As I remember Donny Hathaway today & everyday, as I remember a lovely songbird named  Lalah Hathaway who had to grow up without her father like so many who never expected to be part of the statistics, as I watch grown Black men & women crippled in tears & fear on CNN’s Black in America because they have lost everything & are faced for the first time in their lives with the inability & lack of opportunities to provide for themselves & their families, as I watch endless news reports about the derangement , soullessness & evil that pierces through the eyes of a home grown terrorist in America like Jared Lee Loughner- all I can think about is the need to address the basic healthcare & humancare need of mental illness. A much needed priority & dialogue that always seems to get lost in the fluff & blame game at times of crisis. The elephant in the room is not gun control or even Sarah Palin, the real elephant in the room that is being ignored once again is the dialogue & need for more resources & funding for mental illness.

“Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having your legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple. It means seeing your mother and father spiritually murdered by the slings and arrows of daily exploitation, and then being hated for being an orphan.”Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

Global Africans in particular, no matter what part of the world they reside, carry with them the lack of respect for taking care of mental health needs because we have always been told not to put our family business out in the streets & fear being labled as crazy for seeking help for mental illness because it comes with a cloud of darkness in ridicule & alienation in our society. I was unfortunately not shocked to hear my uncle talk about what type of swift African justice would have been taken against Jared Lee Loughner, one that would include getting the evill beat out of him because he could not comprehend how Americans just give people like Jared Lee Loughner a pass to pleed insanity for murderous sprees because how could he be crazy if he had the mental aptitude to be so calculatted in the manner he went to get his target? I was pelted with questions like “if he’s so crazy why wouldn’t he have just killed himself or his family rather than go through such a process to murder one woman & so many others? Huh? This thought process was coming from a very educated man who has a double masters in the sciences, yet he just couldn’t comprehend nor accept the fact that mental illness is a true disease that would lead one to murderous thoughts & actions against another.

It seems we as human beings, not just global Africans, have very little knowledge of mental illness & the different levels, manifestations & formations that it takes before completely erupting to take over one’s life. Donny Hathaway a well celebrated artist of his generation & generations after him had to hide his mental illness & did not seek the proper help because the fear of alienation & degradation from his community was more dark & feared than ending his life. If anyone needs mental health awareness to be a top priority it should be global Africans. We have suffered from generations of slavery, colonization & the mental abuse that came along with that in the form of broken families, rape, illiteracy, self-hatred from being belittled for centuries from everything from the texture of our hair to the color of our skin, to the size of our lips, nose, buttocks & thighs, lack of well paid employment & the self sufficiency in freedom that being able to stand on your own two feet as a man/woman who can provide for self without dependency or assistance of any kind brings. We have endured generations of being publicly flogged & humiliated overtly & covertly to a point that it has become a festering cancer of our psyche generation after generation which we refuse to talk about openly & honestly because of the possibility of it bringing up the house of cards that finally crushes us or empowers us. Many are too afraid to take the chance of seeking help for mental illness for fear of it crushing them instead of empowering them. As my cousin Nana said one day during a conversation on this topic “F@@k Reparations ..We need Therapy”! It is time we come out of the dark closet of mental illness as a community & let our FREE DOME REIGN! The mind is a terrible thing to waste in so many ways & many are in hiding in our community wasting away with the overwhelming fear & suffocation of mental illness. We can no longer afford to not take mental health care seriously because there isn’t a better time than now to call for an an S.O.S (Serving Our Soul)!

“All Americans experience tough times. But mental health screening data collected in 2005 as compared to 2010 shows an increase in the number of Americans reporting symptoms of depression and other mood and anxiety disorders. The data, collected and analyzed by Screening for Mental Health, Inc.*, a nonprofit organization that provides mental health education, screening and treatment resources, also showed a 14% decrease in the number of Americans who are currently being treated for depression or who have received treatment in the past. A 23% increase in the very likelihood for depression among Black Americans
* A 34% increase in the very likelihood of depression among men
* A 49% increase in the very likelihood for depression among people who are divorced or separated
* A 15% increase in the very likelihood for depression among Hispanic and Latino people
* A 17% increase in the very likelihood for depression among people ages 18-25
* An 18% increase in women who scored positive for symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder
* A 76% increase in people in the workplace being treated for generalized anxiety disorder
“As the screening data indicates, more of us are reporting symptoms of depression, which is significant because in our community, depression, or any form of mental illness, is looked upon as a sign of weakness. We’d rather say that we have a relative in jail or on drugs before admitting that we have a mental illness,” says Terrie M. Williams, president and CEO of The Terrie Williams Agency, and co-founder of Stay Strong Foundation….” READ MORE

