Mar 4, 2007 — Poet Maya Angelou once said these words, "The sun has come, the myth has gone, we see in the distance our long way home."

Beautiful, so rich when you connect what she is saying to us, the African-American community. The sun has come; G-d opened her mind and gave her knowledge. The myth has gone: The false pictures of history that once were realities in our minds are gone. She was blessed to get into the myth and see the truth, the real life. She was able to then see where our people should be taking themselves, our community life.

I've heard this statement mentioned time after time at meetings I've attended, yet I often wonder if we, in the African-American community, truly understand the spirit of community life. If we truly understand that people best protect their future interest (family, children, history, education, etc.) when they see their greatest need in community life, community consciousness, responsibility and credibility.

The picture of our African-American community in York will get better and better when we make more and more contributions to it. There is a recent book by Raymond C. Parker called "The Power of Decision." Mr. Parker says effective leadership acts to shift the mind/attention from concern with problems to focus/effort on people who have the character, the intelligence, the knowledge/understanding, experience, who have solutions to the problem. Those who can make contributions to a discussion that leads to a

decision.

I remember the words that my grandmother wrote me while I was in prison. She said that intelligence involves man; it evolves even man's mortal life. Also, that change is the law of growth and growth is the law of life. Without continuous growth, life fades out of form, leaving what is called death - and death is inactivity.

Our southern parents knew that intelligence is in every aspect of the human form. The myth has gone. We can save our families, our youth by instilling in them this understanding. Our history and our life is ours, it is nobody else's. It is our lifeline as a people. We have separated from progressive life - I mean our African-American traditions which instilled in us a remembrance that we are descendants of parents who were brought to these shores.

We share an experience that has left a strong imprint on our very souls. So in the soul life, our spiritual life, we have strong ties to one another. We have, over long periods of time, over generations, experienced things that left hurt, joy and pleasure.

That is what makes us kinfolk. That is what really makes us soul brothers/sisters. It is the experience that we share as a people that others do not share with us. So they don't have that spiritual bond, that depth of soul with them that we have with one another.

Everyone who comes to this country has his or her own history of suffering, of joy and is bound together by "History." Those ancestors of our souls are crying out that our youth understand the need to understand that a real world requires that they accept more and more responsibility as they grow year after year, in order to meet the needs of a changing world. A world which obligates "all" of us to be responsible for more responsibility.

We in the African-American community in York should first study what is responsible for our lives - study what governs our life.

We must have dialogue and a working relationship with other communities in York and should feel obligated to study or read what governs their life. Read and study it with respect, not prejudices.

This should progress to our aspirations. What do you want in the neighborhood and what do you want for the betterment of ourselves? Do we want similar things for ourselves and our children?

Lastly, we have to be willing to grow our life in a community setting. Let's put the truth on the table.

"We see things not as they are but as we are." - Anais Nin.

Ahmad Seifullah of York is a community columnist for the Daily Record/Sunday News.