HOODIE OBAMA

'THE DOUBLE VICTORY'

I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and I've seen hate on the faces of too many white sheriffs, too many white citizens' councillors, and too many Klansmen of the south to want to hate, myself; and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-co-operation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is co-operation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country, and make it appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for integration, but we'll still love you. But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.' (D) Power...is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love... What is needed is a realisation that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anaemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.

APPLYING MATHEMATICAL BRILLIANCE TO THE 'STAND YOUR GROUND' ECONOMIC BOYCOTT

Practical mathematical applications Practical mathematical applications go well beyond the 3, fairly decent ones, identified as "culturally relevant pedagogy," by their 3 proponents in their chapter, "Culturally Relevant, Cognitively Demanding Mathematics Tasks" in THE BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS (2013), edited by Jacqueline Leonard and Danny B. Martin. This book's release coincides with the call for an economic boycott of Florida, and of any state with "Stand Your Ground" laws, 30 by last count, in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal, this month, for the cold-blooded murder of 17-year Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed, in Sanford, Florida. The 3 culturally relevant pedagogical propositions advanced by the authors are: "1. Academic success 2. Cultural competence and 3. The ability to critique the existing social order (Ladson-Billings, 1994)." P. 128. The absence of how math students might "create" alternatives to those few economic options available to them and to the majority of their race, by the "critiqued social order," alarmed me, into and of itself. To their credit, and to hers, the chapter's authors--Lou Edward Matthews, Shelly M. Jones, and Yolanda A. Parker--tacitly acknowledge their chapter's deficiencies by referencing one of the editors' angst. They write: "Leonard (2008) contends that while the literature shows a critical need to use culturally relevant pedagogy, there are yet scarce examples of how culture can be connected to mathematics pedagogy." P.131 One good way to "connect" culture to pedagogy is to instill mathematical skills that will specifically enable the black students to come up with mathematical resolutions/solutions to their own economic estrangement in the land of their birth, creatively, constructively, and permanently. Apply those brilliant mathematical minds in black children to practical work, and watch miracles unfold!

BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND, EXCERPT

"William Still kept a record of most of the freedom seekers who sought shelter and aid through his office at the Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. Still noted each person's name, age, height, and skin color, the name of their enslaver, where they had lived, and sometimes the runaway's personal family information, such as number of brothers and sisters and names of parents, spouses, and children. He recorded any aliases the runaways chose, ensuring that they could be found by friends and family in the future. On occasion he took testimony from the former slaves, recording their experiences under slavery, their reasons for taking flight, and their opinions of their masters. Still also maintained detailed accounts of funds spent on each freedom seeker who came through the society's office.” BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO, by Kate Clifford Larson (One World Books, Random House, NY:2004), p.115

"TIMAEUS," BY PLATO, EXCERPT

“'In Egypt,' Critias began, 'in that part of the Delta where the stream of the Nile divides around the vertex there is a district called the Saitic. The most important city of this district is Sais. (This is in fact also the city from which King Amasis came.) The city was founded by a goddess who name is 'Neith' in Egyptian and (according to the people there) 'Athena' in Greek. They are very friendly to Athens and claim to be related to our people somehow or other. Now Solon said when he arrived there the people began to revere him. Furthermore, he said that when he asked those priests of theirs who were scholars of antiquity about ancient times, he discovered that just about every Greek, including himself, was all but completely ignorant about such matters. On one occasion, wanting to lead them on to talk about antiquity, he broached the subject of our own ancient history. ... “And then one of the priests, a very old man, said, 'Ah, Solon, Solon, you Greeks are ever children. There isn't an old man among you.' On hearing this, Solon said, 'What? What do you mean?' 'You are young,' the old priest replied, 'young in soul, every one of you. Your souls are devoid of beliefs about antiquity handed down by ancient tradition. Your souls lack any learning made hoary by time... And so, Solon, the account you just gave of your people's lineage is just like a nursery tale. First of all, you people remember only one flood, though in fact there have been a great many before. Second, you are unaware of the fact that the finest and best of all races of humankind once lived in your region. This is the race from whom you yourself, your whole city, and all that you and your countrymen have today, are sprung, thanks to a small portion of their stock. But this has escaped you, because for many generations the survivors passed on without leaving a written record....” p. 1229-1231, “Timaeus,” PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS, John M. Cooper, Editor; D.S. Hutchinson, Associate Editor (Hackett Publishing Company, Indiapolis/Cambridge: 1997)

