An Invitation for You To Become a “Community Health Advocate”

Ten years ago when I was the CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists, I pioneered the Community Health Advocates program as a way of motivating non-medical, faith-based organizations and individuals to help reduce the ravages of cardiovascular disease in their communities.

Even if it is just discouraging our family and friends not to eat bacon and doughnuts and walk with them around the block, I am convinced that everyone can make a contribution. Never miss an opportunity to give a little pep talk to your church, your club, your family. We must encourage each other to live healthy lifestyles. It is never too early or too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle so that children will know their grandparents and become great grandparents themselves.

Give yourself the title of a “Community Health Advocate” and immediately transform yourself into someone who makes things happen in your community. Make up a name tag and proudly adopt this title. Introduce yourself as: “I am Tom Jones, A Community Health Advocate.” It is a shortcut to becoming passionate and sincere about helping others. You will find yourself with a purpose for living with zeal and dedication—and to truly become an agent of change. In fact, President Obama and his adminsitration is calling for Community Health Advocates and forums nationwide. A few of these Advocates were highlighted at the White House Health summit on 3/5/09!

This willingness to take on challenges and these preparations are essential in all aspects of life. As noted by author and speaker Joyce Meyer, "Even if you are in a waiting season of your life, keep your motor running and be ready to go forward as soon as you get a green light." Put another way, you will never know the joy of hitting a home run in baseball or a six in cricket, if you don't step up to the plate and take a swing. Although you may strike out or bowl out, it is the score that people will remember. This is your turn at bat. Don’t just stand there take charge of your life, the life of your family and the life of your community.

I assume all of you have seen the civil rights documentary Eye on the Prize. In one scene, minister and civil rights activist C.T. Vivian led a dozen people in a historic moment by leading them in the simple act of registering to vote. As he ascended the stairs of the Birmingham, Alabama, courthouse, he was stopped by no other than Sheriff Bull Conner, who told him in no uncertain terms that he was not entering the courthouse. As the conversation ensued, Conner reached back and hit Dr. Vivian with his fist, knocking him all the way to the bottom of the stairs and thought that would be the end of that. But Dr. Vivian jumped up and again rushed up to Conner, who, disbelieving Vivian's courage, stepped out of the way so the first African Americans in Alabama could register to vote. Is there a C. T. Vivian among you ready to address the scourge of healthcare disparities?

Ladies and gentlemen, each and every day, whether it is the United States or Jamaica, too many people die from heart disease and stroke. These people are your parents, your grandparents, your uncles and aunts, and even your children.

Cardiovascular disease is the thief that is stealing our loved ones. It is the thief that will claim the lives of half of us if we don't act quickly. I am appalled that a disease that is preventable is a silent killer. It ought to make you angry that Uncle Albert, Mother Blake, and Rev. Simmons died prematurely—and they did not have to, if they had just adopted a healthy lifestyle.

I have been told that every time you do a good deed, you give birth to a new guardian angel and every time you act self-absorbed, do things half-hearted, and every time you say "whatever," you lose an angel. How would you like to have a lot of angels in your corner? This could be your path.

My grandmother raised me, and on occasions when I did things to make her proud and happy, she would say that I could bring a little bit of heaven down to earth. Lately, I have been admitting to this gift because I now recognize that heaven is not a place we go to after we are dead and it's not "up there" somewhere— heaven is inside every well-meaning person, especially those who volunteer to work in their communities as "Community Health Advocates." You see, heaven is in the heart.

Martin Luther King, Jr told us that we can all be great because we can all serve. He said that "if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say,’ here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'" If we want to be considered great, we have to serve, and the true path to joy is to serve others. Don't live to get; live to give. Do your duty because it is the right thing to do.