This is a link to the National Visionary Leadership Project which is an awesome project started by Camille O. Cosby and Renee Poussaint, a documentary filmmaker and former network journalist to record and preserve the legacies of those elders who have help shaped American society.

They place together young interviews with the older generations of leaders. They even invite you to nominate a visionary so that they can share their stories, as well! Some of them are famous (Ray Charles, Maya Angelou, Dorothy Height, Sidney Poitier) and some are not so well known (Margaret Washington Clifford - granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, James Cameron - Founder of the Black Holocost Museum, Pecolia Boyles - A community leader) but all have facinating stories to tell and I invite you to visit the website and watch some of the videos.

National Visionary Leadership Project

On a recent family drive to California, my Dad told me that when they used to make that drive in the 60's and 70's, gas cost about $.25 a gallon ... and they used to make the trip one-way for less than $10.00!!

We paid as much as $3.45 a gallon in parts of Arizona and California to fill up ... and the cost one-way a little bit under $200.00!!

Isn't that something?

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:
On a recent family drive to California, my Dad told me that when they used to make that drive in the 60's and 70's, gas cost about $.25 a gallon ... and they used to make the trip one-way for less than $10.00!!

We paid as much as $3.45 a gallon in parts of Arizona and California to fill up ... and the cost one-way a little bit under $200.00!!

Isn't that something?

I began playing in a band in the early 60s.

In the second band I played in, we would sometimes travel into Northside Pittsburgh (20 miles) to practice where one member of the band lived...to save him time and money.

On the way back, we would want to eat at McDonald's, and get enough gas to get home.

There 8 musicians, and 8 singers in the group.

$1.70 would get us 10 cheseseburgers, one each with 2 left over. Everyone had a reason why he should get at least one, if not both of the extras.

The drummer usually got one, because he had to his car and drive another 10 miles to get home in Beaver Falls, plus transfer is drums from one car to another.

As for gas...

We gathered pennies to get a gallon at $0.26 per.

We were not ashamed to ask for a single gallon of gas...but we did see that as the responsibility of the driver.

PEACE

Jim Chester

If we as a people need any type of motivation towards continuing our struggle for equal rights and equal justice in this country, we have no better models than our own ancestors. When looking at where our people have been and where we are now, our pride in their struggle should be at least 50% of all the motivation we need.

We are where we are because of where they were. They had so much less to fight with and the achievements that have brought us to this point and time are so phenominal that if we stop taking them for granted for just one moment, we may be truly able to see how far we've come and how far we've got to go.

Here in this country, we've come from being chattle property to being an intergral part of the government. We've gone from having to have permission to be in the same room as a white person to being able to being able to go, sit, and do whatever we want, wherever we want and can sue and win for the right to do so whenever someone wants to bar us. There was a time when it was illegal for a black person to have an education and now we teach at some of the most prestigious learning institutions in the country.

Not all of the Africans taken from the Motherland through the slave trade have or have had the same opportunities for success or prosperity as we have here. The curse of coming to America could turn out to be one of the greatest blessing for our people as a whole if we take what we have and what we've learned and spead it thoughout the Diaspora. Non-violent progression has spared us from bloody civil wars, has forced humanity on a government lead by the inhumane, and allowed us to keep our dignity and pride in tact.

There was a time when we had no control over our direction, but now we have everything we need to get us wherever it is we want to go. If we don't get there, we have nobody but ourselves to blame. And we should be trying to get there tomorrow ... because our journey actually started over 300 years ago.

I was in the grocery store this evening when I overhead a mother son conversation.

The mom said to her son of about 10 years, "I wish you would stop touching everything! You're getting on my nerves!"

To which the son replied, "Well, you're getting on my nerves, too!" And then he commenced to run wild down the aisle and slid on the floor.

The mother didn't bother to pay him any attention, but, when she looked up, I'm sure she saw the look of on my face, and quickly glanced back down, snatched up her Fruit Loops and proceeded down the aisle towards her child ... who was again touching everything on the shelves.

I thought about the hellacious ass beating I would have gotten for even thinking about saying that to my mother!! Between her combination of mother's intuition and x-ray vision, she would have seen that thought going through my mind and slapped me back into the future before I even knew I was gone!! And had I actually let it slip through my lips ... especially in a public place ... well ... I'd rather not even think about that.

