Men on Street: Longwood Avenue. South Bronx.

These men and women were bridging two worlds, leaving one behind, filled with warmth and light, into another that held promises of a better future in the endless gray. The rewards are only to be obtained through generations of sacrifice. Or so they believed.

Yet they came, these men and women of uncommon decency, filled with the strength of faith that a better tomorrow was possible. Amid the chaos, and the pitfalls, they remained solid and you couldn’t help but respect them. They achieved this in by way they carried themselves, that simple decency that was so alien on this cold land they lead us to.

I wonder if they knew that the better tomorrow they sought was already present in their lives and how they instilled that by being among us.

That quiet dignity.