Millions More Movement
Yesterday I went to The Mall for the Millions More Movement.It was so nice outside and it's been raining practically EVERY day. But anyway, I'm really glad I went. I was out the night b4 for Hype's 21st birthday and i got practically no sleep. My brothers'birthday is today. He's 24. right now he's on break from his job. He's in CA though so I won't get to see him this time around. But anyway I think I got out there around eight or nine.-somewhere in between-.
I met some really inspirational people. There were a lot of business owners, college students from all over the place including Howard and all sorts of vendors. People were selling food, jewelry, dreadlock jewelry,t-shirts, books, and those wristbands/bracelets that are so popular now. Every intrest group you can think of seemed to be there that day.
One man that stands out was the author of Jail-to-a-Job. He explained that someone had asked him if he would do a program about helping formally incarcerated people to transition back into the workforce, and after that he decided to go into business and write a book about it. There was no one at his booth though. In DC! One of the worst crime rates in the country. And not a soul was over there. He said he should have the longest line there(here). He sure as hell should have.
Also met osme GWU kids, a student from Alabama A&M, and some Howard alumni, who were-I think-also in town for Howard's homecoming. They were more excited about it than we were. *chuckle* I got some really good pictures and quotes from people. I felt satisfied and thats saying a lot bc I really wasn't sure how I would do , being that it was my first job for them and all. But it went well.
I didn't see any young speakers on stage. However, the New Black Panther Party was there, and I interviewed one of the men. He seemed very focused about the cause, but he still made time to do the interview. Out of the 20 some odd people I spoke to, there was only one rude one. Not bad eh?
My friend and I were discussisng how there should have been a database in place to record all of the people in attendance, so that people could stay in touch and really network and start to make some things happen and bring a lot more ideas to fruition. I wanna see change. Real change. I 'd like to live to see the day when we stop being so damn critical and hateful towards each other bc of gender, age group, religion, skin tone, whatever. I guess you find all these divisions in any race, but as people of African Descent in THIS country, we just can't afford the luxury of being like everyone else. I mean everyone is of African descent but for us brown skinned folks in particular we have changes to make that are LONG overdue.
I wanna do something to promote this group called Mothers in Change as well. They work in the Philadelphia area to try and guide kids in their area, basically they are trying to work with the youth to help stop violence in our communities. The woman I spoke with lost her son to violence on Easter Sunday of 2004. She had a poster of him with his picture on it.They only have two chapters so far, I'd like to do a follow up story for the paper to get the word out about what they do and how they began-all that jazz. I'd also like to do a follow up story on the Author of Jail-to-a-Job.
I'm sure I know some people that decided not to go. Bust is one thing -bc some people were there in support and that counts for sure but some people...I'm like get off your ass and go. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Louis farrakhan or not. There's a whole hell of a lot more reasons why you SHOULD go than why you shouldn't go. People came from all over the nation. Ima need you to get on the bus. Metro/cab/walk whatever
I met some really inspirational people. There were a lot of business owners, college students from all over the place including Howard and all sorts of vendors. People were selling food, jewelry, dreadlock jewelry,t-shirts, books, and those wristbands/bracelets that are so popular now. Every intrest group you can think of seemed to be there that day.
One man that stands out was the author of Jail-to-a-Job. He explained that someone had asked him if he would do a program about helping formally incarcerated people to transition back into the workforce, and after that he decided to go into business and write a book about it. There was no one at his booth though. In DC! One of the worst crime rates in the country. And not a soul was over there. He said he should have the longest line there(here). He sure as hell should have.
Also met osme GWU kids, a student from Alabama A&M, and some Howard alumni, who were-I think-also in town for Howard's homecoming. They were more excited about it than we were. *chuckle* I got some really good pictures and quotes from people. I felt satisfied and thats saying a lot bc I really wasn't sure how I would do , being that it was my first job for them and all. But it went well.
I didn't see any young speakers on stage. However, the New Black Panther Party was there, and I interviewed one of the men. He seemed very focused about the cause, but he still made time to do the interview. Out of the 20 some odd people I spoke to, there was only one rude one. Not bad eh?
My friend and I were discussisng how there should have been a database in place to record all of the people in attendance, so that people could stay in touch and really network and start to make some things happen and bring a lot more ideas to fruition. I wanna see change. Real change. I 'd like to live to see the day when we stop being so damn critical and hateful towards each other bc of gender, age group, religion, skin tone, whatever. I guess you find all these divisions in any race, but as people of African Descent in THIS country, we just can't afford the luxury of being like everyone else. I mean everyone is of African descent but for us brown skinned folks in particular we have changes to make that are LONG overdue.
I wanna do something to promote this group called Mothers in Change as well. They work in the Philadelphia area to try and guide kids in their area, basically they are trying to work with the youth to help stop violence in our communities. The woman I spoke with lost her son to violence on Easter Sunday of 2004. She had a poster of him with his picture on it.They only have two chapters so far, I'd like to do a follow up story for the paper to get the word out about what they do and how they began-all that jazz. I'd also like to do a follow up story on the Author of Jail-to-a-Job.
I'm sure I know some people that decided not to go. Bust is one thing -bc some people were there in support and that counts for sure but some people...I'm like get off your ass and go. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Louis farrakhan or not. There's a whole hell of a lot more reasons why you SHOULD go than why you shouldn't go. People came from all over the nation. Ima need you to get on the bus. Metro/cab/walk whatever