Hey there is an elephant in this room. I guess we should talk about it.

Well today is my last day at home. My parents and I have been avoiding talking directly about Iraq until today. Thank God I'm not leaving for Iraq today I don't think me or my parents could handle it. My Dad came home for lunch and right before he was leaving I could see my Mom starting to cry. My Dad came up to me and gave me a hug he told me that I am a brave man and that he is proud of me.

Brave - You don't know what it means to me to hear that from my Dad. To me my Dad is my hero his is my role model. He defines courage. We have a close knit family basically due to the time that we came up in. My parents were the test case for this new thing called intergration. The landlord of the apartment where I was born had a sign in the front that said "No Niggers, Jews, or Dogs." however it was close to my Dad's ship so the federal government made her allow my parents live there and even with that most of the people that lived there thought my mother worked for someone in the complex.

There was another time when I was about 5 some one wrote "We will kill your nigger children." on the path I used to go from to go to the Magic Market (kinda like 7-11) we were the only black family in our neighborhood.

When we lived in South County in St. Louis back in the 80's. Anyone from STL can tell you Black people didn't live there. We were accousted all the time. As a child I was threatened by grown men at the bus stop.

In Riverdale, GA again we were the frist Black family in the negihborhood and the only ones in the school for 2 or 3 years. Another time a grown man threatened to kill me if I ever came by his house again.

While this seems tragic it built me and us as a family. I've looked directly in the face of evil. You want to know terrorism? That was it right there. I've survived it became bigger and stronger because of it and now those same people, weather they know it or not, I'm protecting them. Again I ask myself did Bin Laden get the wrong people?

Why would parents put their children through this? Becasue they had the best schools. For my Dad it was of the utmost importance that we ended the cycle of poverty and ignorance. So our children wouldn't have to live like he did and wouldn't have to live like we did. As a result we developed a siege mentality where we didn't trust anyone but, ourselves. This formed a strong family bond that keeps us close today. But, for my father to sacrifce for us I hold him in the utmost esteem. And just like any boy I wanted to grow up to be just like my Daddy. I have probably surpassed in materal things at the same time in my life I am so so far behind him as far as being a man. He has given me everything and made me everything. Watching him is like catching a shooting star: it is something rare, amazing, beautiful to look at, impossible to catch, and you know if it ever decided to impact the results would be devistating.

I have the kind of Dad that other kids wished they had for their own. When I was in college they my nickname was Theo Huxatable. There were people that counldn't believe that Black folks lived like we did. We weren't rich by no means but, my Dad always made sure that we had what we needed and would go that extra mile to give us what we wanted. But, for him to just hug me like he did just broke us both down. I think the fear that we had all avoided dealing with came out at that time we just sat there and hugged and cried. This was probably the third time I had ever seen him cry in my life. It was emotional and I still am emotional just thinking about it.

My Dad is a modern day Daniel and I am so proud to be your son. You are my hero and I love you.