The Miami Experience

A work of fiction based on actual events that occurred in Miami in the spring of 1980. The story begins however, a year and a half earlier in Ames, Iowa when the narrator visits his brother, by himself at 15, at Iowa State University. This trip ensures his allowance by his mother to later, with three friends visit his sister in Miami. There he first encounters a Hall of Fame baseball player who, through his career broke race barriers and through conversation raises the narrator's awareness of racism, rioting and the need for change. As the story progresses a beautiful friend of the narrator's sister befriends him and also raises his awareness of homelessness, immigration, drugs, racism and sex. Riots are triggered by the acquittal of five Miami police officers for the murder of a black man. Rioting also erupts due to the immigration of the Cubans. Cocaine was a seven billion dollar industry flooding the financial institutions. The story bounces from 1980 to today questioning why society has not moved forward and quite possibly has retreated.