Being The Best Person Has Nothing To Do With "Nice"

"We're not very good people." 

That's one of the damning statements from Ken Burns' new documentary about the  travesty of The Central Park Five. It's a message I repeat daily, and - just like in the film - nobody listens to it, because they're too comfortable living a lie. 

They live a lot of lies.

   

Lies that impacts others - the helpless - and ripples across the ages. 

   

 For that, they are not good people, no matter what they think.

   

 I know better. I live it:

 

"All of my confidants had to be narcs. Except The Crack Emcee. I couldn't see how even the CIA was advanced enough to hide someone like him among their minions."

- Donnell Alexander, Ghetto Celebrity (2003)

   

 You know the phrase "It takes one to know one"? That applies here.

   

 And I can't find too many out there - not like me. They think life's a cartoon, but this is my life.

   

 Considering the difference - especially when compared with the lives of black folks - I wonder, sometimes, if they've ever been truly alive at all,...