the world is sick.....

This was on my Myspace bulliten board when I got home from the bar tonight. It's from Kim C.
Who is the wife of Rajolei Pickens (they are both good friends of mine who I don't talk to nearly enough)



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I can't be silent about this anymore... Last Saturday, blues legend (and 3rd Ward resident) Little Joe Washington was riding his bike home from playing a show at the Continental Club when he was jumped by 3 young men around the El Dorado Ballroom. They didn't ask for money or take his bike - they just beat him. When Raj went to pick him up for a show on Tuesday he had a walker and was moving very slowly! Little Joe just turned 69 this past April and he still plays blues like most people have never seen live. You may have seen a little black man with long dreads wearing a cowboy hat and boots riding a bike and not even known that history was riding past you. It's ridiculous that a man who has been all over the world playing music can't even ride through the neighborhood where he has lived his whole life without being hurt by senseless violence. It's b.s.I watched that PBS special on 3rd Ward Texas and it showed the community coming together around Project Row Houses and how developers are coming in to gentrify 3rd Ward like they have in 4th Ward, Midtown and now Independence Heights. It's time to take back the Trey. No more prostitution. No more slanging on corners. No more shooting. It's not solving anything and people are coming in and taking what people have worked for all their lives. Where will we all go? The suburbs?Little Joe plays music to LIVE and if he can't do that what will he do? Raj and I make art because the CREATOR directs us to do so!!! We have hundreds of friends in this city who create and we all are working our asses off just to scrape by for our families. Who will help us? ONLY OURSELVES!!! We can't rely on the government to help us...they are trying to enslave us. Again I say it's B.S.!!!Real radical change comes when we pool our money and resources to buy our own land, grow our own food and teach our children in the ways of indigenous wisdom. If the artists, muscians and poets must lead the way, then let's DO IT! If you are feeling me, let me know! Thanks for reading my rant and have a blessed weekend!Peace & Blessings,kim pickens (aka kim c)mother/poet/artist/activist/human being