In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live. - Ralph Ellison

...she was something more- a force, a stable, familiar force like something out of my past which kept me from whirling off into some unknown which I dared not face. It was a most painful position for at the same time Mary reminded me constantly that something was expected of me, some act of leadership, some newsworthy achievement;...

Maybe it's just that some of us have had certain facts and truths slapped up against our heads so hard and so often that we have to see them and pay our respects to their reality.

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed.