Recognize.

39 years ago today a 39 year old man was killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

This wasn't just any 39 year old man. I know that you know this.

You do know this, or have you forgotten? You probably forgot. It's cool though, I know you got work and the kids and traffic and classes and thangs. Plus right now you're probably trying to score tickets to that new family flick that opens tonight starring 'Amerikkka's Most Wanted', Don Mega.

Or you were probably mourning the loss of Coach Rob... Didn't get that news either, huh?

On my way down to Texas I spent a day in Memphis. This was mere weeks ago and I just didn't have the time to get over there to the motel. Funny thing, when I got to Houston the first program I watched on TV was a documentary of Memphis and it covered the significance of that place and what happened in detail.

I'm glad I didn't go that day. My heart was too heavy.

In a day and age where we get too important for the good of everyone else by way of duty, responsibility and vanity we tend to forget to respect the architects. In this day and age where policing of ourselves is at an all time low, we seem to forget the events that shaped the way things are now and how good we actually have it.

Because we have it good and we need to let the world know by not removing the tag...

Maybe Aaron McGruder was correct in his assessment of our levels of what is important to us and how we respect the past. Maybe we do belittle other folks' fortunes to make our shit smell that much sweeter.

Maybe.

I come from Chicago where there are still vacant lots and abandoned buildings that once stood proud over the streets of the city of wind until, dare I call it an 'event' happened 39 years ago that destroyed them all and ran away even the red liners, land stealers and slum brokers.

They still haven't come back and those areas are still broken. Maybe some of those places are beyond repair. I was riding through Houston yesterday all air conditioned when I happened on a few of the wards here. I imagine that there are a few spots in that vast space of a shanty town where our people stay that was destroyed in the riots that haven't been rebuilt as well.

Almost made me cry until I thought:

Forget this. I know. Some of us know. Hell, we all should know. What makes anything else more important that rebuilding this?

Then I remembered that it starts at home.

Most of you will read this from your CRT at work. Some will get this feed via your wi-fi connection. Some of you will continue duties and responsibilities and then read this in the dead of night, the day will pass that ass up and you still probably won't realize that just 39 years ago we tore some shit up in an attempt to blow off steam, vent hundreds of years of frustration, mourn the loss of a point of light and try to find a way to get free while the so-called authority dug through the rubble. On the other side of those buildings and vacant lots we fail to rebuild. How far have we really come seeing as most of us either have really truly forgotten, haven't been taught or plum just don't care?

You better recognize.