Opinion, Commentary, Editorials
a
a
BJ 0 D. Je
Well it's that time of year
again. It' X-Ma time. Un­
fortunately the X bas come to
symbolize all that has come
to be rong ith Christma
and the boliday eason bicb
. surrounds it,
Obviou I� there is ab-
olutely nothing rong with
celebrating Christmas as a
Christian hOliday which com­
memorate the birth of
Christ. Ho ever, mu h of
what occurs during this
eason i far removed, in­
deed, ob cure the original
purpo e of Cbrtstmas.
Within the context of a
profit oriented, materialistic
ociety, Christmas has been
overwhelmed and corrupted
by commercial! ID.
An orgy of fr ntic and
obligatory buying and gift
giving ha virtually become
the es ence of X-Mas. Even
poor people feel comp lied to
pend far bove nd beyond
their me n to ensure that
the ir children and Iamtl y
have a "merry" X-Mas. .
LLOFTHE Eill of X-
M con titute a lei nd 0 f
A
sa
Europeanized "bi te"
Christmas which bas little or
no relevance to Africans as
an oppressed people in
America. And yet African
Americans are caught up in
the corruption of X-Mas as
deeply as everyone el e in the
U.S.
Black people predictably
will spend billions of dollalJ
during the X-Mas season,
reconfirming the rap tbat we
"pay for what we WANT and
beg for what we NEED".
Le t me reiterate, there i
absolutely notbing rong
with celebrating Cbristm •
However, African Americans
must take stock of bow the
holiday is celebrated. In the
first instance Black Chris­
tians are called upon to ee
this eason as time of
serious piritual and
religious renewal.
In my judgement there is
also the challenge to see
Christ a coming into tbe
world to alleviate human uf­
fering and mi ery.
Chri t the liberator i cer­
tainly more in keeping with
the requirement' of African
a a people victimized by
a
II
racism and economic
depravity in a nation which is
still bostile to our people as a
collective communi ty.
A RICA AMERICANS
cannot afford to become con­
sumed by white X-Mas. We
cannot afford it because
bite X-Mas is a lie in terms
of the materialistic �alues
and perversion 'of the
eason's original intent.
And African Americans
cannot afford it because we
do not need to squander pre­
cious resources on the mad­
nes of cr ss materiaj ism
hen half of our live in
poverty, the majority of our
people still suffer and our
people a a na tional com­
munity remain under-
eveloped.
So a we celebrate during
this Christma season, let us
do 0 with orne en e of
sobriety, rationali ty and pur­
pose.
Let African Americans, ir­
re pective of religious per-
u ion, see this season as a
time of SPIRITUAL
RENEWAL and RECOM­
MITMENT. Let the
Chri tmas seaso be marked
by a rededication to FAMILY
UNITY both in t rms of our
immediate
faD;lilies and the
FAMILY of
MU ITY and R
n values,
human concer and the
proposition that he oppres­
sion, exploitatio and suffer­
ing of any hum n being is
irreconcilable w th the real
s i ri t and m aning of
Christmas.
FI ALLY, I
spend our dollars during lhi
season, let us S NO OUR
DOLLARS WIT A PUR­
POSE. Let us use ur dollars I
for sel f -s upport and sel f­
development. G vc a con­
tribution to your local Black
United Fund, United Negro
College Fund or a local com­
munity ba ed organization
committed to feeding, cloth­
ing, housing or educating our
people the year round. Make
a concerted effort to support
Blac 'busine es and Blac
vendors.
Finally. consciou Iy plan
,p 5
to buy Afro-centrlc items
which are practical, useful
and culturally relevant ego
boo ,art and arti facts,
po ters, handcrafted clothing
and jewelry etc. If we can di -
cipline ourselvc to do these
things, then we will not only
have a merry Chri tma but a
meaningful Chri trnas.
Ron Daniels erv s a
President of the Institute for
Community Organization and
Development in Youngstown,
Ohio. He may be contacted at
(216) .746-5747.
o
First off, let me acknow­
ledge that Detroit, like any
other urban area, ha its share
of problem.
Le t mea los tat e , t hat
working only on the image of
Detroit i it Car cry from
be ing+the olution to the
problems that we have.
But, after viewing PRIME
TIME LIVE la t Thursday on
ABC, I felt the need to ex­
pre my feeling toward the
City I grew up in, and the
many wonderful people who
live here. '
To the tudents of Finney
High School, that rallied to
make a tatement about the
los of their peer to youth
violence: We knew all along
that you cared, and we're
proud of you for speaking
out.
To the people at ew
Detroit, lnc., who helped to
spon or a tudent exchange
program, where number of
Black tudents went to a
predominantly white subur­
ban chool, and a number of
White students came here to
attend a predominantly Black
public chool, in an effort to
break down cultural and ra-
cial barriers: Thank you for Thank you for not seeing
working 0 hard to promote Detroit a THE END .OF T�E
racial harmony and ROAD. but a a City with
tolerance, we admire and arc'l great pot ntial if �e continue
with you in your determin - to come together In an effort
tion. to take our ci tv back from th
To the 35,0 0 volunteer elements of crim • violence,
who patrolled the neighbor- and poverty.
hood on Devils Night, in an And I trul he I icve , Mr.
effort to curb the fires: Thank Ro e nd Mr. hang, that we
you for realizing that we are ar up fer the challc nge.
in thi thing together, for Oh, a d clore I forget,
doin your part, and for not thank everyon of you, for
writing 0 troit off a ju t taying.
another ca ualty. We do care, With much lov , admir -
and your courage i greatly lion and re speer,
appreciated. beryl J..,. P ·tor
To ail of the un ung heroe A 30-year re ident
of thi Great City, tho e of
you who volunteer your time
and energy n? our oup
kitchen, our homele s hel- Support ���I:"I..
ter , to fight illiteracy, to
work with Meals on Wheel,
nd all th other volunteer,
who don't get enough recog- 0 U r
m u o n , tho e of whom
PRIME TIME LIVE con-
veniently ignored, to all of
the many Detroiter of all
race and religion, young
and old. rich and poor: Thank Advertiser
you for hewing that Detroit
i full of caring people, and
for not giving up.