PREFACE
by Aashid Himons
When I first heard about it, I really just couldn't believe it was so.That in my lifetime, something like this was going to happen. So, as time approached, I talked to many brothers all over the country, and I could feel the excitement growing and then probably a month before the day, I decided I was definitely going, no matter what I had to do and what arrangements I had to make, I was going and then, when all of a sudden I realized I was going, there was a thrill that went up and down my spine. It was an energy rush, and I knew something special was getting ready to happen because this has always been a sign to me my entire life, in this incarnation.
So, the time approached and it was getting closer and closer. I called the people in DC that I was going to stay with and I found out that the excitement was tremendous up there. I talked to brothers from the Nation and they told me. "Yes, yes, yes it's happening, there's going to be one million, at least." I never doubted that. The thing that I wondered about was One million men together at the same time. One million of us, as aggressive and mean as we can be. We are very testosterone-filled beings and it causes us to enjoy bumping heads. So I knew that this was going to have to be an emphasis on the spiritual in order to make it happen. In order to make it happen in a constructive, peaceful but at the same time confrontational way.
Well, we're two days out and I'm getting it together. I decided that I should definitely take my video camera and document it. Well, that's exactly what I did got some help from some brothers and sisters in DC, and I documented it. I left on the night of October 14th, 1995. I wanted to be up there for the 15th so I could scout out the mall. I wanted to see what I had to do, in order to document this. It was raining so hard when I left, that I basically had to put my face into the windshield in order to see. It rained heavily all the way, from Nashville to DC. When I got to DC, I guess it must have been 12 hours later I pulled up to the house where I was staying and the rain stopped, just as I found the house.
Well, I knew then that the rain was a cleansing. That the Most High was preparing the planet for the greatest gathering that has ever happened. I knew and felt that it was going to be a great experience. I had no idea that it was going to be as great as it was it was early afternoon when we went to the rally site and there were at least a hundred thousand brothers gathered already, and this was the day before and there was just totally this energy thing that I had never felt before, being showered upon us.
Well, I talked to some brothers and I got some video footage, and then I left, went back up to the house to get ready for the next morning. I was planning on getting there around four o'clock in the morning on the 16th and so I went to sleep, and woke up, and this energy was still on me. So we left the house around 4 AM and arrived at the mall in 15 or 20 minutes found a place to park, which was totally amazing. We got in just before they closed the street and then we walked out onto the mall and there were brothers everywhere, arriving in large groups. There were these military drill teams coming in and I met some black men that had walked from Philadelphia. It was just the most amazing thing that I had ever experienced, and you have to realize this is about 4:30 in the morning. Then I heard a rumor that sometime around 5 o'clock African drums were going to begin playing to start the march. They were going to have African drums happening and so I decided to just walk around the mall and hope that I would be somewhere near theTribal drums when they started, so I would be able to experience that and to also get some footage of them playing Because I knew that this was a great event that I should document because everybody couldn't be here and it was something that everybody should see So, I was walking and it was about a quarter to five, and all of a sudden, right next to me, the drums started , Boom! I couldn't even see them because it was still dark outside. They started playing and I looked over , and they had air dancers, Or stilt walkers, and there was this magical thing in the air. With these drums happening and then there were people with cameras, and people had lights and were shining them on the drummers And it was just a magical thing that went on for probably an hour.
Meanwhile, dawn was approaching and I decided to walk around and see who was there. I saw people streaming in, just absolutely streaming in. As the hours passed, the numbers of men continually grew. There had to be 50, 60 or 70 thousand women that came . By noon, the incomprehensible masses were on the Mall. There were more than a million people there, and everyone I talked to, I felt I knew. It's not that I necessarily recognized them physically, but I recognized them spiritually.
I was walking along, and all of a sudden, I heard someone say"Aashid!" I heard this from a distance, I turned around, and there was Michael Gray, a brother from my home town (Huntington,W.Va). I hadn't seen him in 15 years. While we were standing there talking, another brother, Michael Thomas came by. I hadn't seen him in 25 years, and it was just amazing that this happened In the middle of over a million people, that we happened to meet. This was a thing that happened to many, many people. Though there were one and a half million in attendance, people were seeing each other that knew each other, and people who hadn't met each other, felt as though they knew each other . It seemed as though we were all from the same block
The million man march was one of the greatest things that has ever happened for my personal deliverance. Never in the history of the planet have a million men come together for anything but war. But this was a coming together for the unity, the spirituality and also the desperation that we feel and the alienation that we feel from each other as African American men, and this was a hook up that I can never, ever, ever forget.
Now all the men that were there are working for the deliverance of African Americans and all people who are oppressed, including women. Because atonement was one of the main things this march was about. It was about asking for forgiveness for the physical and mental abuse and for treating you horribly, and for not standing up for who we are as men." This is what we now have to do. The million man march - oh, so wonderful, somewhere beyond words, lies the true story. I hope you were there.
This book was inspired by the spiritual atonement, emphasized at the million man march. Resting on the whim of an open heartache I suddenly notice a change developing in all my attitudes. Is this temporary or something I can depend on? There's a warmth running through my inner glow. The embers are fanned by meditation and love. Meditation takes us to a higher being, a heightened state of knowing and with this comes the responsibility to teach and to pass on what we have learned.
This is the BOOK OF AASHID
The spiritual side of my consciousness
The book of light that illuminates the valley of darkness
The book of eternal truth
The book of AAKEINA MASAYAA
This is the book of universal love
Come travel with me and we will reach paradise together
Copyright 1997 SOPTEK BOOKS
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