No matter how challenging our lives may seem, life will never be as tough for us as it was for our parents and the preceding generations.
-- Susan Taylor

Few of us reading this “Thought…,” had to ride the back of the bus or drink from the “Negroes only” water fountains. Fewer of us were denied the right to vote, deprived of a fair and equal education, or had to sharecrop to live. None of us experienced the back-breaking, mind-stealing reigns of slavery, or traveling prostrate in chains and our own feces from one continent to another against our will. None of us can even imagine carrying a big-a crucifix on our backs that is at least twice our weight then hung from it and left to die for somebody else’s wrongs.

So what’s our problem?

Well, yeah, we’ve still got other issues. We live with a justice system that levies penalties and punishments on us like the sun rises and sets. We depend on an educational system to teach our children and that system doesn’t even tolerate or accommodate the viewpoints, perceptions, or special needs of our children. And we are bound by a flawed political system, a democracy that ignores and discounts the unprivileged and disenfranchised people it was established to serve and protect. But if we keep the irons in the fire and our Selves at the altar, we can manage, change, or overcome all that.

So, what’s our problem? Most of us have access to healthcare that can save our lives. Most of us make enough money to take care of ourselves and our families. Most of us work at jobs in which we are competent and that provide some sense of satisfaction and pride. Most of us lay our heads down each evening in a safe and comfortable domicile.

Face it, we’re privileged. We don’t have to march and picket and boycott too much these days. Most of the time if we just vote or visit the capitol hills, union halls, or NAACPs of our cities, we get what we need. Sometimes we have to do a little bit more to be heard or taken seriously but, for the most part, we’ve pretty much got it made in the shade.

But while we do enjoy some privileges, and even though we don’t have the same challenges our parents endured, we can’t sit on our laurels and think that we’ve so got it made that we forget how far we’ve come and then fail to teach and prepare our children to make things better than they are. We’ve got to teach our children to require more, to expect the best when they do their best, and to keep a fighting spirit alive within. We’ve got to be sure our babies find their voice and know how to use it for the maintenance and progression of our community and the world at large. Each of us must be sure our children understand who they are, why they are, and what they are expected to return to the earth. These things we must teach for it was these things we were taught by those who came before us.

So while we are much better off than our parents and their parents, to rest now, kick our feet up, and teach no more is suicide and a slap in the face to our foreparents.

Sadiqqa © 2007