European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes . Monday december 28,1992 youth s diary strikes a chord new York apr Latoya Hunter is just 14, but recently the mail brought her a packet of letters from teen agers in Brooklyn Many of them girls seeking advice about boys and their parents. A was i was Reading it i  believe it a says Latoya whose face still has the softness of childhood. A i mean in a going through those problems now and they think i am an  they think she is an expert because they know her deepest thoughts expressed in a diary she kept during her first year in Junior High school. The diary of Latoya Hunter published earlier this year is about the stuff of Young girls lives a school friendships boys television the urge for Independence and conflicts with her Mother. But the slim volume which runs 1ji pages goes deeper. It is also about being a Black immigrant girl growing up in the Bronx. Latoya wrote in her diary about the Gray treeless streets of her neighbourhood the deadly violence around her teen age pregnancy the poverty of caring and learning at her school and her homesickness for Jamaica. Its the ordinariness of her  world against this troubled background that draws the Reader into her diary. Latoya rhapsodies about her passion for junk food and to and then in painfully Clear prose writes about the gunshots that killed a store clerk who sold her Candy. A today gunshots Echo in my head a Latoya wrote Jan. 9, 1991. A they Are the same gunshots that killed an innocent human being right across from my House last night. They arc the same gunshots that have scarred me i think  Latoya a world has expanded beyond its old Bronx Borders because of a devoted teacher a Chance newspaper article and her gift for writing. A i think it was mostly Luck Quot Latoya  then she adds a i think like i am a Good spokesperson for people around my age for kids who Feci that they done to count in anything that they re being held Back from being who they really want to be by outside things like parents and friends and the kind of environment you live  a 1990 newspaper article about the graduation of Latoya a sixth Grade class said her English teacher wrote a the world is waiting for Latoya a on her report card. An editor at a publishing company saw the Story and was inspired. He contacted the teacher to ask if Latoya would be interested in keeping a diary her first year in Junior High. Latoya was Oft Rcd a $5,000 Advance and will receive $25,000 for the paperback rights. Her first entries began a dear diary a then she decided to personalize her journal because a a you be become like a Best Friend to  she named it Janice Page after her Best Friend in Jamaica a i like Guys Quot Latoya wrote. A there i said it. Its easy to say to you but my Mother would give me a real hard time if she heard me say that. She believes a Norma 12-year-old should Only obey her parents go to school learn her lessons and come Home every Day and listen to her parents some  she recounts her first relationship with a boy they did no to go out they just opened their hearts Over the Telephone her brother a wedding she was a bridesmaid in Blu and the birth of her unmarried Sisters boy. Today gunshots Echo in my head Latoya Hunter wrote in her diary about the gunshots she heard that killed the store clerk who sold her Candy. Here is an excerpt from her diary. She Calls the diary Janice. January 9,1991. Dear Janice today gunshots Echo in my head. They Are the same gunshots that killed an innocent human being right across from my House last night. They Are the same gunshots that have scarred me i think forever. Late last night i was in bed when i heard a Man screaming for a police officer. I told myself i did t hear that. Later i told myself i did t hear the four gunshots that followed his cry for help. I Lay there in bed and it was like i was Frozen. I did t want to move an Inch. I then heard hysterical crying. I ran to the window when i could t keep myself Back any longer. What i saw outside were cops arriving. I ran into my Parent s room and woke them up. By that time tears were pouring unstoppable from my eyes. I could t Stop shaking. My parents looked through the window and got dressed. They rushed outside and i followed them it turned out that i knew the person who got shot. He worked at the store at the Comer. He was always so Nice to me he was always smiling. He did t know much English but we still managed a Friendship. I can t believe this happened. Things like this happen everyday in ., but not in my neighbourhood not to people i know. Her conclusion a with understanding i think i will achieve anything i  until she was 8, Latoya was raised by relatives in Jamaica while her parents were in the new York area struggling to make a new life for themselves. Today her Mother Linneth works evenings As a nurses aide her father Linton works overnight As a Security guard. And Latoya now lives in a Well kept apartment in a Blue House on a tree lined Street in mount Vernon a City just North of the Bronx the books sales started out slowly but the Media response has been overwhelming. Latoya has been interviewed by reporters appeared on television talk shows and news programs a including one that airs in Japan a and met the jamaican prime minister. Two movie companies arc bidding for the rights to the Book says Richard Marek her editor at Crown publishing inc. She a a Sophomore in High school having skipped a Grade in school. Ithaca College and Columbia University already have approached her she says. She wants to study psychology and also be a writer. She also says that after she has had a Job for a year she wants to have a baby. Sitting at her dining room table she fidgets with a Pendant necklace belonging to her Mother. She is shy soft spoken but articulate. A a it a like everybody a dream to be in America. And now that i am Here i just done to want to waste the opportunities i  sex addict to get  Drug policy Job by the new York times new York a mayor David n. Dinkins