"Why Not, We're Kappas"

I shared the following message with Brothers online on May 6, 2004. I
just saw the e-mail again and thought that it would make a great
commentary on the State of the Bond today.

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Brothers All,

With our recent 20 year reunion this past weekend in Atlanta, GA for
my Sands "Untouchable 12" on May 1, 1984 and initiates of Mu Theta
Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., I have been searching for
a deeper understanding of what it all means to have achieved 20 years
of membership within our Noble Clan.

I think that I have found it.

I hereby offer to our Bond the following words of encouragement and
hope within the daily lives and struggle that we may ever face.

I hope that this poem will encourage you to achieve more than you ever
could especially when you are facing a moment of difficulty within and
outside our Bond.

I dedicate this poem to all good Kappas everywhere everyday!

It is entitled, "Why Not, We're Kappas".

I thank you in advance for any feedback as well.

By the way, I heard a voice like Laurence Fishburne in the second
edition of "The Matrix" series (Matrix Reloaded to be exact) when he
gave an inspiring speech to the residents of Zion while composing the
poem.

Why Not, We're Kappas

By Roney Smith. Copyright 2004 Roney O. Smith. All Rights Reserved.

We know what winning feels like. We know what it means to be a part
and a significant contributor to a legacy of success.

We have tasted the wines of victory and know what it feels like to be
drunk with the intoxication of being living champions.

We know what it feels like to have sacrificed and have paid our dues
as a result.

We know that life is not always easy and do not walk away from paying
the necessary costs of full admission to access the heights of
leadership.

We have surveyed many landscapes and have faced foes with hundreds of
years on their side and still we have found the keys to the winner's
circle and triumph.

Racism does not stop us. Low expectations of our sex and race do not
deter us.

The only ones capable of making us pull back our hands from the reins
of success, dominance, and classic trend setting are ourselves and the
man we face daily in the mirror.

No one need give us permission to be successful because we have
already given permission to ourselves and each other.

No one dare withhold any resource that would advance our cause and
victories for we already know the requirements of our chosen endeavor
and the main reasons that we are more than qualified to be a winning
participant.

We know that our swagger is our dagger and we know that our pomp is our shield.

We fear nothing and fearlessly we take no prisoners.

We never quit. We never die. We never compromise. We simply achieve.

We scale heights that make eagles petrified.

We plumb depths that make sharks seek another shelter.

We cross plains that make camels hopelessly and insanely thirsty.

We survive.

We love our families and we love the opportunities that our foes
present to us graciously to move our families forward.

Failure does not hinder us. Discouragement does not blind us.

Our early days of membership found us conquering challenges that we
face the parents of now.

Still we slay the dragons of doubt and castrate the lions of fear.

We maim the missiles of denial and we brutally circumcise the penises
of self-destructive behavior.

We are sober to where we are and fully visualize where we belong.

We willingly accept the risk of expulsion from societies that would
rather see us deterred.

We willingly accept being ignored and viewing the backs of those that
would prefer our silence.

We never sit idly by and allow evil to rest comfortably. We are
difference makers, failure undertakers, and chaos and panic shakers.

We hold no grudges for we find it effeminate. We seek no revenge for
we find it within the hands of God.

We simply pursue a higher ideal and plane of existence.

We are thick skinned. Criticism is used constructively whether it was
given in a constructive manner or not.

We are indeed Brothers at the end of every meeting on the street and
in the board room for this is the reason we crossed the Sands
eternally and in time.

We accept all requests for better living. We accept all missions for
advancement.

We turn no one away that has yet to experience what we have been trained for.

We thank God for the Dreamer.

We praise God for the Dream.

Why do we do all of things even before we are asked you may wonder?

We say 'Why not, we're Kappas!!!'