200th

Charm City is always on my wish list. This day, I was given a glowing taste of the soul of the city. 200 years back, the British tried to take this city to a graveyard of sorts. They approached and bombarded and cracked the night sky like lightning bolts of fury. They were repelled by B-More and its cognizant infrastructure. Someone, everyone, penned a national anthem that day. From deep in the thickets to all the coastal lines, pride rolled off the pen as the flag over Fort McHenry never relinquished its stars and stripes. Bold acts of valor, mere cloth transformed into song and emotion, struck a chord that resonates forever like the birds singing their anthems throughout the hills from mountains to coast and back again.

Again, time and place bring a sense of humor. America brought the world to the dinner table. We all want a piece of the pie. 200 years post this historic event, we look over the waters of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and eat Japanese sushi next door to a Spanish tapas restaurant. The pot is long been melted for the betterment of the country. If only Frederick Douglass could witness this Baltimore. How flabbergasting would it be to sit bellied up to the bar with Frederick Douglass and go beer for beer and discuss the Life and Times of F. Douglass and S. Markley (with Jay Z bumped in the background from a cleverly hidden Bose speaker). And then, we wipe watery eyes as we listen to Ray Lewis speak from the self empowerment soap box.

September 2014, 200th Anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner.

I maintain a deep admiration for Frederick Douglass. Fortitude, perseverance, dedication to uprooting injustice. I would love to break bread and listen to his teachings as they pertain to each succeeding generation after.