Faith in Action

As I shared last month, I am a proud mentor in a program that serves incarcerated youth at the Charles Hickey School in Baltimore County. I’ve joined with four other strong brothers and we go to Hickey every Saturday for a strong 90 minute session - half youth develoment / half recreation.

The 15 (or so) young men that we mentor range between the ages of 15 and 18. Their charges are as petty as not completing community service as a stipulation of probation and as serious as selling narcotics and grand theft auto.

Because Hickey is a short term facility (supposed to be anyway), we only have about 5 weeks to positively impact the lives of these young men before they are moved out to a placement, another facility, or released back into the community.

We’ve been going strong now for two months and have learned much about the young men and ourselves. God has really blessed the mentors with great chemistry and comraderie. We all are 30 or younger, college educated, community-involved, married men - some with children. And all of us have a personal relationship with God that we do not hide from our mentees or staff. Prayer is a central part of our sessions and we stress to the young brothers that if they don’t have a spiritual connection with Almighty God that they will continue trafficking in the same hazardous circles that got them in Hickey in the first place.

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As you know, I’ve locked arms with activists in Baltimore’s Park Heights community in an effort to shut down the liquor stores there. As Betty noted in my previous post on this issue, this community is inundated with liquor establishments. And as Common Sense alluded to in that same comment section - a community that is inTOXICated will never rise up and demand better for themselves and/or their children.

The sheer volume of liquor establishments in Park Heights borders on a criminal offense and if I was Sharon Green Middleton - Baltimore City Councilwoman for that community - strategically removing these parasites from Park Heights would be one of my top priorities.

Interestingly enough, I have obtained a letter written by Jean Yahudah, president of the Woodlands Nguzo Saba Neighborhood Association addressed to Councilwoman Middleton and the Baltimore City Liquor Board dated December 1, 2007.

Honestly, I had to read the letter about three times. I could hardly believe Yahudah’s position on this issue.

How in God’s name does a neighborhood association named after the seven principles of Kwanzaa come to the defense of a liquor store that fuels violence and drug activity in this Black neighborhood!? Which principle of Kwanzaa justifies your position Ms. Yahudah?

Yahudah even goes so far as to express concern about how the elderly owners of the liquor store will make a living if not allowed to continue selling alcohol in the Black community!

I believe this letter is indicative of self-hatred and the self-destructive practice of protecting the interests of other ethnic groups at the expense of your own community’s dignity, prosperity, and basic humanity.

I don’t know family. Obviously, our efforts in Park Heights need to be two-fold. On one front we need to target the liquor stores and political systems. On the other front, we need to work to liberate the minds of “mis-educated negroes.”

Check out the letter and let me know what you think.

And her name is Cynthia McKinney.

Listen as she announces her campaign for President of the United States.

Customarily, at the end of every year I purpose to change things up on my blog. I believe that I have to keep things fresh to keep folks coming. It’s also a great way for me to learn more web design skills. (I’ve learned so much about web languages, servers, and such just by tinkering around with this blog over the years)

The newest change that is already up and running has to do with “blog monetization“. Vegan Momma really inspired me to start thinking about ways that I could make money via my blog. Considering the amount of time and energy that I give to this site, it made sense for me to explore ways that the blog could give back to me - besides, of course, providing engaging dialogue and the worldwide platform that I enjoy. Comparatively, I’m a little late on the blog monetization train. Many bloggers writing about various topics are making somewhere in the ball park of $200 - $2,000 dollars per month with the many ad programs out there.

So now, as you’ll notice, on the right sidebar I have ad space which is available for corporations, organizations, and entrepreneurs that provide a service or product that aligns with my ideals. Don’t worry faithful Faith-in-Actioners. You’ll never see ads for alcohol, sex enhancers, or other unsavory way out in left field products. I won’t sell out for the dollar. Hopefully, you will see a parade of Black-owned businesses like Urban Profile - a Detroit-based African American clothing company and other companies that provide valuable services like Lunar Pages - the web hosting company that I utilize and can vouch for.

I’m doing research into how much I should charge for the ad spaces and once my research is complete I’ll let you know the rates for advertising. I imagine that I’ll offer an introductory rate for a defined period of time in early ‘08.

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The brotha in the brown button-up next to Larry is the infamous Coach Butch McAdams.

Ok - my mother just sent me an email telling me to get back on the ball with my blog.  Sorry folks, I’ve been out of the loop for a minute.  I had to take care of some things.  Namely, I had to preach this past Wednesday and I had to write an article for the Baltimore Examiner.  All that writing requires a lot of creative energy and time.  Something had to give so the blog was put on hold.

