EARLY MORNING PHONE PICK UP

Can You Hear Me... Can You Hear Me Now

I got up early this morning and decided to read carefully an article. Quotes like this one from the article quickly got my mind on red alert: "Civil rights leaders this week declared that... "even with the historic possibility of a Black or female Democratic president, the vastly separate and unequal socieities in which American continues to exist, will not equal and just without specific plans and action."

"Ok," I thought to myself, "time to ring up my Neighborhood friends and share this alarming piece of news."

Friends, can you hear me now?

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That quote is taken from the lead article in the Seattle Medium, for Wednesday, February, 27, 2008. The article was written by Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Editor-in-Chief. The beautiful woman in the picture is Myrlei Evers-Williams, former NAACP chair and the widow of the late civil rights leader Medgar Evers.



In the article, On 40th Anniversary of Kerner Report: 'Separate and Unequal' Societies Still Exist', Reverend Jesse Jacksson Sr, says, "In 40 years there has been no plan to heal the breach. There has beem ,pre abandonment and less investment in these 40 years. Today we still have essentially two socieities, one half in a surplus and the other half in a deficit. Essentially in the city and suburbs,there is Black and Brown on the one hand and White on the other. Our infant mortality rate is higher. Our life expectancy is shorter, less access to good jobs, less access to the board of directors, less access to capital. Our cities have been essentially abandoned. Manufacturing jobs are out, investment out, guns and automatic weapons made legal; taxes up and services down, first class jails and second class schools."

Statements like that lead me to wonder if anybody really cares that economically the American playing field does not seem to be equal,



Like Mrs. Myrlie Evers-Williams, I am thrilled at what is happening nationally in politics. But I know that today I must look at what is happening around me soberly and honestly and ask with whom I need to work to make our neighborhood a peaceful and just place for everyone. Here is what Mrs. Evers-Williams says at the end of the
article: "We still cannot fall into an attitude of we have made it. We cannot afford to embrace an attitude of everything is okay. There is a vigilance that we must have on a daily basis...Not just for this election. But, with an ongoing built-in attitude that we must know what the issues are. We must know who the elected officials are. Once they are elected, we must be sure that they are accountable to us. There's no rest and there should not be. There should not be a period rest where we assume that everything is alright and we have made it in this country. Some have grown tired of hearing me quote the old saying, 'Freedom is not free'. But it's true. We must nurture it (FREEDOM) on a daily basis.

What really awaits us behind that flag, my friends?
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