Blood Diamond

Just watched Blood Diamond on HBO, and I swear it made me go into my son's room and thank God he won't have that experience. As a little black boy in this country, I know the terrors he has to navigate, and most of it revolves around the abnormal closeness of death in my community. It's what every black father at his Catholic school and his martial arts school talk about. Getting them through childhood unhurt. My job is to prepare him for those possible experiences and make sure he doesn't fall victim to it. But the pure terror in Sierra Leone is just hard to imagine. When I was in Ghana, I talked to an African American woman who'd lived in Liberia during their civil war, and she was just as calm about the situation. But it's a damn shame that war is such a constant presence on the continent. Away, I'm rambling because I haven't slept.