(ThyBlackMan.com) The march is over. The celebration has ended. The ultimatums have been issued and the challenges have been made. And now that everybody has left Washington and gone home, now what? Do we build coalitions, business partnerships and community relationships that oversee our own problems – and our own solutions? Do we work to stay unified beyond a weekend, work together, police our own, tighten our focus and overlook our differences? Or do we settle right back into the old ways that divide us, neutralize our potential as a people and drop us into “do nothing” mode?
We have heard the message of the speakers and the call to confront the evils that so easily beset us. We have heard messages of hope and challenges to act. Maybe you did not attend the march in Washington D.C. but what is your plan for helping our people move forward? We affect you and you affect us.
We are all members one of another and it is past time that we recognize the impact of our actions on each other. A storm is coming but how ready are you politically, economically, sociologically and spiritually? Will you rely on your job, your government, your savings and this economic system?
Our solutions are neither complicated nor unreasonable. They will rebuild our families and our culture if we act instead of waiting on those who hold us down to step up and help us. Parents must return to being real parents. We must build insight for the future and higher expectation in our youth. We have to tear down the negative images in music, movies and video games. It’s time to clear our heads from the marijuana, close our wallets from the strip clubs and drive away from the liquor stores. It’s time for our brothers to lead again by example and our sisters to be ladies, not whores or snake pit mouth competition for our brothers. It’s time for our young men to pull their pants up and our young ladies to distance themselves from trash like Nikki Minaj. No more excuses for promoting, accepting or tolerating the things that hold us down and keep us acting like slaves.
We have to wake up, stay awake and partner up – no matter who is 
in charge or who gets the credit. This is not a time for ego. This is a time for survival. We have to treat our people the way we want the police, the courts and the racists of society to treat us. We have to draw the line in the sand but do so by example. It’s time for accountability that starts in the mirror of our people. and there is no time for immature foolishness, games or excuses. WAKE UPAND STAY AWAKE!
This article is to encourage you not to stop the momentum, but rather to couple it will real action, real partnerships, real solutions and real accountability in your neighborhood, from your pastor, from your children, from yourself, in your schools, from your politicians and representatives. Some of you may say I am being philosophical instead of logistical, but the solutions must come from us as a people, not just me as a writer.
So what are you going to do now? Are you a proactive part of our solutions, a frozen complainer or a part of the problem? If you do nothing, do not be surprised if you wake up to see your rights diminished, your children lost and your people with targets painted on their backs. None of us are exempt from the storm that is coming, no matter what we drive, where we live, how much we make or what education we have. And you cannot pray away the storm that is positioning itself around us.
Our churches are strangely quiet on the plight of the African American people. Too many of them are whooping nonsense and fleecing the flock, buying jets and promoting themselves instead of feeding and empowering the sheep. Prayers are not enough and I have to ask where is the church that boasts of the Lion of Judah? The same is true for our mosques that boast of having the solution when in fact there are many solutions that must come from and be implemented by our people, our communities and even our children. Yes everyone seems to want to unify you as long as they can rule you, lead you and control you. WAKE UP! To follow a leader is not to turn your brain off, discard your dreams or forget that you have a personal responsibility to make things happen for you and your family.
We cannot stand for any more cases like Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Samuel Dubose, Eric Garner or Walter Scott. Nor can we tolerate or make excuses for “black on black crime” whereby we treat each other worse on a larger scale than police officers dare do. But we must know how to use the laws of this country to gain ground on multiple fronts all at the same time instead of throwing rocks at tanks and rioting to destroy our own communities. So don’t just get angry, get busy, get together, get unified, get smart and get ready. Justice or else? What is your “or else”?
Staff Writer; Marque-Anthony
