I am starting this blog with a poem I wrote for black history month in 1978 while stationed at Ft Polk, Louisiana. I have recited it at gatherings many times since then, and continue to affirm the validity of its message.
Stand up and be counted in place
As among those who are pleased with your race
Do not flinch from your identity
Or be doubtful of your integrity
Yes it is true our past is wrapped in mystery
And that we have had a painful history
But now that we have been redeemed
We must enhance our self-esteem
The whips and chains I need not mention
Since we are now in a new dimension
Now free as birds we sing at last
Our abject status is of the past
This is not to say that all is solved
And that we can afford to be uninvolved
Only that a new day has dawn
And that we should awake and grab the morn
The thing to see bright like a star
That the the toil of our ancestors has brought us this far
And I surely can assure you thus
In this country and world there’s a place for us
Nice