As Black History Month comes to a close for the 35th time I am left reinvigorated. The family and I went to Washington DC last week for four days to see the sights. It's one of those things that I always wanted to do but like so many things in my childhood it was just [...]
When I was a young man growing up in 90s Bed-Stuy Brooklyn there were certain things that I eventually grew accustomed to. There was the sound of gunshots in the night. Long hot summers where anything was possible, and violence was inevitable. Conversations that began with "Yo, did you hear about..." And being searched by [...]
Time flies. I know it's cliche to say that but it's true. When I started this blog my son had just turned three. He was such a handful that I had to write about it. Now he's seven, a handful in a much different way, and FatherDad is 4. Four years on the internet is [...]
I was re-reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail and I had to pause to take a deep breath a time or two. Not because his letter was a tear jerker - it's not. It's truth spoken to power and is not at all sentimental. The ideas from his letter that [...]
These days it been?fashionable to say things like "now all people will be judged by the content of their character" and "America has changed forever." I'll buy the latter argument because it's?ambiguous enough to read anything you want into it. The former, however, I have laid?no false?claims to. In my own experience I still get [...]
Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to take the day off from work to be dad. I took the day because Dev's school was closed - one of the many holidays that public schools force us parents to make other arrangements for.?Anyway, I seized the opportunity and walked with my son to?our local [...]
Forty years ago today the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was murdered. At varying points throughout my life I have asked older people about that fateful day. All of the responses have been similar and consistent. They have told me of an overwhelming feeling of grief, and a sense of feeling lost and abandoned. [...]
This Black History Month I had planned to write a post about the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. He is inspiring a country to forgo the status quo, look past race, and consider the best person possible to run this country. Obama has supporters from around the world who are hoping for a major shift [...]
As of this week Devin has decided to "retire" from the MTA and focus all his efforts on becoming president of the United States. With Dr. King's birthday having passed last Tuesday (and his observed holiday being tomorrow), along with Barack Obama running for president, his declaration gave me pause. Could my son one day [...]
There are tons of things that annoy me, as many of you know. However, in the spirit of the season I thought I'd mention some of the things that I thought were actually positive in 2007. Part of the inspiration for this list came from PHX who commented on The Black [Dad] List: Year in [...]
