[Si] TV

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I happened to be watching Tragedy Khadafi, CNN, and Mobb Deep’s response video (L.A., L.A.) to Tha Dogg Pound’s video “New York, New York” on YouTube. These are supposed to be so-called “diss” tracks although neither of the songs really slung mud on either of the cities. However, the viewer comments are really what disturbed me. The viewers seem to have really taken these “OLD” songs very personal. The ignorance came from all sides (east coast, west coast, & down south), however, Cali and down south comments were very ignorant. They all had the tendency to diss NYC due to the city’s decrease in senseless crime and violence. I read comments like: “How can y’all New Yorkers talk shit when y’all have only 500 murders in a city of 15,000,000 people (inaccurate); y’all soft as dog shit.” Someone also stated “Cali is the gang capital of the world, where Blacks and Hispanics get killed over the color of their skin, or the color of their shoestrings.” New York City was ridiculed for being the safest big city in the country. That sort of ignorance is scary to me. The only comment that I felt was true was when someone accused New York of having “fake bloods and crips.” I agree with that statement only because gangbanging is very senseless, and NYC is a lot better than that. All cities are better than that, however, Cali started this mess so let them finish it. I strongly urge Cali and every other “gangbanging hood” nationwide too end all of this madness. But to tease and shame a city that has worked tremendously hard to reduce the meaningless loss of lives among its inner city youth is down right ignorant. NYC has achieved something that any American city would like to accomplish, and that’s dropping murders. NYC has dropped its record setting 2,245 homicides in 1990 to 492 homicides in 2007 (see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article31189....). As long as our youth (and some old fools) think this sort of outstanding task is soft or wack, we’re in big trouble. The vast reduction of gratuitous crime and violence among our inner city youth in NYC should never be viewed as soft or wack, instead it should be the model for which every American city emulates.

-One Love