My name is Ralph Harper. A few years ago, I had an epiphany about how my entire life has been left to chance. The experience forced me to think about my failures and successes. In the end, despite my 16-year IT career at PepsiCo and the fact I owned a successful Staffing business for over eighteen years, I concluded that my life outcomes represent microcosms of what they could have been. The void in my life was the lack of appropriate guidance.
I can not blame my parents for the shortfall(s). You see they were consumed fighting against the headwinds of racism, discrimination and inequality while raising their ten children in tumultuous Birmingham, AL in the fifties and sixties. In those days, life was hell for Black American’s in the South. The experiences seem to force a people’s behaviors into conformance with the kinds of social norms counter to the behaviors required to succeed in the United States – the kind of norms I still believe derived from slavery.
I will never forget the time I witnessed my childhood friend beaten by his mother with a brown extension cord on his naked back. She made him lay across a coffee table prior to administering the punishment. His screams were deafening – sounds I never knew a human voice could make. In between the screams, I could barely understand the English he spit from mouth as he begged his mother to stop.
I ran home that day bawling while struggling to breathe. I was in full stride. My hands were like blade cutting the air. My head was tilted backward. I was running for my life. When I turned the last corner onto my street, I felt a sense of solace knowing my punishment would not be anything like what I had witnessed at my friend’s house. Today, that experience, those tears and his screams serve as my foundational belief more Black American people in the United States have been and are being impacted by slavery yet still. However, few of us are willing to admit it.
When people do not believe that their goals are achievable despite what they do or how much they develop themselves, it is a sign of hopelessness. Chronic hopelessness is a debilitating disease that derived from slavery-experiences. It is the basis for unaccountability and unaccountability is the foundation of failures in modern-day United States.
Rather than love each other, some of us hate. Rather than coalesce for the purpose achieving common goals, we are often divided. Rather than supporting the children of our race unconditionally, we are far too comfortable with complacency. Consequently, we are leaving our most precious assets’ lives to chance. NO CHILD’S LIFE SHOULD EVER BE LEFT TO CHANCE.
So, there you have it. A simple epiphany drove me to write the book, Own The Change – How Our Children Will Lead The Next Cultural Movement.” It is a book about social change. The kind of social change that will ultimately lead to prosperity and generational wealth with the entire race of people whose ancestors contributed to the building of a nation – The United States of America. However, a book is nothing more than a narrative absent a plan. Hence, THE 2060S PROJECT. That is why I have dedicate the rest of my life to THE 2060S Project. The mission is to ensure more of our underserved children than not will mitigate the chance of their life-experiences ever being left to chance.
We will return to the fundamentals with reading being the absolute number one priority. When we get this basic critically important principle right, the rest of the plan will be a breeze.
Join us on our journey. HELP US HELP THEM!