photo by steed media service

The black community has numerous sicknesses festering within its soul. The twin evils of ignorance and consumerism - the former breeding all manner of sociological and sociopolitical ills and the latter serving to undercut any hope of financial stability - are conspiring to bankrupt our future. It is a conspiracy in which we are complicit, but it doesn't have to be so.

It is within our power, and it is our moral duty, to steer a new course. We have to learn how to build discipline into our lives - collectively and individually. Diabetes, hypertension and obesity are running roughshod over us like souped-up bulldozers.

Our women are contracting HIV in alarming numbers, threatening not only their lives, but the lives of their unborn children, too. And many of us are so hamstrung by debt that we are unable to secure the cornerstone of the American Dream: homeownership. The best and brightest of our young people are being cut down in the prime of their lives by senseless violence, and the perpetrators are continuing to feed the rapacious appetite of the prison industrial complex. It is all too dear a price to pay.

Make no mistake about it; our community is on life support with one foot on the proverbial banana peel. Desperate conditions call for radical solutions. We don't have the luxury of waiting for the situation to resolve itself and no superhero is coming to the rescue. When the body has an infected wound, the putrefied tissue must be excised or the life (or limb) will be lost. It's time to get out the scalpel and do what we must to ensure the health of the entire community. Not one of is expendable. You can choose to be part of the solution or continue to be part of the problem. I'm hoping that you'll choose healing. I'm praying that you'll choose to be your own superhero. I'm trusting that you'll choose community over chaos. Peace.

Munson Steed, Publisher
publisher@rollingout.com

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