i'm sure i've said it before, anyway, because this is something i believe very deeply in.

the west developed much more rapidly that the east, stepping on heads in order to lift themselves, but the culture and practices that they/we created came too fast and without enuf forethought and are rapidly bringing about destruction on many different fronts, as evidenced from not only the corporate corruption, ridiculous bureaucracies, violence and violent orientations, disease from chemical ingestion, disease from man-made creation, environmental exploitation and destruction, dishonesty, messed up values, etc.

well, these messed up critters have managed to impose their halfhashed values on too many people BUT a change in value structure may be enuf to really save what is left of the world that we live in

there is a significant advantage to delayed development & that is choice. the important next step is to spread the word that there are choices, what those choices are & why/how they pay off, which includes both finding fault with current systems despite a no-fault-finding ethic and finding strengths in sustainability that has a crossover appeal

one more advantage that africans and african americans have is a cultural isolation and partially separate value structure/culture.

so it seems to me that the goal is to nurture and develop values that africans & african americans hold, such as orientations toward community, family & religion.

given that, i would suggest that a black future month should focus on the strengths of african & african american culture, the successes of african & african american people within that framework, the sustainability of african ways of life & a comparison of quality of life on these basis. from there, the discussion should focus on using the strengths of african & african american people to develop in a sustainable and strong way, forming a line of development that will/can prosper long after the western ways have self destructed.