This ideology is loosely related to a day or a month (Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month) dedicated to honor and celebrate the richness of our history, where people appear to come together for a brief moment of celebration and fellowship only to retreat and return to their respective places in society once the day or the month is over. And this needs to stop!

In this attention-deficit-disordered world, we need to try to focus our awareness on respecting each other by continually commemorating one another’s long legacies and continuous contributions to modern society.

We need to understand that Black History Month is not just about Black history. It is about American history within the context of African-American contributions to the U.S. population.

Being from Haiti, I have experienced plenty of injustices in the form of ignorance, from often well meaning people, to the detriment of my true identity. When individuals make inquiries about Haiti, it is often tinted with gross negativity and a complacent undercurrent of superiority. The worse they try to make me feel about myself, the better they feel about themselves.

They never ask about the lush colorful beauty of the countryside or about the fact that Haiti was the first Black republic. They often assume that I grew up terribly impoverished, under-educated and un-sophisticated. When in fact, the exact opposite is true. Let me elaborate a bit by offering just a tinge of my history!

I grew up as part of the middle class in Haiti (contrary to popular beliefs, there are more than just the poor and the poorer in Haiti). My mother and her four sisters lived in an inherited house left for them by my grandparents. My mother was a pampered housewife, who spent her time throwing parties for friends who were professionals or in high level government positions, most of whom she grew up with.

My father was a property owner, avid businessman and entrepreneur who divided his time between living in the U.S. and in Haiti for business purposes. He paid for me to go to a prestigious private school near the Haitian palace called Frère André (Brother Andre). He paid for a private physician and a maid as part of our care. We lived on Jean-Claude Duvalier Avenue in Carfou, in Port-au-Prince.

Although some sections of the city where I lived were poverty stricken, I myself did not experience poverty. However, when our economic situation began to plummet, my father attained a five-year-visa for me to come to the U.S. as a tourist in 1984. Although he continued to travel back and forth between the two countries, my mother and I remained on U.S. grounds. I’ve never been back to Haiti since due to the ensuing violence and general unruliness in the country.

When I came to the U.S., I suffered from a deep sense of inferiority because I had to leave everything behind and start over again. People assumed that I was just a poor black kid from the ghetto, not even bothering to ask about my actual economic and cultural background. In my mind, I was still middle class, but in their eyes I was lower than a snake’s belly. My mother had to remind me of who I was before I came to this country and assured me that my present situation was only temporary. She re-affirmed in me that I was more than my situation, and like Martin Luther King said of his children, the contents of my character will prevail over any adversity!

Today, I am a published poet (just published my first poetry book: "Sparks in the Dark") a freelance writer with my own column in The Alewife Newspaper and host my own Television show "Dream Weavers" at Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) channel 9 in Cambridge and on the net at: www.cctvcambridge.org and also a segment producer with the You Are Here Video News Magazine at CCTV, an award winning news team!

Similarly, civil rights pioneers who came before me also overcame the scourge of racism and oppression to achieve personal success. People like Frederick Douglas who rose up from the roots of slavery to become a dedicated self-educated academic, political leader and adviser to presidents. He too proved that it could be done!

During Black History Month, we celebrate the courage and resilience of the prophets who became martyrs because of their prophecy; namely Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, who eloquently stated that "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" and that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Which brings me to the U.S.’s blatant indifference to my mother land of Haiti.

In his book, "The Uses of Haiti," Paul Farmer quotes English historian E.P. Thompson that "Isolated within intellectual enclaves, the drama of ‘theoretical practice’ may become a substitute for more difficult practical engagements." In other words, we often fall into the trap of spending most of our time talking about what’s wrong with the world and little time doing something about it, particularly when it comes to injustices in third world countries like Haiti!

A Caucasian politico recently told me that U.S. exploitation and apathy to the conditions in Haiti is mainly due to the fact that they were the first to rail against the brutality of slavery, "the world’s first black republic." In Dr. Farmers book, political analyst Noam Chomsky is quoted, "Why should we care about Haiti? [Compared to us they are] on the opposite side of human existence…horrifying, black and ugly. We may pity Haitians and other backward people who have…failed to achieve our nobility and wealth and we may even try to lend them a helping hand, out of humanitarian impulse. But responsibility stops there." Dr. Farmer is a long time supporter and advocate for Haiti and I commend him for depicting atrocities most choose to ignore!

