Well, one thing that I hope will help is for city kids to have safe places to play. They get plopped in front of the idiot box all day because if they go out they'll get hit by a car, recruited as a runner by a drug seller, or kidnapped. If they had a decent place to play, maybe they'd be allowed out to run around and climb stuff.

There's actually an organization working on this called KaBOOM that teams up with neighborhood folks to make new or clean up existing playgrounds, ballfields, and skating rinks.

(I'm reminded of an old Rowan & Martin joke: "Americans have forgotten what good clean fun is." "You're right, Dan. What good is it?")

Love, Columbine