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Oakland’s Family is flamboyant and family-friendly, activist and organized, on the move and rooted deeply in the neighborhoods. In Oakland, the Family is as concerned about marriage rights as housing rights. The family is raising kids, pursuing spirituality, sounding off about public safety, and railing about the budget deficit.

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But it’s not just another day – if we really consider how deeply the war has impacted our community at home.  It’s certainly not another day for me.

This morning, I dig out my dog tags from under a pile of photos and begin the morning with sorrow, mind full of snapshots and sound. I think about the grieving military families I met while in Crawford, Texas protesting the war in 2005.  I remember the shocking and heartbreaking testimony during Winter Soldier in 2008 when I covered the conference for Pacifica Radio.  I think about my nephew Andre who is a new Marine Corps boot camp graduate heading to his first duty station.

I pause to reflect on the 5,462 American soldiers dead from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the hundreds of thousands wounded – languishing in hospital beds or waiting in line for benefits or fighting their demons.  I wonder why that number isn’t discussed or debated more in regular conversation, especially as more troops head to Afghanistan.  I think about my own time in the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital as a member of the 347th General Hospital unit and my struggle to understand the homeless, desperate veterans there suffering from a war decades gone.  I think about the warriors that tell the truth about war and the military at great personal sacrifice.

Memorial Day is also a time to remember the victims of war in other lands. Some come to US cities to begin again – or escape certain death at home. This is a local issue: Iraqi and Afghan refugees have even settled in East Oakland and other neighborhoods.

It’s also a time to reflect on the impact that war has had in Oakland. Today, take another look at the person with the bent cardboard sign on the corner of Broadway and 14th Street, or International and 84th, or the High Street exit off the 880 freeway. Locally, as is the national trend, fully one-third of the homeless on the streets are veterans from the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our local Vets Center serves some of the veterans that suffer from joblessness and mental illness and drug addition years after their tours. But for those not served, and there are 100,000 nationally that must seek help from local agencies and community and faith based organizations.   We feature a discussion with one of the unsung heroes, a vet himself, that serves the local veteran community.

This Memorial Day, let’s remember that war has a dangerous impact on mental health as is shown in this recent PBS documentary.  We’ll continue to deal with the long-term impacts of the suffering here at home.

And today, let’s expand the meaning of this holiday to include the war raging on Oakland streets today.  There is great loss and suffering there too.  Today, we remember Alvaro J. Ayala, 28 and the hundreds that have lost their lives on Oakland’s streets.  These are our cousins, uncles, friends, husbands – killed on the street. Let us take a moment to honor victims of violence in Oakland this week as well.

On OaklandSeen this week, we will publish stories of loss and sadness from the war that continues abroad to violence in our streets everyday.  Perhaps if the long-term pain of loss is made plain, we will recommit to changing it.

I watched Jeff Lucey’s parents describe their son’s depression, alcohol abuse and suicide in front of an audience of veterans in 2008.

So this Memorial Day, let’s pause and consider who isn’t with us today.  Who was lost too young, ignobly, and ignored? Let’s commit to finding meaning in the losses that touch us all.

Come and visit OaklandSeen’s website – featuring community news and views, events, etc. We had a hot launch party last week, and have lots of people interested in contributing to this effort. Wee!

Our goal is to have a real impact on politics and life here in Oakland and if you are local and want to get involved, let us know.

I joined the Media One team engaged in recording, and documenting the Sustainable Haiti track of the Social Venture Capital conference in Miami, Fl this week.  My job – to interview the myriad of entreprenuers, NGO, community orgaizations, Haitian-Americans, American investors and government people about their best hopes and vision for collaborating to rebuild Haiti.

We’ll deliver a series of videos that present best ideas, organizations, thinkers over the new few weeks.  But right now you can see images, video and blogs from some highlights at HaitiOnward – the hub that will keep social venture types and organizations connected over the long term.

Fantastic team behind the scenes, there at the conference who are forging brand new alliances between social venture capitalists and community groups.  And I was glad to be part of the new Generocity Productions, whose job it is to magnify the critical conversations that tend to only happen in the halls of a convention center.  I heard people having committed conversations about how to invest in Haiti to create jobs and eliminate the pervasive “ultra-poverty” of the region (World Vision’s phrase, not mine).

The general media may not be reporting about Haiti everyday, but the people at the conference – most who were connected and worked with Haiti before the earthquake – give me renewed hope that Haiti can be renewed as we hear in the words of the former Haitian Prime Minister. She was interviewed on Wednesday.

Have fun. Clap and laugh and cry as much as you want to. Stand up and jump around. You will be booed. There is no doubt about it and it’s all part of the fun. The crowd wants all 10’s, and while we love high scores, you can’t give everyone a ten. All we ask is that you do your best and make your own determinations based on your own criteria. Even if the emcee pokes a little fun at the “judges” in general.

It usually sells out well in advance, so get your tickets now.  Bring tissue and wear your heart on your sleeve.

Chinaka Hodge, Playwright and Poet

Chinaka Hodge is magnetic – at once warm, introspective, and energetic. She joined me on the KPFA Morning Show today to discuss her latest work.  This former Youth Speaks poet is now a successful playwright – and she puts herself squarely in the tradition of Ntozake Shange. Her first play, “Mirrors in Every Corner” is now playing at the Intersection for the Arts in SF until March 21st, 2010. It explores what race means. She asked, “if the lights are out, how do you know you’re black?” I responded, “how do you?” Her response: you don’t.  Her School Board parents – Greg Hodge and Jimoke Hinton Hodge must be proud.  No pat answers for this brilliant rising star.

Chinaka is raising new questions about race and family issues for the new generation and it’s catching on. The show has been sold out, but sometimes being a radio host has its perks.

She offered me tickets gratis for next week. I hope to see you there!

This radio promo was produced at the start of our OaklandSeen pilot series. It’s a media project with the radio as a foundation. Now, the website will launch on the 16th at http://www.oaklandseen.com, and that will expand the OaklandSeen social networks on Facebook and Twitter.

And mark your calendar for our OaklandSeen launch – Thursday, March 25, 2010 at Somar on Broadway in Oakland.