TGR Vol. VII, No. 15: To Thine Ownself … Be Truest

By D. Morton Glover, http://www.BMORENEWS.com

To not live one’s purpose is a sin.

(BALTIMORE – Oct. 24, 2007) – Late at night when nothing is moving except the foxes, the deer, the dogs, the cats and the rats, there comes a time when one has to ask one’s self: What am I doing with my life? Am I doing what I should be doing?

Yesterday, I saw a friend from back in the day when I was a young broker trainee. The dude is Kevin Davis of the May-Davis Group. When I first met him, I was a student in the arena of stocks and bonds at the tender age of 20.

As an employee then of the Chapman Company, I called myself toiling to be a money-maker, a hustler, a guy with the newest car and the swankest crib and the most beautiful chick in the world. By the way, my boss was Nate Chapman, a man I admire and appreciate to this day. Despite mistakes, he reminded me at 20 that I can accomplish any damn thing I put my mind to do. He is incarcerated at present. However, he will always be a superman type of man to me because before his errors, he did all of the things necessary to achieve the American dream. Further, he was selfless enough … to pass … the … ball.

Understand, it was there at The Chapman Company, then located in the Mercantile Trust Building on West Baltimore Street, that I was introduced to my mission in life.

Here, I thought – for a while – that mine would be the accoutrements and platitudes of being the baddest broker in town, able to sell an Eskimo an igloo, a Chinese person a bowl of yat or a wok, and a homeboy some relic of my late mother’s kitchen.

After all, money is supposed to be able to buy us happiness.

One day, however, I would get to the front door of that building, and before I entered – I paused. I paused long enough to look up to our 13th floor office that hot summer day and just stare … stare into the oblivion of knowing damn well I was doing something I was not called to do. It was at that very moment that some empowerment occurred. No longer could I do this blasphemy because I did not (and now I know not) think that that was what God had called me, a Morehouse man, to do.

A Christian song comes to mind: “What God has for me, it is for me.”

The baddest house, the baddest ride, the baddest girl at my side became extremely, entirely and unequivocally irrelevant and what’s more, terribly suspect in my book. Yes, we should all have a home, mainly because it is possible. Yes, we all should have some mode of transportation, and for me that means a vehicle with four wheels, protection from the elements, and a little style wouldn’t hurt nobody. As for the girl – I have come to appreciate that there is something much better: a woman.

So, today as the rains come down in a drought-ridden state, I take solace in knowing that the task I have of being a seeker and a teller of truth is not a bad lot in life. Yes, few people will pat you on the back. Hardly any lovers of truth want to pay you to continue. Only a prayer and a wish sometimes is what you have, especially if you are the creator and founder of http://www.BMORENEWS.com.

Nonetheless, every now and then, in the midst of the great noise, that cacophony of sound that leaves one shaking in one’s boots – a voice invariably appears from the wilderness, especially if you know the Lord like I do: Someone like a Mark Spencer will call out of the blue and say he had just talked about BMORENEWS.com last night to a close relative: “BMORENEWS is a standard bearer for exposing the truth about what people are experiencing in their day to day lives and what the solutions are. Doni, your job is to continue to enlighten the community and to get our people back on their feet. Who else will speak for the people? Who else will speak for Mychal Bell, a person who is illegally incarcerated while his Constitutional Rights have been violated?”

On that note, I will be a part of a panel discussion on Saturday, November 17th from 10 am to 12 noon at the Oxon Hill Library in Gorgeous Prince George’s County, the richest black county in America. Thanks, Marion! The focus is race and the criminal justice system. To say the least, I am honored.

Interestingly, this Saturday I am scheduled to meet Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the urging of DC’s most to-the-right brother alive – Armstrong Williams.

All this to say, the life of the publisher of BMORENEWS is never an easy thing. Why? I think it is not easy because there is so much out there to consider daily. And as soon as you think you have the answer, another scenario – like a Michael Steele in a state that had never before had a black lieutenant governor, let alone Republican one – appears.

Yes, there is always a cornucopia of instances to consider when one even writes a story.

People kill me when they say they are not political. My thought is: Everything you do is political.

Every single thing!

Like right now, someone is reading this and asking where am I going. Am I a Republican? No.

Am I a Democrat that will vote Republican? In Maryland, that did happen to be so.

Why? Because Democrats in Maryland in 2002 disrespected black folk to the nth degree.

Do I like Clarence Thomas? Well, I don’t know him. Never hung out with him, never sipped with him, never dined with him, nothing. I really think it is hard to dislike somebody one has never met.

On the other hand, his media portrays that he ain’t Thurgood Marshall. And I think that is safe to say. Thurgood lived 2 minutes from my current home in Sandtown. Given the geographic dynamics of his times, there was absolutely no way for Justice Marshall to be inoculated from what was happening to black people in my hometown, nationally, and across the globe.

There was no way he could have been insulated from the knowledge of the dog bites inflicted on otherwise innocent people whose only crime was being black.

Clarence Thomas should be ashamed of himself. And so should anybody who would dare claim that his insubordination to Pan-Africanism everywhere is justifiable.

Here’s the hit, because Justice Thomas is not the focus today. Actually, running a successful black business is the key for me. Few think it can be done. Many are quick to critique. Few are willing to support.

Why? Because the truth hurts, and few can handle it, let alone spending a dime to ensure it continues.

Actually, Jack Nicholson comes to mind, saying, “You can’t handle the truth.”

For the truth is and it lives, and it burns, and it encapsulates the mind in a season of freedom, a freedom bought by the lives of people like Denmark Vesey and David Walker and Nanny the Maroon Queen. It is not popular. It is not the subject of hip hop songs or videos. It is not the focus of speeches at music awards shows. It is not the hope of the bourgeoisie or the seemingly arrived or the nouveau riche who find themselves raising children in an otherwise forsaken world.

It is merely the truth. Unpopular, hated, despised, and misconstrued by the hopeless radio commentator as disdain.

But, I say: Oh, how God is able!

Oh, how BMORENEWS.com and DMGlobal Communications – one of the top 100 MBEs in Maryland last year founded by the City Paper’s 2005 Best Enterprising Journalist and awardee of the 2006 Media Choice Award by the local chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists – have been the favorite number to call for so many I will not name.

In any event, here at BMORENEWS – we promise to continue to tell the truth with the full knowledge that enough of the community will keep us up and on-line. We promise to continue to demonstrate vision and bring people the most unique radio shows possible. We promise to continue our regular emails – as we have done for about 8 years (Thanks, Mike!, Thanks, Diane!). We promise to continue to answer the calls from WBAL TV 11 and Maryland Public Television and the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and our favorite – The Gazette.

With every ounce of love and passion in our soul, do know that BMORENEWS.com Lives … today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Do know that we are ever invigorated to tell the truth and keep things moving, all the while speaking truth to power. And please continue to pray that despite any obstacles, BMORENEWS.com is girded in truth so as to continue to play its day role – for whomever or whatever – just so long as telling the truth is the goal.