{UAH} UNAA – The Hard Choices Before Us.

UNAA – The Hard Choices Before Us.

Let us, for a brief moment, take a critical look at our circumstances as they exist today.

On the one hand, we have UNAA which will be hold its annual convention in New Orleans.  With very few exceptions, none of its current leaders (or those who seek to take over) has been in UNAA for more than 10 years.

One the other hand, we have UNAA Causes which will hold its own festival in New York.  Of the known leaders of this organization, almost all have been UNAA members and leaders for over 10 years.

There are some in the current UNAA leadership who have no memories of the "glory" days of UNAA or the conflict of 2001, while on the flip side, there some in UNAA Causes who played major roles in and relish those very same memories.

These generational and historical gaps have played a role in the current conflict in UNAA and will be very difficult to overcome. 

So as we go into this Labor Day weekend, these are the choices we will all have before us.

1.       Reject any proposal for reconciliation and stay with the status quo.  In so doing, we will reduce what small chance there is for reconciliation between the two parties in the foreseeable future.

2.       Seriously consider and accept at least one of the reconciliation proposals that have been put on the table.  Quite obviously I plan to support the one I presented.

I would like to believe that the vast majority of UNAA members (regardless of whichever camp they support) would like to see some reasonable process of reconciliation put in place this weekend.  However, there is also the reality that there are some on both sides to whom reconciliation is undesirable - people who have found a measure of personal gain in the ongoing division and would prefer it to continue.

In the town hall meeting that replaced the annual general meeting at the 2014 UNAA Convention in San Diego, more than half of the discussion centered on the need for reconciliation and it was obvious that the majority of attendees favored such an action.  Unfortunately, when neutral mediators tried to effect such reconciliation, both sides had demands and conditions that were incompatible and would not allow for a compromise.  It is to be hoped that both sides since learned important lessons from these failed efforts.

So in conclusion, let me say that negotiations between the two camps that are carried out independent of each other and begin with demands and conditions are unlikely to work.  This is what would happen if the weekend were to end with the planned "elections" in New Orleans.

However, I believe that the creation of a "Caretaker" administration would enable a more neutral environment that would permit representatives from both sides to engage in constructive discussions on a way forward without either side feeling it has submitted to the other.  While this is without a doubt the more difficult alternative, I sincerely hope UNAA members will see it as positive choice that might resolve this impasse.

Sincerely,

Moses R. Wilson