[7thSonofOsiris]

Bruhs,

As you know, over the course of marked time, things do tend to change and I am speaking of course about the direction of our organization's administrative focuses and our organization's Membership Reclamation focuses. When Past President Garvin partook in the creation of the EdF, things were so different then. Not only was the climate in the country different in regards to everything from Civil Rights, to, black folks' level of literacy v.s. illiteracy, but you must include in that, the climate of what made Men..Men, back then was different.
When I came into the Hood, you were expected to work your ass off, and to hold high the torch of our beloved Fraternity. You were expected to graduate and then to attach yourself to an alumni/graduate chapter and to not do so, meant a slight mark against your undergraduate chapter, and ultimately, it was a mark against the Bruhs who made you, and what was even more amazing was, that if you did something that made your college chapter look like shit, it reflected upon everyone who was ever made at that chapter. The issue of brothers being brothers to one another, was an issue of internal being specific unto each Bruh. Just because one pledged didn't guarantee that he'd be a good Bruh nor a good worker, though, as a chapter, you did your damnedest to try to initiate and bring in good Men. But what a guy's pledging did mean was that he succeeded at an aspired goal to become a member. The true work and worth of that Bruh depended fully upon his character and his holistic understanding of whom he was. Men back then lived by a different credo. Men back then, especially us Black Men, tended to bond together for the sake of true brotherhood and purpose, regardless of fraternal affiliation. Basically, Men tried to ensure that they were Men.
We now, on a contemporary stage of existence, are allowed in some ways, to not operate if you will, in the fullness of the scope that allows one to be just what we were indeed born to be...Men. With so many things out there that firstly, tries to de-masculate African American Men, and then secondly, tries to disrupt our family structure, and thirdly, our understanding of how to propagate the upliftment and overall progression of our race, what tends to be shuffled about and lost is the one thing that is required by all brothers to be brothers, and that is, that thing that makes us Men.
Our culture is wrought filled with images that tend to deny us our place as sons who are decendants of Kings. Our culture is wrought with images that directs our attention, and our missions toward the one thing that will quietly and nefariously cause us to find our moment of true extinction, money and and the need to chase it. Don't get me wrong, economic power, money management and education coupled with masterful handling and good stewardship are necessary, but if our males are more focused on chasing that dollar, our families will continue to suffer, our marriages will continue to suffer and our race as a whole, will continue to suffer. We are truthfully, in some ways, following in the footsteps of Native Americans in regards to our fight against poverty, whether it is economic poverty, educational poverty or spiritual poverty. And truly in my opinion, these things that plague our race can't be corrected by just our women alone, but rather, this fight should be spearheaded by us Men.
Once we have found the ways that will allow us to get back to us being Men, then we will have started the process to understanding what is occuring within the life of not just our Fraternity, but the other BGLFraternities, because as a whole, we are all not operating within the prescribed desires of our most honorable Founders, and to me, if Alpha Phi Alpha is struggling with these issues, then the others will only follow suit, because we lead the way.

7th