I never looked at Black History Month as a pity party or societies crumb to black folk. Each February I indulge in the sweet excess of trial and triumph. The truth is....NO ONE talks about history all year long. So by saying black history should be all year long is to say lets not talk about it all year long like we do the rest of our history lol. Even though we should treat everyday like Christmas, the truth is, we don't and we won't. We are too caught up by life and its ever present distractions to work, to pay, to serve, to care and are heads are spinning tops. I love the quotes, the excerpts, the facts of black history....for a poet...it is chocolate. The acknowledgement of Black History is a powerful one, not just for black people but for strugglin people, down and out people. I draw strength from those who overcame and so does the rest of humanity. My life is not over so I live and I struggle and I look to those who knew the kind of pain I may never know but somehow maintained a sense of fight, joy, and hope. .. that it can be done. Yes, we are most certainly NOT defined by our past but by taking a look back we see how far we've come and also how much farther we must go. But the overall accumulation of what blacks did from slavery and throughout history is so remarkable, it deserves to standout. It is the Oscar, Grammy, Emmy performance of our American History and should be acknowledged as such. Blacks arrived on slave ships with a treatment of being less than human to become president, politicians, doctors, entertainers, athletes. Whatever we want! "A Paradigm Shift is a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change." Black History is one of the main foundations that caused a paradigm shift in American thought and morality. I don't want it to blend in with everything else, I want to celebrate it for a month. We all need a reminder sometimes so Happy Black History Month!!!!