“Wow! What’s Next?”

By Lillie Howard

Hi there! I cannot believe that it’s been almost five years since I shared my thoughts

and my point of view with you. Time has flown by so quickly. I thank GOD that I’m

still here in the land of the living and that I am still, after 80 years, able to think with a

very clear mind. My last column, which was 5/23/15, was “WHAT’s NEXT” and I must

say that a lot has happened in these past five years. My heart still feels a slight pain

for the passing of our Mayor Judy Kennedy, Senator Larkin, Mrs Warner and most of all my grandson Anthony. WOW!

I find myself very elated re: my son Omari Shakur, after so many years finally being elected COUNCILMAN in the city where he first lived in. He was born at the hospital in West Point because my husband was in the Air Force at that time. WOW!  I myself am an native of this great city and was born 80 years ago at St. Luke’s hospital. As my mind goes back, I will never forget the day, 64 years ago, when I was carrying Omari in my belly, as I was walking up Colden Street by myself a Caucasian man pulled his car close to the curb and tried to pull me into his car. I started screaming and several people came outside and hollered at him.He sped off! One month later Omari was born and my mind often goes back to that moment wondering if that had anything to do with his strong feelings re: racism. Oh well, one never knows does one?

Anyway, let me get back to now. I find it to be quite interesting what I see unfolding throughout our city. The various headlines such as “Bail reform blasted”, “Newburgh flies Pan-African flag”, “Health Department continues to monitor Corona Virus”, “Newburgh holds first youth advisory committee meeting”  and  the one that really caught my eye was “DAFT idea.” Newburgh resident creates organization for dismantling of school-to-prison pipeline. Yes! Yes!Yes! D.AF.T stands for Dandelions are flowers too.The article says that this is an organization that aims to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline theory which holds prevalence in communities of color. This organization was started by Tanika McCullough. The article says that Tanika McCullough is a dean of a school in the Bronx and has been for the past ten years. Our city needs to hear more from this lady and hopefully real soon.

I have missed my readers so much and am so glad to be back sharing my point of view

with you. Hopefully, you feel the same way about me.(smile) In my future columns I will be writing more but I’m trying to meet the deadline for the submission of my column.

Lillie’s Point Of View” is back and I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you and hopefully you missed reading them. In some of my upcoming columns I will be sharing with you my thoughts re: the various books that I have been reading and also my thoughts about what’s happening in my city, Newburgh, N.Y. where I have lived “ALL” of my life except for the three years that I was in show business. I hope that you will be looking forward to hearing from me.

PEACE!