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RDR Logo. OAKTOWN - November 11, 2001: I was walking down the street on the way to the community store when I saw these two little girls, couldn't have been more than three years old, walking down the middle of the street at the next intersection hand -in-hand. Whassup? I thought to myself.

I kindah of expected to see their parents come up not far behind them, or callin' out to them or something. But that didn't happen.

I panicked. I quickened my steps to try to intercept these two kids. But by the time I'd reached the corner, an older sister, lookin' like she'd just come from church, had them at her sides, each on one hand, and was askin' them where they had come from. The kids just seemed lost, disoriented, shy and confused. It was a sad sight and I was immediately angry again about how anybody can have a damned baby, but how people should be required to get a license first, proving their responsibility, like they do when they buy a car.

Then, like most things you notice and maybe get a little p.o.'ed about, this incident just dropped out of my mind. I figured the church sister would take care of things. She might even know somebody who knew the lost little girls' parents...

I figured out a little later that I was wrong.

I saw this women walking very fast up the street, about a block from where Tanya and I live, calling out: "Brenda! Wanda! Why don't you answer me?!?"

I figured out that Brenda and Wanda must be the lost children.

I was angry all over again. I thought the worst of this distraught woman who, in my mind at that moment, didn't have her act together enough to show up to Sunday School on time to pick up her own kids. I thought she was probably partying with her crew. I accused her, in my mind, of being a drunkard or some crack addict. I wished her ill.

Then my better mind kicked in.

I reminded myself that I didn't know anything about this woman. For all I knew, she could as easily be working some minimum wage Day Job, even on Sundays, just to keep those kids in their little Sunday skirts and such. Maybe her boss wouldn't let her leave, on a break, in time to pick the kids up at church. How did I know? I could I judge her without any information?

I watched her talking with another woman. They were both upset.

Moments passed and then there were a whole group of people coming back with her to her house, probably to console her. No sign of the lost little girls.

That made me wonder a lot about the precarious world that most poor people (meaning just about any of the average working folks here in the 'hood) have to deal with and live in. Ten minutes can make all the difference in the world. For any of us.

So I rode that train of thought I was on, thinking about how easy it is for us to judge other people, high and mighty on our exalted thrones. I thought about something I had read Rod write sometime, about each person caring a whole universe inside of them, most of which we will never see. I thought about the mirror and what other folks might think of me. I thought it was a good thing that God is merciful, as most people seem not to be -- they are quick to jump to conclusions about other people -- with little or no evidence -- just the way I almost did.

That made me snap to the compassion chant here at G21.

Yeah, I thought. There surely is enough hard feelings and pain to go around in this world. I thought about how it's funny, but not in the ha-ha sense, how you know something, but you really don't know it until some incident, like those little girls lost, makes you grok it.

I sure hoped that my first impression about their momma wasn't right just then.

I thought about the church sister maybe having to end up callin' the cops to get those girls home, their mom's being taken before Child Protective Services and possibly losing the girls. Suddenly I was considering a World of Hurt that maybe I myself might have started, given the right circumstances.

I had ridden far enough on this particular train of thought. I was getting depressed... I let it go and went inside to watch TV with my girl.

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