An agenda ready for implementation

Black leaders gathered in Washington Jan. 5 to participate in a nationally-televised discussion about the plight of Black America and what it must do to improve its condition.

The gathering of distinguished leaders was different in one respect from the normal conference of Black leaders who get together for national television to discuss issues: it included Republicans as well as Democrats, conservatives and liberals.

That�s progress in the Black liberation struggle.

However, at some point Black leadership must realize that these kinds of public discussions amount to little more than an exercise of the jaw muscles, and must be transformed into serious, behind-the-door strategizing sessions. These private meetings must involve the breadth of thinking from our community so that all points of view can be put forth and analyzed. Then a compromise can be struck that will be acceptable to the majority and one that will result in the ultimate aim that all Black leaders should desire�the betterment of our communities.

While no agenda or plan of action emerged from the State of the Black Union summit, a comprehensive agenda does exist. It is called the Million Family March (MFM) National Agenda, a public policy analysis and plan of action for the years 2000 through 2008.

While the MFM National Agenda doesn�t address every issue that impacts the Black community, it certainly touches on many of them. Not only is it a good starting point for discussion on the issues, it is one that is ready for implementation. But for some reason, our leaders seem not to want to deal with the agenda, even though some of the ones participating in the summit contributed their time and energy to drafting the MFM Agenda. Black leaders seem to want to keep re-inventing the wheel.

During the State of the Black Union summit, the leaders discussed the criminal justice system, our youth, racial profiling, prison reform, drugs, health, affirmative action, etc., all of which are put forth in the agenda with some action follow-up recommendations to get results toward solving the problems.

The MFM National Agenda discusses America�s foreign policy and international affairs, marriage and family, education, reparations, employment, social security, and many more topics. Significant progress could be made in our community regarding these topics if Black leadership would convene behind closed doors for an implementation summit toward the MFM Agenda.

Think of the progress our community could have made that one night if each member of the panel had a copy of the agenda and dealt with it�dissected the issues under their expertise and put forth further suggestions or confirmed the validity of the recommendations already put forth. Suppose they offered their support behind the recommendations for implementations. Suppose they vowed to go back to their constituents to implement the Agenda.

If that were to happen, within a year tremendous progress could be made in that community because it would be acting upon a plan, an agenda, rather than going from year-to-year without a roadmap to improve their condition.

The MFM National Agenda is 156 pages of solutions to Black America�s problems. It is shameful for Black leaders to continue to ignore a roadmap when they are obviously lost in the hells of North America.