City of Illusions (my apologies to Michael)

A film about the Burmese refugee experience in Buffalo is being screened.  Apparently the city is shown in a negative light and that's causing controversy.  "Buffalo needs all the help it can get" is one comment I heard.  Well, the Burmese refugees are housed in a violent gang ridden neighborhood and that's been their major complaint. 
   Unfortunately, Buffalo is riddled with neighborhoods like that and for all its good points, it's a city with severe problems- depopulation, crime, and lack of investment.  That doesn't mean the city doesn't have its historical, architectural beauty and its friendly small town feel. One aspect doesn't negate the other.  So, instead of glossing over the negative or pretending it doesn't exist, you can actually admit it and then move on to act.  During the 92 Olympics in Barcelona, some TV channels showed the poorer gypsy neighborhoods of the city to the cries of "unfair".  If it exists, then it's fair game. 
    So accept it and do something about the problems.  Don't vote for politicians who are wildly corrupt and don't care as they view life from their suburban gardens.  Without a vibrant city, suburbs die - the first ring of suburbs here are empyting out already. Stop letting the city bleed its slow elephant death.
    And onward..

Ma-Ya  (Not That)

No one will ever say -she’s the mother of my children, head bowed in homage.  Yet, I am the mother of many dreams and a few scattered kindnesses.

I have been the bitch of a litter of seven puppies, the taker of portrait photographs with the requisite puff of air, and a maple tree sending forth a seedling borne on air that settled in a small patch of earth and lived 100 years.