Say a prayer for Rev. Hurman Hamilton

Some people simply have given up on the inner city. To them it's a matter of family preservation. After years of trying to struggle with violence in his neighborhood, Roxbury's Rev. Hamilton is moving his family to Woburn. Who could blame his choice, given the almost nightly violence?

[Rev. Hamilton] could not bear the growing possibility that, with youth violence in Boston spiraling out of control, the blood could be that of his 15-year-old son, Jonathan.

So this spring, the 41-year-old minister and his wife Rhonda, a physician, decided to give up on their 20-year commitment to living among the people to whom he ministers. On Wednesday, they moved the family to a house in Woburn.

"We had feelings of great contrition, feelings of guilt, feelings of embarrassment," said Hamilton, who will remain the minister of the church.
"At the end of the day, our conclusion was that it is heroic to want to stay on a street that is designated a hot zone with a 15-year-old who looks 19 and a 2- year-old who wants to play in the yard," he said. "But it is even more heroic to figure out how to keep them alive."