March 2005 EOP Newsletter
From the Director
As your director, I always try to make sure I don’t waste the space that’s allowed to me in our newsletter on trivia or small talk. I try to have something important and beneficial to say to all of you. So staying true to form and since we have just concluded Black History Month in February and entered the month of March, which is designated as Women’s History Month I thought it would be important that I share some thoughts on this thing we call history. Now for the record, I believe that to designate a Black History Month or Women’s History Month is for us to relegate both Women and Black people to a secondary or lower status than they deserve. It also speaks to us who are black as well as to women who accept the acknowledgement of a country to recognize us for only 1/12 of a year. I personally don’t accept it. I am black twelve months of the year. I celebrate my blackness and the tremendous contribution that black people have made to this country, and the world since history began, not just one month a year. After becoming more knowledgeable about history, I have learned to recognize and appreciate women not just one month a year but every day of my life. It started with that woman who poured out her life to make one for me, my mother. My appreciation has continued to grow to where it is today an everyday appreciation of women in history. You see, the simple fact of the matter we would not be, none of us, where we are today as a world, a nation, a society, a people, as a man or even as other women if it were not for women in our history. It applies to us individually and collectively.
Now this word history according to Webster means, “What has happened in the life or development of a people, country, institution, etc.” This definition tells me that the lessons of history are some of the most important lessons one can learn. History of many types, not just the classroom, the history of your family, family medical history is important. Your cultural history is important. Your history as a people whoever you are. The history of our nation as well as history of other nations. Look at your life. You already have a history. A history you should already be learning from. After all, isn’t the number one reason to know ones history to learn from it?
