..A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste..

       "When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her to these heavenly qualities (Frederick Douglass 252)." Reading this narrative brought tears to my eyes. I kept thinking, "How could this lady, whom has a son of her own bare to teach me my ABC's and later come back and attempt to take it away." Mrs. Auld did a 360 and didn't have a care in the world. The narrative says that she was a warm and tender-hearted, anyone in her presence left happy, she gave them comfort. What better feeling than for a slave to be treated like a human- being! The mind is terrible thing to waste and so is the misuse of power and authority. "If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself (Frederick Douglass 252)." During slavery time African Americans didn't have the right to read and write, education was a joke. Till this day you have some people who take life and their education for granted. For example, African Americans complain about how the police or "white officers" misuse their authority by beating and killing African American males. What are you doing to be arrested? We have the priviallege to futher our education, get better paying jobs, become CEO's, own businesses, and atc. What are we doing though, we're robbing, cheating, stealing, and even killing. What's the point of complaining when we aren't doing anything bout the problem. I'm a single mother of a one year old boy, whoms father does nothing. But I can guarntee you that my child will make something of himself. I'm not settling for less. Honeslty we need more fathers to step up and be apart of their son's lives, there is only so much a mother can do. African Americans want to be treated with respect and dignity but our actions say a totally different thing. These election debates have me afraid for my sons future. you have people saying, "Who Romney is gonna have us back in the slavery days." As long as I have breath in my lungs I never want to see my son out in the fields or being beaten or even eating slop. I say all of this to say that men like Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr, and others died for our rights, diginity, and freedom. We need to pick up our community and start putting the pieces back together. We have the necessary tools to futher education, obtain good jobs and many other wonderful things. We have to start somewhere. Lets start in our community.