Globally & locally we are experiencing the slow painful burn of the wrath of mental illness when it is left unaddressed & unchecked & global Africans are high on the slow burn because it is perhaps more taboo than adultery, drug addiction, alcoholism & many other isms , illnesses & addictions that culminate to mask the cry for help from many who have mental health issues. I am proud of one of the greatest publicists of all time Terrie Williams & NBA champion & star Ron Artest for opening up a new door for dialogue & opportunity to address the mental health needs in the global African community. They have shown that mental illness does exist in the global African community & that there is help out there without ridicule & having to be tarred , feathered & painted with the scarlett letter C of crazy.

We are at a cross roads globally, seeking & needing change , the type of change that satisfies our souls & paves the path for us to truly talk about true freedom. The global economic crisis has hit global Africans more than most from Africa to her diaspora in so many ways, from lack of employment to natural disasters to those who believe we are just cursed as individuals & as a people. The place is now, the time is here to serve our souls before it is too late & many of us end up facing the same fate of the many faceless & nameless who we never knew as well as those who we loved , praised & were well known to the masses. Mental illness does not discriminate amongst color, creed,age, sex,wealth, religion, geographical location or sexual orientation, but if left unchecked will always end in the same disastrous fate. We all need to do our part to open the door for healthy education & discourse to get to the roots of our global mental health needs. We are in need of global healing where we must honor our human duty of being our brother & sisters keeper. Let’s not continue to lose those who we could have helped but chose to remain silent about, turn a blind eye on or speak in secrecy about  as we watch the slow burn of mental illness festering & devouring individuals, nations & continents.

We need faces of hope for mental illness especially amongst global Africans. Terry Williams, Ron Artest  & the many friends, family , friends of friends & CNN features of Black In America & the toll of the ecnomic recession’s effect on global Africans has inspired me to make 2011 the year of SOS (SERVING OUR SOUL)! I have made a pact to honor life & humanity by starting a nonprofit called SOS (Serving Our Soul) to provide the help that is needed by so many of us who are suffering in the silence & pain of joblessness,loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness,soullessness & the crippling loss of the type of freedom we once knew & lost. SOS brings together Accountants, Financial Planners, Lawyers, Marketing/PR/Branding Executives, Therapists & Spiritual Advisors to provide pro-bono assistance for those in need of serving their soul back to health & satisfaction as mentally healthy & wealthy men & women who have done everything possible to regain & maintain their true freedom out of debt & despair. Call on a friend, call on family -start the dialogue to mental health awareness & wellness- It IS HEALING TIME!

“Maybe it’s time to stop poking fun at Ron Artest and start giving him his due. He understands a problem when he sees it. And he’s doing something about it, using himself as an example. Artest, the often zany, always colorful, but sometimes unstable veteran forward with the Los Angeles Lakers, won his first NBA title this summer, the crowning moment in a roller-coaster, 11-year career. Now he has stepped forward to address a much more serious issue. He will be selling his coveted NBA championship ring — which he will get during a pregame ceremony Oct. 26 — to start raising funds and raising awareness for the need to put more psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists in our public schools.Artest isn’t afraid to admit he has worked with a psychiatrist. He has worked with a marriage counselor. He has taken anger management classes. And he is a better man for all of it. At the interview podium moments after the Lakers won the NBA title — making him a champion for the first time — Artest made a point to thank the psychologist who had helped him through his problems…” READ MORE

“Ron Artest has absolutely no regrets about giving away his Los Angeles Lakers championship ring to boost mental health awareness. In fact, it just encourages him to go out and get another ring.Although he doesn’t yet know the final figures, Artest’s raffle has raised well over $500,000 for his Xcel University charity, which will work with high-risk youth on mental health issues. Artest said he already wrote his first $50,000 check from the proceeds to the charity…”READ MORE

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Break The Silence, Break The Chain & Let Freedom Ring!

LOVE, LOVE LOVE WHY DID YOU TAKE SO LONG TO COME TO ME ….REST IN POWER DONNY!