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Normally, this whole idea of being challenged was a
gradual build up to a greater dare like eating a mud pie,
soaping someone's window, crossing the street against the
light or stealing a kiss from an unsuspecting girl
classmate.
Anything out of the ordinary to prove or to show others
that you have the mettle, the class, courage or sometimes,
the bold brazenness to show out and have your friends or
"crew" give you your props because you were "bad."
Now, take that same concept and apply it to the world
of politics. Can you think of situations that need someone
to think big or to dare big and not be worried about
the fallout from the timid crowd of onlookers or those who
are so sissified that doing challenges or dares is beyond
their intellectual capacity to accomplish or even think
about doing.
Think about Toledo politics. Think about African
Americans in Toledo. Think about African Americans in
politics in Toledo.
Tell me, who do you now know who can lead and demand
change since the late J.B. Simmons Jr., who was a vice mayor
of Toledo and who led what was called the Mass Movement
League. The League was able to stir the political pot and
cause people of color to rally and obtain city jobs and
employment at the now defunct Rossford Ordnance Depot?
There have been others who have tried to rally the
troops to enlarge their capacity for progressive political
and economical thinking (Floyd Rose, for example) but their
names and numbers are few because Toledo is not kind to
black politicos who ruffle the feathers of the "powers that
be." (Note: the late attorney J.B. Simmons Jr. was accused
of being a communist and had to answer to the same before
government committees).
Can you think of five names (in Toledo) within the next
two minutes who can speak and have hundreds respond and
rally at a specified location or donate thousands of dollars
to fund a movement for political, social or economic change?
Times up. Didn't think so! Why is that? What cultural
sharpshooters are in place in the black community who will
take aim and shoot if someone, or a group of "someones,"
decides to rock the boat and decides to demand change and
will not back off of those demands until the change comes?
Let's name some of those sharpshooters that will take
aim if too many black people get off of the plantation and
agitate for real and substantial change in their lot in life
in Toledo:
One:
Apathy. Unless and until
people of color collectively decide that enough is enough,
life in Toledo will continue as is with no appreciable
change and the youth who can leave will leave for greener
pastures- be it Columbus, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago or any
city where people of color are not in a fog of indifference.
Two:
Fear. That's a real
boogeyman! If someone challenges you to do more or tells you
that more is achievable, the first probable response is,
"Yes, but what if I/we fail?" Nothing ventured, nothing
accomplished!
The fear factor can express itself in the following ways: a
denunciation of your plans by your elders or a threat that
if you continue, you could risk losing your plum job or if
you continue, you could lose the support of well-intentioned
white folks who understand your cause but for whom you are
moving too quickly.
Three:
Financial Support. Every
cause or following needs ongoing financial support to pay
its way to success. Without money, you have pipe dreams but
with no smoke coming from the pipe! When people are hesitant
to give a $20 or a $50 to a cause that will make their lives
or their children’s lives better, they may balk at it
because they do not like who is in group or they have a
personal grudge against him or her and thus lose focus that
it is not about the person but about the success of the
group.
Four:
People Support. This is toughie! Just when you got your
mission statement in order and are ready to move out and
take the mountain, someone in the group lets out a loud
"political fart" and things go downhill. Infighting and
bickering and factions grappling for power...all are
movement killers including those whose hidden agenda is to
tattletale on the group so that it is slimed to death by
rumor and lies.
Here is my challenge. We got five, count them...five
minority councilmen and a a black mayor.
This in a town wherein the stats show that black
people, numbers wise, are in a clear minority but our
numbers on city council say otherwise.
I would throw down a challenge to those council members and
the Mayor; and I both dare and double dare them to do the
following:
(1) On their own, get together for a private two-day summit
(with others in the community) to hash out a political and
economic development plan for people of color in this town.
No, you do not have to tell white folks about the meeting!
If suspicions arise, tell them you are having a birthday
party or a private Bar-b-Q!
(2) Draw up plans to redo the famed Dorr Street Corridor or
another intersection of streets on which people of color can
develop a strong economic center by which to fund projects
that benefit families and scholarships.
Issue position papers on the evils of illicit drug
usage, out of wedlock pregnancies, educational illiteracy,
black on black crime and craft plans to attack those
problems.
(3) Formulate financial stratagems that will benefit black
people that are not contingent on handouts from white
corporate America. Aren't you tired of someone else funding
your aspirations and dreams?
Don't you see that given the plethora of black
churches in Toledo that if each church simply "tithing" a
mere 10 percent of their weekly plate intake on Sundays and
midday services to a common fund, we could finance our own
development within five-to-10 years!
I know...I know. Sadly, too many of the pulpits in the
black churches, in my humble opinion, are populated by
nervous pastors who have a boney-fingered death grip on the
offering plate; and for them not to give back to the very
people who allow them to draw a salary or a stipend is an
embarrassing travesty that needs to be directly confronted.
(4) Protect your gains by having in place a crackerjack
communications team that can use both social media and the
phone systems to both inform and rouse their membership when
the need arises.
Also, a trained cadre of two person teams going
door-to-door in the community to inform and educate the
population as to why this is needed and the time to do so is
long overdue.
Toledo's black community will remain stunted and an
underachiever unless and until there is both a progressive
economic and political movement that takes the word, "No"!
as a prisoner and releases the, "Yes!" as its motto.
I call on Mayor Paula Hicks Hudson and Council Members
Tyrone Riley, Yvonne Harper, Cecelia Adams, Theresa Gabriel
and Larry Sykes to sound the clarion call to action and
leave the nay sayers in their self imposed grave clothes.
To those named members of council and the mayor, is the
time now or when? Will there be opposition? As sure as water
is wet and ice is cold...but so what? What is the
alternative?
Stop playing it politically safe and come out of the
shadows! You were black before you were a Democrat, or a
Republican or an independent.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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