Street Soldier

Marshall, a former schoolteacher, now heads San Francisco's Omega Boys Club, which he founded in 1987 to help young people at risk. Working with three other ""street soldiers,"" he is fighting drugs, guns and unemployment, which he deems the chief causes of misery in the ghetto. Writing with Wheeler, who coauthored I Had a Hammer with Henry Aaron, he lists the average homeboy's rules for survival, all of which, he observes dryly, make survival highly unlikely, and counteracts them with four principles to live by: life is the most precious thing; a friend does not lead a friend to danger; change starts with oneself; respect comes from within. He rejoices in the successes of his converts, dozens of whom are now in college, and laments dropouts from the club, of which there are many. Marshall stresses in this compelling call to arms that simply because you can't save everybody doesn't mean you can't save somebody. Author tour. (May)