Terrible Tragedies --
This is what our children are doing. Seventy people were arrested and 161 guns seized over the past year in a sting operation mounted by police in Washington, D.C. Police set up a recording studio and put out the word that they were interested in guns and drugs.
They took in more than $7 million in various drugs and illegal weapons. They also learned a lot about murders and other crimes, including a plot to take down the studio and possibly kill everybody inside.
The word often used on the street between folks in the life is "soldier." They use it as a term of honor and respect among themselves, even though it has nothing to do with crap like this.
There is no honor in street violence. There is no discipline in dealing death for a few dollars. There is no manhood in disrespect for humanity.
That's the tragedy of it. Not just the funerals of people who die much too young for being in the life, but too often, the good folks caught up in the violence and the mothers, sisters and children who shed tears or won't venture outside without looking out the blinds first.
When I drive through cities and see young men on canes, or in wheelchairs for all the wrong reasons, it's hard to not think of them as the lucky ones who have survived a plague of urban violence that's ripping our families apart.
Music used to be fun, and it still should be. This is not a blast at rap or hip hop. They are art forms no different than jazz, R&B or country. We are losing a generation to a war on the human spirit.
The tragedy is thuggery, and the indignation that doesn't rise up until the honored dead are family, close friends, or the children of someone we know.
Don't hate the players, hate the game. The stakes are life or death.
— with Jeanmarie Stokes at Any Sad City, USA .
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