Today is the day to stand with my family and to pay my final respects to my sister Tamara Brown. I am happy that your bout with breast cancer is over and you’ve finally found the peace that hopefully awaits us all. For now, I’m here still fighting the good fight.

Today is the day to stand with my brothers of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. as men bound together by friendship… and of course a touch of that Omega oil.

Today is the day to expand beyond the comfort of our boxes, to be bigger than the chains of our hate, to be too happy to be brought down by our sadness, to be faithful in our direction, and to be resolute in our struggle.

Today is the day to greet strangers with smiles, to uplift hurt souls with kind words, to make new friends and reconnect with old ones, to share laughter with one another, to tell stories like the Afrikan Griots we descended from, to move our bodies in unison with the beat of the Universe, to step out of the negativity of America’s shadows and become “Love” in its infinite fullness and beauty.

Today is the day to be Love: Parent to child, child to parent, spouse to spouse, friend to friend, brother to brother, sister to sister, brother to sister, sister to brother, stranger to stranger, child of Christ to family of Islam, Jehovah Witness to believer of Hinduism, Buddhist to Catholic, human being to human being.

Today is the day to get out of the darkness and stand in the rays of God. For today has been reserved as a day to stand with one another in the light.

Let us stand together, today.