The holidays are behind us, and we are now in a new year – 2024.  What does that really mean?  Many of you took the time to do a cursory assessment of yourselves and your circumstances.  You followed tradition and made resolutions for the new year as a benchmark for making a change in your life.  You said – at least to yourself – I am going to lose weight, be kinder to my children, work more in my church, go back to school, change jobs and the beat goes on, on, and on.

The holidays are behind us, and we are now in a new year – 2024.  What does that really mean?  Many of you took the time to do a cursory assessment of yourselves and your circumstances.  You followed tradition and made resolutions for the new year as a benchmark for making a change in your life.  You said – at least to yourself – I am going to lose weight, be kinder to my children, work more in my church, go back to school, change jobs and the beat goes on, on, and on.

I declare that we should waste no more time making resolutions like that because by February we have even forgotten what we resolved to change or do. Therefore, I DECLARE NO MORE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!!!

First, become better acquainted with yourself.  Look in the mirror – I am 50 or whatever your age from 51 years plus.  Just ask yourself, with democracy being threatened and as flawed as it is, it beats other forms of government which will probably have black people and other so call minorities further down the totem pole.  Rather ask yourself what I can do to save my people, my community, and my country.”  Fannie Lou Hammer, a famous civil rights activist from Mississippi said: “You can pray until you faint, but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap”.

We are living in unprecedented times in 2024.  You see there has always been racial tension in this country, so that is nothing new.  But it has been in recent times a degree of polarization that we have not seen since the Civil War.  African Americans have always suffered brutality at the hands of police, politicians, and institutional policies, that is not new either.  However, there was always a glimmer of hope through the court system and other institutions that gained a conscious about the status of Black people and made significant changes.   For example, now we have a black woman Vice-President of the United States.

Just think, we have never seen insurrection by a former president as we saw on January 6, 2021, because he did not want to accept defeat at the polls.  We have never seen a former president being indicted 97 times for charges of rape, business fraud, accepting money from foreign countries, and illegally taking documents from the White House for his personal gain.

In modern times, we have never seen states ban books that have been part of the Humanities curriculum for decades such as Diary of Ann Frank, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, and biographies of Black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce.  

Right now, we as Black women must resolve to save our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and the generations beyond.  We must fight for the sanctity of the country in which we live and where our ancestors lived, fought, and died.  We must fight for our communities so that they are safe, peaceful, and nurturing.  As women, we must fight and support each other and stay away from jealousy, envy, and hate.

Go back to that mirror and look at yourself.  Make a resolution that is not self-centered.  Rather resolve to join forces to make our country better.  Join forces and make sure everyone goes to the polls and votes. Stand in the line as long as you have to and cast that vote. 

Let’s resolve to make life better and not be afraid to do what it takes to do so. Throw the other resolutions in the trash.  We don’t need them.

Remember as Fannie Lou said: Whether you have a Ph.D., or no D, we’re in this bag together. And whether you’re from Morehouse or Nohouse, we’re still in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men – this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves – but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings in our sick society.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND LOVE TO YOU,

Dr. Lou