Free Hugs

What if we walked toward each other?
What would you do, faced with the offer of a free hug?
Would it matter, what I looked like? What you looked like?

Too often when I read the news, I think, I can't believe it's not 1968. Here it is forty-six years later, and we can land a space probe on a comet four billion miles away, but we still have to struggle for human rights.
It is 2014 and people who look like me, while walking down the sidewalk pretty much anywhere in the USA, may see a grown-up version of this boy in this hoodie, without a Free Hugs sign, and they'll cross the street.
Why?
And how, in particular, did a hoodie become such a charged piece of clothing? A hoodie: so comfy, so pragmatic. I've drawn them on my children characters time and time again. I'm wearing a hoodie right now. It has fleece on the inside. I'm full of good times with my family, featuring really delicious food, and my hoodie is a smidge too tight around my middle; it feels like a little bit like a hug.
When I drew this (feeling so troubled, late, late, late into the night) I was inspired by Devonte Hart who I assume was inspired by Juan Mann's Free Hugs campaign. I was inspired by Portland Police Sergeant Bret Barnum, too. Few people have the courage to take anybody up on the offer of a free hug. And yes, I was thinking about Trayvon Martin's hoodie.