Honor Jerry by recommitting to social activism

FIRST AND FOREMOST, Jerry Mondesire was like part of my family, one of my dearest friends for more than 40 years, and I can't begin to tell you how my friends and family are in utter shock at our loss.

We knew that he had health challenges. I've been in Mexico since Friday, and I talked with him on Thursday before I left. In that discussion - our conversations always began with "How are you, how you feeling, man?" - Jerry was upbeat and filled with optimism about the needed transplant and the direction in which his health challenges were going. So his not making it is a shock that we're still feeling, and I don't know that we've fully felt its impact yet.

More importantly, personally, it's one of those losses that you can't replace. Jerry and I have been friends for more than 40 years, and our friendship centered around our need for and involvement in social activism in Philadelphia.

We felt an extreme need to take leadership on the community side to change conditions that were unacceptable. I know - because we talked almost every day - that Jerry realized that what we've done seems to have been undone, and that the commitment to change doesn't appear to be there in our community, and specifically the black community. It's something that he and I felt passionate about.

I say emphatically that 40 years of work in this community, much of it behind the scenes, bore fruit. But Jerry was a change agent and was distressed with the fact that our community was losing ground rather than gaining. Despite all the work that had been done over the past 40 years, Philadelphia is falling behind, and that frustrated him.

Those who want to honor Jerry would do well to recommit themselves to issues he fought for and believed in.

William R. Miller IV is owner of Ross Associates, a Philadelphia communications firm, and a longtime political and community activist.

Email: Miller506@comcast.net