For yer hump day libation outing, check these out!
FireWater Bar and Grill 3 pm - 7 pm $1 domestic drafts, $2 frozen drinks
Martini Ranch 5 pm - 8 pm: $3 drinks
Nikita 5 pm - 7pm: $3 wells, domestics & wine / free smoked salmon
Steel Restaurant and Lounge 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm: $5 martinis, free sushi 
Skillman Street Pub 11 am - 2 am: $1 domestic drafts / $1 hamburgers, $1 french fries 
Have fun. Drink responsibly!
Monday was the five year anniversary of 9-11 and to be honest, I wasn’t that concerned. After being blitzed by the media and being preached ‘not to forget’, I was just too angry about it to shed a tear. How can one possibly forget 9-11? Why do I need to see the actual coverage again? What difference is five years from one year from three years from ten? I guess maybe I’ve moved on.
But Tuesday, I was an emotional wreck after accidentally happening upon a PBS P.O.V. episode titled The Boys of Baraka. Fortunately, I had only missed ten minutes of it. What made me stop on the channel was the inner city profiles of several young African American boys in Baltimore. I was never sure of their age range but after a while I assumed they were middle school age. Each kid had some emotional issues whether they lashed out or shied away or something that didn’t allow them to perform well in school or even socially. And their neighborhood was of no help with drug dealers and gangs all over the place. One mother discussed how she saw someone shot in front of her house while having two of the kids in the car with her.
These boys were selected to attend the Baraka boarding school in Africa. In Africa! Their they would learn more about themselves and their reactions to life. That part surprised me when I heard they had this opportunity. Because to me, it’s about giving these young men the world and for free! Looking at their lives, it looked like a once in a lifetime opportunity all from the goodness of other people. I am just happily staggered by that. Africa!
One boy had to visit his father in prison and I was so angry at the father because emotionally, he just wasn’t there. He was laughing and trying to give ‘dad talk’ but he just wasn’t comforting as a parent should be. And the kid jsut seemed to want more but never showed it. In his defense, the dad said he’d be rooting for him to succeed and you could see that in the kid’s face. It was a nice small moment.
Another scene that got to me was when they were leaving. Parents were crying but some of the boys were too! It was sweet because most of these boys were probably toughed up with their surroundings but they were now involved in something bigger than anything and they were boys again. It was the most genuine moment to watch.
I’ll try to summarize more here.
They get to the school which is in Kenya. I don’t know how long they are to be there entirely but they were going for the school year. Amidst discovering the beauty of Africa, they had to learn how to acclimate and learn to talk through their issues as opposed to fighting. The development among these kids is fascinating and hopeful.
These kids were succeeding and then they went home for the summer for two months. And that’s where the film just stabs me in the heart. You could see that these kids didn’t fit in now. They were citizens of the world and now they were back home even if it was temporarily. The looks on their faces and detachment was promising that they wanted better things but at the same time, a kid that age doesn’t need to feel like an outsider. It was a difficult dichotomy but I thought if they felt this way, they would see that they would need to work to make a better life.
And then the bomb dropped.
The school had closed due to some threatening activity and wars in the region. These kids were lost and the parents didn’t know what to do with them. They were on the dean’s list and honor roll and now they just had to go back to their less than ideal school in which some of these kids were at second grade level. The disappointment on their faces was heartbreaking. It just wasn’t fair. And these kids already have gotten a raw deal with parents in prison and crime everywhere. The fact that hope was being taken away from them, even for legitimate reasons, probably proved to them that life is unfair. For me, I just hate when people that young have to figure it out. And I felt so eager to help somehow but powerless at the same time. How do you help every kid in these situations all over the country?
The end revealed some hope and a few of these kids were on the right path. It was still tearful but these kids discovered a deeper part of themselves that made them more powerful than their surroundings. Fortunately, one year in Africa was enough. Imagine if they had had more!
On the site, Bill Cosby offers a commentary and says it best here:
This movie requires that people get up and save these children. That’s the requirement. The children are telling you in this movie: “We want to be saved.”
Please please please find this in your PBS listings and watch it. I think it changed me just as much.
