The Hood

It’s a gorgeous Friday night here in the Hood. Sitting on the street in this city I love, Washington, DC.

I’m looking around at all the different people. There’s a group of men, sitting on the corner in folding chairs, jamming together, playing the most wonderful jazz.

Not far from them a group of neighbors barbecuing on a Weber. Aromatic smoke billowing from the metal grill. It’s hard to see what’s on the menu, but guessing some kind of beef and maybe some ribs. Corn-on-the-cobb?

And not far from them are people just hanging, also on folding chairs. Laughing and telling stories. And an intense game of chess.

GrubHub delivery flybikes zooming by, while a phalanx of deliverers waiting for orders.

There are sirens. Mostly fire trucks and a couple of ambulances. There’s the hustle and bustle of Washingtonians either headed home for the weekend or to some Friday night hotspot.

And just a few moments ago I looked up only to see a magnificent mural painted on the side of a massive building.

It’s calm. It’s lively. It’s peaceful.

Washington, DC.

I have listened to and read disparaging words about this city by the president, his administration, his MAGA base. They viciously malign the people as violent. To hear them speak, there is crime on every corner. Murderers and rapists everywhere. Miraculously, I was able to get from Point A to Point B today without getting mugged.

To hear them talk, there are homeless encampments everywhere, preventing even the most casual walker from passing through. And of course, graffiti sprayed on every building in the city.

The Nation’s Capitol is not without its flaws. Crime? Homeless? Graffiti? Yes. But no more than other metropolitan areas.

I shudder to my core when I hear the president threatening to “Federalize” DC. He can’t, legally, although that hasn’t stopped him these days. When he hurls threats like that I think to myself, if he dragged himself outside the White fortress he hides behind, and walked the neighborhoods he bemoans, or took a different mode than than the backseat of the Beast where he rides in luxury, he would see what I’m seeing tonight.

Just an ordinary Friday night in my magnificent Hood.