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OPINIONS
Friday May 14, 1999
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 12 IHi
Fare Ye Well
Parting words from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar
A wise sage once said,
"The journey of a thousand
miles begins with the first
step." Whether you are a
Freshman, Senior, or not a
student at all, we can all safely
agree that there is something
very special about firsts.
Beginnings. Starts. Day one.
For some of us, it was our
first kiss or our first day on the
job, and yet others recall their
first time behind the wheel of
a car or receiving their first
paycheck. Coming to college
was my favorite first. I got to
start anew, reinvent myself and
become the person that I could
not be in high school. As long
as I remained in high school, I
could only be the sum total of
my achievements, popularity,
and people's well-established
views of me. Thus, coming to
Morehouse College offered me
the opportunity to be born
again. There were new faces,
new scenarios, new places to
hang out, and new things to
talk about. I was starting over
and I was unafraid. I was ready
for a new challenge and it was
ready for me. Registration
lines, the basement of
Thurman residence hall (Room
001), Spirit night, cafeteria
food, Chapel service,
midterms, Club Woody
(Woodruff Library), the
Maroon Tiger, study groups,
and the sisters at Spelman
College all awaited my arrival.
My first days at Morehouse
filled me with excitement and
a deep sense of brotherhood
that has not escaped me.
Though obstacles, challenges,
hurdles and every imaginable
pitfall later presented
themselves, I knew for sure
that Morehouse College was
and is the best rite of passage
for the transition from
boyhood into manhood for
African American men.
My days in the classroom,
the Chapel, and on the yard
have been the most
intellectually challenging and
existentially stimulating days
of my life. I learned to be a
critical thinker, to scrutinize
and to raise questions — even
those that challenged my own
beliefs. My mentor, The
Reverend Dean Lawrence
Edward Carter, Sr. taught me
to be ecumenical, rather than
sectional, inclusive rather than
exclusive, and discerning
rather than discriminating.
He taught me to always hold
my views with a tentative
confidence. For surely, what
you learn after you know it all
is what really counts. I have
never met Dr. Mays but Dean
Carter is the guarantor of his
Kevin Kitrell Ross ‘99
legacy. His incontestable
contribution to Morehouse
and to the world will be
etched in history. Interacting
with brothers from across the
United States and the world
opened my mind to a global
way of thinking. It also
reassured me that the African
communities in the entire
Diaspora will be in good
hands. Of course, mv
Morehouse brothers did not
teach me everything I know. I
also learned a great deal from
my Spelman sisters. I
belonged to the Dr. Cole Era —
Spelman's Dr. Mays. With her
charismatic personality and her
penetrating insights, Dr. Cole
made the word Spelman
commensurate with
womanhood. Her most
impacting words to me were,
"We could stop a lot of things
from falling if we just let
women hold up half the sky."
My Spelman sisters have
liberated me from the falseness
of male chauvinism, sexism,
and gender bias. My love for
women is deepened and my
respect and advocacy on their
behalf, is largely due to my
interaction with the ladies of
Spelman College.
Dr. King is famous for
having said, "Everybody can
be great, because anybody can
serve. You only need a heart
full of love and a soul
generated by grace."
Morehouse offered me an
opportunity to leave my own
legacy with its inception of the
Office of Community Service.
Under the able leadership of
Mrs. Jackie-Miles Johnson, an
unsung "shero" at Morehouse,
I became a social-entrepreneur
and a child advocate. That is, I
founded my own youth
outreach program called The
Student Empowerment
Connection. The Student
Empowement Connection is a
national affiliation of college
students who organize
enrichment programs on
behalf of children in inner-
cities; particularly those living
in public housing. One of our
programs, the Weekend of
Empowerment is now an
official offering of the
Morehouse College Summer
Academy. We have received
national honors for our efforts
and continue to be nurtured
and supported by the Office of
Community Service. At
Morehouse service is not and
never will be separate from
learning. In fact, it is
emphasized that our
education is merely to enhance
the capacity and competency
with which we serve.
My social status from high
school changed immensely. I
was not just a student, but a
brother to nearly 3000 other
ambitious and talented
brothers. Toby Sanders, Julius
Graham, Kevin Johnson,
Nicholas Bassey, 1 and
Christophe Alexander are but
a few of the great men of
Morehouse whose friendship
Continued on page 13
A Challenge to the Class of 1999
If you are reading this
article, it must be May 16,
1999. This is a very important
day because mother
Morehouse is releasing a
brand product called the
Class of 1999. It took her four,
five and even six years to
prepare you, but she got it
done. The dedication, the
tears, and the add and drop
slips that went into this
process have left her
exhausted. She has given you
every resource she had and
now she needs
replenishment. There are
hundreds of ways, we the
Class of 1999 can help
replenish Mother Morehouse,
but there is one sure way and
that is a constant, yearly
donation. Every single
graduate should donate a
minimum of $100.00 a year,
no matter what your
experience at Morehouse
was. If you examine all the
schools that were say we're in
the same echelon their
graduates take care of their
school. It does not make sense
that Morehouse does not have
the biggest endowment
among Historical Black
Colleges and Universities. We
always complain about the
lack of facilities, the
shabbiness of the computer
lab, and the Antichrist known
as the bookstore. But I
challenge you, class of 1999.1
challenge you to provide the
funds to buyout the current
owner of the bookstore and
turn it into the Morehouse
owned and operated
bookstore. I challenge you to
raise enough money to build
a computer lab that is
equipped with computers
that don't freeze up every
time you hit the table they're
sitting on. I challenge you to
raise enough capital to build
a football stadium that has a
home team section and a
visiting team section, thereby
providing a real football
atmosphere at the games
instead of having the enemy
sitting a few rows across from
you. Yeah, these are some
things that I think are wrong
with Morehouse College, but
we, the Class of 1999, have
the power to fix these
problems. Although
Morehouse College will
never fall victim to cash flow
problems, it would not hurt
to have an endowment so
large that we didn't know
how to spend it (i.e. the
University of Texas). For
those of you in the class of
1999 who say you love
Morehouse College, I want
you to prove it by sending
$100.00 donation every year
until you leave this earth.
But, knowing the apathy on
this campus, many of you
will say, "He's %#$@ craz
For those of you wh
actually think about what
I've said, I have one message
for you: "Come on, prove me
wrong! I dare you too."
Michael Daniel '99
Senior
next
semester,
study
abroad
without
leaving
the
country
Experience a semester
you’ll never forget in
Ha wap i
University of Hawai i at Manoa,
\A Semester Almost Abroad program
for complete information, connect to:
www2.hawaii.edu/almost
or e-mail anltah@hawaii.edu
On-campus housing and meals available