7 Years @ BlackElectorate.com

"Jupiter's beauty masks turbulence beyond imagination. Between its colorful bands of clouds swirl hurricane-like storms."

Those are the words I read last week while walking on the Mall, near the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington, D.C. Those words are part of an out door inscription promoting the Museum's 'Voyage To Jupiter' Exhibit.

Those words immediately took my mind to three things. First I thought of myself, and how all of my greatest 'public' accomplishments have come as the result of facing difficulties and overcoming tremendous resistance. Second, I thought of all of the absolutely beautiful Black women - of all shades - that I see walking around D.C. in the morning, on their way to work - whose colorful personalities, and physical and spiritual beauty mask so much pain - manifesting 'publicly' out of storm-like conditions in their personal lives. And lastly, I thought about Black people all over the world, and our ability to not only survive what we have suffered, but to create, show grace, beauty and humility as a result of what we have endured.

We are truly a special, and more than a chosen people. I have written about this previously, in terms of the deeper meaning of the word elect.

On this day, the seventh anniversary of the launch of BlackElectorate.com, I would like to personally thank all of you. For in one way or another, you are part of our experience, and were it not for you, in a small or large sense, there would be no 'us.' If it were not for some of you, I would not be here. If it were not for others, there would be no stories to cover; had there not been still others there would be no subject matter to write on; were it not for untold others there would not have been vessels for the wonderful ideas and insights that have come our way over the years; and were it not for the doubtful, skeptical and those of little faith, we would not have had the necessary resistance to struggle against to manifest what we have. Above all, I thank Allah (God), the ancestors (who suffered before me and longed for change), and my Brother, BlackElectorate.com co-founder and business partner, Charles Muhammad, for blessing me, over seven years ago, to see the time and that something like this website was needed and would be of some value.

I also would like to thank Mr. Andy Solages, who for the past three years has served as our News Editor. He has worked tirelessly to stay on top of the news and events and to add his editorial voice and vision to what we do at BlackElectorate.com. I am grateful for him, for had he not been sent to us, as a loyal and informed viewer, we never would have met him, and without someone like him, we would not have been able to evolve the website as we have.

On a final note, I would like for all of you to understand, if you do not already, that BlackElectorate.com is not an intellectual exercise or an abstract news service. What we do is the result of many factors, including great sacrifice and suffering, as is the case with any good cause that manifests out of the culture and nature of our people. I am reminded, of what I learned, of a difficult incident, in the Spring of 1960 experienced by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, while he was delivering a message. At one point he said, "Whenever you want to do good, in this old wicked world, you are always tried to see if you really want to do it." We have certainly experienced that over the last 7 years, in very peculiar and paradoxical ways. And many of these trials have hopefully purified us, as we present what we do, for all of you, every week. Again, we are part of the message that we are delivering, and members of the community we are trying to raise to higher levels of consciousness.

Which brings me to a final note.

There is no way that we could have featured approximately 100,000 articles on the life, thinking, suffering, achievements, accomplishments, circumstances, institutions and individuals within the global Black Electorate and not be affected by what we have been blessed to witness, present, and comment on. The experience is transformative. Anyone who really reads a few articles each day, knows exactly what I mean.

And that is one of the major reasons we made the call to launch our "Building and Business" community, in 2006. My conviction is that among those of us who visit every day there is a critical mass of individuals ready for wisdom, which is the application of what you know and understand. There is a group, that has now started to form and organize, as a result of our gathering last October, that I believe will be a tangible factor of power, actively working to solve certain problems that face our people. I believe that the attribute that contributes the most to making this community very special is not that it is informed and knows what is going on; but that it is willing to face the difficulty that is involved whenever one is involved in struggle. It is the quality of the heart of the individuals in our "Building and Business" Community that matters to me, even more than individual intellect.

So, if you want to know where my mind and heart is regarding the future of BlackElectorate.com, there are some exciting ideas and intentions I have regarding our business model and how we report, cover, and make news that are significant; but nothing matters more to me now than standing on the foundation of information and education to form a community, strong, powerful, and united enough to overcome some of the worst part of the story we have been telling for seven years.

If you share that conviction, I hope you will consider joining our first "Building and Business" Initiative, which is dedicated to pooling our resources effectively, at a Black-owned bank and Investment Club, and leveraging our power, in that relationship, and in the community.

You can read about it at:

http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=1870

Again, thank you for a wonderful 7 years....



Your Brother and Servant,



Cedric

Publisher

BlackElectorate.com

http://blackelectorate.com/

Cedric Muhammad

Thursday, April 5, 2007

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The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of BlackElectorate.com or Black Electorate Communications.