EMERSON: THE MIND ON FIRE, EXCERPT

"Religion for [Mme.Anne Louise Germaine Necker, baronne] de Stael centers in 'the feeling of the infinite,' which she carefully separates from the infinite itself. The infinite, she explains, 'consists in the absence of limits: but the feeling of the infinite, such as the imagination and the heart experience is positive and creative.' De Stael is interested, as is Mary Moody Emerson and her nephew and later William James, in religious experience, not in dogma, theology, history, or ritual. ... "'Religion is nothing,' she says, 'if it is not everything, if existence is not filled with it, if we do not incessantly maintain in the soul this belief in the invisible, this self-devotion, this elevation of desire. Her ideal was that the whole of life should be 'naturally and without effort, an act of worship at every moment.' "She thought nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm... Enthusiasm was more strongly linked to its etymology than it was to any particular place. As de Stael pointed out, it means 'god in us.'" P.53-54, EMERSON: THE MIND ON FIRE, A Biography, by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. (1995)

1 John 2:26-27

1 John 2:26-27 King James Version (KJV) 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Felt experience trumps logic

Felt experience trumps logic Felt experience trumps logic. By "trumps" is meant that "felt experience" begins where human "logic" ends. Being "felt," it touches one's senses. This felt touch titillates, stimulates and gives palpable notice of its presence to that particular person. Each feeling, in turn, independently and collectively, engages bodily functions and systems: cranial, neurological, psychological, musculoskeletal, endocrinological, and others. Also engaged are the non-bodily systems known as the spiritual, the mantic, the inert, the Holy Ghost. At each level of engagement, vital information is processed ahead of conscious perception, often independent of conscious perception. Logic, by contrast, is confined to the mind and its constructs; to the manipulative extensions of the mind; to graphics and symbols in aid of the mind's mental processes. Logic packages and synthesizes sets of information derived from the senses into systemic units and categories, ergo "logical." All-Powerful when working with what "is," and with what is reasonably deducible therefrom, logic falls short where its paved road, its bread crumbs, its data, ends! That is where the felt experience takes over, receives the baton from logic. Actually, they are connubial, conjoined, not nearly as separate as they are reputed to be, as the verb "trumped" suggests. They are like seasons, like phases of the moon. Each phase waxes and wanes in season on the same moon or body. Felt experience supplies answers after logic is exhausted. Yet, logic serves as a platform for, and frequently informs, the felt experience, even as it propels it. The example of Einstein's analogy of the visualization of a beam of light as a teenager, his felt experience, that later, after training--logic--enabled his formulation of the special theory of relativity, is fusion of both. Another example of felt experience is African American music: From spirituals, to blues and jazz, to rhythm and blues, to hip hop/rap, and assorted permutations. The rubric "soul music" covers these autochthonous African American "felt" creations which welled up from their creators' spirits into popular and world culture. These soulful, "felt" creations paralleled Western "white" music forms, while differing from them in motif and substance. The felt-logic synergy explains much that is true about the African American experience. This felt-logic conjunction makes America, America, historically. It also makes America magnificent, presently! Their fusion holds future promise to the nation and to the world beyond.

"White Man's Country"

“White Man’s Country” Sunday, July 21, 2013 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman The false sobriquet "white man's country" was applied to the United States until the end of the Civil War, which was originally heralded as a "white man's war". These characterizations were used to disallow blacks from fighting in their "Freedom War," as they referred to this conflict among themselves, confident that somehow The Lord would make a way! A way was made, when three slaves, working on Confederate artillery embankments opposite Ft. Monroe on the Virginia peninsula which was still under Union command, rowed across the bay and became "contraband of war." Other slaves rushed to join the Union Army, whenever it came nearby, word having reached them that “contraband” status awaited them too, if they could get to the Stars and Stripes A rivulet soon became a mighty flood, depriving the South of its labor force and assets and overwhelming the Union with a flood of humanity that it could barely feed, and in tens of thousands of cases, at least, it did not feed, leading to death by starvation and disease. Yet, the majority survived and thrived, leading 2 department commanders to issue their own Emancipation Proclamations: Generals Hunter and Fremont in 1861. Lincoln rescinded these, only to issue his own in September 1862. The Union was in danger of losing the war. Lincoln’s political overtures to the South for gradual emancipation and payment for slaves had been rebuffed. His black colonization schemes had failed both on Ile de Vache in Haiti, and in Central America, as black leaders said “No!” So, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln’s Proclamation took effect, freeing black men to fight for freedom against their former masters and tormentors. These 200,000 soldiers and sailors won the war for the Union, and converted this former “white man’s country” into the “land of the free and the home of the brave!”

