[img]583|right|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]A few diehard Cornel West supporters seem to have taken great exception to my article, “A Portrait of Cornel West – The Liberace of Faux Intellectualism.” They asked, who am I who has the audacity to criticize the illustrious Dr. West, and what have I done for the black community?
I am a simple urban farmer who tills the soil. I admit I have done little, at least,that meets the eye. But beneath the surface, everything I do is designed to move my people forward. Like most urban farmers, I have to tend my crop and look at the long game. I do not have the time to concern myself with fame, fortune,and adulation. My job is to focus on harvest time, and patiently await my crop.
We all have a role to play in this society. I see mine as helping to educate our people, not at Harvard or Princeton, like Dr. West. That is not the field where my crop resides. My crop was planted in urban America.
I am the product of a unique family of farmers. We are not famous. We are, though, one of a kind in the United States. There is only one Wattree family in America. Everyone with the last name Wattree is related to me. As a family, we always have been involved in educating and tilling the soil of our people.
My great uncle, Richard Wattree, started the Wattree School in Louisiana to teach black people to read and write. This was back when there was little education to be had for poor black people. We have carried on the tradition ever since. Some of us teach elementary and secondary school in cities across this country. Others, like my daughter and niece, work in administrative positions in colleges and universities. Still others are artists who depict our people’s journey within this country over the centuries:
This is from Susan T. Herring, Editor, the Guardian-Journal, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana:
Jubilee To Showcase The Art Of Claiborne Parish
“African American artist Alma Lennear of Minden, will be exhibiting her works as well as selling her paintings Saturday at the Claiborne Jubilee. She comes from a long line of educators who have lived in and around Claiborne Parish since the days her great-grandfather, Richard Wattree, founded the Wattree School, using the Bible as the reading book. A self-taught artist, Ms. Lennear’s work features both portraits of historic figures as well as Biblical scenes. Come to the Jubilee and visit with a most interesting woman!”
Writing is my forte. I also am a Jazz musician and a poet, so I help to pass along pride in our Black tradition through those mediums. My good friend, Rita Edmond, is one of the greatest jazz singers in the world today. I am writing music for her, passing along my knowledge of music theory to ensure that she will be prepared to carry on the tradition of Ella, Sarah and Dinah Washington in a fashion that befits their memory and her own.
When I got married – O was 21 years old, my late wife Valdie was 19 – I sacrificed my own ambition to try to become the kind of father who could ensure that my kids and grandchildren would grow up to be better than I. They are.
While a handful of people think I am formidable, they have not seen anything. My greatest contribution to our people lies dormant, feeding, growing, absorbing knowledge within a cocoon.
When my crop comes in, you no longer will have to ask, who am I? You will know. I am a simple farmer who tills the soil to ensure the viability of his people.
Legacy
Neither scholar nor the head of state,
The most common of men seems to be my fate;
A life blistered with struggle and constant need,
As my legacy to man I bequeath my seed.
More fertile, more sturdy, these ones than I,
This withered old vine left fallow and dry;
The nectar of their roots lies dormant still,
But through their fruit I'll be revealed.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.” Mr. Wattree may be contacted at Ewattree@Gmail.com http://www.whohub.com/wattree or Http://wattree.blogspot.com or Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
