New Orleans Museum of Art has an extraordinary exhibit, "The Making of an Argument." This moving photojournalism description of Red Jackson from 1948 could be about New Orleans today. The two sides of Red Jackson that was captured by Mr. Parks is slanted by the Life Magazine editors.
http://noma.org/exhibitions/detail/71/


The following work was written by me in 2012. I felt anger rising up in me as I progressed from room to room and saw how I am capable of skewing an argument too, and how little we have learned in 65 years.. I pray that my words do not sound shallow.

439 years of slavery

How does one undo what has been done over centuries?

The Old Testament talks about the sins of the fathers on the next three generations.

Race, sexual orientation, religion: Issues which tear at the fabric of our humanity.

We fight one another pouring toxic energy into our genetic pool perpetuating this insanity;

Polluting the next 150 years;

The cycle keeps going on and on moving like a cancer;

Dormant and ready to invade the surrounding cells with the next inspiration.

Bigotry, idolatry, homophobia, superiority; all words that cause toxicity.

Duplicity, psychosis, phobia; we wait for the next breath between clinched teeth.

We can’t think because our inspiration and our oxygen are seeking entrance through a narrow opening.

A tight tiny space

through which we sip

little puffs of ai.r

Like a mother delivering a breeched baby.

We want to push and birth the baby;

But pushing too quickly would be dangerous.

So we labor intensely and wait

For the one last push;

Accompanied by a cleansing scream.

Only to find out that the baby is infected with the cancer from the previous generation.

We’ve given birth to sickness not health.

Modern technology and science are unable to cure the disease. So our newly born child

Waits, listens, and learns to imitate the sounds of hatred and suffering of its ancestors.

Even though we preach freedom, love, and peace; we silently pray for revenge.

Our prayers are heard and lived out through our children.

They hear what we are not saying and act where we have grown tired.

Our voices are strained with the shallow breath of anger and tension.

Rather then a full bodied exhalation;

We take in too little oxygen to feed our brains.

Oxygen deprived cerebral cortexes revert us to our primate brains, which

Reaches for the nearest stick or demands that we flee the situation.

Taking deep breaths would give the cerebral matter time to create a solution.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Breathe; wait for the cerebellum to propose options.

Breathe and let our children view the fully inspired human being that we can be.

Breathe and exhale the carbon dioxide that feeds the trees and reminds us

How connected we all are.

Written after viewing “Higher Learning” by Rosalynn Rizzo-Moore; August 12, 2002

http://noma.org/exhibitions/detail/71/