Story By Wynfred Russell
Photo on Flickr by jpellgen

As a founding member of several community-based organizations over the years, I have shouldered lead responsibility for designing many programs, and in the process, raised more than $100,000 for services both inside and outside of the Liberian community. This responsibility means that I have been a change agent. Fortunately, as an educator – and a broadcast journalist –I have been trained to be service-focused while demanding and providing accountability.

In our community, however, there is a common practice to malign people that challenge the status quo. Many of us in the last few weeks have noticed, with revulsion, the name-calling and castigation of certain individuals, including yours truly, by a few Liberian community leaders in Minnesota. Our only ‘crime’, by the way, has been proposing an alternative process that would have encouraged a greater level of community participation in the constitution deliberations of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota – OLM – before scheduling a referendum.

This essay, therefore, focuses on the lack of visionary leadership in many Liberian community organizations, especially our beloved OLM, and the knee-jerk manner in which benign challenges to organizational processes are handled. I will draw heavily from my experience in the past eight years being at the helm of a number of successful community and state initiatives, and over six years of teaching in the secondary and post-secondary education (both four and two-year) systems, where collaboration and shared-leadership have been my guiding principles.

On Sunday, July 26th (Liberia’s Independence Day) I skipped all the sizzling barbecues in the community to exercise my civic responsibility by attending an OLM scheduled referendum. The meeting was poorly attended, so I made a motion to postpone the referendum to August 23rd. The motion was voted on and passed. I reckoned that this would then give the OLM administration sufficient time to disseminate the draft constitution to the wider community county/ethnic associations, faith-based groups and community-based organizations to solicit their input.

There were two other town hall meetings called by the OLM on Sunday, August 9th and 16th. On August 9th, a number of community members spent over four hours correcting and making valuable suggestions for inclusion in the new document. The OLM administration assured stakeholders at the meeting that those changes would indeed be incorporated in the constitution and disseminated via email before the next meeting.

When we arrived at the meeting on Sunday, August 16th, it was observed that the changes and corrections that had been made during previous meetings were still not reflected in the constitution as promised by the OLM leadership. This then prompted a member to issue a motion to indefinitely postpone the referendum, this time, until all grammatical errors and policy changes were properly documented and reflected in the constitution before the referendum. The motion was voted on, and passed—16 in favor and 6 against — after which the OLM officials-in-charge abruptly canceled the meeting and ordered everyone to leave the building.

The OLM overseers disregarded this clear example of community electoral exercise and decidedly rammed through the referendum anyway. This is wrong! Not only is this action unfair, it sets a dangerous precedent in our community. All efforts to amicably resolve the issue were rejected. The OLM leadership dishonored the very constitution by suppressing the rights of members to voice their opinions. There was and is no accountability.

Aggrieved and insulted by the injustice, community members organically coalesced and issued a petition challenging the actions of the OLM leadership, including the Board of Directors. Elements within the OLM administration responded by manufacturing lies and misinformation, and by using some community-based, online magazines and the OLM Listserv in a campaign to impugn the character of some members of the group. We have been collectively called “troublemakers” and accused of having a “war-like mentality” by simply exercising our rights as community members and citizens of Liberia.

No one person loves this community more than the next. We all want OLM to succeed and we all are proud when it does good things, like the recent purchase of a community suite, a space where all Liberians can call their own. But, when we answer the call of the administration to get involved and participate in community discourse like we did a couple of weeks ago, they should not dismiss our opinions about how to move the community forward, simply because they disagree. It is not right! Quite a few of us have dedicated a significant portion of our lives to providing service to Liberians. All of us have diligently served our community and country as bankers, healthcare practitioners, educators, scholars, journalists, and human rights advocates, among other professions. We are not radicals! We have been vilified because we had the audacity to “speak truth to power.” Unfortunately, this is what our community has come to. Don’t dare assert your rights or make any opposing suggestions; else you would have radioactive invectives hurled at you.

A few years ago, I was steadfastly discouraged by friends and associates from participating in OLM elections and activities for fear that my reputation would be sullied ostensibly in the name of politics. But I refused to accept any sentiments, however genuine, that would dissuade me from contributing to the development, intellectual or otherwise, of my community. Even though my team didn’t win the elections, I never lost my passion for service. I am proud and would unequivocally confess that I learned a great deal from participating in the OLM elections. It taught me a lot about myself, the community, the people and the daily vicissitudes of living in the United States of America. I have no regrets and I would strongly encourage everyone with the time and wherewithal to participate in civic events and activities. As such, I will not be bullied into silence, especially when I see injustice being done as is the case today.

Unless we begin to address these kinds of issues honestly and head on, it is very likely that our community organization will erode to the point that many Liberians with much needed expertise will stop participating in OLM’s affairs. But, it would seem that this is exactly what the current leadership of OLM wants– to drive away the meaningful participation of those whom they view as threats to carrying out the very dictatorial tendencies that destroyed Liberia.

I therefore urge well-meaning colleagues not to be cowed in the face of what is clearly a ploy to exclude a healthy exchange of views. We all want to build a more outcome-focused, service-oriented OLM. What these detractors see as victory might just be their own undoing, because it has rejuvenated our energies and commitment to ensuring that OLM work to the serve the needs of Liberian people in Minnesota. Furthermore, I urge all Liberians in Minnesota to take a critical look at the events unfolding in the OLM by assessing the facts and determining whether this is how our community should be led. While other community organizations are experiencing a boom in terms of their competitiveness and acculturation into the mainstream of American society, it is clear that our current slate of leaders is making the OLM a laughing stock.

We ought to leverage every opportunity to raise the profile of the Liberian community in Minnesota rather than subject it to the kinds of shenanigans occurring. It is likely that some will continue to fling insults at us, and mis-characterize these genuine endeavors for social justice and social change in the OLM as power plays of some kind. They are entitled to their points of view just as we are entitled to ours. Hopefully, we will all use the opportunities availed us to live in a democratic society and respect the rights of others to protest when they feel their rights have been trampled.

Wynfred “Billy Dee” Russell lives in Brooklyn Park, MN and welcomes comments at wnrussell@hotmail.com or 763-228-9685.