A Speech by Dale Brown
THIS IS A WONDERFUL AND IMPORTANT STORY THAT COMES FROM OUR LONGTIME FRIEND, DALE BROWN …
WE ALL MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO STAND UP FOR WHAT WE KNOW IS RIGHT AND SPEAK THE TRUTH. PROVERBS TELLS US THAT, “TRUTH FEARS NO TRIAL.”
Far too many people prefer not to know the truth, because they just want reassurance that what they believe is the truth. Others are afraid of speaking the truth because they might be considered a Racist or an Uncle Tom.
There are so many very loving and caring blacks and whites that constantly interact with each other as brothers and sisters, but we seldom hear about it because the media accentuates the negative and diminishes the positive. Most people are unaware that the founding members of the NAACP in 1908 were made up of 4 blacks and 4 whites. Just because you’re kind of chocolate brown or black and my color varies with the light from the sun, why in the world should color matter when deciding what is right.
Suggestions and solutions are light years apart. We must know all the facts before we can have a solution. Here are the facts:
Fact Number One: HISTORY.
African-Americans have had to suffer through 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of separate but equal, and 35 years of a racist housing policy. Until we recognize and understand the pain this has caused African-Americans we can never be whole.
Fact Two: FEAR
Many black friends of mine from all over this nation have told me they fear the violent dysfunctional behavior that has made murder the number one cause of death for black males between 15-34 and sadly 90% are killed by other black men. Neighbors must inform the police about the thugs that are terrorizing them. The only thing more powerful than fear is the boldness of faith.
Fact Three: FATHERS.
What helps to perpetuate the problems in the African-American community is that 75% of all births are out-of-wedlock and nearly 70% of these children are growing up in single-parent households. A former NFL player bragging he has 11 children by 7 different women is shameful and what a lousy role model.
Fact Four: EDUCATION.
Education is another major problem, less than 50% of black males graduate from high school and 75% of all crimes are committed by high school dropouts.
Fact Five: FREEDOM.
Martin Luther King said, “There is a danger that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the tragedy of oppression that we will become bitter. But if we become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns, then the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order.”
Change can only happen through education, justice and unity. No emancipation proclamation, no civil rights bill can give us freedom. Man will only be free when he reaches down in the inner depths of his own being and signs his own emancipation proclamation. (C. B. Temple did this.)
Fact Six: EXCUSES.
George Washington Carver who grew up in a slave family became an inventor and professor at Tuskegee University said, “90% of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers, supports that theory, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” You can never move from victim, to victory until you eliminate all excuses and quit feeling sorry for yourself.
Nelson Mandela. Dick Gregory.
Fact Seven: EVALUATION.
These problems cannot be solved by the 4 P’s of Prayer-Politicians-Police-Prison. Our system needs a total evaluation and overhaul.
Fact Eight: SAVIORS.
The idea of saviors has been built into our entire culture. We have learned to look to stars and experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability and causing us not to act. If you are looking for a helping hand, look at the end of your own arm
Great social transformations such as the end of slavery, the women’s and civil rights movements, and the end of colonial rule all began with public awareness and engagement. A few courageous and committed people brought about change. They organized, demonstrated, protested, were beaten, went to prison, some murdered, but they reached the conscience of the nation and brought about change. I have traveled in 90 countries throughout the world and no where do people have the opportunity to succeed like we do.
Fact Nine: CANDID CONVERSATIONS.
Until blacks and whites reach out to each other and have an honest and candid discussion nothing will change. Both sides must admit their flaws.
Highly respected Former Dallas Police Chief David Brown, an African-American, stated that, “Every societal failure, we put on the cops to solve. 70% of the African-American community is being raised by single women. We cannot solve these problems, but we are given the blame when anything goes wrong.”
Our own sincere and talented Police Chief Murphy Paul said, “I believe in my heart that we’re dealing with a young generation of men that needs a change in heart and the only institutions that I know that are in the heart business are faith and family. It starts at home.”
These two police chiefs are supported by two of the biggest celebrities in American history. Denzel Washington said, “If the father is not in the home, the boy will find a father in the streets. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me and everyone since.”
Coach John Wooden stated, “We can’t blame the system because everything starts in the home. If the father is absent it creates a moral corruption in American culture.”
Fact Ten: TEAMWORK.
Nineteen of twenty-one notable civilizations died from within and not by conquest from without. The world must learn to work together or finally, it will not work at all. Napoleon Hill said, “ It will be recorded by the last chapter of mans crimes that his most grievous sin was that of intolerance.”
One of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports has been the Boston Celtics. They have won the most NBA Championships in NBA history, What was their secret to this great success ? They were made up of black players,
white players, Catholics, Protestants, and by the way were coached by a Jew. We’re all running around looking for theories and searching history for explanations on what makes a great organization. It is very simple, we all have to work together. The best potential of ME has always been WE.
When we die there are four questions God won’t ask us.
1. God won’t ask what kind of car you drove but will ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.
2. God won’t ask the square footage of your house but will ask how many people you welcomed into your house.
3. God won’t ask how many material possessions you had but will ask if you shared them with others.
4. God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived but will ask how you treated your neighbors.
We must leave here tonight fully understanding that the impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does it and that somebody can be us, if we take immediate and massive action to make this a safer and better community to live in.
Now, how can we do that? There is no pill, prayer, prescription or magic wand we can wave to solve this epidemic of violence, crime and bigotry.
It all starts with the breakdown of the traditional family, which has been the foundational building block of every healthy society in the history of the world. With the constant attacks on the traditional moral values, it’s no wonder that we’re in such a mess today. Drug abuse, domestic violence, murder, rape, alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, and 61 million abortions since Roe-Wade decision in 1973.
We have lost our moral compass and there is no easy answer to our cultural crisis but following the 10 Commandments and living by the Golden Rule would be a good start to change the course of destruction we are on.
When Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French philosopher came to America in the 19th century, he was looking for a clue as to what made America so great. “I realized that America was great because she was good, and when America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
President Ronald Reagan warned us that, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
Evil can only flourish when good people do nothing, since the beginning of time evils greatest ally has always been silence. Have the courage to speak up and take immediate and massive action. Charles Krauthammer said, “You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think.” There is no easy answer to these major problems but following the 10 Commandments and living by the Golden Rule would be a good start.
In conclusion, please leave here tonight remembering, that man can fly faster and higher than any bird in the history of the world, man can also dig deeper and longer into the earth with more efficiency than any burrowing creature in the history of the world. The only thing we still have not learned to do is walk on earth with love and respect for each other. When we finally do that we will then, and only then, find peace, love, happiness, and success.
People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. What group do you belong to?
