The Lost Ones

I’m back home after attending a balloon release for a real cool gentleman I grew up with and for whatever reason, I decided to take the Red Line train to the park it was being held, and my god. It was filled with so many young Black adults strung out on drugs. One young man was cackling madly to himself and fighting the air. Normally, I would have been paranoid as fuck, but all I felt was sadness. These young people were around my daughter’s age who will be 23 next month. Babies. And they are drug addicts. The lost ones. Neglected children who never had a chance. Everyone has let them down. Their families, the system, and society at large. The Black community and this country is going to pay a steep price for this neglect, the lack of empathy for its most vulnerable members.