Oaktown, You're Breakin' My Heart

i like to think i'm in touch with my town. i don't segregate myself, i get out and about, but i have no clue what is causing the incredible escalation in crime here. it is a world apart from my own.
.
in case you don't know, there were 88 homicides in oakland in 2004, 94 in 2005. so far in 2006 there have been 140! i haven't been as in touch with my peeps lately but i resolved recently to change that and hung out in one of my old downtown haunts late on my birthday night. i just have this need to know and understand my community. oakland's diversity is what drew me here and at times like this it is so important that we not draw away and think that as long as we can isolate the violence, everything will be ok.
.
so i have no insights here. just want to harken back to the poem i last posted; "narrow domestic walls" manifest themselves in many ways. be diligent. work to tear them down, but in the mean time find a door thru them and see the other side. your life and your understanding of the world will be more complete.
.
this is one reason international travel is so important to me, but i shouldn't do this at the expense of knowing my own community. i'm sure there are many "travelers" who know less about the "other side" of their hometown "tracks" than they do about remote corners of the globe. also, how many times do we find "charm" in something abroad and then come home and be condescending and judgemental when we face it at home? that is a delicate balance. should i think that gathering poop and making fuel-patties is an acceptable job here? it certainly is common job in parts of india. the tide goes both ways.
.
i don't have the tenacity to tackle this in more depth tonight. i am struggling to get my india pictures processed and posted. expect some of those in days to come! it's good to be back but at the same time i realize i wasn't really ready to come back and face my life here. more on that later, too :). i have good friends, tho. thank god for that.