arithmetic game from childhood

ARITHMETIC GAME FROM CHILDHOOD 07/21/13 by Larry Delano Coleman While in James Milton Turner Elementary School near St.Louis, Missouri, in the early 1960's, my 3 younger siblings and I used to play an arithmetic game among ourselves at home. It had no name that I can now recall. But you doubled the sum of preceding sums successively starting with number 1. Thus, you had 1 and 1 is 2. 2 and 2 is 4. 4 and 4 is 8. 8 and 8 is 16. 16 and 16 is 32. 32 and 32 is 64. 64 and 64 is 128. 128 and 128 is 256. 256 and 256 is 512. 512 and 512 is 1024. 1024 and 1024 is 2048. Fun came from memorizing (mastering) the formulation and the answers, in the doubling sequence, 2, with accuracy and rapidity! You had to think fast or another sibling would beat you to the answer! One day, when I was in the 5th or 6th grade, another teacher brought my brother Harold to our classroom all excited about this math whiz in her class. Harold was either in the 1st or 2nd grade at that time. She told Harold then to recite the above logarithm. His speed and accuracy brought gasps of amazement from my classmates. How could one so young, and so small, be so good in math, they wondered? After, the gasps had subsided, I told them Harold was my little brother and that his recitation was a math game that we played at home each day. To prove it, I asked him to answer some odd-numbered problems (outside of that math sequence). Of course, he could not do it, not having been previously exposed to those odd numbers, nor having practiced that method of addition, outside the logarithm. His teacher and my little brother both seemed somewhat crestfallen, by my disclosure. And, even now, to this day, I kick myself for having let the cat out of the bag, as older siblings are prone to do, naively. I share this anecdote with you, so you can share this arithmetic game with elementary school children in your lives. It will boost their confidence and self-esteem and will garner honors from their teachers. Our doubling game used the even number, 2, as our base. But, doubling 3, 4, 5's etc. sequentially might also be fun and challenging! Math games are myriad.

"BUT I SHALL LIVE"-- EMERSON EXCERPT

“Like Ahab standing on the deck in the storm, Emerson takes on the universe: 'Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act and speak and write and think with entire freedom? What am I to the universe, or, the universe, what is it to me? Who hath forged the chains of wrong and of right, of Opinion and of Custom? And must I wear them?' Accompanying his sense of detachment was a remarkable surge of power, a wonderful feeling of strength and liberation. 'I am solitary in the vast society of beings,' he wrote. 'I see the world, human, brute, and inanimate nature,--I am in the midst of them, but not of them; I hear the song of the storm... I see cities and nations and witness passions... but I partake it not … I disclaim them all.' “The outburst is not so much isolation as defiance, a redefining of what is center, and what is periphery. It reminds one of Thoreau's hawk, which was not lonely but made everything lonely beneath it. It is a feeling of absolute and unquestioned self-validation, an extraordinary self-assertion, a wild romantic cogito that answers Hume not by logic but by felt experience. No matter what else existed, Emerson knew he existed: 'I say to the universe, Mighty One! Thou art not my mother. Return to chaos if thou wilt. I shall still exist. I live. If I owe my being, it is to a destiny greater than thine. Star by star, world by world, system by system shall be crushed,--but I shall live!” EMERSON: THE MIND ON FIRE, A BIOGRAPHY, by Robert D. Richardson, Jr., (U. of California Press, Berkeley: 1995) P. 51

LIFE'S EVOLVING LABORATORY

Life is an evolving laboratory created, animated, and governed by cause, effect, matter, sensation, consciousness, the inexplicable, and the unknowable.

Nothing is more radical than love.

TRAYVON MARTIN COULD HAVE BEEN ME...

VIDEO: PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO OUR PAIN AS A PEOPLE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/obama-tryavon-martin-could-have-been-me-35-years-ago/2013/07/19/1bd5fa26-f09b-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_video.html ADDRESSING THE PAIN POIGNANTLY AND DIRECTLY....

