Starting somewhere

So I'm speaking in a participation in government class in a high school in Newburgh, N.Y., and a kid at the back of the class raises his hand. "Yep," I point. "How do you know all this stuff you write?" he asked. I didn't understand. "You be writing it like you be there," he said. His question has baffled me since. The stories his teacher had given him to read before my visit were mostly narratives, mostly about crime in an ugly, dangerous section of the Hudson River city of Newburgh. The narrative elements I used were based on my in-person observations as events there unfolded. "I was there," was my response to the high schooler. He expected less. I don't wonder why. I expect less. Why…