Ali Sadiq

And I'm at this Comedy Central Festival, it's a comedy festival, and I'm walking from my hotel to the festival.

And I'm there for days and I keep trying to find different ways to get there, not to run into homeless people.

And I didn't walk five blocks down, 10 blocks down, 10 blocks this way.

I walked every which way and couldn't.

And I remember it was in the morning and I was on my way to prayer and I just stopped in the streets and I just started sobbing.

And I remember saying, how much of this is my fault?

Because I have been so destructive and reckless in my behavior.

I just don't understand.

Like, obviously, this is not the first generation.

This is the generation that was affected by the first generation of what I did.

You can't conceive the magnitude of destruction that you do when you sell drugs in a community.

You know, it's people doing things that they would probably never do in order to ruin their relationships.

What child didn't get fed because their mom or their father decided to do this?

And what uncle or aunt stole something?

Like, what did I do?

We never talked about it because my dad ended up using drugs.

That was the lick that society took back.

I remember a story that I told about some young guys that come on the block and they had told me that they had robbed these old guys.

And I looked at the stuff that they had and I made them put it in a bag.

Because I recognized the stuff.