Shut up. He’s talking to me. Doesn’t mean you gotta listen. I’m all ears. Go on back to wherever you hide. I’m getting me some real religion today. The man ain’t even usin’ a Bible, Manny! So? We’ll talk about this later. Whatever. “You may be still on the boat yourself, and we all know someone or a whole bunch of someone’s who are still on that boat.” More nodding, and I find myself nodding along with the rest, mainly for myself but also for all those people I came up with, including Mama. She never got off the boat either. “They’re still shackled down in the darkness of the Middle Passage, shackled by drugs, shackled by hate, shackled by shame, shackled by alcohol, shackled by fear, shackled by ignorance, shackled by the for show society they have bought into.” He takes a deep breath. “They’re goin’ on a boat ride to nowhere and have been goin’ on a boat ride to nowhere for goin’ on five centuries.”
