Vacant Location

Today I came upon a statement that bothered me; a statement that has the ability to stir up a little anger inside of me.

I don’t find this statement provoking because it displays ignorance and is highly stereotypical; I find it provoking because as a person that is black I see some truth in this statement.

“If you want to hide valuable historical information from black people just put it in a book and place it on a shelf in a library.”

This is sad but in some way true when referring to many young black people today.

Even I am guilty of this sometimes.

Instead of being resourceful and reading certain books that are the sources from where much information originates, I go online and search for academic journals.

It seems like many of us are okay with allowing almost anyone who has the ability to compile factual information the right to teach us everything that we know.

There is danger in this because people change information all of the time to fit their beliefs.

Essentially, when we don’t seek out original sources, we are only harming ourselves and potentially filling our brains with what other people believe to be important.

Our community libraries should not be vacant locations, people, and they shouldn’t be filled just because they have Internet service either.

“We need to educate ourselves.”

We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to all of our leaders who fought day and night for us to have the right to read and learn.

When we don’t utilize our libraries for the right reasons, what statement are we all making?

We should not waste valuable space in our minds; there are so many interesting things to learn about that lie within the many books in our community libraries.

We need to educate ourselves, take control of our own beliefs, and stop allowing others to shape our beliefs without a challenge.

We have to be knowledgeable to face people with deceitful intentions.

We don’t want to be the generation that grows up on lies and deceit.

Many of our local nightclubs aren’t vacant, and our libraries shouldn’t be either.

One for the week: “As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Aug. 16, 1967.