I sought out some thoughts and comments from local community leaders and activists on the issue of why we need Black History Month (BHM). I was inundated with a wealth of responses!

Dr. Carolyn L. Turk, an African-American woman and Deputy Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools stated that "We have moved from celebrating negro history week to celebrating Black History Month…these celebrations are…needed and should continue, but I am also a strong advocate for the contributions of African Americans to be recognized…throughout the year, across content areas and to be inclusive of local community history. Knowledge of our past helps connect us to our present and provides hope …for the future…if we are to continue to build on the [legacies of those who came before us].

Bob Doolittle, a Caucasian youth pastor living in Cambridge said: "Black History Month can and should take Martin Luther King day and make it thirty days of celebrating how the right kind of force leaves a legacy of increasing enjoyment of one another by those who are different."

Lynette Laveau Saxe, a Trinidadian woman and Dramatist who wrote and produced the theatrical production: Moments of Courage in American History: The Underground Railroad at the First Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts reflected that "Black History Month is a time when all Americans are given the opportunity to examine, pause and reflect on the very reason that the month of Black history was established. The history of America. If it happened in America then it is American history, regardless of the races involved. Many times over we hear the well-worn adage ‘accept diffrences’. Black History Month is a most appropriate time to ask oneself ‘Am I tolerating or truly accepting the difference in others?’ "

Shani Fletcher, a bi-racial woman (African- American and Caucasian) of Teen Voices Magazine offered her thoughts… " Black History Month is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate the African-American experience and the role of Black people in the history of the United States… Quite literally, Black people built this country, and our communities’ contributions are a major part of its culture."

Marla Marcum, a Caucasian ecofeminist and ethicist and doctoral candidate at the Boston University School of Theology and of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries (CWM) within the College Avenue United Methodist Church near Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts had this to say: "I can give you a concrete example of why Black History Month is vitally important: …[this] extremely bright young woman—a freshman at MIT—who graduated from one of the best high schools in Massachusetts [upon finding out about Coretta Scott King’s death asked] ‘Was she Martin Luther King’s sister?’ Are we content that this young woman (and so many others) has been taught something about Dr. King, yet she understands so little of his context that she learned nothing at all of his life? Of course our education system should be integrating Black history into the broader curricula, but when it had not happened even in the best public school systems, I think we need to recognize the critical importance of continued attention to Black History Month."

Leroy Cragwell, chair of the Cambridge African American Heritage Trail Committee, simply wanted the Cambridge community to do one thing in honor of Black History Month, to "Support our old new mayor Ken Reeves."

The fundamental nature of Black History Month based on these spectrum perspectives is to celebrate variety and inclusiveness of all people, build on the prophetic and heroic legacies of our ancestors who fought for our freedoms today, recognize that Black History Month is essentially American history despite racial diversity, acknowledge an honor the contributions of African-Americans to this country, advocate for change in our public school systems to include more Black history in their curricula, and lastly, support local heroes like Cambridge Mayor Ken Reeves!

“ We need to bridge the interpersonal and inter-racial gap in a highly mechanized society. Jeremy Smith, also of CWM in Somerville and a masters student at the Boston University School of Theology, in protesting the BU’s pending Bio-Lab in a predominantly Black Boston neighborhood held up a sign that said "TAKE OFF YOUR HEAD PHONES AND CARE!!!" Although he received some disapproving looks, there were others who did take off their headphones to talk to him. In essense, it is possible to re-connect with oneanother, even if it means doing something as simple as taking off our head phones. And as E.P. Thompson inferred earlier replace theorizing with doing! As for current race relations in the U.S., we have made some progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Black History Month is a time for doing! Once we learn to respect and appreciate our differences and begin to reflect on the importance of all our contributions to the U.S. population across all racial and cultural spectrums, our America will most likely begin to navigate an undercurrent of peace and harmony than continue to brim with disharmonious racial and cultural pandemonium!