Stay Focused!!!

I’m writing this blog on July 31st, which would have been my mother’s 88th birthday.  I’ve been thinking a lot about her and my dad in the last few weeks.  Wondering what they would-be saying about the developments in the 2024 Presidential campaign of these United States.  I keep coming back to a couple things that they taught me to value…..and am counting on those values to get me through the days ahead.

My parents were raised in the Baptist and AME churches in New Jersey in the midst of hardworking African-American communities.  As far as I know, they were the first of their siblings to graduate high school.  (Well, my daddy had half siblings that finished high school and went to college……but, that’s another Donahue.) It wasn’t until our minister asked them about college about 14 years after graduating high school that they even gave it a thought.  When they requested their transcripts, they discovered that they were in the upper ranks of their class.  In order to keep our family close to our relatives, they applied to two “christian” colleges nearby.  Rejected because of what they looked like, they tried another “christian” school in Tennessee with the same result.

Then they applied to Oakwood College, an HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama.  Accepted, they loaded us up in a truck with all our earthly goods and moved us down south.  It was a year after MLK had been assassinated.  We didn’t know what to expect.  I saw the colored/white bathrooms while on the way.  When we got there, we went to a restaurant in the mall to eat.  My parents strategically sat us in a booth where we could focus on the door if we needed to get out of there quickly.  I was 10 and my brother was 8.

The next 15 years for our family were something only God could have arranged.  My brother and I actually grew up at an HBCU while my parents attended, eventually earning our own degrees in Home Ec/Nutrition and Elementary/Early Childhood Education. It was amazing and empowering to watch our parents evolve during the days after the signing of the Civil Rights Act and King’s murder.  After all, George Wallace was still governor and we were deep down in Dixie!!!  But, as I watched my parents unpack all of that, stand up for right, get their degrees and insist that my brother and I get ours, I was inspired to stay focused.  They immersed us in Black history, surrounded us with other students who were on their own educational journey for some amazing discussions.  They made sure we spent time in the library, at the lyceums and at the feet of scholars in the community who spoke to us in first person on so many topics.  We worshipped each week-digging into the prophetic word of God,  spent summers in our home neighborhoods up north, sharing the good news of the gospel with folk and visited historical locations like the Topographical Research Center.  They set an example for my brother and me.  I am proud of their discipline and militance and activism and commitment and focus and willingness to risk our then lives for a different future.

And, as I sit here thinking about my parents in these times, I am reminded that what will get us through the next few months, specifically as Black people  is to focus on our faith, our families and our commitment to being informed/educated/learned.  Cause while times have changed hearts have not and we are living in unprecedented times that will test every bit of our humanity in ways many of us have only ever heard about.  We gon need Jesus, Gabriel and all the angels going forward.

Hold tight to the Man who we know created us in that Garden on that African continent.  We are His children.  He knew all of this was coming and I don’t believe He brought us this far to leave us.

Hold tight to your family.  Immediate and community.  There are a lot of our folks today who have escaped the horror of open white supremacy and bigotry and racism and Jim Crow.  They grew up in a time that our forbears fought for and they are not so clear on the depths to which the absolute hatred can go.  It’s time to fully inform our families……all generations. of them.  Let them know that the whole point of Project 2025 is to send us back.  Find those HBCU grads.  They’ve got some knowledge that was poured into them on those campuses that I call the Schools of the Prophets.

Hold tight to TRUTH, which means some of us are gonna have to do some real educating of ourselves about all that is going on.  Relying on what someone says ain’t good enough no more.  Find the TRUTH.  Stand for TRUTH.  Live the TRUTH.  The TRUTH is what sets folk free.  Might make some other folk uncomfortable….but that ain’t none of my business.

And, practice healthy living yawl!!  We’ve got generations of trauma stored up in our bodies and we’re bout to take some more hits. And, if the health care systems are abolished, you are all you got.  Eat well.  Move well.  Breathe well.  Rest well.  Worship well.  Relate well to others.  You’re gonna need it.

I’m counting on you!! I’m counting on you to be all in.  It’s our right and responsibility to stand for Truth, Righteousness and Justice in November.  Your life may depend on it. And, who knows if you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

This, I believe it what Donald and Shirley Green would be saying, if they were here, to me and my husband and son and anyone else who would be willing to listen.  Thanks daddy and mommy.  I hear you.  I’m Focused.  I’m all in.

Get Focused.  Fight for Freedom.  Let’s Go!!  It’s First Thursday Yawl!!

I’m Still Shoutin’ Ova Here!!

Donna

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