SOBER THOUGHTS

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