I just went to my first NAACP meeting and joined up and so should you!

Back in 1909, after rallying well in advance; a small band of intellectual folks got together and thought we needed a new strategy here. They got organized, starting a movement because they knew that education, legal action, civil rights legislation and political action would all be needed to advance the human race towards equality and justice.

Scheming and dreaming both behind the curtain and out in front would be needed well into the future. This was not a one and done deal resting on your laurels. Only a sustained multi thronged effort would be required over time for likely several generations given where we began.

Often times people in power for the moment would not agree, that’s a given. However what skills would we need , and could we get in engaging our own community along with our adversaries toward seeing the value of working on the behalf of the public good. Two steps forward and often six grueling steps back would be the lilely pace. Our expectations should remain high and yet with that that we would move forward with all deliberate speed.

My dad and his brother suggested that I get more politically involved right out of college in 1975 and join some grass roots organizations so I wouldn’t get cut off from the community and learn to work intergenerationaly.

Perhaps they saw law school in my future which I knew was not even a remote possibility, but I had worked for two years in the New York State Senate…