A Message From The Publisher
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 KJV
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr
The more I think about the perplexing situations that we find ourselves in, the more I realize that we are the only ones who can save us from our own demise.
I say this because we are constantly blaming our own for our shortcomings. For instance, “The Black churches should be doing thus and such… if our Black politicians would stand up and…our Black schools are failing our children because… Black businesses are too high.” The blame just goes on and on and on.
What will it take for us to really begin to examine the person in the mirror? How many more of our Black businesses will have to close their doors due to the lack of support from its own kind?
We blame our churches, but our churches are made up of congregations. And the last time I attended church the congregation was made up of people, the same people who complain about what our churches need to be doing.
Our children are being “turned out” because of the neglect of proper adult supervision. We know that many of our children are being reared by themselves under the directions of mass media stereotypes influenced by greed, selfishness and hate. And yet we refuse to give any amount of time, talent or finances to positively support and encourage them.
Most of our children spend the second largest amount of their time in our schools. Yet we refuse to get involved to change the direction of the course our schools are headed in.
It is obvious that the schools are not fully benefiting our children on their present course, but where are we? Why aren’t we screaming our heads off to rectify this catastrophe?
We see our businesses struggling and we walk right on by. We shop at stores that refuse to advertise in our Black owned media sources. These same stores refuse to support events that give scholarships to our children, but we give them our hard earned dollars just to keep them in business to tell us that we aren’t worth them investing back in US!
We have nobody to blame but us. There are no guns being placed to our heads or ropes placed around our necks. It appears that we are allowing psychological ghosts to forever control our lives.
This feeling of wretchedness was bludgeoned deeper into my gut approximately four weeks ago. I was in attendance at a prestigious Black event where many of our elite leaders and socialites were gathered to honor the “cream of the crop”, if you will. During the program, the Negro National Anthem was sung by a great high school choir. As the song was being sung, no one, not one single person, stood up out of respect for the song. Whether it was appropriate or not, no one stood.
What does this say about us?
I asked several people during the ensuing weeks why didn’t they stand up, and they all said that they were waiting on someone else to stand.
Had I not been standing already, because the place was standing room only, I asked myself would I have taken the chance and stood up – right, wrong or indifferent? Would I have stood?
At that moment I felt abandoned, lost and beaten. As I looked out over the vast audience of leaders and respectable people, learned people, I thought, “who is going to teach our children about our pride, history, struggles and our fortitude to overcome insurmountable odds when we can’t even stand up for what we were taught to do out of respect for what was ours?”
“The Lord’s kindness never fails! If He had not been merciful we would have been destroyed.”—-Lamentations 3:22 CEV
We have no one to blame but ourselves. So, let’s just stop pointing the finger, roll up our sleeves and get to work living or die not trying.
“Dear God in the name of Jesus. You have given us all that we need to achieve all that you want us to have. We get in our own way “blocking blessings” when we think outside of that which You left with us-Your Holy Spirit. Let us reconnect to You Dear Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.”
BLAME IS OUTSIDE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
