Between God and Gangsta Rap

Father, help your children
And don't let them fall by the side
Of the road...
---Commodores, "Jesus is Love"

I recently visited the graves of my grandparents, who are buried in Glenview Cemetery in Durham. Unfortunately, I had an unwitting soundtrack to my homage, courtesy of whomever lived behind the trees that bordered the cemetery.

It's kinda hard to commune with one's ancestors to the tunes of "Shake That Booty Meat", "Bust It Baby", and "She rocks her hips/and waves/and sips".

Perhaps I witnessed the ever-increasing gap between this generation and the next. There are those who do not understand certain customs that are inherent among the black community, especially if they were never taught. Indeed, those who may have taught them are either unable (via illness or death) or are ignorant themselves. One might argue that things such as not blasting rather lewd lyrics in the immediate vicinity of a cemetery is common sense but as someone once told me, "Common sense ain't common."

(I'm probably trampling all over someone's First Amendment rights, but I don't care. It was a cemetery, y'all.)

The area, as has much of Durham, has changed; or perhaps I never noticed the slow creep of...shall we say, a certain element. It bothered me that I didn't feel that safe visiting graves in broad daylight. It bothered me that I kept looking over my shoulder as I entered the Kangaroo/BP store on the corner to get something to drink. It was especially worrisome to see a police car parked across the street at the Pure gas station, and cops posted up in the laundromat next door. Are people jacking washing machines for coins now? Is that's what's hot in the streets? But I digress.

As I just stated, it's a free country and if someone wants to blast Young Jeezy or Ne-Yo or whomever is the flavor of the airwaves this month, that's their business. I agree with that normally, but when it comes to showing respect for the dead, that's a whole 'nother issue. Cemeteries are hallowed, if not holy. Despite one's religious/afterlife beliefs, there is a certain reverence to witness when faced with the tangible markers of mortality. It deserves a certain level of circumspectness, restraint, and morality. It would be too much like right for some sort of noise ordinance to be in effect around cemeteries, yet alone enforced; if there is one in place, then I am not aware of it.

I shudder to think what happens in Glenview when the sun sets; there is no true barrier to the cemetery except for a chain across the entrances. That will keep out cars, but not foot traffic. Then again, maybe the most hardened gangster draws a line at partying in a graveyard. On the other hand, someone who shows such disrespect for the deceased probably doesn't care one way or another.

Yet and still, this is further evidence that the village that we used to rely upon to raise a child needs desperately to be reinstated. Each one, teach one.

Thanks for stopping by.

T.