TRAYVON MARTIN IS ANOTHER ROSA PARKS

TRAYVON MARTIN IS ANOTHER ROSA PARKS! Updated: Friday July 19, 2013 Saturday, March 24, 2012 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman (Note: this article was originally written in 2012 where it was posted to Facebook. I adhere to its central premise, but have updated a few facts.) Trayvon Martin is another “Rosa Parks,” symbolically. “In what respect,” one may wonder? In respect to black male homicides, which, to this point, have been perceived as faceless, nameless, hopeless, thug-based, ghetto-located, impoverished, and black-on-black. Trayvon's persona is handsome, hopeful, innocent, vulnerable, and middle classed. Having the "right" symbol like Rosa Parks is important. He is it! Dr. King, among others, had repeatedly reflected upon Mrs. Park’s symbolic value in David J. Garrow’s epic biography, Bearing The Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Rosa Parks was not the first black woman to refuse to give up her seat in 1955, in then-racially segregated Montgomery, Alabama. A pregnant, black teenager with a juvenile court record had committed that same act of civil disobedience, only weeks earlier. But, Mrs. Parks was married, church-going, respectable. She was also the secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. She was a humble, well-known, well-connected seamstress in Negro civil rights circles, and a deaconness in the AME church. She was the "right" one, the right symbol! She came to symbolize the civil rights movement. So, too, is Trayvon Martin in death. He has become every black person's symbolic son, little brother, cousin, boyfriend, or uncle; including, by empathetic expression, President Barack Obama’s own son, symbolically. Some observers have urged, and strained, an analogy between Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin, in that both males were black teenagers who were murdered, because of their race in the South by white men. Though facially appealing, the comparison dissolves upon closer examination. First of all, Emmett Till is alleged to have “wolf-whistled” at a white woman in 1955 in Money, Mississippi, after he had come from Chicago, Illinois, to visit relatives during the summer. That act violated an enshrined cultural taboo in Mississippi, which proscribed any sexual intimations between black males and white females; although its opposite, white males and black females, was sanctioned by centuries of miscegenation, including remorseless rape. Trayvon Martin, by contrast, is not alleged to have done anything remotely provocative or taboo. He was simply returning from a convenience store into a gated community in Sanford, Florida, where he was temporarily visiting, walking, carrying candy and iced tea. Emmett Till was beaten, shot, and lynched by a mob of white terrorists, that white woman’s husband among them. His body was then thrown into the Tallahatchie River with his neck attached to and weighted down by an industrial fan. Trayvon Martin was shot one-time in the chest and killed by a “white” volunteer, security guard, who was even unaccredited, purportedly, by the “Neighborhood Watch” group he claimed to represent. George Zimmerman, had stalked and killed Trayvon Martin, after reporting him as “suspicious—looking” in a recorded 911 call. On 46 prior occasions, he had made similar calls to Sanford police about other such black men. In this call, he was told to await police assistance, and not to pursue Trayvon, who had fled, fearing “some strange white man” who had kept following him. Exasperated because “they always get away,” he later confessed to police, Zimmerman determined to disregard the dispatcher, and then pursued this frightened teenager in his vehicle till he finally cut him off and killed him. President Barack Obama, reacting to the nationwide outcry, marches, rallies, and protests demanding the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman, said this on Friday, March 23, 2012, at a news conference: “I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” Obama said. “And that means we examine the laws, the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident. “But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are gonna take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.” Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law is based on a model statute created by ALEC, an organization of “conservative” policy makers, that is funded by some of the nation’s leading corporations. Such laws exist in 26 states, and operate against blacks, under the legislative/judicial gloss of feigned, objective neutrality. Deeply rooted in the “white supremist” psyches of both races, its historical provenance taps into the “hunter,” i.e., gun-toter, Zimmerman—versus—the “hunted,”i.e. “Skittles”-carrier, Martin dyad that caused this senseless killing. Trayvan’s murder exposed this deadly plot! As prevailing social paradigm--municipal ordinances girded by state statute-- compelled segregated “Jim Crow,” seating on privately-owned buses in Montgomery, Alabama; so, also, a similar paradigm, formalized in Florida state statute, enabled George Zimmerman to pursue, to shoot, and to kill 17-year old pedestrian, Trayvon Martin; and, to avoid arrest, by claiming “self-defense,” though he was carried down to the police station and “questioned” by Sanford police, thereafter, purportedly. Thus, the official public policy nexus between the Rosa Parks and the Trayvon Martin occurrences ties together these two nationally transformative incidents, definitively. No such official public policy existed with respect to Emmett Till, only a sordid custom of murdering black men at will, with impunity! Rosa Parks became the symbol of the civil rights movement. Trayvon Martin has become the symbol of the justice rights. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted over a year. It featured blacks devising their own carpools, gypsy cabs, or righteously walking, rather than to ride the bus; rather than to support economically segregated seating; rather than to be disrespected. Their brilliant leadership and organization wore down the private bus company and the city of Montgomery. A boycott of Florida is now gaining national momentum due to its “Stand Your Ground” statute, and due to the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman by an all-white female jury on charges of 2nd degree murder and manslaughter. The blacks emerged victorious under the reluctant leadership of a 26-year old Baptist preacher named Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then-pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. King later founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.He is a revered international icon. Another reluctant leader now submergent in the Trayvon Martin justice campaign is the President of the United States, Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States, although Attorney General Eric Holder, another first, now leads it nominally. That is ironic and iconic, by itself! #30

