Educated Fool, Sit Down

When I was a youngster my cousins and I enjoyed playing a game called “Simon Says.” The game could be played indoors or outdoors – with as few as two players or a truckload of kids. Physical prowess didn’t matter and was not an advantage. The best thing about the game was that it didn’t cost a thing to play, and no special equipment was necessary, so that meant that anybody could play. The objective of “Simon Says” was to do whatever Simon commanded, as long as the request was prefaced with the words, ‘Simon says.’ If you followed a directive that wasn’t preceded by that phrase, you were eliminated from the game. It was a nice little mind game. 
Fast forward a generation or so and people are still playing “Simon Says,” but the game isn’t nearly as fun as the childhood version – and it’s certainly not free. Nowadays, Simon says take your hard-earned cash and buy my unintelligible CD and we do. Simon says buy that luxury car you can’t afford, live in a house you’ll never pay for and go even further into hock purchasing bling to impress people you don’t even like – and we do that too. Simon says consumption is our function and we buy that idea without so much as a blink of an eye. Simon says it’s OK to live a shallow, materialistic life. 
If we are going to progress in life, if we are going to move our community towards its full potential, we have to take responsibility for our lives. We have to engage in critical thinking. The black community can ill-afford to follow shallow leaders into shallow activities. We have to begin to make intelligent choices for our children, our community and ourselves. This is no dress rehearsal, this game is for keeps. We’d better begin to act like we know. 
Peace.
Munson SteedPublisher [email protected]