Black history month? I love it!

I’m a perpetual student of history. I learned a long time ago, that if I was going to have an insight into the future, it wasn’t going to come through hocus-pocus, a crystal ball, or Nostradamus, but by paying attention to what mistakes we’ve made in the past. Only by looking back, can we see forward.

It’s a common belief that America is going to continue forward as a world leader regardless of what happens and we, who are living right now, are going to enjoy our lifestyle throughout our remaining years. History shows how easily all this can slip away and many times, it is gone in less than a decade.

America is still the place to be, regardless of what you see or read in today’s media and just like people in other countries view us as the hope of the world, we continue to squabble and fight over ethnicity, like the rebellious nation we are.

Take recent complaints about why “the blacks” need a whole month to draw attention to their history as an example.

Black history month is not meant to compete with anything, but to draw attention to the contribution of black Americans to society. It's a positive thing.

Right here in this town, a friend of mine grew up getting discarded books from white schools, when the new books were given to the white schools. You have to remember, many of us reader/writers are baby-boomers and older. We remember segregation and it wasn't THAT long ago. Black history was NOT taught in American schools at all until the last few decades, so the whole idea is one of education and who could fault that?

“Why should blacks have a “Black History” month and the whites not have a “White History” month, someone asked?

When almost 13% of our median population is black, it is not overboard to dedicate one month of our year to honor their accomplishments. According to the CIA’s excellent web site, (www.cia.gov) The World Fact Book, 81.7 per cent of this country is “white”, because “white” includes Hispanic peoples.

When a President dies, we fly our flags at half staff for a month and we do it to honor them. We shouldn't have a non-Presidents day also, so all the people who were not president can feel honored too, or a non-Veterans day, to honor all those who were never Veterans.

Each year, for the last 12 years, I have organized a Veterans Day celebration at the chemical plant where I work. I started this in the Clinton years because I felt Veterans benefits were diminishing with the military budget. Although about 15 per cent of the employee work force was Veterans, it was slow going initially and we celebrated in small groups.

The idea was for the Veterans (and supporters) to bring food to the break rooms and invite non-Veterans to eat with us. Some Vets felt we should enjoy this ourselves and exclude non-Vets and I carefully explained that the only way we could raise awareness for Vets was to educate people and enjoy their fellowship.

Taking this approach of educating and integrating Vets with non-Vets has paid off and last year, our plant manager, along with the maintenance manager for Austin Industries and other contractor groups banded together to feed everyone breakfast and lunch on all shifts. Vets bring in memorabilia and we salute and thank each other for serving and supporting our Vets and current troops. We now have one of the most patriotic chemical plants on the ship channel and our web page even has family members serving in the military.

All this began because one person tried to make a difference through education and integration.

I’ve heard people say that “whites” (whatever that is) are not welcome at basically “black” functions. It's been my personal experience that whites are far more welcome at black gatherings than vice-versa. I love many things about black culture and I hope the paradigm of negativity toward black people shifts positively in this country, in the future.

I've been a casual student of black history for about 15 years and it has helped me understand the culture and roots of black Americans.

I have a number of good books and have loaned out or gave away too many to count, but here are a few I found particularly enlightening. My favorite recommendation is "Malcolm X", a must read and seeing the movie doesn't count. “Black like me” by John Howard Griffin, “Sins of my fathers – The Atlantic Slave Traders 1441-1807” by James Pope-Hennessy, “From Slave to Statesman – The legacy of Joshua Houston, servant to Sam Houston” by Prather and Monday, and finally “The slave trade” – by Hugh Thomas.

Let’s celebrate the contributions of black Americans and while we’re at it, let’s do our share to learn more about this great culture that in many ways has influenced our individual lives for the better.