The Price of Advocacy
If you’ve ever been to Capitol Hill daily hundreds or even thousands of advocacy groups pour into our Nation’s Capital to gain access to law makers for the constituents or groups that they serve. Advocacy groups converge on the District of Columbia to lobby Elected Officials daily about laws and decisions that affect the quality of life for its members.
When we look at the Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association and the many other dues paying organizations and associations with memberships all throughout this country, members gladly pay membership dues because they know that those advocacy groups are in the trenches fighting on their behalf by gaining access to the right people to affect positive change on behalf of their membership.
It would seem that in 2017 and staring into the face of 2018, with the current climate in this country on every level, federal, state, local, county, and where civil rights are being challenged through the reversal of laws and programs, Black people would overwhelmingly be in support of the Nation’s Oldest Black Advocacy Group who fight on behalf of Civil Rights, yet when you speak to the average Black business owner or average Black elected official, both who have the most to gain, in this city about membership, they act as if you are asking them to join a suicide pact. As a whole, we consistently work against our own best interest.
As a collective people, we don’t know our History. Collectively we don’t read, we don’t study and we are apathetically lackadaisical about holding people accountable who should be held accountable. We consistently and foolishly believe we don’t need a strong historic organization to speak out about our rights, we don’t need affirmative action programs, that the playing field is already level and we have no need for an Advocacy group to advocate in behalf of our people, our schools, our businesses or the overall quality of life in our community, which is why laws are systematically openly being challenged and reversed that affect our people.
We accept and are satisfied with crumbs. We don’t stand up and ask for what we want, we accept what they give us and most of the time we don’t even know what we want often to our own detriment. As a people, we don’t stick together, we don’t look at the collective as a people and we miss the devastating effects of how laws are being changed that are setting us back, until we personally are affected by some unfair practice or rule and that’s when you want to call upon the NAACP to advocate in your behalf when you don’t even have a basic membership.
The NAACP on the Federal, State and Local level nationally is advocating tirelessly on behalf of black citizens in this country. For a nominal membership fee of thirty dollars ($30) a year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is working on your behalf constantly petitioning elected officials and government bodies to effectuate change to make the lives better for the collective. Again, I ask you, what is the price of advocacy?
For more information on the Columbus NAACP, visit http://www.naacpcolumbus.org/
The Columbus Branch NAACP – Unit 3177
The Oldest, The Boldest, The Largest, and the Oldest Civil Rights organization in America
