******This blog is a result of much thought and MANY conversations with my Sorors, Collegues, and Friends.******
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc was founded 100 years, one month, two weeks and six days ago. In that time 200,000 women have joined her ranks and left their marks in the sands of time. Women like Soror Rosa Parks, Soror Coretta Scott King, Soror Donda West, Soror Maya Angelou, Soror Mae Jemison, Soror Eleanor Roosevelt, Soror Marva Collins, Soror Leah Tutu, Soror Catherine Hughes and of course, our Guiding Light, Soror Ethel Hedgeman Lyle.
We are a rich sisterhood of women who have made impact all over the globe since our birth on the human condition. But what about now? Are we still the organization that sets the standard, or have we been reduced to following it? Are we still the sisterhood that consistantly draws the best, brightest and most influential women in the world, or have we been reduced to an organization reduced to just being "pretty girls" with arrogant demeanors and snobbish attitudes? Are we still the community known to lift our sisters up and strengthen one another via our compassion and determination to make a difference no matter what it is, or are we now reduced to being the club of women who lack dedication, pride and the compassion to be sisters who are of Service to ALL mankind, but only a chosen few?
In my opinion, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc is one of the finest organizations to ever grace this planet. The potentiality to influence change and to mold women of standard who will continue to grace our history book in the next 100 years is exponential......should we take the chance to do the work, NOW! What work you ask.....well....the work which is usually the hardest to do; that which requires us to look long, hard and DEEP within OURSELVES and make an OPEN and HONEST inventory or what is there (and what isn't), evaluate the truths of what we find, make a plan to positively effect those truths and most importantly, PUT THEM INTO ACTION!
Now the all important question....What ARE those truths. In all honesty, they are SELF evident, and they in some ways may even be a matter of opinion, but overall...are they really? When we take the time to remove ourselves and look with the eyes of those who have been the observers and mental historians of our journey and the changes that time has brought to it, we then and only then may have the chance to see what is really there. While there are those of us who are devoted to our Illustrious Sisterhood and to BEING the tools through which her purposes breathe, we have to look readily at the impact that WE are making vs the impact that those of us who are desirous of membership in her house because they want to be able to participate in a "party stroll" or send out a "Skee-Wee"; because they want to be able to wear a T-Shirt and a "line-jacket".
In the eye of the world...who is seen more? Well my sorors, I think that it is time to face the unfortunate truth, which is, that the "sorors" who perpetuate the stereotypes and who only particpate in our ranks to say that they belong, the ones who only participate in public events of notoriety, BUT not in community service projects, those who are quick to recommend their friends for membership, but NOT set the standard by being demonstrative of what an Alpha Kappa Alpha woman REALLY is; those who are QUICK to complain, but have not paid dues since they were taken from the fees originally paid for membership; those who walk around looking pretty in OUR pink and gorgeous in OUR green. And now....during the course of the observation of our centennial year, we MUST do some inward reflection if we indeed desire that we live for yet another centennial.
Individually and collectively we must be willing and equipped with the tools needed to ask ourselves and one another the HARD questions and then deliver the honest and often HARD TRUTHS that need to go along with those answers. It is honestly time for our sisterhood and others like her to implement the attitude that we must do what is needed to ensure that our membership(s), our involvements, our projects, our attitudes and processes are about QUALITY rather than the wasted and underlying emptiness of quantity!
Do I have the answer, unfortunately....NO.....I don't; however, I am determined to be a contributor to the solution that needs to be effected in order for us to continue to grow in the cohesiveness that our founding mothers intended for us to exist in. I am of the very STRONG opinion that if we are unwilling to stand and fight for our membership body to be made up more of those who carry her purpose in her heart and mind and the dutty of fulfillment in the ACTIVE palms of her hands....through every fault built and bred in the course inaction, we slowly...but most CERTAINLY, surely dig the grave in which our beautiful sisterhood will be tossed aside, buried and forgotten.
It is time out for taking in members who are merely decorations, designers of great jackets and mere perfectionists at "Skee Wee-ing", It is time to become what we have always been meant to be....The SETTERS of the STANDARD!
So, my dear Sorors and candidates......what will it be?
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BEAUTIFUL AND INTELLIGENT~~~~~~~~~~~
