DREAM STREET

I have traveled the highways and back roads of this country a great deal in the past six years.So I can honestly say that no matter where I go there is still the need to check out my intended new town not just for areas of interest but for my Black safety. Yes we still have the same concerns generations before us did.Only now we even have to put ourselves on the list of suspects to be afraid of.They all seem to live near MLK too.Why is it that black organizations spend their time fighting for streets,blvds,or aves and when it's all said and done Dr Kings name ends up on every dead end,run down and industrialized road in America.There are a few exceptions but mostly MLK has become a marker for the "bad" side of town. Let's face it many whites don't want his name anywhere near their communities even if they talk a good game about wanting equality for everyone. DR. King was a man who stood for a better America through opportunity for all regardless of color, guess they don't know their history. It is with that in mind that I continue to keep record of these places in cities across the country. Sometimes I think those blocks that claim his name tell a better story then I can but you be the judge.

Freedom

I have met so many people in my travels but to be honest very few women in uniform even less of whom have served in any war.I'm mentioning this because as the body count continues to rise in Iraq on both sides I feel more digust than anything else about this mess.
I have a sense of even more hopelessness about the plight of the innocent people in Darfur. When I think of places such as Sudan and Somalia my blood boils. There is no comfort now in knowing as we head into yet another year and the very real possiblity that some of our thinly assorted troops might end up in yet another country messing up instead of helping.
Still today as I looked through photos from my journies I cringed a bit when I found the picture below.I thought of all the sisters I know who served in peace and war time and kids they left with relatives and or spouses.My mind flashed back to all the immigrants who fled distant lands to come to America who shared ugly stories.Then there is the case of Maj Gloria Davis deployed to Iraq in September and found dead of an unexplained "noncombat" gunshot wound in December.I know a mothers tears of seperation,hurt and loss are the same everywhere but I've had enough of the hate that keeps those salty rivers flowing.
I want to say thank you as I do every year to the men and women who show up at the many memorials,parades,and reunions.They always hold it down for those who paid with their lives. They keep alive those who could not make it back and remind us of the civilians still here but who's voices are never heard,while the media searches for some ideal hero in the name of a better news bite.I don't agree with any of the governments policies concerning our military these days instead I honor the ones who really pay the price, our troops and the innocent people around the world caught in the cross fire of various battles. Yet another generation will know nothing of the word peace, so I say a prayer for them all as my pen is the only other weapon I have to pay respects.