Well, here we are again.  We’ve reached a turning point both in history, and in the passage of time.  On January 1, 2006, we mark the beginning of a New Year, signifying a fresh start. 
We also mark the observance of 143 years since President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing approximately 4,000,000 slaves.
For more than 30 years, my father, the late Wilkie Clark in his capacity as President of Randolph County’s NAACP, took on the personal responsibility of seeing to it that an Emancipation Day Observance was staged in Randolph County, annually.  He upheld the teaching of the NAACP, that in order to experience racial progress, black people needed these constant annual reminders of their journey from enslavement and oppression to liberation. 
Reflecting back, I recall vividly how poorly attended the early Emancipation Proclamation Services were.  How well do I recall, black Randolph Countians’ hearts were so tightly gripped with fear that something bad would happen to them if they participated in NAACP functions.  But, as the years passed, and the burden of racism and Jim Crow began to lift, these programs began to experience better participation and interest.  The Annual Emancipation Proclamation Observance began to serve as an eye-opener for many blacks, who’s understanding of “Emancipation” had been long obscured by the veil of ignorance of black history.  This annual affair came to serve as a catalyst for change and a reminder that every opportunity that has come to black people in America involved struggle.  Nothing has been given to us.  Every opportunity we enjoy today…whether it be jobs, home ownership in the neighborhood of our choice, or equal access to services in public restaurants and bathroom facilities…. all were bought with a steep price.   The price often involved bloodshed and even loss of life.   I would always emerge from the Emancipation Proclamation programs with a new awareness and better appreciation for the compelling history of my African forefathers.   
The question arises, do we need to continue to stage these annual reminders of black history?   I believe that we do.    In a large measure, we have failed to pass the torch that was ignited by the patriarchs of civil and human rights.   We have failed to continue teaching the lessons our forefathers taught us about real freedom.   This failure has resulted in an unexcuseable and frightening lack of appreciation and respect for the struggle for equality among modern black youth.  As I observe them, I see a bleak picture that can only send them on a downward spiral unless we go back to “The Old Landmark.”  This is a place they cannot take themselves…because many of them have never been there before.   Rather, this is a place where we must take them to.    
Today’s black youngsters need to be infused with the understanding that for black men, women and youth, the idea of “freedom” must transcend any other level or concept that can be imagined by any other race of human beings.   
Too many of today’s black youth have a warped, faulty idea of what “freedom” is all

about.  To many of them, “freedom” means they can cuss you out – don’t care if you are an adult.   For many of them, “freedom” means they can walk the streets and smoke all the dope they can get their hands on; it means that they can even stand right in front of your house, AND YOU, and peddle it….they don’t care about the little 6, 7, and 8-year-olds watching them do what they are doing, and receiving faulty perceptions about what is acceptable behavior.  For too many of them, “freedom” means they don’t have to care.   For too many of them, “freedom” means that they don’t have to display any degree of respect either for their parents or neighbors—they do just whatever they want to do.   For too many of them, if they run low on cash, “freedom” means they can walk right into your home and steal your belongings and pawn them in exchange for some quick cash.  Consequently, their faulty concept of “freedom” results in their loss of it.  Hence, at this very moment, our nation’s prisons are filled beyond their capacity with black youth.
When President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, black slaves for the first time in centuries, experienced something that they had never experienced before. The freeing of the slaves brought an end to the bondage; the restrictions on their movement, their thinking, their intelligence.  The real appreciation for freedom can only come, when one has experienced restrictions and limitations on their life.  Only then can there be a real appreciation for liberation.

For too many of our children, proper limits have never been set, so there is no appreciation for or understanding of real “freedom.” Many of them have never had any limits set in their lives.  They’ve never been told “NO” by their parents.  For many of them, there is no parent to ask.
Our children need to know and understand the real meaning of freedom. But, they will never learn how to appreciate freedom unless and until we begin to set limitations on them.
Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator said:

“Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”   
 
We’ (Black America), have given our young folk too much liberty.  So much to the point, that they’ve taken un-realistic liberties, often overstepping their boundaries, disrespecting authority; refusing to obey anybody.  We’ve led many of them to believe that everything is free; few of them know or understand how to work and make an honest dollar; they have poor work ethics because they have been given everything and have never been made to do a task the absolute best it can be done. Many of them don’t have chores or responsibilities at home. Consequently, they have a poor and irresponsible understanding of “freedom.”
Real freedom is a state of mind.  Real freedom makes one more – NOT LESS responsible for his or her actions.  Real freedom makes one think longer and harder about their actions – BEFOREHAND, not as an afterthought.  Real freedom respects life and health and property.  Black America, it’s time to reclaim, re-define and re-teach the real meaning of “freedom” for future generations of black boys and girls.  It’s imperative that we do this…for the salvation of our youth.

Copyright 2005 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the December 29th, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (www.peoplesvoiceonline.com).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149
 

Greetings to our readers throughout East Central Alabama and West Central Georgia.   Once again, we have the distinct pleasure of bringing you another edition of The People’s Voice Black Weekly News, where we are attempting to free 77,000 African Americans from the bondage of their own minds….much of which by the way is self-imposed.

In last week’s edition of The Voice, Editor-In-Chief, Tony D. Malone wrote a heart-warming greeting, in which he uttered wonderful words of encouragement meant for those of us who are laboring diligently each week to produce this paper.  I want to thank him for those words, but one must sometimes look beneath the printed word to extract “real essence” from it.  One area in Mr. Malone’s piece, addressed the issue of the grammatical deficiencies seen throughout weekly issues of The Voice (which have been pointed out all too many times).  I believe he put it this way… “We apologize if the verb doesn’t agree, or maybe there happens to be a misspelled word. Whatever the case, please bear with us during our time of building.”  

