The Decade

Out with the old, in with the new. The last Sunday of this decade leaves me with introspection and reflection on the gain, loss, hopes and fears this ten year span brought on me and others.

The beginning for me was shaky at best, but as I sit and write this I look forward to brighter days ahead for me and our nation. The decade began with our nation achieving a balanced federal budget and ended it in the most red ink ever. Those who were prosperous at the beginning, with their 401k's, home equity, stocks, bonds and six figure incomes are now struggling, wondering where the good times went and if they'll ever return. People, like me, who struggled from the onset, found a way to cope and now are reaping the benefits of those earlier hard times.

Our grip on the rest of the world has slipped, with 9-11 being the reset button, making our nation reassess it's values and our dominance on the world stage. The caves at Tora Bora taught us that opportunity is fleeting and when it's lost the resulting consequences are terrifying. A tsunami showed that mother nature still rules and our earth, while still viable, cries for help. Katrina taught us that man, for all his supposed intellect is but a nascent nincompoop.

The decade for all of us was one of loss. The best and the brightest: Michael Jackson, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Buddy Miles, Patrick Schawyze, Linda Lovelace, Yves St. Laurent, Soupy Sales, Caltain Lou Albino, Johnny Weaver, Sailor Art Thomas, Barry White, Luther Van Dross, Issac Hayes, Wilson Pickett, Miles Davis, Josef Zawinul, Walter Cronkite, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, James Dewar, Reg Isidore, Brad Delph, David Carradine, Percy Sutton, Oral Roberts, Bernie Mack, Philip Simmons, Maynard Jackson, Koko Taylor, Ike Turner,Bo Diddley, Steve McNair, Dom Deluise, Bea Arthur, Marilyn Chambers, Linda Lovelace, Karl Malden, Dolla, Billy Mays...the list goes on and on. I lost my grandmother, Evelina Carruthers this decade (2003) as well as my dear friend, Randy Washington. Also a gone are Ethyl Mae Washington, Ms. Frazier, Ms Mazyck, Mr. Scott, Katherine Chillman, so many friends and neighbors, gone.

But all was not lost. Joia Williams was born in this decade, as was Annie and Erin Stancel, Christian Johnson, Samone Patrick, India Talbert and her sister, Mya Chillman, all were born this decade, just beginning their journeys.

Our nation elected the first president of color, Barak Obama, who is doing an excellent job despite the odds and naysayers.

As for me, the decade was a mixed bag, but as we head into the second decade, I am hitting my stride, as confident and forward thinking as I've ever been. Leaving the yoke of Atlanta, I have settled in Memphis where I'm expecting great things to happen.

Time magazine's latest issue labeled this decade The Decade From Hell and in some ways that might be true. A perfect storm of financial risk, war, terrorism and calamity made this decade one that would be best to forget. However, I go back to the Great Depression as the standard when it comes to disaster and calamity. I wasn't born then, but photos and visual accounts by those who lived than gives me more than an eyewitness account of the sheer scope of that decade.

As we head into the next decade, it is important realize that in the depths of despair opportunity

abounds. My first trip of the new decade will be to Shanghai, China in several weeks. For all the talk of economic gloom and doom there are nuggets out there. What we have to do as a nation is forget what has happened in the past and concentrate on the future. The last WWI vet is long gone. WWII, Korean and Vietnam vets are next in line. The 20th century is history. If we continue to think and live our lives like the last decade or century we won't make it. Now is the time to seize this moment and I fully intend to do just that.

Have a Happy New Year