Missouri's Stand Your Ground Law

563.011. As used in this chapter the following terms shall mean: (1) "Deadly force"[ means], physical force which the actor uses with the purpose of causing or which he or she knows to create a substantial risk of causing death or serious physical injury[.]; (2) "Dwelling"[ means], any building[ or], inhabitable structure,[ though movable or temporary, or a portion thereof, which is for the time being the actor's home or place of lodging.] or conveyance of any kind, whether the building, inhabitable structure, or conveyance is temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile, which has a roof over it, including a tent, and is designed to be occupied by people lodging therein at night; (3) "Forcible felony", any felony involving the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual, including but not limited to murder, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping, assault, and any forcible sexual offense; [(3) ](4) "Premises", includes any building, inhabitable structure and any real property[.]; [(4) ](5) "Private person"[ means], any person other than a law enforcement officer; (6) "Remain after unlawfully entering", to remain in or upon premises after unlawfully entering as defined in this section; (7) "Residence", a dwelling in which a person resides either temporarily or permanently or is visiting as an invited guest; (8) "Unlawfully enter", a person unlawfully enters in or upon premises when he or she enters such premises and is not licensed or privileged to do so. A person who, regardless of his or her purpose, enters in or upon premises that are at the time open to the public does so with license unless he or she defies a lawful order not to enter, personally communicated to him or her by the owner of such premises or by another authorized person. A license to enter in a building that is only partly open to the public is not a license to enter in that part of the building that is not open to the public. 563.031. 1. A person may, subject to the provisions of subsection 2 of this section, use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person, unless: (1) The actor was the initial aggressor; except that in such case his or her use of force is nevertheless justifiable provided: (a) He or she has withdrawn from the encounter and effectively communicated such withdrawal to such other person but the latter persists in continuing the incident by the use or threatened use of unlawful force; or (b) He or she is a law enforcement officer and as such is an aggressor pursuant to section 563.046; or (c) The aggressor is justified under some other provision of this chapter or other provision of law; (2) Under the circumstances as the actor reasonably believes them to be, the person whom he or she seeks to protect would not be justified in using such protective force; (3) The actor was attempting to commit, committing, or escaping after the commission of a forcible felony. 2. A person may not use deadly force upon another person under the circumstances specified in subsection 1 of this section unless: (1) He or she reasonably believes that such deadly force is necessary to protect himself or herself or another against death, serious physical injury,[ rape, sodomy or kidnapping or serious physical injury through robbery, burglary or arson] or any forcible felony; or (2) Such force is used against a person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering, or attempts to unlawfully enter a dwelling, residence, or vehicle lawfully occupied by such person. 3. A person does not have a duty to retreat from a dwelling, residence, or vehicle where the person is not unlawfully entering or unlawfully remaining. [3. ]4. The justification afforded by this section extends to the use of physical restraint as protective force provided that the actor takes all reasonable measures to terminate the restraint as soon as it is reasonable to do so. [4. ]5. The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of justification under this section. 563.041. 1. A person may, subject to the limitations of subsection 2, use physical force upon another person when and to the extent that he or she reasonably believes it necessary to prevent what he or she reasonably believes to be the commission or attempted commission by such person of stealing, property damage or tampering in any degree. 2. A person may use deadly force under circumstances described in subsection 1 only when such use of deadly force is authorized under other sections of this chapter. 3. The justification afforded by this section extends to the use of physical restraint as protective force provided that the actor takes all reasonable measures to terminate the restraint as soon as it is reasonable to do so. 4. The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of justification under this section. 563.074. 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 563.016, a person who uses force as described in sections 563.031, 563.041, 563.046, 563.051, 563.056, and 563.061 is justified in using such force and such fact shall be an absolute defense to criminal prosecution or civil liability. 2. The court shall award attorney's fees, court costs, and all reasonable expenses incurred by the defendant in defense of any civil action brought by a plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant has an absolute defense as provided in subsection 1 of this section.

BREASTS OF OLD EGYPT

THE GOLDEN RATIO: EXCERPT

The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi the World's most astonishing number, by Mario Livio (Broadway Books @ Random House, NY:2002)

In

his informative book, theoretical astrophysicist Mario Livio, yet retains the bias against the African/ Egyptian origin of mathematics, that is the bane of so many other Europeans, who exalt Greece at the expense of Egypt by "straining at gnats and swallowing camels!"

He writes:

"There is no doubt that anyone in a western or mideastern civilization is a pupil of the ancient Greeks, when it comes to mathematics, science, philosophy, art and literature....

"However, even the accomplishments of the Greeks in many other fields pale in comparison with their awe-inspiring achievements in mathematics. In the span of only four hundred years, from Thales of Miletus (at ca. 600 B.C.) to "the Great Geometer" Appollonius of Perga (at ca. 200 B.C.), the Greeks completed all the essentials of a theory of geometry.

"The Greek excellence in mathematics was largely a direct consequence of their passion for knowledge for its own sake, rather than merely for practical purposes...

"The curriculum for the education of statesmen at the time of Plato included arithmetic, geometry, solid geometry, and music--all of which, the Pythagorean Archytas tells us, fell under the general definition of 'mathematics.'...

"Into this intellectual milieu enter Plato (428/427 B.C.--347/348 B.C.), one of the most influential minds of ancient Greece and western civilization in general...