Well, sorry to disappoint you.  But I don’t apologize.  Neither do I take responsibility for the grammatical deficiencies evident in the weekly issues of The Voice.  Who says the subject and verb have to agree in a black paper….particularly when the paper’s objective is to serve as a mirror-image of the degenerative social status of our people in an era where educational opportunities supposedly abound, and the barriers to racial progress that once existed have supposedly been torn down?

You’d better believe, I’ve heard it all!   It’s always easy for critics to sit on the side-line of do-nothing, and talk about what ought to be happening.  Now, I’m not talking about constructive critics who are really offering their input to help us improve our finished product.  I’m talking about the malicious critics who couldn’t care less about what we are trying to do — just want something or somebody to talk about.   Yeah; we need to have proof-readers.  Yeah, right!  We have a bunch of incompetent people working with the paper.  Yeah; we ought to get the paper out on time.  Yeah; we ought to have more ads.  

If there are any inept or incompetent people helping with the newspaper, they, in fact are to be applauded for having the guts to even attempt this!  And if that be the case, then we all have to share in the responsibility for their ineptitude.  Because, we (the whole black race), are the ones who have sat idly by for decades and allowed — passively and apathetically LET — ourselves and our minds be relegated and reduced to lowest terms….academically socially, educationally, economically.  Years of desegregation have forced many African-Americans out of or steered them away from opportunities to use their minds and their intelligence to perform high-level tasks that require thinking and decision-making skills. Again and again black intelligence is insulted in the workplace, in our institutions, in the community and at school.  Thus we are still largely glorified subordinates to individuals of other races; we accept the premise that we cannot think as well as individuals of other races; thus, we are now victims of  the “USE IT OR LOSE IT addage.   Unfortunately, in many venues, we have not been allowed to use our capacity to think and make decisions.  Thus, our brains may have been dulled when it comes to tasks that involve communication skills and a firm command of the English language.   Those of us who are doing the criticizing, don’t seem to understand that a permanent black underclass has been growing during all the years that minute number of middle-class blacks were ignoring it. (Charles Murray Opinion Journal, The Hallmark Of The Underclass).   

We bought into all of society’s sophisticated academia and theories which have amounted to nothing more than a lousy excuse for settling for mediocrity rather than excellence…thus there are an overwhelming majority of us who are un-proficient in practical use of the English Language. 

The truth is…that we as a people are all caught up in our phony outward appearances that don’t say a thing about what we really are or what we are made of.  Yes, we say we want a newspaper that is representative of our slick new and improved socio-economic status…one that eloquently displays a imperial mastery of the King’s English; that reflects many of our upper echelon ideologies.  But the truth is, that newspaper would amount to nothing more than a lie, misrepresentative of the masses of black people.   It separates our people from the truth and paints an inaccurate picture.

You need to wake up and smell the coffee.   The frequent disagreement between subject and verb that you see in this newspaper from week to week, is merely symptomatic of the same disagreement between various social groups and divisions within our race and our own culture that continue to impede black progress in the rural south.  Everybody’s talking loud and saying absolutely nothing!   There is too much disagreement for anything that remotely resembles anything promising to be seen.  Everybody has conflicting ideas about what the communities need to be doing; what the churches need to be doing; some have no idea whatsoever!  Most don’t care.   The black communities are brimming with mass confusion.  And few, if any of our problems are getting solved.  Our communities are still infested with drugs;  A large number of our young people still fairing poorly in school; they are still heavily influenced en masse by a negative hip-hop culture.  The proportion of young men who grow up unsocialized and who, given the opportunity, commit crimes, is growing;  the nations prisons are still filling with young black men; cities and States are building and enlarging jailhouse facilities to contain our boys.  Our youngsters have little or no interest in their own history and heritage – the real stuff that made us a great people;  and those of us who read this newspaper can only see that the subject and verb don’t agree!   What you need to be looking at is the mass disagreement among the social and economic influences on black life throughout East Alabama and West Georgia.   We need to be looking at ways for all components of our community and culture to finally come into agreement for the betterment of our whole culture.  We are losing an entire generation of would-be black leaders and decisions makers of the future.

Has it not dawned on you that we (black folks) have some real hard core issues that nobody wants to deal with?  For starters, let’s begin by talking about the fact that many of us are so deprived and cut off from knowledge of who and what we are;  from the power afforded by modern technology, DESPITE the opportunity to pursue education in a setting where equal access is not only promised but guaranteed!  

Consequently, what it amounts to is that America has told us that our brains are not sophisticated enough to use computer information systems.  And we bought it!   America has told us that we can’t put words together well enough to write for the public.  We bought that!   America has told us that we can’t work together long enough to establish and run our own news media.  And we bought that.  

In the final analysis, I do want all of our readers to be aware that The Voice is a “Work In Progress!”

It should be re-emphasized that NO-ONE involved in the production of this newspaper is a professional journalist; nor do we know anything about the newspaper business.   If times had only been different, I might have majored in journalism and become the writer that I always wanted to be.   But, my mom, whose thinking and vision were held captive by the belief that the only decent and profitable thing a black girl could do, was teach school, refused to invest in my passion for writing.  So, I became an educator instead.

Consequently, we find ourselves having to actually train and groom a core of individuals who are equipped to work with the newspaper, and learn the publishing process.   

It is only out of our SHEER WILL to see our black communities empowered through information, that God is making all of this possible.  

So, you see, dear readers…I really don’t care if the subject and verb don’t agree….as long as WE can agree that something substantive must be done to turn our neighborhoods and communities around.  To help our youth and young adults develop better work ethics, and apply themselves to tasks that will bring about more positive outcomes in their lives.

Copyright 2005 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the December 26th, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (www.peoplesvoiceonline.com).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
334-338-1149