Meet Eddie GatesHere's
a terrific story about how it is possible to get ahead in this country if you make the effort:
"When he got that job as a janitor here, that opened a whole new world for him," said Rosetta Howard, the school's academic dean.
Gates began to see possibilities instead of limits. He saw teachers and students every day who did not seem so different from him.
"There was something in him where he knew he could do better," said Vivian Presley, Coahoma's president.
Gates began to ask about a new program in respiratory therapy that had just been established at the college.
He did not know what respiratory therapy was, but it seemed promising. The average salary for a respiratory therapist is about $40,000 - almost twice the median income in Clarksdale.Great story. He may never get rich, but he's getting ahead.