"As Plato states in 'The Republic,' mathematics was an absolute must in the education of all state leaders and philosophers. accordingly, the inscription to the entrance to his school (the Academy) read: 'Let no one destitute of geometry enter my doors.' ... Plato's admiration for mathematics also shows when he speaks with some envy on the attitude towards mathematics in Egypt, where 'arithmetical games have been invented for the use of mere children, which they learn as pleasure and amusement.'"

Pp. 62-64

Unless one reads Plato, himself, one would come away with the mistaken impression that the Greeks had invented mathematics "for its own sake," and for no "practical purpose!"

But, if that were so, why would Plato have reason to "envy the attitude toward mathematics in Egypt,"
whose children learn mathematical games the Egyptians have invented for their own children's "amusement and pleasure?" Such mathematical inventiveness serves a very practical purpose: math education!

Plato writes in his essay, "The Nature and Purpose of Education," in THE LAWS (Penguin Classics: 1975): "I insist that a man who intends to be good at a particular occupation must practice it from childhood... We should try to use the children's games to channel their pleasures and desires toward the activities in which they will have to engage when they are adult. To sum up, we say the correct way to bring up and educate a child is to use his playtime to imbue his soul with the greatest possible liking for the occupation in which he will have to be absolutely perfect when he grows up." Pp. 29-30

In THE LAWS, "Mathematics," Plato also states:

"So we should insist that gentlemen should study these subjects to at least the same level as very many children in Egypt, who acquire such knowledge at the same time they learn to read and write. First, lessons in calculation have been devised for tiny tots to learn while they are enjoying themselves at play ... As I indicated, they make use of elementary arithmetic as an integral part of their pupils' play, so that they get a useful introduction to the art of marshaling, leading, and deploying an army, or running a household; and in general they make them more alert and resourceful persons. Next, the teacher puts the children on to measuring lengths, surfaces, and solids--a study which rescues them from the deep-rooted ignorance, at once comic and shocking, that all men display in this field.
Cleinias: What sort of ignorance do you mean, in particular?
Athenian: My dear Cleinias, even I took a very long time to discover mankind's plight in this business; but when I did, I was amazed, and could scarcely believe that human beings could suffer from such swinish stupidity. I blushed not only for myself, but for all Greeks in general." P.267

By the phrase "swinish stupidity," Plato " blushed not only for [himself] but for all Greeks in general" when compared in mathematical knowledge to Egyptian children.

This hardly endorses the Greeks as inventors of mathematics, over 2,000 years after the building of the pyramids and over 4,000 years after the Egyptian invention of the calendar! Plato speaks truth.

Those who follow him elide the truth for their own perplexing purposes and hide behind theory to disguise their lack of physical evidence.

Mario Livio do you hear me?

BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS, EXCERPT

“Data revealed pockets of excellence and mediocrity in both charter and traditional schools (Barr et al, 2006). In a study that used a large data set from the Northwest Evaluation Center (NWEA), Berends et al. (2010) found charter schools had no effect on students’ achievement gains in mathematics.  Moreover, they found a negative association with teacher innovations, suggesting innovation for innovation’s sake should not be the sole focus of reform regardless of a school type (Benends et al., 2010). Lubienski and Lubienski (2006) conducted a broad study that analyzed 2003 fourth-grade mathematics scores using the National Association for Educational Progress (NEAP) database and found public schools significantly outperformed Catholic schools. Among private schools, Lutheran schools had the highest scores, and conservative Christian schools had the lowest scores. These data concur with earlier findings that public schools perform better than charter schools in mathematics.”

pp.104-105, THE BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS: Beyond the Numbers and Toward A New Discourse, “Not ‘Waiting for Superman’,” Editors Jacqueline Leonard & Danny B. Martin (2013)

jazz--nice and nuanced

http://www.jazzonthetube.com/videos/mal-waldron/mal-waldron-quintet.html

VERY NICE AND NUANCED...

Mal Waldron Mal Waldron Quintet

www.jazzonthetube.com

COCOONAL VACUITY

Pupa =Pupils

Cocoon=(Nation + state + neighborhoods + home + school + church + peers + media )

Vacuity=emptiness; lack of ideas

"Cocoonal vacuity" is an idiom for the paradigm typifying the absence of that focused and enabling spirit of self-awareness and of self and communal empowerment essential to nourish the development and transformation of immature pupae in this society into fully-fledged, fluttering butterflies.

Cocoon - Pupa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

HOMO SAPIENS ROOTS TRUNK BRANCHES

CONTEXT CONTENT AND MATTER

Context acts upon content in 1 or more of 6 ways. 
They are: 
1 leeching, 
2 bleaching, 
3 teaching, 
4 preaching, 
5 reaching, 
6 beseeching.
Leeching is to suck substance out of.
Bleaching is to deprive of its "color."
Teaching is to instill "knowledge."
Preaching is to instill "values."
Reaching is to latch onto, hold sway.
Beseeching is to elicit support in aid.
Content also acts upon context in those same 6 ways, reciprocally and commensurately. Therefore:
I matter. You matter. Matter matters

BITTER DREGS

Every interest group in America--gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, white women, tea-partiers-- want to drink from our cup--slavery,Jim Crow, civil rights-- but without having to taste its bitter dregs, its contents.

