Back To Community

In the time it takes to update my status on Facebook, tell all of my "Tweeps" what I'm doing on twitter, send an email, and answer a text, my great grandmother is probably still walking down the hall of her senior citizen building taking lunch to a needy neighbor. In the world of Facebook, Twitter, texting, and email, we rarely see people that are around us. It is very simple to get a task done across the world by simply sending a message. The world has changed in the sense that people no longer communicate.
     In the days of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. communication was key to their success. They also had a great deal of "stick-to-it-tiveness" which means they didn't simply give up on a task that seemed difficult. With all of our modern technology our generation has begun to want everything at microwave speed and if the problem isn't solved by the time we awake the next day we are sometimes ready to quit. in Soremekun's article, she talks about the changes or lack of change she witnessed in society throughout her life. She mentions the bus boycott and the length of time that the participants stuck to their task in order to reach a desired goal.
     I also like the sense of community that was present in the home. Although the families didn't have much, they sat as a family to listen to the radio. Now days we see having a radio as obsolete. Radios have been replaced with ipods and families rarely talk to each other much listen to anything together.
     I believe that the family life that existed in the past especially in black families shaped them into a strong unit. With all of the distractions we have today, we may not communicate with our families like they would have in the past. I feel that a challenge to us all would be to step away from the computer, phone, tv, or whatever else keeps us from getting to know each other, and rebuild the sense of community in the black family and beyond. Once we become a strong unit like before, we will be able to  go into the world and be effective like the civil right activists that braved the path before us.

-Sequoia Boone