t is Wednesday March 25, 2008 I am back from a renowned dealership in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, I am so  frustrated and exhausted to a point that I don’t wish to speak to anyone at this time, I am even mistaking  the key to my Jeep for that of my apartment, boy, what a day!! 

Any way, let me check my emails and go to bed to get enough rest for Thursday morning. Wow, four new mails, three read; MMA Monthly Meeting from Chris “D,” here is another one from Skype. Well, first let’s read that of Chris “D.” 

Hum! MMA’s new website, what does it look like? Rubbing my eyes because of the glare from my computer monitor, I decided to check the link www.minnma.org .

Wow! This is really beautiful. Despite my frustration, I smiled, my smiles wouldn’t end, Bongo…, calling my wife’s attention, look at our new website, isn’t it beautiful?  She struggled and answered, “Yes it is,” Shifting gear to pound her with more questions, my wife was already in a very deep sleep.

Talking to myself I said, I am guessing this will be the work of Papa Dee, if this is the case why didn’t he show his talent ever since? Bravo to whoever the engineer is. I swear to God this is beautiful.

There is an African proverb that says, “Even if one does not like the physical structure of a rabbit, it is worth praising because of its swiftness.”  This saying does not constitute my view as developing revulsion for someone, but it’s a reality.

Therefore, I want to take this time to laud the brains behind the creation of this new website. I also want to praise all those who use their valuable time, efforts and money to upkeep the old website, and you have all done tremendously well in many different ways. In the Bible, the book of Timothy says, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my cause.”

Website as it is, is so easy to create that my nine-year old son can take his third grade pencil and draw few lines, present this to a web engineer and the engineer will develop those lines into website that befits my son’s imaginations but here is the question, what strategy will my son put in place to efficiently keep his viewing audience? Isn’t this something to think about?

Website is like the food we eat, it needs to be updated with new ingredients or else it will lose its taste, this is real not make-believe.

With this in mind, we are so anxious for more development and reconciliation within our community that we can not afford another day with an incomplete recipe, let us use the creation of this new website to unite the community instead of tearing it apart, let it not be used as a still weapon to destroy other’s personalities or our common denominator, MANDINGOISM.

Let us use the word; freedom of expression, in a positive context instead of using it to wash our dirty garments outside, this will do us no good but further arm enemies of progress.

To bring about total peace and reconciliation within MMA, we need to understand these words; COURTESY, KNOWLEDGE, PATIENCE and SERVICE.

Courtesy:

What do I mean by this; let us  look up the word courtesy in term of reconciliation, it is define as the act of maintaining good behavior towards others, the act of being polite, the act of being civilized, the act of being considerate etc.

How many of us are willing to forgive others who made errors during previous leaderships, how many of us are struggling to maintain good behavior towards others, not even to mention politeness or being considerate?

I believe that whatever step or steps taken to reconcile MMA members, the leadership must be more than willing to make the first move. To do this they ought to be sincere, be anti corruption, be willing to meet the needs of our people, demonstrate that it is there for the people but not its own interest. Our Leaders needs to demonstrate some sense of maturity by putting away all political greed and focus on what they are preordained to do.

ONE CANNOT THINK WELL, LOVE WELL; SLEEP WELL, IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL.

Therefore, let us do away with informational starvation and focus on passing important messages at the right time, with this the Minnesota Mandingo Association, MMA would be an influential force in the rebuilding process of our beloved country, Liberia.

Knowledge                                                      

It is an open secret that we are all doing well in educating our children, bravo to us all, but the question is, why are we not educating ourselves? What will our children use as examples of Daddy or Daddies when we are dead and gone from Minnesota?

Most of us use our spare times combing the streets of Minnesota looking for something we did not lost, this is not safe at all, and this is another way of delaying reconciliation. Despite the pain and suffering we endure to support our parents back home, we need to be educated one way or the other. Should we continue to rely on the no money syndrome and stay out of school, No! This will not auger well for the future of our country and will badly hit reconciliation. 

Patience

We as members of MMA ought to be patience in all of our undertakings, reconciliation does not come over night we need to work toward it, the harder we work the better it becomes for us. Patience has major part to play in one’s life and in the development of one’s country, so let us move on systematically in reuniting our people.

Those who are spearheading the reunification of our organization should always learn to reunite themselves before explaining the process to others. You cannot keep malice against your brother thinking that you will reunite others. Always bear patience in the process of reconciliation, remember patience brings cooperation, cooperation brings understanding, understanding brings unity and unity brings national development.

Service

We need to understand that we owe a great deal to the Minnesota Mandingo Association and our country mama Liberia. Let us start to think positively, what we have done for our organization, or before our deaths what will be our contribution to our country. We need to make this a reality, there is a saying that,” don’t just sit there, do something but I will say, do something positive.

Let us not forget that service increases good will, good will increases nationalism, and nationalism increases patriotism.

In conclusion, remember that one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not eaten well, every Liberian should have this at the back of the mind that courtesy earns respect, knowledge gets results, patience receives cooperation, and service increases good will and the following have been efficiently performed by the creator of our new website, once again BRAVO TO ALL.

The writer is a student of journalism at the North Hennepin Community College in Minnesota, a former Asst. Language Program Coordinator/ Radio Program Producer at the Liberia Broadcasting System as well as inventor of the program Indigenous Songs of Liberia and former producer of Focus on Development still heard on ELBC, Liberia. Lassana Y. Bamba, Jr. can be reached at 763-477-8604 or lassanabam5@yahoo.com