When I was in high school I can vaguely remember seeing Malcolm X on the evening news. I can remember how much afraid not only whites, but African-Americans were of the kind of rhetoric he expoused. It's funny now how time changes with retrospect and the very issues which frightened us to death we now see clearly in the light of today.

Malcolm taught a people fraught with years of emotional and physical debasement to love themselves and work towards a better future for themselves. He taught that no one is, nor should be responsible for the plight of a people but that people.

In my youth Malcolm was very controversial. He was fiery and spoke with a strength that we as African-Americans wished to this day we all had. He was empowered with the vision of his beliefs and the goodness of his heart.

In my maturing years Malcolm has evolved to epitomize the essence of man, unyielding, unbending and uncompromising of his belief in self-respect and self-sufficiency.