The shooting of the former NFL player at the age of 28 synopsizes America’s feelings about black men and women – and the families they leave behind
Birthday parties for babies tend to be more for the adults present than the actual baby celebrated, and my daughter’s first birthday party — which, due to rush of people who happened to be in town Thanksgiving weekend, was pushed up to the Saturday after Thanksgiving (the 26th) instead of her actual birthday (the 30th) — was no different. I doubt she gave much of a damn about the grade of barbecue sauce purchased with the tray of boneless chicken wings or the fancy new Pack ‘n Play her grandmother bought her. And I know she didn’t care about the party’s superhero motif, because the first thing she did when seeing the bedazzled Batman shirt I wore was attempt to eat the bat.
I’m not much of a party person myself, but I looked forward to this day just to be able to witness her experiencing it. Her face when opening and playing with her gifts. (Which, as usual for her, landed somewhere between slightly bemused and slightly annoyed. My daughter is British, apparently.) Her eyes when she heard the “Happy Birthday” song sung to her for the first time. Her tiny legs as she walked from the cake stand to the couch her cousin was sitting on. And those same tiny legs an hour later when she apparently forgot she actually knows how to walk now and just started crawling everywhere.
Related: Man who shot former NFL player Joe McKnight charged with manslaughter
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