Check The Diagonal

For Inner City kids, life always goes on.

When a 15 yr old is senselessly murdered who's to blame? The parents, teachers, America's culture of violence, our Government for being lax on guns, crime and education reform? I don't know, but it doesn't make me feel any less helpless. The children in the picture above turned tragedy into personal triumph but what a sad and all too common a story. From heavy hearts, a song soars

The choir's unexpected triumph brought needed emotional uplift to a small, close-knit school hit hard by a violent act. It also vividly illustrated the resiliency required to be a student in many urban schools and the sheer challenge that students and teachers often face simply to achieve a sense of normalcy.

This is the harsh reality of life in America's inner cities and very little is done to remedy it since the problem is largely contained and rarely pours into affluent suburbs. There is an added component of pure luck that must be factored into survival for kids growing up in our inner cities. Various factors can tip the scales in a kid's favor, great parents, close friends, teachers that care but in the end it could very well come down to wrong place at the wrong time, so sad, too bad. Its the reason I live happily in exile in Georgia. While I recognize anything can happen, even in my own backyard, its far less likely than in Washington Heights and P.S. 132 or I.S. 187.

Unabashedly Uneducated

I've received more e-mail on this subject than any other since I started this back up again last month and so I've changed the title from "uneducated" to "self-educated". I take great pride in my humble, public school, inner city roots. I'm from the school of hard knocks and have accomplished many things without parental guidance or a real formal education. I've done these things by myself, with the help of a few very important mentors along the way to whom I am eternally grateful and many, many books. When I was a kid growing up in Washington Heights my mother had a ton of books, most of which were her brother's. Great adventure classics mostly, Twain, London, Hemingway, Salinger, Dante, Frost and on and on. I would escape into them. I may be the only kid you will ever meet who would cut class in high school to go to the research library on 41st and 5th open a catalog at random like a dart thrown at a map, pick a subject and spend the day reading. And so that's what I've done and what I still do today, I constantly educate myself. Depending on my work travel I read up to 4 books a week, most every week. I re-read my favorites constantly, always finding new nuances. I couldn't possibly tell you how many times I've read For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Hobbit or To Kill A Mockingbird. This week I'm reading Memnoch The Devil with Cassy, Inkspell with Nick and Tuesdays with Morrie and a Cooking for One cookbook for me. If I am ever curious about a subject or want to learn to do something I buy a book. I constantly tell The Three, and anyone else who will listen, any subject you ever want to learn about can be found in a book. Period.

..and pull your pants up while you're at it!

Dude, if you start off your conversation with "you know what I'm saying" the answer is NO, I have no idea WTF you're sayin. Chances are, I've already stopped listening. Don't get me wrong, back in the day we said "Yo, that's fresh" way too often. If you've read this blog at all you can clearly see that I shouldn't be giving anyone grammar, spelling or speaking advice but as a former ghetto resident this is just embarrasing. Ghetto children that survive to become productive adults are some of the most potent, instinctualy sharp people you will meet. Yet, more is done to market to and cultivate the negative. The point is, I don't say "yo, that's fresh" anymore. I was watching the RZA in Blacklist vol 2 on HBO (must see BTW) and this millionare musical genius said "youknowwamean" at least 30 times. There were amazing pearls in his segment. He talked about being asked by a young kid why he stopped keeping it real by moving out of the ghetto to which he replyed, you actually think people want to live in the ghetto? I really did know what he meant but what I want to ask him is if he really talks like that or is he marketing to the ghetto. I suspect the later as he is a world renowned chess champion and survived hell to achieve all he has, not the mark of stupid man, knowwaamean? And so, how sad.

Going back 30 years, with pleasure.

Through the power of Facebook I am feeling nostalgic. Going back is an amazingly wonderful thing. Selectively only the best of what we were is remembered. Enjoy.