Dr. C. Diane Howell-We Miss You!
Condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Howell
Dear Friends,
It is with a heavy and astonished heart that I send you this sad news. Please forgive any oversight or error, as I am forwarding this to you in a state of unbelief and pain.
Dr. C. Diane Howell will be dearly missed. Having just read the email you see below about 45 minutes ago, I know I am not saying all that should be said about Dr. Howell. I feel she has gone too soon. This is a shocking reminder to us that we must engage those we love and respect on a constant and on-going basis and stop looking for the perfect moment or next time. The time is always now!
I had such admiration and respect of Dr. C. Diane Howell. She was a trailblazer! She was concerned about people and community. Dr. Howell's work with the Black Business Listing and the Black Expo, "the biggest minority event of its kind in the Bay Area" as I told her couple of years ago, have benefited the Bay Area tremendously.
I shared with Dr. Howell my concerns that there were not enough projects like hers in the Bay Area. As I talked about media and the often portrayal of Blacks and other minorites in a negative light, I expressed to her how important her work was as she gathered people of all races to promote the positive activities in the Black community.
When people only see the violent crimes and the negative news over the airwaves without the balance of the people promoted in Black Business Listings and the Black Expo, they have a short-sighted and distorted perspective of Black and minority communities. Dr. Howell's work was a light piercing through the darkness of ignorance that benefited the Bay Area economically, socially and spiritually.
Dr. Jerry Kang of UCLA Law School talks about what happens when television news focuses on mostly negative stories about minorities in "Trojan Horses of Race."
Hopefully, Dr. Howell's work will continue because it is much needed. Hopefully, the community will rally around her mother Doris Howell, who comes from Chicago every year to help with the expo, and the staff of BBL and Black Expo. Businesses, politicians, and the community all should rise up and give Dr. Howell's projects the support they did in the past and increase the support. Dr. Howell expressed her work as "God's work." Let's keep her work alive as a tribute to her life's work---"The Dr. C. Diane Howell Black Expo" must go on and bless the lives of others.
I feel this may all be too fresh for me to comment, but I recall the way, Dr. Howell immediately honored fellow journalist Chauncey Bailey as she wrote a story in honor of him within hours of his passing that appeared in the Oakland Post and across the nation. Click on this link to see her article.
I miss Dr. Howell so much already... for all the times I didn't pick up the phone to say hello or slow her down enough for a cup of coffee or lunch. I missed the Expo this year as I was working the Lake Tahoe Celebrity Golf Tournament. I whimsically thought oh, I'll make it next July. Not knowing that it would not be the same and not thinking of the reality that "tomorrow is not even promised to me."
I miss Dr. Howell's beauty. I miss her strength. I miss her straight forwardness. I miss her big smile. I miss her laughter. I miss her crying at the drop of a hat. I miss her big vision. I miss the fact that she didn't have more time to fulfill more of her vision. I miss the way she loved and cared for her mother. I miss the respect I saw her give her staff. I miss the fact that I did not spend more time around her. I miss her.
All I know is the information you see below sent to me by Lynnette White via email. (Mrs. White and artist husband Eugene White, are among the community giants that bring so much to our culture. They are always doing good work here at home and around the nation as they keep an artistic aspect of Black culture alive.)
I saw this report The Black Hour News: Dr. C. Diane Howell Dies and that's it.
All I can say is that this is one of the moments that one must trust God in His timing in allowing Dr. Howell to be "called home."
During this Holiday season let's enjoy the moments with our family and friends and uphold those who may be experiencing a hard time. Surely, this is a time the rain and the sunshine are visiting our day. May we seize this and every day with the purpose and passion of Dr. C. Diane Howell and others like her. Let's get behind those of passion and purpose that are still with us in tribute to Dr. C. Diane Howell and like spirits ( People like President-Elect Barack Obama and people who are the change they want to see.) Dr. Howell, January 20, 2009 you'll witness the change you helped make happen from the vantage point of "such a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)."
Missing my sister,
Jackie
December 26, 2008
Black Expo 2004 Dr. C. Diane Howell presented an award to Jackie Wright of UPN (former Public Affairs Manager).
Photo Courtesy: Black Expo Corporate Photographer, Auintard Henderson, Photographers@Large, 510 938-8141
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The Passing of Dr. C. Diane Howell
It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of Dr. C. Diane Howell, Publisher of the Black Business Listings and Producer of the Black Expo. She was hospitalized a few days ago, and her condition worsened, and last night she was called home. We will keep you updated on arrangements for her memorial service. Please also know that an account will be set up at Alta Alliance Bank on Monday for donations in leiu of flowers. Details will come on Monday. Our appreciation goes out to all of you who have touched her life, and as always please keep her family in your prayers. At the request of the Howell family please do not reply to the BlackExpo email account, nor call the office or cell phones. Please
contact Adriann or VaShone. Adriann McCall, 510-435-0961/adriann.m@sbcglobal.net VaShone Huff 510-269-0206/valhuff73@yahoo.com
The Black Business Listings/Black Expo Ltd. Family
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Dr. C. Diane Howell was a woman of faith. I leave these words from her faith that also encourage me at times like these. From the Holy Bible, eternal word of God, "it is written; so it is"......
Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
Isaiah 57:1-2
The righteous perishes and no man takes it to heart; the merciful men are taken away while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from evil.
Thessalonians 4:13-18- The Lord Returns for Believers
Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
I Corinthians 15:20-28
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be eliminated is death. For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. But when it says "everything" has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him. And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
Revelation 21 - A New Heaven and a New Earth
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city - the new Jerusalem - descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: "Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more - or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist."
