Last night I had a strong urge to take my sign downtown again on the subway and hold it where and when I used to. Even if the Board of Ed would not be in the building and there would be almost no one on the sidewalk. I didn’t go this morning. But I think I will soon. I hope. 

HERE’S A NUMBER which I only learned within the last 10 years: When we revolted against England in the 1770s, for our FREEDOM, there were 2.5 million people living in the colonies. 500,000 were slaves. If you’re rereading that, I had to too.

THAT MOSTLY-NOT-TAUGHT-TO-US NUMBER of 500,000 enslaved people in the colonies in 1776 (out of 2.5 million inhabitants) grew in the next 70 years to 4,000,000.

OF COURSE MOST OF ME AND MY PHONE CAMERA wanted to go over to Union Square 10 minutes away last night. I’m not too old. I just didn’t want to get in a crush of people with my still-sometimes-delicate shoulder. I used to get the train at Union Square on weekdays to go downtown with my sign. The mix of people on the train and the combinations of them I’d see everyday made me take pictures.

‘AMERICA PREACHES INTEGRATION, AND PRACTICES SEGREGATION’—-MALCOLM X

Isn’t that the bottom line? Here in New York which considers itself died-in-the-wool liberal and smart and superior and all that, our public schools are the most segregated in the country. Come on.

‘I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.’
                                                 —James Baldwin

FIRST BOOK SPOTTED in anyone’s hands going by my building in this virus time. Tonight, just now. 

‘Wagon Train’ was on. It seemed to be beaming in from some foreign country. I shut that off, too, and went into another room, a windowless one with a painted door--a dark cavern with a floor-to-ceiling library. I switched on the lamp. The place had an overpowering presence of literature and you couldn't help but lose your passion for dumbness.’
                   —Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One