JOY AND BETTY

FOR THE INWARD JOURNEY, by Howard Thurman, “Moments of Celebration,” p. 252 (1984)

“There is the joy that is given. There are those who have in themselves the gift of Joy. It has no relation to merit or demerit. It is not a quality they have wrested from the vicissitudes of life. Such people have not fought and won a hard battle, they have made no conquest. To them Joy is given as a precious ingredient of life. Wherever they go, they give birth to Joy to others—they are the heavenly troubadours, earthbound, who spread their music all around and who sing their song without words and without sounds. To be touched is to be blessed by God. They give even as they have been given. Their presence is a benediction and a grace. In them we hear the music in the score and in their faces we sense a glory which is the very light of Heaven.”

Reading these poignant words of that great philosopher-mystic-preacher-theologian, Howard Thurman, my mind harkens back to a baby named Betty. Her mother was a gifted piano player at our childhood church, St. Matthews C.M.E., in Kirkwood, Missouri. She played wonderfully and powerfully by ear only, being totally unable to read music, a source of enduring amazement to my young, pre-adolescent mind. She had only recently arrived from Kentucky, when she joined our church, and gave birth to Betty.  Betty was a beautiful baby, whose sparkling eyes pierced your soul, and whose ready grin stole your heart. She captivated us with her love, with her joy, with her light. Everybody wanted to hug, hold, and kiss Betty. She lifted our spirits by her nearness. What a baby Betty was! One day, we were saddened to learn that Betty was sick. Soon thereafter, Betty died. A pall fell over our church with her passing, at age 2. So young, so beautiful, so full of joy! We struggled to comprehend to understand to apprehend: why. Why? Why? Why?  Her mother was inconsolable and left our church and our community soon afterwards for good.  Maybe they both were angels. I do not know. What I do know is that they both brought joy, oh great joy! Joy that I still feel 50 years later!

THE MYSTERIOUS 1/64....

THE GOLDEN RATIO: The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number, by Mario Livio, (Broadway Books, New York: 2002), p.40-41

“Most of our knowledge about the familiarity of the ancient Egyptians with fractions, for example, comes from the Rhinds (or Ahmes) Papyrus. This is a huge (about 18 feet long and 12 inches high) papyrus that was copied around 1650 B.C. From earlier documents by a scribe named Ahmes. The papyrus was found at Thebes and bought in 1858 by the Scottish antiquary Henry Rhind, and it is currently in the British museum (except for a few fragments, which turned up unexpectedly in a collection of medical papers, and which are currently in the Brooklyn Museum). The Rhind Papyrus, which is in effect a calculator's handbook, has simple names only for unit fractions, such as ½, 1/3, ¼, etc., and for 2/3. A few other papyri have a name also for ¾. The ancient Egyptians generated other fractions simply by adding a few units unit fractions. For example, they had ½ + 1/3 +1/10 to represent 4/3 and 1/24 + 1/58 +1/174 + 1/232 to represent 2/29. To measure fractions of a capacity of grain called hekat, the ancient Egyptians used what were known as 'Horus-eye' fractions. According to legend, in a fight between the god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, and the killer of his father, Horus' eye got torn away and broken into pieces. The god of writing and of calculation, Thoth, later found the pieces and wanted to restore the eye. However, he found only pieces that correspond to fractions ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64. Realizing that these fractions only add up to 63/64, Thoth produced the missing fraction of 1/64 by magic, which allowed him to complete the eye.

“Strangely enough, the Egyptian system of unit fractions continued to be used in Europe for many centuries. For those during the Renaissance who had trouble memorizing how to add or subtract fractions, some writers of mathematical textbooks provided rules written in verse. An amusing example is provided by Thomas Hylles's The Art of Vulgar Arithmetic, both in Integers and Fractions (published in 1600):

Addition of fractions and likewise subtraction
Requireth that first they all have like bases
Which by reduction is brought to perfection
And being once done as ought in like cases,
Then add or subtract their tops and no more
Subscribing the base made common before.

“In spite of, and perhaps (to some extent) because of, the secrecy surrounding Pythagoras and the Pythagorian Brotherhood, they are tentatively credited with some remarkable mathematical discoveries that may include the Golden Ratio and incommensurably. Given, however, the enormous prestige and successes of ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mathematics, and the fact that Pythagoras himself probably learned some of his mathematics in Egypt and Babylonian, we may ask: Is it possible that these civilizations or others discovered the Golden Ratio even before the Pythagoreans? This question becomes particularly intriguing when we realize the literature is bursting with claims that the Golden Ratio can be found in the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. To answer this question, we will have to mount an exploratory expedition in archaeological mathematics.”