It reminded me about my little baby neice who, at 4 years old, had received her first spanking. Her father (my nephew) can't bring himself to do it. But her momma (his wife) can! And did. My niece proceeded to proudly proclaim to the family that "My mommy spanked me!" I think it was an attempt to get mommy in trouble, but the first question each of us shot back at her is, "Oh really? What did you do?" To which she would quickly and honestly reply, "I was talking back. And not being very nice." I looked down into her beautiful brown eyes and said, "Oh my! Well, I guess you're not going to do that again, are you?" She emphatically shook her head "no", and said, "I'm gonna be nice." And she really has been a bundle of joy ever since!

I then went to her Mom and asked her how she was doing, knowing the first spanking can be a traumatic experience for all concerned. She said she was doing fine ... it hurt her a little to do it .. but then she said, "But she's been straighted out ever since, so, it was worth it."

I'm glad the littlest additions to our family are going to be raised the same way I was ... both loved and disciplined ... and taught better than to tell their mother (or any other adult) that they are getting on her nerves.

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:
If we as a people need any type of motivation towards continuing our struggle for equal rights and equal justice in this country, we have no better models than our own ancestors. When looking at where our people have been and where we are now, our pride in their struggle should be at least 50% of all the motivation we need.

We are where we are because of where they were. They had so much less to fight with and the achievements that have brought us to this point and time are so phenominal that if we stop taking them for granted for just one moment, we may be truly able to see how far we've come and how far we've got to go.

Here in this country, we've come from being chattle property to being an intergral part of the government. We've gone from having to have permission to be in the same room as a white person to being able to being able to go, sit, and do whatever we want, wherever we want and can sue and win for the right to do so whenever someone wants to bar us. There was a time when it was illegal for a black person to have an education and now we teach at some of the most prestigious learning institutions in the country.

Not all of the Africans taken from the Motherland through the slave trade have or have had the same opportunities for success or prosperity as we have here. The curse of coming to America could turn out to be one of the greatest blessing for our people as a whole if we take what we have and what we've learned and spead it thoughout the Diaspora. Non-violent progression has spared us from bloody civil wars, has forced humanity on a government lead by the inhumane, and allowed us to keep our dignity and pride in tact.

There was a time when we had no control over our direction, but now we have everything we need to get us wherever it is we want to go. If we don't get there, we have nobody but ourselves to blame. And we should be trying to get there tomorrow ... because our journey actually started over 300 years ago.

True that in everything you said! In the third day of our "supposedly Black History month, I hope our newer/younger generation understand exactly your points in regards to extending the greatness of our journey back to where it all began: Africa. Only then will our mission to save ourselves evolve full circle. Great analysis!

It's rare that I ever feel old(er) these days, but I did earlier tonight when I had a memory about the Milk Man! I actually remembered how excited I used to get to be able to be the one who put the empty milk bottles into the metal milk holder, take it out to our front porch and stick the little order forms into the top of one of the bottles to tell him how many full bottles to leave.

I can barely remember seeing him or his truck, because he got to our block far earlier than I even wanted to be up! But, he was definitely dressed in all white, with the hat and black belt and little black bow tie and Black shoes and the whole bit! But, when I would wake up the next morning, the correct number of full bottles of milk would be in the little holder on the front porch.

And I mused how I haven't even seen milk in a bottle since I don't know when!! Everything is plastic or paper cartons these days. And also how that memory used to make me feel so grown up to have that "chore" twice a week and now it makes me feel really old just to think about it.

My niece looked at me like I was ancient! I guess she figured that the Milk Man was a figment of T.V.'s imagination!! Then as I saw the wheels in her head turning, she glanced over at my Dad ... no doubt wondering what his experience could have been!

My Dad turned to his granddaughter and said, "I used to get mine straight from the cow!!" She stared at him as if to wonder whether that could even be possible! Finally, she said, "Really, Grandpa?" and he said, "Really!" And then she just reached over and gave him a big hug.

It's things like that that make getting old(er) a lot easier to take!