 18 gang. It was an exposé of sorts of gang life in Central America (principally El Salvador).

One of the guys featured was in the midst of a downward spiral due to his involvement with the gang and crack use. It was horrible to watch the story unfold. He lost his family, his 'friends' and his home. It's a bizarre thing to watch the members of the gang chastise one of their own for throwing his life away smoking crack, when all I could think was, wake up and look at what you're all doing to yourselves.

They referred to the prison as 'school' or some sort of rite of passage. That kills me, I see people like this all the time at work or in the courtroom at docket call. At 19 or 20, some of them are content to stay on the same path that led them to the courtroom.

What a pointless existence to live with an 'us or them' mentality. One of them questioned what his fate would be upon his death, heaven or hell. He thought he'd wind up in hell, but it didn't phase him because the 'war' would rage on.