Da Block

My block ain't like your block
You remember hopscotch, tap tap tap and bike patrols
I remember drug dealers, crack vials and crack heads

My block ain't like your block
You remember hide-n-go-seek, freeze tag and red-light-green-light 123
I remember being ostracized, not having any friends for the day and watching everyone else play

My block ain't like your block
You remember fun, friends and arcade games
I remember the lady from upstairs running down to our apartment holding her son in one hand and her bloody face in the other. I remember being teased everyday, being molested and keeping that secret (because those aren't things that happen to us right?)...who cries for the child whose innocence is lost while a single mother hustles for a dollar and a better life for her daughter?

I cry for that little girl who didn't get to play everyday, who cried herself to sleep and put a brave smile on her face hoping the memories will
be erased.
Why did you leave? What are you running from? Will you come back?
I won’t go back to stay. Because even though there has been gentrification and beautification, and although Guliani cleaned up the streets and put more cops on the beat,
All I see is corners where drug dealers and crack heads used to stay,
The streets where I used to watch everyone else play,
The building where I was molested...

My block ain't like your block

Today in the world...

It just seems like something out of a movie, one without a happy ending.

Did you ever think that you would read something like this in the papers, in our lifetime? What of our children?What will the headlines look like in their adulthood? Will they even get to see adulthood?

Today on nytimes.com
Plan Was to Sneak Liquid Explosives on Planes (excerpt)

On Thursday, Britain raised its terror threat assessment by one notch to its highest level, “critical,” meaning an attack was imminent.

The American official said the plotters were planning a “dry run” of the operation in the next few days when they planned to test whether they could board flights simultaneously. If this had worked, a full-scale attack would have been carried out within days, the official said.