I'm in a relationship with Brooklyn and I have been since 9/27/???? when my momma brought me home from the hospital. I love her and she has been good to me. She provided so many nights on the stoop and cooling off in the fire hydrant. She taught me how to enjoy riding a bike and she gave me many a route home from a boy's house that I should not have been at. Block parties, ice cream trucks and friends-she provided it all. We've had some rough patches as well, like the time when I was about 5 or 6 and my mother got mugged less then 20ft. from our front door on our way home from Kings Plaza Mall. Then there was the time she just let herself go when she was stepping out on me with "crack", but we always find our way back. When I got married I convinced my Harlem raised husband to move to Brooklyn and both of my babies can claim her as the place of their birth. When I moved to Long Island I didn't go peacefully, I didn't want to leave my girl. I try to visit often, it is important to stay in touch. I've never felt out of place with her, but she is changing and this past weekend for the first time in my life I felt out of step. Saturday I joined my sisters and some friends at Manhattan Beach (in Brooklyn) to celebrate the summer and a few birthdays. Well the sights I saw made me feel as if I didn't know my girl at all. The beach was absolutely disgusting, there was garbage in every open space from sand to surf. My daughter and niece were jumping the waves ( my son refused to get into the water) and I had to end their play when a tampon washed up on shore. The people were rude and so self involved, the concept of community tossed like the trash everywhere. Is it bourgeois to consider caring for the environment a priority. Is it to much to ask for people to simply clean up behind themselves? I saw grown ass people drink from soda cans and then just drop them on the sand. The chain link fence that bordered the parking lot was so covered by garbage from the days picnics that you couldn't see through the open spaces. Why are people so careless? Don't they want a nice area to come back to. Oddly enough, besides my sisters know one else seemed to be as disturbed as I was. I started to feel as if maybe they didn't care because they didn't feel as if they deserved any better. They would settle for this little stretch of beach no matter what the condition. Powerlessness and disregard have been the cornerstones of the demise in so many ethnic enclaves and has opened the door to the gentrification that is sweeping Brooklyn and so many other communities. As one famous Brooklynite once cautioned, people better "Wake up!!!!" (Spike Lee-ending of School Daze) We only get one planet.
Maybe I'll have another opinion to share soon...Be well.
3 comments:
How sad to see...but what a great opportunity to get children involved in some community beautifying project. Hopefully, if we teach our little ones right, they won't be the ones tossing out the cans on the ground, but "bossing" us to use the trash can. Were there enough empty garbage cans around to use??? As for my part, I go to the beach often and right before we leave we always do our own mini clean up and pick up stuff that was already there...
Hey, how are u? Sadly there were not enough garbage cans for the vast number of people. But I think this is a personal responsibility things, if you are going to bring food and such to the beach/park etc...then bring a few garbage bags.
Hello Mrs. R.
MY name is Laura and I work with Mr. R. Happy Birthday.. FEliz Cumpleanos....
Enjoy your day and May God continue to Bless you as you celebrate the anniversary of your birth!!
LG
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