Every Saturday morning, I listen tothe “Blues Café” on 106.5 FM.
The southern soul music that theyplay is like my Saturday morning cartoons. That’s where I got turned on to thedeceased Baton Rouge blues singer Jackie Neal.
Her music was sexy and fun tolisten to. It made (and still makes) me smile. My weekend doesn’t go right if DJ Ron Kelly doesn’t play hersong, “The Way We Roll.”
That’s my joint because I like theway she shares the microphone with her family members on there.
If you happen to have your radio onthat station while that song is playing, just know that I am somewhere bobbin’my head singing along.
It put a cloud on my weekend when Ifound out that she had been killed last Thursday evening in an act of senselessviolence. Once again, a talented and a beautiful black woman had been snatchedfrom us.
Why?
Why do so many of us choke the lifeout of our own beauty? What is it that so many of us hate about ourselves thatmakes it so easy to murder someone that looks just like us?
What would make a black man takethe life of a sister in cold blood and then turn the gun on himself? Why is itthat we as black people can be such a threat to each other and we have to watchour backs around each other out of fear?
Are we that lost? Are we thatignorant? Are we that violent? Are we that blind to the value of our ownexistence?
I know better than that, but Iwonder when a lot of us will realize how much we all need each other and willstop using bullets and violence to settle the problems that we have with oneanother. You know what’s sad?
There’s somebody black, just likeme, who thinks I’m “soft” for talking like this.
Jackie Neal was an artist. Thebeautiful thing about being an artist is that you not only create things thatmake people think and give people joy, but you share pieces of your soul withthe world and you continue to live on through your gifts.
Your spirit becomes encouragementto those whose lives you made an impression on. Your memory becomes theirstrength.
Your story becomes theirinspiration.
I just want to tell the Neal familyas a fan and a brother, keep rollin,’ and after the tears, smile for thedead.
