Butterflies are free to fly (By Harris Bostic, II)
Butterflies Are Free To Fly! As a Black man living in San Francisco, I sometimes feel seen for who I am but oftentimes feel seen as a bug that must be squashed and swept away. This feeling is increased with the seemingly daily dwindling of Black residents in The City. This is in stark contrast with my upbringing in Atlanta, the Black Mecca of the South, where for each hostile face that scowled at me, there were scores of beautiful brown faces that not only beamed at me but challenged me, and lifted me. Recently, as I sat on my sunny cool San Francisco patio, I saw a number of insects going about their business in my garden. So, that prompted to call my sister 3,000 miles away to ask, “what do you think of cockroaches?” Her immediate response was , “Ewww, I prefer seeing them on their backs with their legs in the air.” Then I asked what she thought of butterflies. This led into a description that included elegant, peaceful, transformed creatures that glide t...