Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor
The Rev. Al Sharpton addressing the Upliftment Jamaica fifth annual gala and awards dinner on Saturday. - PHOTO BY ROGER CHUCK
UNITED STATES civil rights activist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, has urged Jamaicans not to allow the country to be reduced to a bastion of crime and murder, having produced many outstanding and world-recognised individuals such as Paul Bogle, Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley.
"You are an island of culture and refined thoughts; an island from which the Caribbean and the world takes direction and leadership; you are the children of Garvey and your young people will take on the negatives if you are not teaching them otherwise." said Rev. Sharpton, who is also president of the National Action Network.
The former Democratic Party presidential candidate was delivering the keynote address at Saturday night's fifth annual Upliftment Jamaica gala and fund-raising dinner at the Goodyear complex in St. Thomas.
Turning to the politicians and leaders of Upliftment Jamaica, Rev. Sharpton urged the eager audience to break the cycle of exclusion to uplift children who are in the streets, many using illegal drugs. According to him, we have become a generation of titles with no function.
"Who cares how educated you are if you are not using it to uplift others than yourselves? Self-aggrandisement does not make you relevant to anyone else but you," he charged.
Urging the audience not to die as 'irrelevant Negroes', the tough-talking Rev. Sharpton said, "People are not remembered by what they had, but by what they did. We don't know how much money Paul Bogle had, but we know he stood for justice, pride and independence. Garvey died broke and isolated; he was not praised when he was alive, but everyone loves his philosophy now. Martin Luther King was not loved in life, but he was honoured in death," he said.
Upliftment Jamaica was formed in 1999 by a group of men in White Horses, St. Thomas, under the guidance of Gary Foster, Niger Paris, Clayton Ballistic and Rainford Grant. The aim is to assist their community and its environs.
