Blacks can be green!

Do not dismiss the notion of being green. We as an urban people have the ability to play an instrumental role in the efforts of saving the earth.

Considering that America is an recession and has not experienced inflation of this scale since the nineteen thirties (depression era), it would be wise to consider living greener. If the lacking economy is not motivation enough, the dire condition of the environment should be further impetus to change our ways. Not only will you feel better about your contribution to the betterment and better likelihood of the Ozone layer, you will save a significant amount of cash. From heat and electric all the way to your grocery bill, living green has extreme positives. One way to save money by living greener comes in the area of where people spend most of their money…children. For people who have pamper age children, purchasing pampers can be one of the most monetarily pain staking tasks that parents can ever experience. You will often wonder why such a necessity would be so outrageously expensive. One amazing alternative to this disheartening money grubbing purchase is cloth diapers. Cloth diapers a simple to use and very inexpensive. Naturally, you are concerned with what materials your child is being exposed to. Cloth diapers are considerably more mild than plastic diapers and are made from a range of materials. With plastic diapers you can only purchase them in well…plastic. On the other hand, cloth diapers can be composed from anything to bamboo all the way to hemp. This is not only good for the sake of your wallet it is extremely green, considering that cloth diapers do not end up in the landfills and dumps that continue to pollute the earth. You may not realize it but the simple things can have gargantuan effects on your wallet and the earth’s atmosphere and condition. Have you ever purchased paper plates, cups and utensils just for the sake of not having to wash dishes? This saves you from doing work in the kitchen but it is very harmful for the environment and can sometimes cut into precious spending money. One way to nip this practice in the bud is by investing in a sturdy collection of paper plates and utensils but instead of discarding them after they have been used, you can wash them and reuse them. This not only helps the environment, it eliminates the need to purchase more in the future, thus saving you money. If you are the type of person who does not mind using “real” dishes, you can also save money and Ozone by practicing better methods of dish washing. For starters, you can wash dishes manually. This saves electric energy and money. If you find that you must use the dishwasher, be sure to only wash dishes when the machine is full. There are plenty of other simple ways to save money and the environment. You can save your plastic bottles and recycle them. This will earn you money and help the earth. When you go shopping you can save the plastic grocery bags for other use. Those bags make perfect trash bags for the small restroom waste baskets in your home. After using a cardboard box you do not always have to throw it away, you can save it and use for shipping packages. Instead of purchasing and discarding old floppy discs you can invest in a jump drive. These are just a few of the many ways you can save the earth and save hundreds of dollars each month.

What About Marcus Garvey?

Every once in a while an oddity occurs. An individual arises with such a message that it creates an internal commotion in the psyche of millions. A leader appears, and speaks such nuances, that it stirs the soul, and motivates the masses. An orator presents an idea with such fervor, and conviction, that the collective response surpasses the status of a renaissance, the person penetrates the exterior and tugs at the very fabric of so many souls, that the indivual’s following is forced to be dubbed a revolution. Sure Jesse Jackson, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther king made monumental strides in the ever-present arms race that is black advancement in America, but what about Marcus Garvey? An innovator to the core, while others were fighting for us to be deemed as equals, Garvey promoted the notion that we were better. At a time when many sought to be accepted by assimilating, Garvey urged blacks to not only embrace their uniqueness but to demand respect for it. Marcus Garvey spoke with such a brilliant audacity, for his time that his constant eloquent scathing of white America began to set ablaze the tempers of the powers that be, which later led to an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Garvey spread his ideas all over “to unite all people of African ancestry of the world to one great body to establish a country and absolute government of their own”; these words would soon evolve into the movement known as pan- Africanism, and would also lead to the back to Africa movement. Though all his intentions were positive, some blacks disagreed with his idealogy, and as a result they were met with the same harsh words, as the anglo- saxon oppisition, for example, when criticised by W.E.B. Duboise, garvey reffred to him as ““purely and simply a white man's nigger" and "a little Dutch, a little French, a little Negro … a mulatto … a monstrosity.” Garvey was also a radical pioneer for fighting to improve the black economic structure, he promoted the idea of developing and supporting black buisness so that they could mature into industries, and sucessfuly compete with white companies. Listing the ideas and succeses of marcus garvey could consume countless pages, but his contributions to the black community are evident in almost evrey afro movement in the americas. If you have any doubt that Marcus Garvey had the greatest impact on black advancement in america, you should ask yourself these questions. Was it not at a UNIA meeting( an orginization which Garvey founded) that a young man named Earl Little and a young lady named Louise met and later married to have a child by the the name of Malcolm ( later known as Malcolm X)? Was it not Martin Luther King who stated that Garvey “was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man on a mass scale and level to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny. And make the Negro feel he was somebody”? perhaps the most impressive thing about garvey was his relentless efforts at establishing the black collective as a force to be rockened with, and his incredible esteem in regards to the capability of the black man. Garvey devoted his life to relaying a message to his people ( ironicly his middle name was Mosiah) , and for that alone, we all owe him thanks.