If we’re going to be successful in making our community a decent and safe place to live, we must recognize the value of each other and what each of us bring to the table. The plethora of problems facing our communities can never be eradicated by just one organization, one leader, one community activist, one politician, one religious institution, one civic club or one media arm alone. The mobilization leading up to and the convening of The Historic Million Man March on October 16, 1995 gave us the template.
It demonstrated that the more we put aside our diff erences and unify, the more power we can generate to change the reality of our communities. We must stop our inordinate egos, greedy lust for money, side dealings, envy, jealousy, petty beefs, and self-seeking agendas that’s keeping us from focusing on the “We” versus the “I”. We must stop weaponizing the worst part of one another, settle on the best part, and fi re the greatest weapon we have in our possession.
All the talk on the news, about war and nuclear weapons, constantly reminds me of two timeless statements from Th e Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, The Eternal Leader of The Nation of Islam. Even if you’ve heard or read them before from his writings or through messages from his National Representative, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I encourage us all to dig deeper into these statements because these are not men who speak idle words. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches, “Our unity is more powerful than a hydrogen or atomic bomb.” He also teaches, “If you tried it, our unity would solve 95 percent of our problems.”
What would happen if we started our next meetings by reading and discussing these two statements? How much more progress will we make in solving our problems instead of just talking about them? What will happen when we go aft er and get our gift ed young people from the streets involved instead of condemning them and claiming, “they don’t listen to anybody”? We’ll discuss that next issue, God willing. Let us unite. (Brother Qiyam is a member of The Nation of Islam under the leadership of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. He attends Muhammad Mosque No. 45 in Houston, Texas)
