DEAD NI**A BOULEVARD

Another gunshot, another fatality.Senseless acts of violence seem to plague the African-American community. From city city, young  lives are taken at an alarming rate.Both famous and non-famous,both gang related and non-gang related youth.Never the less,each time a young life is taken,it emphasizes a serious problem. There is a bleak reality facing our youth,and violence seems to be the inevitable solution to a deep-rotted issue that has plagued black males for years.

There is no hope, no redemption, and violence remains the sovereign force among the streets of inner city neighbor hoods. Black males are inundated with music that tells them to be tough, movies that show them how to tough, and girls who perpetuate this "tough" ideal that results in one life after the other being taken away. 

Further than mass media, many of these young men feel emotionally and mentally isolated as they are not able vent may frustrations that oppose that "ideal". Mothers want their sons to be worriers, sister want their brothers to protect them, and God forbid anything that disappoints Grandmom. It is the aforementioned attributes in addition to a lack of guidance and direction that contributes to an ever increasing list of young black fatalities.

 We gotta wake up....

MY ODE TO LOVE...

{Married 84 Years}

Ever since God knows when I have been enamored with love and all therein. Be it the climax scene in The Bodyguard or the love songs that saturated the melodramatic 90’s, love has long been a large facet of my mind, my heart, and my actions, hence my being iif you will.

Now I think love is that much more significant in ones life when it is absent, in my case my father’s vacancy left an indelible void in my life of which I have felt since my early childhood. That made me think of love in a different way than those whom do not come from a broken home. I desired to know how a love gained could turn into a love lost. How does heaven turn into hell? And how do children make matters worse? I would soon find my answers (Thanks to the Maya Angelou a.k.a. my mother, and Nene Leakes a.k.a. my sister in my life, Oh and constant repeats of the title track to the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.)

I learned love can not be manufactured, salvaged, duplicated, and above all, love can not be one sided.  I have constantly witnessed one sided love from my parents, sister, and every other relative you can name (from Philly to Alabama). I have seen unrequited love growing up and to this day just as much as a wealthy person has seen illegitimate babies from illegitimate affairs.  I have seen one give and the other take in a way that makes love very unattractive, uninviting, and completely unnecessary. Yet I’ve longed for love in a way that makes me not only want to have the most requited love ever, but a way that mends the horrid examples of love I’ve seen in my life.

All of which brings me to my life now, where I have love and it was able to emancipate my deep rooted resentment towards love. I don’t know if I should be grateful to the universe for showing me the worse of love so I could experience the best of love or if I should hold my breath and wait for my world to collapse before my very love struck eyes. I think Ill bask in the gratitude. 

...CHEERS TO LOVE