i saw you.

i saw you yesterday afternoon, standing on a bus top with a young girl and a baby in a stroller.

you stood out because you both looked pretty young. she looked extremely young and you seemed to be in your early 20s.

you two were talking about something. i saw you walk over to her and get close to her face with yours while you talked. i saw fear cross her face as you started walking towards her. i noticed you walked pretty quickly, closing that small distance between the two of you.

and i saw that the baby was sitting there, taking it all in.

as the car passed, i didn't look behind me to see what happened next. i was afraid i'd end up committing to memory something that i couldn't do anything to stop.

and so, i chose to not look.

how many times have we seen something that wasn't right and just chose not to see it? because we decided we didn't want to get involved, we were busy, we didn't want to get our checks cashed by some deranged woman beater. there are plenty of reasons and excuses why many of us don't get involved.

but choosing not to look doesn't mean that person didn't get hit, didn't get intimidated, or wasn't made to feel small and helpless.

i wonder how many other people driving down this busy street in the middle of the day chose not to see anything either.

what does joblessness look like in your city?

here's what it looks like in mine.



Hundreds line up for 1,014 new Charlotte jobs

Charlotte's beleaguered financial sector got a dose of good news -- 1,014 new jobs in a business helping borrowers with troubled mortgages. (Source)