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10 Leaders of Tomorrow! MARCH 1998 MBC Wolverine OBSERVER
VIEWS-
Remembering
y
other
by The L
7 ] he darkness has found me once
more, hovering in the confines
of my room and my mind. It is 12
o’clock in Atlanta, Georgia, in the low
income housing I call my neighbor
hood. In this timeless atmosphere
that my mother, my sister, and I live
in, it is an eternal hell. I have been
given the difficult task of watching
my mother die. It’s been the feeble
attempts of slowing down the process
of her death, by chemotherapy, radia
tion, a host of pills and operations
that give me the most discomfort.
I’ve never seen her like this because
she is a strong Black woman: six feet
in height, soft brown eyes, pecan- ■
colored skin, and a razor-sharp intel
lect with a tongue even sharper. She
is my best friend and I am losing her.
My last days with her have been
special, we talked about the past, the
present, and many other things. One
day, when her condition was at its
worst, she asked me, “Am I going to
die?” I was taken back 20 years and 9
months, into the darkness of my crea
tion. You see, I was breached and I
almost died at birth. I wondered did
I ask her the same question from in
side the birth sack, but I am quite
sure that with love and sacrifice she
said “I would rather die, my beloved
first born.” I burst into tears, hugged
her neck and said, ‘Yes.” Believe me,
it was the hardest thing I ever had
to do.
My sister Charwoman is four years
old and although she has no concept
of death, she knows that our mother
is sick. She does all she can to help.
When it is time for my mother’s medi
cine, Charwoman brings her some
juice to take it with, or when I have
to change her bandages from her
wounds, Charwoman gives me fresh
wraps. She is stronger than I expect
ed and remains so up until today.
When I was six years old, one night
in my room, I encountered a vision. It
was strange because my mother was
in the room at the time and I asked
her did she see the ghostly figure
floating towards her. She said that
she saw nothing and that I should go
back to sleep. What if this entity that
I saw was a warning of my mother’s
death? I am no prophet and this is no
great matter -1 read that once some
where and never understood what the
author was saying. Now it is crystal
clear to me because life is a tragedy to
those that feel and a comedy to those
that think. This story is about my
pain, people can share it with me,
well at least those who care, but the
blunt of this is mine to bear.
Mark well and remember my
mother, M. Carolyn. Prude is the
look I am giving these people at the
funeral because I have never seen
so many people that I knew, all at one
time and in the same place. Some are
my family, but most of them are
friends. Even my father is here and
this surprises me.
I remember how my mother read
to Charwoman and I when we were
young. She would read several times
a passage from Langston Hughes’
poem ‘Crystal Stair,’ at least I think
it is entitled as such. I can’t hear her
voice anymore, but I still remember
the words - Life for me ain’t been no
Crystal Stair.
MBC's Two Major Problems
by Dwayne Hill
W e as the student body on
this campus face two major
problems and the solution for these
problems will and would make for a
tedious task. Our problems are not
only centered on what we’ve been
noticing or talking about, but these
problems he deeper than what we as
students have even addressed or
thought about.
It’s not just our outlining problems
of having or being pushed to pay
$70.00 a year to park on gravel, fac
ing the threat of not being accredited,
leadership under a Bishop who we as
students feel does not have our best
interest in mind (only his), nor is it
that we as students will not have a
say-so or choice in who our next presi
dent will be. No, our two problems go
deeper than that. They go deeper
than paying $730.00 a year for stu
dent activities and not seeing where
that money goes, or paying $13,000
and some change a year, only to
notice Morris Brown’s regression
instead of progression. Our two pro
blems are heavier than that, and the
ironic thing is these problems face
students directly and it’s right in
front of our faces. Our two problems
as a student body - we are apathetic
and we have no unity.
Yes, we do have unity amongst
our cliques and less apathy amongst
a select few students, but as a whole
we do not have either of the two. If we
think for a moment, we as students
suffer because we allow ourselves to
suffer. Most of us pay to attend
Morris Brown, and if we are not
seeing our monies worth, then why sit
by the wayside and let our money go
to waste. For example, if we bought
something from a store and we did
not like it, it didn’t work, or it broke
down, most of us would take it back,
replace it, or get our money back and
shop somewhere else. So why is there
a difference when it comes to our
school? The bottom line is we pay for
a higher education and if we as stu
dents can’t get our monies worth,
then why can’t we unify to fix, replace
or shop somewhere else to get what
we thought we were paying for.
Ask yourself these questions; when
was the last time we unified as a
whole student body to get what we
want? When was the last time as a
whole on-campus body we shutdown
the cafeteria or refused to eat until we
got better food? When was the last
time as a whole off-campus body we
demanded better parking and more
information about what is going on
on-campus? Or, when was the last
time as a whole we marched into a
Board of Trustee’s Meeting, the Pre
sident’s office, or a Senate meeting to
demand what we pay for, but do not
see, and not removing ourselves until
we get action. No one on this campus
or anywhere else will ever take stu
dents serious because we are not uni
fied as a whole for change. Are we too
busy to get our monies worth? Are we
leaning on “the wall” too much to
make a change? Are we too cliquish
over stupid reasons that we can’t
unite with each other to make a
change? I know most of us love
Morris Brown, so if we truly love it
why can’t we unite to change some
thing we love so dear? Either we
change for the better or we sit down
and allow it to become worse...(you
choose).
Our laziness as a student body is
also going to hurt us and those who
choose to attend MBC after we are
gone. And please don’t say that you
don’t care for those who come after
you because if that was the case:
1) we wouldn’t even exist because
our forefathers wouldn’t have cared;
and 2) there would not be a Morris
Brown College to attend because the
one’s who came before us would have
only cared about themselves. If we
stay apathetic as a student body then
we are saying, “Go ahead administra
tion treat us as you wish. Go ahead
Bishop Ming run our school anyway
you choose. Go ahead Board of
Trustees do whatever pleases you and
not the students. Go ahead Morris
Brown keep us as slaves and allow us
to take only what you give us.” I don’t
know about you, but I want to be
FREE!!, I want to see change and see
it now, and I want to have a voice in
everything that goes on with Morris
Brown College not just because I pay
for it, but more importantly; ‘cause
I love it!!!
If we reflect for a moment on the
movie” School Daze,” we face a lot of
the problems that same school faced.
But in the end what happened; they
all got tired of what was happening,
united, and became unapathetic only
to do whatever was necessary for
change. My question to every student
is - do we get off our butts and take
action for the better, or remain com
fortable only to receive what we’ve
been receiving, the nearly the worse?
WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
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111
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