“The Wire” is my favorite television series of all time. HBO should really pay me, you know. Afterall, I am directly responsible for at least FIVE friends going out and buying the complete DVD series of seasons one through four. But it took some arm twisting. In fact, at first, a few people actually said to me that they were “afraid” to watch “The Wire.” No hyperbole here; “afraid” was the word used. I would always try to suss out what they were afraid of and I believe that fear may have been about not wanting to face questions that inevitably haunt us once we really and truly step into another person’s shoes and reflect that newly acquired perspective against our own lives. It’s gotta be that because Lord knows in terms of violence and inner city grittiness, video games, rap videos and your everyday evening news has “The Wire” beat by miles. But the games and the sordid crime headlines step to us without context. There is good or evil, never Omar.

Watch and you’ll understand.