What a grand opportunity it was for the media to finally get it right. Assembled on the dais of Mosque Maryam were religious leaders representing the Christian, Muslim and Hebrew faiths. There were community activists and educators and physicians. There were Blacks and whites.

At the center of attention was Minister Louis Farrakhan, who, after a near year-long sabbatical, was using the special occasion to break his public silence. He had invited the media into the headquarters of the Nation of Islam to give a clear and concise message.

The western world is about to enter a new dispensation, according to the charting of time by the Gregorian calendar�a new century and a coming new millennium, the Minister noted. And with the new era must come a new mindset, a change in the behavior of the human family.

Not to change, he warned, will bring about a consequence that is foretold in the scriptures and one that is feared by all spiritual and religious leaders.

Minister Farrakhan issued this most important warning during a time when all faiths were in a season of spiritual observances. Christians were observing Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ; Muslims were observing a month of fasting and prayer, Ramadan; the Jewish faith had just celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Light, and the Black community in the United States were entering the season of Kwanzaa, a celebration of the harvest of the first fruits, with a focus on seven life-giving principles.

Minister Farrakhan called for a focus on family and devotion to Jesus on the day his birth is celebrated by moving Santa Claus out of the picture. In the past, the mainstream press have generally skewed, reported out of context or straight out misrepresented the Minister�s messages.

In this case, remaining true to their nature, the media spin was to make it appear that the champion of the oppressed masses had suddenly abandoned the mission given to him by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, which is to resurrect the Black man and woman in America and throughout the world, and then all of fallen humanity.

The aim of this world, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad has said, is to destroy the Messenger of God. To do this, the scribes�writers and intellectuals�and others in high places in this world will slander the man of God whose mission is to open the eyes of the masses�Black, whites, red, yellow and brown�to the false reality of this world that holds us all in bondage under sin.

Min. Farrakhan is the man today in our midst who to the wicked represents what Esquire magazine once printed of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Years ago, a cartoon in magazine showed the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the wickedly wise rulers of today�s world observing him. The wicked were quoted saying, in effect, "If it were not for this little man we would have a glorious future."

The glorious future that the rulers were referring to is their certain doom under divine chastisement, but their victory over God would be their ability to take the righteous to hell with them.

The media�s mischief making with the words and image of Min. Farrakhan is intentional with a specific purpose and aim. But the man of God is protected from the arrows the wicked fling.