One week after the historic inauguration of the first female governor, first Muslim women to win statewide office anywhere in the United States, and Virginia’s first Black Attorney General, Jay Jones, hope still reigns supreme, not only among our own multi-cultural citizenry but also throughout Virginia and beyond.
Fueled also by the phenomenon has been renewed impetus in our nation’s Black and non-White communities and related organizations such as the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized February 14, 1957 in New Orleans, LA) and the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organized in 1909 in New York). Most of today’s vintage service an humanitarian organizations still bear the discriminatory labels applicable to the era of their origin regardless of the current extended range of services offered. Therefore, the climate appeared right, prior to the highly charged recent election, for the emergence of a new, all-inclusive labeled organization shorn of explicit age, racial, religious, gender or other discriminatory reference.
Local Association for the Advancement of Mankind (LAAMO emerged on November 1, 2008: the reformation of a group of distinguished individuals who gathered regularly for years with others of like mind and motives to assess the devastating effects of racism within ourselves and society as a whole. The lasting mutual bonds of respect and fellowship engendered through the regular voluntary association among people of diverse ages, races, religions, professions, attitudes and socio-economic backgrounds is self-evident of its unifying effect.
LAAM’s Goals: To address the increasing need for broadening the playing field for accomplishing unity through diversity by, *providing ongoing weekly dialogue to establish truth and unity; *encouraging respect for the differences in others through the promotion of diverse community programs with emphasis on youth; *pursuing justice by assisting to resolve or refer problem situations to appropriate community resources; and by *fostering self-examination of the sources of our thinking that lead to such things as prejudice and assumptions about others.
As we arrive at the end of the first month of Gregorian year may we add to whatever New Year’s resolutions we may or may not have made, our personal commitment to become proactive instead of traditional reactors to whatever goes counter to our wishes. Let’s resolve to become a light, no a judge; a model not a critic; a programmer, not the program. Dare to demonstrate and encourage patters of gentleness and love, to dwell more on our potential collective strengths than on our individual weaknesses, fostering peace and unity from grass root levels to coincide with those now being formulated from top administration. There’s still time to resolve to be firmly committed to those activities and organizations that promote unity through diversity in an ever-increasing multi-cultural society.
Investigate!
