Reporter-News Archives

Saturday, April 25, 1998

Speaker tells graduates to grab life

By TANYA EISERER / Abilene Reporter-News

Graduating African-American seniors need to "grab life, tuck it and then run with it," a keynote speaker said Friday night during a banquet sponsored by the local NAACP chapter.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift so what are you going to do about it?" said Kyev P. Tatum, a state NAACP board member.

"As African-Americans we have been through trials, but that leads us to triumph," added Lenecia Bowens, an Abilene High School senior headed to Texas A&M University this fall.

Tatum, a San Marcos community activist, spoke at the first annual African-American graduation banquet. The theme was "success is a mixture of trials and triumphs."

"I hope to achieve success based on my intellectual abilities not because of the status society has placed on me," said Miguelito Talbert, a Cooper High School senior.

Tatum exhorted seniors to defy the statistics that say many of them will not attend college and will likely wind up in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

ÔThe numbers are bleak in regards to you," Tatum said. "I say, so what. You can do and you can be anything."

The former football player for Tarleton State University and the University of North Texas in Denton also challenged seniors not to make excuses for their failure.

"Are you afraid to try?" Tatum asked. "You've got to step out of your comfort zone to be successful."

He then told them that they must "run harder, push harder and work harder."

ÔIt's not what happens to you that makes the difference," he added. "It's how you look at things."

Racism should not be an excuse for failure, either, Tatum said.

"Yes, you will see racism," Tatum said. "But racism has been here since the day they brought us over here. ... There will be some lemons thrown at you, but grandma used to say, ÔBabe, take those lemons and make some lemonade.' "

Tatum added that the NAACP "is committed to fighting some of those battles."

Tatum, who was one of 10 children growing up in a single-parent family in Fort Worth, related a football story to make his point about success and failure.

He told of being mortified after dropping the football while playing in the high school game.

Tatum said he felt like a failure until the head coach walked over and he said, "You know Kyev you need to watch it, catch it, tuck it and run with the ball."

Two years later, he a chance to make the winning touchdown when those words came back to him.

He watched the ball, caught it, tucked it and triumphantly ran into the endzone.

"The reason I was making excuses is because I was afraid," Tatum said. "I allowed fear to drive me."

While playing football in college, he had the chance to go to a bowl game in Mexico City.

"I saw poverty like I'd never seen before ," he said. "It gave me a whole new respect for America."

He said he believed "everybody was against" him and he could "blame white people" when he failed.

"I had to decide that I wanted to do it," Tatum said.

"It's not where you start that matters. It's where you end that makes the difference."