Comin from where am from excerpt from book

I look at these youths and I know that they aren't fools. What are they? They are my brothers, my cousins and my friends. I've known most of them all my life.They don't have degrees , they are for the most part incapable of any intellectual depth or abstract thinking but they are some of the smartest people I know. They know about life. They don't pretend to be what they are not. Their friendships are real and their conflicts even more intense because life on these dirty avenues are harsh. They are very loyal to their own, I know because I've never seen so many grown men who act as tough as they do cry over the killing of one of their own brethren.  They are not perfect but they are human beings. They accept this one life for what it is and hope for the best. I won't say that they have not strayed but each one of us know that they have come a far off these dirt roads. They are more loyal to their own than most who claim to have that virtue.