it always sounds like fire crackers

it always sounds like fire crackers when they start shooting and so it takes me a few minutes to realize that some maniac is firing a gun into a crowd of people and someone is going to bleed. it was high times on frenchmen street today with people fighting, crying and yelling. at one point it looked like a riot, that was about an hour before someone decided to take things to the next level and open fire into the crowd, shooting my neighbor in the leg. and you cannot help but think but for the grace of god go i...just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and you get a ride to the hospital or worse yet, the morgue. it looks like new orleans is well on its way to yet again leading the nation in murders. the sad thing about today is that the ones involved in the fighting are all cousins. cousins. can you imagine shooting at your family? the culture of violence is so pervasive here that it rips families apart. and sadder still was watching the kids walk by the scene and not even look fazed. someone getting shot is the most normal thing in the world. i can't even imagine growing up like that. when i was a kid, i never once saw anyone shot. i didn't see that until i moved here and now i have seen too many. god help us, there must be a way out of this but damn if i know what it is.