@Alma24. Another excellent and practical thread my sister.

Your specific questions were

Do you consider yourself and Activist?

Yes....An oath taking and card carrying one..

~What is the definition of an activist to you?

I don't like the term myself. But I take it to mean somebody who is commtted practically to some desired course of action, for example social change.and is prepared to excercise personal and other forms of leadership to that end..

~Whats your inspiration and your thoughts?

Too many motivators and sources of inspiration from family, neighbours and great figures in history. Chancellor Williams being one of the biggest who drafted a ten point plan of action in the back of the 'Destruction of Black Civilisation' and I got a group of my teen age friends, the most concious ones together and we planned the down fall of the enemy in my bedroom using that plan.

I had been active and volunteered for things prior, but Williams gave me a model of how to appraoch things. After a while and by accident came cross an impressive black organisation and we made history as my group joined up in one block. All of us became members and our group's previous existence aided the larger one as we were already very disciplined and working under structured leadership. I was the leader in effect. So we made an immediate impact on the organisation. The thing that is so touching is that initial group ,plus others we later joined up with, are still together and I take much pride in that.

~How do you contribute to working towards a better community?

Been working consistently day in and day out since 1978 and in my teens in community development activities of all types, from education, policing, international events of all kinds, fund raising inititatives of all kind. Setting up and designing projects and programmes of all kind especially those specialising in male development for a good while. Done a lot of specialist work helping brothes and others set up projects and am designing one for some brothers as we speak.

Ran very successful study groups for years. Also in the process to run a couple of programmes have been refining and modifying and waiting for some of my key people to finisih other things before we start.Been working on very complex strategy for Caribbean islands linking projects and infrastructure here with there and has taken over 12 years to take to this stage.

If I am not out in my community working, I am in the background working on stuff or advising people. For example I was asked by the Nation of Islam to act as a special advisor in their intial planning of their equivalent of Million Man March and similar things behind the scene. Also do a couple of special guest star appearances for old friends on projects or stuff they are running, as I don't particularly like public profile work. But have a soft spot and duty to issues concerning young men and young brothers. For example ran annual workshops for black boys for annual conference on education for many years until funding cut..

Done quite a bit of work for my island government on projects here and others.

~Any good stories to tell?

Too many. You obviously never read one of my posts[Smile].

~How can we encourage others to work with love and ambition in the way forward?

Assuming they want to committ themselves obviously and their level of experience and exposure. You need to find good teachers or good and positive environment to learn your trade.

Being a activist is very much like being in the army there is a lot to learn technique, tactics, how to produce a leaflet, organise a meeting, raise money, speak and interact with people, handle conflict, chair a meeting, understand human behaviour and a range of things, before you even get to grips with the technical complexities of the task in question.

So without good teachers, role models and a good environment, good intention can count for nought and have a reverse affect. Plenty black people want to do things and are just turned off by the what they meet.

~any other comments welcome!

There is no better life. The kind of skills and abilities a quality and calibre activists have make the average profeissional in most feilds seem as late developers or retrarded.

Also battles create brother/sisterhood and you will have very few more trusted friends than those you have been through serious struggle with. Your true and real friends are found via struggle, because very little can be hidden about human character.

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