Jeffrey sez "TEENS GET A WAKE-UP CALL AT EXPO"
Jeffrey Matthews
Newshawk: Beth2
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Sep 2002
Source: Peoria Journal Star (IL)
Copyright: 2002sPeoria Journal Star
Contact: fo...@pjstar.com
Website: http://pjstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
Author: Brett Nauman
TEENS GET A WAKE-UP CALL AT EXPO
Former Con, Addict Speaks At Central Illinois Black Expo
PEORIA - Ron Willis gave 28 Peoria Manual and Woodruff high school
teenagers a life lesson Saturday, exposing them to the harsh realities
that can result from rampant drug use and a life of crime.
Willis, 39, of Peoria told students attending the Teen Summit at the
sixth annual Central Illinois Black Expo that the bad decisions he
made when he was their age landed him in prison, addicted to drugs.
Now a motivational speaker, Willis said he doesn't want them to repeat
his mistakes and end up in prison.
"That's what the jail's full of," Willis said. "Black men from
Chicago, Peoria, Springfield and Bloomington. Maybe you might make
the right choice."
Drug dealing took hold of Willis at an early age. He'd stop at the
candy store every day before school to peddle sweets to his
classmates. When he got to high school, already well-versed at
selling a product on the sly, Willis graduated to dealing marijuana.
That opened doors for him to sell other drugs such as cocaine, crack
and heroin on Chicago's West Side, he said. It became his life. He'd
wake up at 8 a.m. and sell heroin for three hours, all the time
becoming more addicted to his own product.
One day while at his job, Willis said, a good friend was shot and
killed by an addict. Willis said he was sitting on top of a car
smoking heroin, talking with the friend, and the next moment gunfire
erupted.
"All I heard was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop," Willis said. "Then I feel
something splash upside my face. I had blood and brains all over me."
Willis said the incident was one of the driving forces that led him to
leave the Chicago area to come to Peoria. "I got tired of all the
killing," he said.
But life wasn't too different for him here. He still led one of
crime, committing armed robberies recklessly and dealing drugs to
support a cocaine habit. He told the teenagers that chronic cocaine
usage made his nose hairs fall out.
"You appreciate those hairs when they're gone," Willis said. "They
protect you from all the dirt that's in the air. Not having them
caused me sinus problems."
Eventually, Willis was caught committing a burglary and sent for 19
months to prison, where he said he turned his life around. He was
"lucky" that burglary was the only crime he was punished for, he said.
Willis' poor decisions in life help illustrate to young men and women
how easy it is to become mixed up with society's bad elements, said
Carl Cannon, founder of the organization CHOICES, which stands for
Can't Have Our Independent Choices Endangering Society.
The organization lets people who have turned their lives around speak
to teenagers about where they went wrong. Cannon, a former prison
guard, told the teenagers at the event to learn from Willis' life.
"Anybody can make a mistake," Cannon said. "It's what you do
afterward that makes a difference. It's how you learn from that
mistake."
The Central Illinois Black Expo continues from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
today at the Peoria Civic Center. Events will include health, college
and job fairs, a blood drive and various entertainment.