There is a book that was a success in the 1940’s and is still popular today. It called a TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. As a little boy, I thought that Brooklyn only had one tree. However there are many more.  It was written by a lady named Betty Smith, she describes how this little tree grew and grew under the worst conditions.  The story revolves around an Irish neighborhood filled with the pathologies of poor folk. The little children weave their way through life’s tragedies.

So many people including people of color and white folk who must push their way to survival are described. The metaphor for them is the little tree. Trees are the jewels of a city. They shade people’s houses as they reach for the sky. It is not too much of a stretch is that the little tree that grew and grew is like our city in the Deurecho.  We are the little poor kids and that special tree in the book is planting more trees. Although we have hundreds trees in our back yard, so many have perished. So we have planted three or four more trees in the front and symbolically all the dead ones that clogged the streets are gone. Soon it will be time to repeat the theme of the of this story.

Joe Snell

joelsnell@hotmail.com/

3105 Alleghany Dr. NE

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

52402