Many years ago, as a college student blowing off classes (ssshhhh!) to chase the Grateful Dead around, I had occasion to be in NYC fairly often. The route we took out of the city went through Harlem, and I'll never forget a cold, rainy night during the garbage strike in the 1980s...the sight of young women my own age standing in the drizzle, surrounded by overflowing trash cans and wearing next to nothing at 2am has never left me, and was a forcible reminder at the time of how fortunate I was, and have been to have had other choices. There but for the grace of God, etc.

~D