9 for the ‘90s : Be They 9 or 89, Individuals Harbor Strong Ideas About What the Future Holds : Predictions of Violence

“I see war in the city,” says 29-year-old Bridgette Burton, whose mother and father died of heart disease within nine months of each other when she was 9. She was passed from one relative’s home to the next. It wasn’t the best foundation from which to build a life.

But Burton, a program secretary for the California Community Foundation and a single mother, sees better times ahead for her 9-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, with whom she lives in Watts.

At night, Burton attends Southwest College, where she is working toward a master’s degree in business administration. She thinks her hard work and the example she is setting will pay off.

“They enjoy seeing me pushing myself,” she says of her family. “They enjoy the benefits of me working.”

When the ‘90s fade and her son is 19, he’ll be in college. Her daughter, at 15, will be on the way to a college education, too, Burton says, adding, “With an education, they’ll have an opportunity to become doctors and lawyers.”

That doesn’t mean many of their peers in South-Central will do the same, she observes: “Now we have different groups. . . . One group is making it for themselves and the other group is killing themselves. In 10 years, it will be the same two groups doing the same thing.”

But the drug dealing and using group, tempted by good money in an environment where the opportunities Burton is providing her kids are rare, will be the one that multiplies. The violence that tortures South-Central now will turn into full fledged warfare, she believes.

And the government is unlikely to do much about the problem. “If there was not cocaine in the streets, there’d be more turmoil. They’d be robbing and killing people in the streets instead of selling cocaine to get the money they need to survive,” she says.