SOBER THOUGHTS

ORIGINALITY is a real virtue that I treasure.  I take pride in doing something in a way that no one else ever has; or creating something new from something old.  That’s the essence of creativity. 

 Recently I received a couple of articles that individuals submitted for publication in The People’s Voice; and while I am always happy to receive material of interest for publication, I must say that I was quite disappointed that the article was a clipping from some other paper complete with photos.  The individual had suggested to me that we reprint the article exactly as it had appeared in the other publication. It disturbed me greatly, because it reminded me of how careless we as African-Americans sometimes are about copying what others do. Why do we need to “copy” what someone else has produced?  Our forefathers were some of the greatest minds of all time.  Civilization was born right in Ancient Egypt, which was inhabited by a race of black people whose achievements still confound historians and archaeologists.  They were great thinkers, philosophers, mathematicians, architects and builders.  Certainly, we as a people realize the importance of thinking and acting for ourselves! 
Have we become so dependent on the actions, thoughts, attitudes and opinions of others that we’ve forgotten how to think for ourselves?

As a practicing funeral director, I have always taken extreme pride in designing and producing my own memorial items for our families (such as funeral programs and so forth).  I spend a lot of time on each one, and try to make it as unique as possible…unlike any other that I‘ve done before.  Sometimes, we are very pressed for time, but, we find that the extra minutes we devote to this task makes a real difference to those we serve.  I try to make it my business to create something just for that individual. Oh, sometimes, there may be similarities, but I try to make sure that there is always some subtle difference in subsequent materials we produce.  And nothing makes me angrier than to see an expression or phrase that I created or a folder style that I created only to have it copied exactly and used by some other funeral home serving some other family.  Something that I labored over for hours…just scooped up by somebody else who doesn’t care enough to do their own work.  This is a perfect example of how presumptious we are in copying someone else’s work. 

Our company has had many opportunities to provide church bulletin printing services for several local churches.  This gave me a lot of opportunities to see this same tendency to “copycat” among churches.  It would always be obvious to me that the program committee had gone back and dug up an old program, and merely gone down the line and changed dates and names, and said “It’s done!”   We would get the material, usually handwritten on a fresh piece of notebook paper, just the way it was copied from an old program.   From program to program you could see the same old order of events, and the same old things being done in pretty much the same old way — year in and year out.   Another example of how we copy other people’s ideas and hard work.

Why do we tend to copy others?  I think that sometimes, copying means that we don’t want to invest the time, or burn the mental calories to think things through for ourselves.  That’s too much work.  So, we think we’re working smart and letting ourselves off the hook by copying somebody else’s work.    It all leaves me wondering, “That high school diploma, or that college degree you have, did you rely on someone else’s brain power to get that?”

As a writer, I would be extremely angry, if I observed someone else using excerps from my book, without citing the work, or giving me credit for the words.  That’s against the law, and I would sue them for plagerism.   As a business person, and understanding how quick folks are to claim somebody else’s work as their own, I have developed a habit of place a copyright on everything that I create.  This symbol © guarantees legal protection of a person’s intellectual property.

Copying ain’t cool, by no stretch of the imagination.  First, it shows a lack of respect and disregard for the other person’s work.   When we copy ANYTHING, we must be sure we properly cite the originator of the work. 

Originality excites the imagination while monotony disenchants and bores. This inclination that many of us have to merely copy what someone else has done, lets us “off the hook.”  We don’t have to put forth any effort or put any thought into anything we do.   This is not good, and it teaches poor habits to our youngsters, who, by the way are learning by observing how we do things.

I love the fact that people want to contribute to The People’s Voice.  But, I don’t love the fact that we want to clip it out of another paper and run it in ours.  There is nothing new, or creative, or original about that.  Certainly, we as African-American readers, and consumers are thinking people and we can do better.

For future reference, let’s please make certain that we put a little time and effort into what we do, and what we submit for publication.  This paper is a reflection of the make-up of the African-American communities.  We want it to be a positive one.   If you insist on submitting an article that has been previously published in another publication, YOU MUST GET PERMISSION TO REPRINT IT from the publication.  If you submit any material THAT YOU DID NOT CREATE YOURSELF, please make sure that you are careful to note:  “This article was written by Joe Blow, and reprinted with permission from The Windy City Word (or whatever the publication is).  “Submitted By Jane Doe”    

You can write an article yourself, but make certain that you do good research, and you  should even cite your resources. Any quotations submitted, please give the original author credit for their quotation.

Generations from now, when most of us are dead and gone, and those who are left behind start to search the archives of black history in East Alabama and West Georgia, we will want to leave the evidence behind that we were a great community of neighbors living in bordering states of Alabama and Georgia.  That we were ethical people who had the utmost respect for the work and the ideas of others; and that we were originators, not imitators; that we carved out a future for them and that we did it with our own minds and imaginations.  And they’ll appreciate us for what we did.

This whole affair, The Clark Memorial Foundation, and The People’s Voice is about setting and raising our own standards – and making them high; and not about adopting or adapting to standards others have set for us.   We are independent thinking people.  Let’s show it in everything we do!

Copyright 2006 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 3, 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