Changing Same, The

Crisis, The, Spring 2009 by Asim, Jabari

As spring unfolds into summer, wars rage in Afghanistan and Iraq, a resurgent right-wing struggles to control the narrative of our national agenda, homeowners continue to reap the consequences of subprime lending while corporations beg for more bailouts, and video footage of police brutalities fan the flames of racial tension. In the aftermath of last year's thundering calls for change, what, you might ask, has really changed?

The short answer, perhaps, is no answer at all: change takes time. And it can't actually happen without coordination and cooperation from the same electorate that worked so hard for it in the first place. Amid our concerns with big-picture issues, ground-level realities also point to a disturbing lack of movement. As troubling as many of us find the military quagmire from which the Obama administration must free us, consider the difficulties of those who face its consequences firsthand. More than two years after The Washington Post exposed the multiple traumas experienced by returning combat veterans, the road to rehabilitation remains rocky for many of our soldiers. In "The Battle at Home," George E. Curry delivers a detailed story of one veteran's post-combat struggles.

Our challenging political terrain aside, recent months have still provided opportunities to reflect and celebrate. "Faces of Change," Chris Gunn's uplifting photo essay, casts inaugural events in a triumphant light. The America I AM touring exhibit, featured in our "Crisis Forum" section, adds another chapter to our story of progress. The road to greatness can be reached via a variety of methods. For Mike Tornlin, the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl championship, the path was illuminated by a thoughtful family that instilled in him the values and morals he needed. Jarrett Bell's thoughtful profile of the Pittsburgh Steelers coach shares his insights.

The NAACPs rich past promises an equally successful future. Our "NAACP Today" section sheds light on both. In "Bearing the Torch," Sondra Kathryn Wilson's conversations with descendants of NAACP legends demonstrates the organization's powerful legacy; in his White Paper, President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous charts an inspiring plan for the years ahead. Elsewhere in our pages, historian Lonrtie G. Bunch LU pays tribute to John Hope Franklin, one of the greatest scholars this nation has ever produced. In his fearless probing of America's past, Franklin was a worthy descendant of W.E.B. Du Bois. In works such as his classic From Slavery to Freedom, Franklin proved the unchanging truth of Du Bois' contention, "There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained."

Jabari Asim

Editor in Chief