plans to name a former heroin addict to head his office of drug abuse policy an Agency that oversees More than 100 drug treatment centers and coordinates the treatment programs of about a dozen City departments. A spokeswoman for the mayor Annabelle Frances Dirini said saturday that Raymond Diaz 48, currently a Deputy commissioner in the City a human resources administration was asked last week to take Over the office whose director resigned in september. Diaz has worked for the last 20 years setting up and expanding drug treatment programs in jails homeless shelters and Community centers. But perhaps his most unusual credential for the Job is his firsthand experience with Over coming a drug problem As a Young Man in the Bronx. �?o1 was a heroin addict a Diaz said saturday. A my primary motivation for doing this kind of work comes from my own addiction experience and from knowing that this kind of treatment  Diaz recounted How he started using marijuana and wine in the Early 1960s, by the time he left the air Force in 1966, he had a a full blown Quot heroin problem he said. Over the next three years he was often homeless was. Arrested on drug related charges and was sur rounded by the deaths of friends with whom he had started his habit. �?o1 came to a Crossroads a he said. A i knew i either had to seek help or i would die As an  after completing the exodus House treatment program in East Harlem Diaz began working in the drug treatment Field gaining a masters degree in social work front Fordham University in new York. He has spent the last 2vi years supervising 23 homeless shelters which House about 7,000 single adults. During that time he has expanded the number of drug treatment programs available to people in the shelters drug experts said. A before that Diaz created a substance abuse intervention division in the new York state department of corrections. He is credited with creating the first 800 slots for drug treatment for inmates. In the interview he said he accomplished it without any substantial budget increases but by using Money originally budgeted for correction officers for drug Counselor instead. He said his history should Send a message. A this society focuses on the addict and its Impact on our Quality of life but we done to focus on people who Are rehabilitated and in recovery a he said. A we need to know that they exist among us As contributing members of society who Are testimonial that treatment  sets self on fire after trying to Burn officer from wire reports Dallas a a 19-year-old Dallas vagrant who set himself ablaze after trying to Burn a police officer was hospitalized in serious condition saturday officials said. The unidentified Man was being treated at Parkland memorial Hospital. The incident began Friday afternoon when officer James Walton saw the Man behind a shopping Center in North Dallas police said. The Man is a suspect in several minor thefts. Walton began to questioning the Man but a scuffle ensued police said. The Man then doused Walton with gasoline from an Antifreeze bottle he was carrying and tried to strike a Book of matches. When they did no to Light he ran away. Police searched the neighbourhood and several minutes later found the Man hiding in the Back seat of a car. When officers ordered him to get out of the vehicle the Man poured the remaining gasoline on his shirt and struck a match setting himself and the vehicle on fire police  waiting list grows new York a the number of families waiting for City run Public housing has reached a record 240,000, according to a published report. That equals the total number of apartments managed by new Yorkus housing authority the new York times reported sunday. With about 4.5 percent of apartments becoming vacant each year some people could wait 20 years the newspaper said. The number of families seeking subsidized housing was 180,000 in 1990.stranded Motorist killed Tampa Fla a authorities searched saturday for a Man who stopped to assist two stranded travellers but later robbed them and shot one of them to death. Jack Espinosa spokesman for the Hillsborough county sheriffs department said Alex Garbizu 32, and his Cousin Ricardo Garbizu 29, both of Ronkonkoma ., had car trouble thursday evening on interstate 75, just North of Tampa. A the suspect stopped to help and ended up driving them to two service stations about a mile South of where they had stopped a Espinosa said. A they bought transmission fluid and headed Back to their vehicle. Once there the suspect produced a Black automatic handgun and demanded the menus  Alex Garbizu resisted and was shot once in the Back. He died at the Side of the Road police  Board rarely meets Washington a Cabinet level Board members of the Federal Agency that insures the pensions of 40 million americans have met face to face just once in the past nine years the Washington Post reported sunday. The Board of the pension Benefit guaranty corp. Comprises the secretaries of labor Treasury and Commerce. Despite warnings from the Agency a executive director that the pm go faces an a is amp a style taxpayer bailout if various financial problems Are not addressed the Board has met Only once in person since 1982, the Post reported. The pm go administers a fund to Back medium1 sized and Large companies pension liabilities made up or payments from the companies. If it ran out of Money taxpayers would have to make up the  rights Law adopted i a Ile voters in other cities have loudly debated and sometimes rejected civil rights Protection for homosexuals St. Louis has quietly adopted one of the strongest Gay rights Laws in the nation. J a the ordinance passed unanimously by the City a Hoard of aldermen Drew so Little attention that its adoption went unreported for two months until the. Louis based lesbian and Gay news Telegraph carried a Story on it dec. 3. I he Law bars discrimination in housing credit v ploy ment education and Public Access on the grounds of physical or mental disability race Pigion family status and sexual orientation