January 21, 2009

Posted by admin on January 9, 2009 under Blog | Be the First to Comment

Ladies and Gentlemen,

2008 like every year before it is now history. The word of the year was “change”.

Personally, I believe that change begins within ones self. And that means that we must do our part locally each and every day. We celebrated November 4th, 2008. We will celebrate history again on January 20th, 2009. On the 21st, it will be time to put our minds, money, and effort behind the changes we wish to see. Obama’s victory is only a milestone on the journey to achieve Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. We have many more milestones to reach. Make your mark.

Locally, we are facing a huge deficits in critical areas that will affect this city of ours for at least the next decade. Boston’s public school system which is currently only graduating 6 out of 10 students with a high school diploma. And an even smaller percent of that graduating group is going on to get a college degree in the city with the most colleges anywhere in the world.

Last year BPS budget was short 10 million dollars. Schools closed. Classroom sizes grew larger. With looming budget cuts BPS might be 30 million in the red. More schools will close, more classrooms will grow and more children will drop out. The only ones losing in these cuts are the children.

We can’t afford that as a family, community or city !
We cannot lose half of a generation to poor education.

Think about what that means to your family, community, city and the 58,000 boys and girls mostly from impoverished neighborhoods already behind in the achievement gap.

This year’s focus should be about service. Who will you serve and who serves you. It is an election year for local city officials. It is time to start asking some serious questions. It is time to join a campaign, support a candidate that speaks to your issues and more importantly speaks to YOU !

Look around you and find out who is serving community.
Is the church in your neighborhood serving your community ?
Is your economic development organization serving your community ?
Are your elected officials (city councilors, state representatives, mayor) serving your community ?
And do you have access to those that are charged, elected, and or paid to serve your community ?

I serve God first and through him community. Let me know if you are looking to serve and I will be happy to point out people and organizations doing good work in your part of the city. Please also feel free to ask any question small or large and I will do my best to be of assistance.

With dreams begin responsibility. . .
It is time to move from dreams to action !