From where I sit

As the years continue to pass and I've had the good fortune to live, learn and come to regret the mistakes of the past, I am haunted by the smiles and memories of voices long ago silenced. Familiar faces of those whom I grew to love and respect long before that last term was perverted by ideals and images of misguided acts of machismo. These are the faces of lost sons, brothers, friends, uncles and fathers. These are the faces of three young men who never got the chance to live to their full potential. To outgrow the mistakes of our misguided youthful vigor. I can only hope and pray that someone will view these images and realize that these were lives full of promise, young men whose untimely passing left holes not only in their families but in the community at large. My heart is broken and yet beats for Kevin Allen, Quincy Cleveland and Donald Gene Jackson. Rest eternally.