I preached at the Baltimore County Ministerial Alliance Advent Service at my church.  It was a platform service with 5 associate ministers from various churches preaching on some aspect of John 3:16.  (The scripture was cut up into 5 pieces)  I’m always a bit leary of platform services because they can turn into competitions between preachers and that type of stuff nauseates me.  But the spirit of last week’s worship experience was pure and God blessed us.

The article I wrote for the Baltimore Examiner was about Darfur and the recent divestment legislation passed in Baltimore City and DC.  “The Black Eagle” Joe Madison from The Power (WOL 1450AM in DC & channel 169 on XM Radio) forwarded an email that I sent him to about 60-some odd people.  One of the people who received it was an editor of The Examiner in DC.  They forwarded it to the editor of the Op/Ed pages of the Baltimore Examiner and she emailed me requesting an article.  The article should run sometime soon in the Baltimore Examiner.  I’ll let you know when they publish it. 

I’ll be needing more of that creative energy tomorrow morning because I have a BIG opportunity.  Tomorrow morning I’ll be hosting the Larry Young Morning Show on 1010AM from 6AM - 10AM.  I’m doing the full morning show - 4 hours on 1010AM.  For those of you not in the Baltimore Metro Area or not familiar with the show; it’s one of the most popular morning talk shows targeting Black folk in this area.  I remember when I first started listening to the show and now I’m hosting it!  God is doing some amazing things in my life.  Please pray for me. It’ll be me and Coach Butch McAdams.  (Coach is like the “bad guy” on the show.  I’m time enough for him though:)

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I think it was Dr. Na’im Akbar who, in one of his books, makes distinction between being “informed” and being “aware” (or conscious).  To be informed means at the very basic level that you’ve been exposed to a body of information. Not necessarily that you really grasp the meaning of what you’ve been exposed to - most times it just means you can regurgitate it upon request - or at least that’s one of the goals of the american public school system.  To be aware or conscious means that you possess the tools and faculties to thoroughly engage information, examine its context, analyze the symbols therein, and apply the deeper truths to your existential reality.

I, like thousands of other Afrikans in this country, spent 16 years trying to regurgitate facts, stats, and figures in order to get pieces of paper that would prove that I am “smart.”  During this 16 years (k-12, 4 years of undergrad), I was unknowingly conditioned to embrace the ideals of white supremacy and socialized to find my “proper place” as a cog in the wheel of the White Power Structure.

It was during seminary that my “eyes” finally began to open.  I credit my professors for totally dismantling almost everything that I thought I knew about God.  During the process of demolishing my theological foundation, they shook loose the psychological chains on my brain as it related to Afrikan inferiority.  In my second year of seminary, I was undergoing a major transformation which was cultivated by the renewing of my mind.  During that second year, I agreed to take a class in Ghana, West Africa on African Traditional Religions and that month-long learning experience tremendously accelerated my thinking as it related to my place in this world.  We visited the slave castles in Elmina, I stood under a waterfall in the Volta Region, we studied the Akan culture, and we visited the last earthly home of W.E.B. DuBois - even enjoying a time of meditation next to his casket.  I learned of my Ancestor -Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.  I waded to the middle of the waters of Assin Manso - the last bathing place before enslaved Afrikans entered the slave castles and I stood in the Door of No Return…the doorway that led to the slave ships destined for the West.

It is difficult for me to articulate all that I felt and experienced back Home in Ghana, but suffice to say it was the place where I was Born Again.  I left the U.S. as an African American, I returned to the states as a Afrikan in America.  Since that experience in 2003, I have been on a Sankofa Mission - going back in history to study my Ancestors and Elders - their stories, their struggles, their lives, their sacrifices and coming forward to examine where I am in order to live a life which honors Almighty God and my Great Ancestors with hopes that I’ll one day join that Great Cloud of Witnesses. 

The 45 books below, listed in random order, have been essential reading in my journey.  This does not by any stretch of the imagination represent an exhaustive list of “must reads for Afrikans”.  These books (and some DVDs) have simply helped me to find and keep my righteous mind.  There are many many more that deserve prime placement on our shelves.  Feel free to add books that have been impactful for you as well.

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I was blessed to be a part of this panel discussion with Dr. Andres Alonso (Baltimore City Public Schools CEO), Chelsea Carson (Baltimore Algebra Project), Dr. Tyrone Powers (Children’s First Movement), and Maryland Shaw (Baltimore Algebra Project). Thanks to Mike Shea from Baltimore Grassroots Media for providing this video.

For more videos visit: Baltimore Grassroots Media