At the End of the Earth, Lives Matter

At the End of the Earth, Lives Matter

by Bill Russo

being a page from my notebook, written after a 'lost' afternoon 

in Provincetown, Cape Cod - at the End of the Earth.

A day in which my friend and I were lost for hours, but found something important.

I've seen the White Sands of New Mexico, 

walked the Grand Canyon with 'Vertigo',

and yet wherever I go,

there's only one 'must go'

…. The Dunes of Provincetown; at the end of the earth.

It is where the 1620 Europeans landed - led by the notorious Indian Killer, 'Musket' Miles Standish. Musky was frightened out of the bay and into Plymouth by sights of a band of Wampanoags with their faces painted half black and half white.

Once a great fishing village, P-town evolved into a center for inclusion where people who were shunned by society could live in peace and harmony. 

In a different way, in 2020, the biggest little city in America has become even more inclusive. Nearly every business along the mile and one half length of Main Street has placed a simple, square, cardboard sign in one or more of its windows. The signs, hand painted in ink of a sepia hue, say: Black Lives Matter!. 

My friend Lynn and I spent a few hours walking back and forth on Main Street on Thursday this week (In June of the year of the virus). 

We paced the pavement for hours, walking more than three miles....because we could not find the lot where we parked our car! At a combined age of more than 150 it was an ordeal.

It was however made more bearable by several people who assisted us with directions and encouragement. The town was fairly quiet, with few cars on the road and no taxis. We finally found our vehicle and left the little city; feeling tired but proud that at least one town in America - a city at the end of the earth, was making a statement that Black Lives Matter. 

They do! .. . . For if they don't then 'lives' do not matter.

The end of the Earth.  Provincetown, Cape Cod. U.S.A.

A place of inclusion. A place where respect for all life, may spread from

the End of the Earth, some 3000 miles, on West. 

-0-

Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more.  Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords.  He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater.  Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.