Marching: An Issue of Commitment and Follow-Through

The members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., are celebrating their Centennial international convention in Washington, DC, this week (CONGRATS, Ladies).

One of the events during their convention will be a Unity March where they are asking members from the NPHC (made up of the nine Black Greek fraternities and sororities) to march with them and link arms as a unified force and march to the Capitol. The march will send a “powerful message” to the outgoing administration and a declaration to the next U.S. president about important issues of their constituencies. (from http://www.civilrights.org/calendar/alpha-kappa-alpha.html).

Okay, please feel free to blast me now, but HOW is this going to send a message? This isn’t a personal attack on anyone or any orgainzation, but it is 2008 and am growing a little tired of the “Al and Jesse” mentality where we march on anything that happens now, with no follow-through. It seems like after the marches take place, that’s it. Nothing. All we can say is “we marched X-number strong”.

Sometimes, I feel as if, during this day and time, we are marching to be marching. In the 60s, we marched and it meant something and we followed through on issues to make sure they were handled and dealt with. Now, we have the “Jesse and Al” mentality and that we can march on everything and expect an outcome with no work. Yeap, I said it. Marching every time something goes wrong in the community isn’t going to solve ONE THING if people, of ALL RACES, don’t put forth the effort to make sure that the issues they are marching for are followed through. Follow-through must be done in order for change to happen.

Marches have , historically, been a symbol to show that something isn’t right (socially, morally, spiritually, etc.). BUT (I know you don’t start a sentence with BUT), the issues that people are marching for must be presented to the marching participants ahead of time (I haven’t seen the issues for this particular march listed in paragraph one, but please make me aware of them so that I can be corrected).

I guess I am saying all this to say that if people are going to march, identify what you are marching for and FOLLOW THROUGH on the issues you are marching on with those persons of power/influence who can make a change or make things happen. Get as much participation as you can by making the participants aware of the issues and have a next steps/action plan in place so that all can choose to participate and understand WHY they are marching.