Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2006
Source: Leader Times (PA)
Copyright: 2006 Leader Times
Contact:  http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3297
Author: Tom Mitchell

EX-DRUG-DEALER WARNS YOUTHS TO CHOOSE WISELY

FORD CITY -- Although the sky was gray and it was cold  and raining, 
Terry Davis said Tuesday the day never  looked better. After spending 
nearly five years in  prison viewing time passing through iron bars, 
even the  dreariest days look good to the ex-athlete, ex-drug  dealer 
and ex-gang leader.

Yesterday, Davis, in the company of Robert Stanko of  the 
Zelienople-based National Character Education  Foundation, told 
nearly 500 Lenape Technical School  students how drugs led him to 
prison, endangered his  family and nearly killed him.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Davis said he was raised in  an 
upper-middle-class family. His father was a  second-generation 
minister who hoped his son would  follow in his footsteps.

"We had a good life," Davis said. "I made good grades  in school and 
was a good athlete. I excelled in  basketball. Just before my senior 
year, my family moved  to Orangeburg, S.C. But along the way I made 
some bad  choices. The first bad choice was the people I began to 
hang out with. I started smoking and drinking, later I  began smoking 
a little 'weed.' I had a basketball  scholarship to Miami-Dade Junior 
College. At first I  did quite well, but later, my grades started 
failing. I  worked a part-time job and lived in a nice apartment. I 
made enough to get by.

"One day I was approached by a man who told me that I  could make 
$5,000 or more a month just by 'delivering  packages.' At first I 
declined his offer. Then I had a  tragic kitchen accident in which I 
sustained a severe  burn to my hand. I couldn't play ball, and I 
couldn't  work. I got desperate for money, so I called the man  back 
and took up his offer. That was another bad choice  I made, but at 
the time, I could never imagine just how  bad it was."

The packages Davis began delivering contained drugs,  mainly cocaine, 
delivered to various gangs for resale  to street-level dealers. Soon, 
Davis was making  deliveries up and down the East Coast and 
throughout  Florida: drugs, guns, stolen credit cards. Working 
his  way up the crime ladder, he became a feared gang  leader, a man 
who could collect drug debts and enforce  gang rules on his "customers."

"I was 19 years old and had all the money a man could  want. But soon 
I realized that the police had me under  surveillance for some time. 
One day I was stopped while  driving a stolen car. I was caught with 
a quantity of  drugs, guns, stolen credit cards and a stolen car. In 
short, I faced 15 to 20 years in prison.

"I could lighten my sentence by making a deal with  police, giving 
them the names of my bosses. However, I  was sent a very clear 
message by the people I worked  for. 'Keep your mouth shut and do 
your time or we'll do  you.' They also threatened to harm my parents 
and my siblings if I talked, so I kept silent. My first stop  was 
Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, Md.  That's where I 
met a man who would change my life  forever."

Davis said while in Roxbury he met a man called "K.P."  He said that 
K.P. stood for "King Pin," a fellow  prisoner who "ran things" inside 
the prison.

"K.P told me that he would never see the streets again,  but I 
would," he said. "He told me that inside prison,  he decided who 
would be 'hit' and who would be left  alone. He also told me that he 
saw something in me that  made me 'different' from the other 
prisoners. That's  when K.P. told me that when I got out I was going 
to be  his voice on the streets. I was going to steer young  people 
from making the wrong choices in life to making  the right choices, 
so they wouldn't end up like him --  or me. K.P. told me that I was 
going to finish my  schooling and get my degree: He didn't ask me; he 
told  me. I was 6 foot, 2 inches, and weighed over 200  pounds. K.P. 
stood a frail 5-foot 7, but you didn't say  no to him. That's how it 
was. I faced at least 15  years, but K.P. said he'd 'fix it' so I got 
out in less  than five. I don't know how he did it, and don't 
want  to know, but I was released after serving only four and  one-half years."

Davis said K.P. had just an eighth-grade education, but  taught 
himself to read and do higher math, including  calculus. He taught 
other prisoners to read and  encouraged them to excel in education 
while in prison.  He said K.P. died in prison without ever reaching 
his  full potential in life, and that's the message he wants  to 
bring to young people today: to excel and reach  their full potential.

"I talk to young people who have the potential to  become doctors, 
lawyers, carpenters, and even the next  Bill Gates," he said. "But it 
all depends on the  choices you make in life. Your generation 
embraces things that are extreme, so I challenge you to choose  to 
excel to the extreme. Choosing to do drugs is a  stupid choice -- I 
know. Let me tell you, every day in  prison is like being on the 
front lines in Iraq. You're  in prison with people who have nothing 
to lose. So if someone wants your shoes, or a pack of cigarettes, 
or  whatever, they will kill you for them. You take your  life in 
your hands every time you step out of your  cell. It's a war zone. 
But every day, people choose to  do things that get them sent to prison."

Davis challenged Lenape students to learn from his  mistakes. He said 
no one will pay the price for wrong  choices like the person who 
makes the wrong choices.

"Going to prison not only destroys your life, but it  destroys 
families, too," Davis said. "I was blessed,  however. When my mother 
learned that I was in prison  she was devastated for some time. 
Nevertheless, she  remained a positive influence in my life. The 
first thing my father said was 'Hallelujah!' He was glad I  was taken 
off the streets and away from the drug scene.  My incarceration 
influenced him to start a prison  ministry in South Carolina."

After his release, Davis said he began making a number  of "right 
choices." He obtained a degree in social  science and became an 
ordained minister with the  Assemblies of God Church. For several 
years he worked  with Mayor Marion Barry's administration in 
Washington,  doing face-to-face counseling with drug users and 
dealers in the capital's tough 7th and 8th Wards.  Several years ago, 
he married and moved with his wife,  Sheila, to Monessen where he 
became pastor of Newness  of Life Ministries. Through the National 
Character  Education Foundation, Davis goes on speaking tours 
to  area high schools and colleges telling his story and  encouraging 
students to make the right choices in their  lives. However, 
yesterday Davis also sent a message to  the adult community in 
Armstrong County.

"It's no secret that you have a drug problem in  Armstrong County," 
Davis said. "Drug dealers are taking  your kids' money and ruining 
their lives because the  people have not stood up. This situation is 
not going  to change because of laws, but because of a revolution  in 
the home. Parents cannot put their heads in the sand  and pretend it 
won't happen in their family. Parents  have to take an active role in 
seeing to it that their  children make the right choices in life. 
When enough  people make the right choice to refuse drugs, 
the  problem will go away, not until then."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elaine