    
Solomonjones
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Solomonjones
Post Number: 105
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 | | Posted on Monday, July 24, 2006 - 12:40 pm: | |
Everyone is too broad a word. Let's try ummmm .... many. And by many I mean many ... of everyone.
Seriously, though, I think that charity, like everything else (and by everything I mean everything) begins at home. I think that we must first instruct our own children before we begin to instruct other people's. I think we have to monitor our own willingness to embrace materialism before we examine others. In short, I think we have to get ourselves at least halfway right before we go out trying to fix the world.
My books are not perfect. My standards are not perfect. My life is not, and has never been, perfect. But I can honestly say that I am trying to leave behind a legacy that will have some redeeming social value -- that will honestly make a difference in peoples' lives. Am I asking everyone else to do that? I don't know that that's a realistic expectation. But what I am trying to do is model that before others so that if they choose to emulate that, then good for them, and good for the other people they'll influence by doing so.
I'm not saying that we have to write standard English. In fact, as black authors, I think we should honor the rich tradition of black vernacular in our writing. But we should have enough respect for ourselves, for our readers, and for the generation of black writers coming up behind us, to try to do quality work. |