Green Oasis

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

So says Diogenes Laërtius and a monument on the side of a school in east side Buffalo, New York. I snapped this photograph while I was a Mormon missionary living on Berkshire Avenue.

I took that photograph because of the sad irony of its context; the monument was attached to a boarded-up school.

The irony was perfect, or so I thought until I saw the vacant lot where that school used to be across Bailey Avenue from the Boys & Girls Club. Sadly, I have only a little hope that it was replaced with another school.