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I welcome you back to Trenton, New Jersey. Trenton is where I was born and raised, for better or for worse. But I love it all the same. I apologize for the delay. Trust that this delay since my last entry wasn’t soiled by indolence. The truth is… I placed so much information into my first two posts that it got me to thinking. Is my hometown in so much trouble that once I was given the opportunity to express its legacy, I went too hard?

How dare I forget to talk about 11 year old Broadway actor, Alphonso Jones II. Alphonso and I share the same elementary school in P. J. Hill. But he has me beat in the success department. He currently plays the role of Simba in the long running Broadway adaptation of “The Lion King”; a role that wasn’t in his plans until an audition in which his sister was up for; put Alphonso on the spot to for the lead role. Amazing, right?

Alphonso, which commutes back and forth between Trenton and New York City, recently signed an 8 month extension to continue on as the lion cub that couldn’t wait to be king. I wish him, his sister and their family all the best.

My cousin Bridgette Mitchell graduated from Duke University this month, where she played 131 career games for the Lady Blue Devils. Some would say that her talents were underutilized by Duke. But she made every minute on the court as a starter, the embodiment of hustle. Her future is going to have a fight on its hands, because her work ethic is that aggressive.

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Wow, and what about Sacred Downing? Boxing enthusiasts know her by “Diamond Girl”. Trenton’s own, Sacred is a Six-time USA National Champion in boxing, as well as USA’s Gold Medal hope for the 2012 Olympics.

There isn’t just one rose that grows from the concrete; there’s a bed of roses in my hometown; a long list of residents that won’t stop at nothing to defy all odds, including myself. We shall overcome… the difficulty of remaining on the straight and narrow, when it seems that the rest of the world is being rewarded for making mistake after mistake, is the ultimate challenge in life. Imagine what it is like knowing that to do right, means that you could possibly go through life alone. And who wants to be alone in life? You don’t have to be alone. They say that only the strong will survive. I say that the strong doesn’t have to be the wrong. Like-minds will eventually find one another on the other side of the despair and raise up a drink to success.

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I ask of you, that if you come across a rose in your neighborhood, to encourage and nurture its growth; to mentor and cheer on its success. You OWE this to your community. Yes, I said it. You OWE this to your community; none of that, “I don’t owe anybody anything,” nonsense. That’s slang! That’s not REAL LIFE! Let’s put the strength back into, “People have died so that you could live freely,” statement. They gave their life for you. So the least you could do is give a damn for somebody else.

You must know better, to grow better.
(walks away from the podium)

-Will Deshair Foskey| Follow Me on Twitter @deshair