A MESSAGE OF PEACE,
LOVE AND TOLERANCE

The holidays are a time of joy and happiness for many but for some it is also a time when we miss our loved ones who are no longer with us. As a country, we are experiencing events that are meant to divide and separate us. The Black Women’s Agenda, Inc. and our Collaborating Organizations embody what our country should be – working together.

The diversity of who we are as humans is the tapestry of peace and love highlighted as we gather in our homes and places of worship. Whatever you celebrate, let’s embrace the spirit of the Peace, Love and Tolerance.

In 2005, our beloved poet Maya Angelou penned Amazing Peace for the White House Tree Lighting Ceremony. Her words are even more relevant today as we fight for justice, humanity, and equality for all.

 

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou

Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.

Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.

We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?

Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.

Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.

In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At fi rst it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.

We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.

We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.

Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.

― Maya Angelou (2005)

May your Christmas be full of peace and joy.

 

COVID-19

COVID-19

The Black Women’s Agenda endorses federal, state and local government public health warnings prescribed to mitigate the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS~CoV-2) (formerly called HCoV-19 and commonly called COVID-19). 

The assertion that coronavirus only threatens older people has been debunked. While data is rapidly being compiled, COVID-19 is trending across all age demographics because of the potentially high transmission from virus shed in asymptomatic patients and the ability for the virus to remain infectious in the air for hours and on surfaces such as plastic and steel for days.

2020 Census Operational Adjustments Due to COVID-19

2020 Census Operational Adjustments Due to COVID-19

2020 Census Operational Adjustments Due to COVID-19

The 2020 Census is underway and households across America are responding every day. In light of
the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Census Bureau has adjusted 2020 Census operations in order to:
• Protect the health and safety of Census Bureau employees and the American public.
• Implement guidance from federal, state, and local health authorities.
• Ensure a complete and accurate count of all communities.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COLLEGE STUDENTS, CORONAVIRUS, AND THE CENSUS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COLLEGE STUDENTS, CORONAVIRUS, AND THE CENSUS

The 2020 Census counts everyone in the United States, including college students. College students will be counted where they usually live, even if they are temporarily staying elsewhere while their school is closed because of COVID-19.
Students who normally live at school should be counted at school, even if they are temporarily living somewhere else because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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