EXCEPTIONS

What is good TO you is not necessarily good FOR you. 

Conversely, what is good FOR you is not necessarily good TO you. 

There are exceptions to every rule.

'UNCLE TOM' WAS NO 'TOM'

http://www.thenorthstarnews.com/Story/tour-uncle-toms-cabin-historic-site-in-canada

Reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's UNCLE TOM'S CABIN will readily reveal that, Josiah Henson--an escapee to Canada and A.M.E. preacher--whose autobiography she used to write her classic antebellum novel, was no "Uncle Tom," as that derisive term is cast about by persons who have not read her best-seller, nor little else, as their ignorance reveals. Josiah Henson was the brother of explorer, Matthew Henson, the first man to reach the North Pole. Book club members please read this book soon! Pretty please!

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE...EXCERPT

"If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves and send them to Liberia--to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope...there may be in this, in the long run its sudden execution is impossible...what then? Free them all and keep them among us as underlings?...What next free them and make then socially and politically our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and, if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not."

P. 178, ASSATA, An Autobiography, by Assata Shakur (1978) quoting Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln-Douglas debates

FLASHBACK FOURTH REFLECTIONS

FLASHBACK FOURTH REFLECTIONS

By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman

Thursday, July 04, 2013

“What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass  piquantly posed in 1852.

Fair question then. Fair question now.

I remember reading that memorable speech aloud to my sons in the 1990’s. Not that it necessarily stuck with them. Kids are powered by their own unique dynamos.  Each must make its own way.

“But, at least I did my part,” as my Mama would relentless say about me and my spiritual journey.

One tradition that our sons did adopt, at least in spirit—if not in fact—was barbecuing, or at least eating it, on the Fourth of July. Ditto that for every other warm and sunny holiday.

Daddy started us out early. With the American flag proudly fluttering from the front porch, in homage to the nation for which he served—in segregated circumstances in World War II--he would be in the back yard barbecuing.  Having risen “’fore day in the mornin’” to prepare his fire and his meat, he’d be on it!

“His” is used because, for us, barbecuing was a distinctly male ritual over which Daddy lorded, unchallenged, and without rival, for as long as he lived.

I can smell that sweet savor now! Of ribs and chicken and rib tips and franks, and sometimes steak. 

Mama, meanwhile, was preparing her potent potato salad, from scratch of course; with real potatoes—that she’d manually mash—boiled eggs, onions, green peppers, salt and pepper and whatever else! Naturally, collard greens, cornbread, spaghetti or corn on the cob or macaroni and cheese, were there.

Everybody that came ate: naturally all 10 of us, 14 if our older sister and brother and spouses were in town. Included were uncles, aunts, cousins—real and play—friends and neighbors and whomever else!

It was nothing but a party! Complete with music, signifying, sermonizing, philosophying, laughing, joking, out-right lying—family-friendly fun.  All day long, folks came, ate, tarried and left, in droves.

Of course, the St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball game was always blaring on the radio with Harry Caray, Jack Buck, and Joe Garagiola bringing the play by play!

Then later came fireworks—including firecrackers (whether legal or not)—or fireworks displays!

While the FREEDOM WAR continues for us colored folks, we certainly have had big fun along the way!

#30

#30

ALEXIS' SHOCKING DISCLOSURES

ALEXIS' SHOCKING DISCLOSURES
by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
07/03/13

I cannot get over a conversation that my wife and I had, just last week, with our daughter-in-law, Alexis. During a recent visit, she shared with us that her son, our grandson, had been assigned an “F-grade,” and had been consigned to failure, by his young, white, female, public school teacher in Inglewood, California.

That teacher had, in fact, pointed that child's desk, which was already in the corner, to face the window, instead of the front of the class! She had already classified him as “mentally deficient” and “uneducable”; “typical of the other black boys in her class,” she said. To say that I was shocked beyond measure, and livid, is an understatement! I was also dumb-founded! So was Alexis, who tearfully described this encounter with us.

Alexis, is an award-winning school teacher in Los Angeles, who had been graduated with top honors from Howard University. Her child's public school teacher did not even know his mother's background. So she was quite surprised, when Alexis asked this young “teacher” to see the baseline determinants, upon which she had based such dismal prognostications. She had none! Her assessment had been wholly subjective.

Say what? Panting in disbelief, I shook my head and wiped away tears.

Alexis then told her that she was a teacher. “You are?” gasped that teacher! After stammering and stuttering her way to a hasty conclusion of that embarrassing conference about that 7-year old's “progress,” that teacher promised to reassess that child and to re-position his seat away from the back of the class and the window!

Subsequent conferences, revealed—amazingly--that that same “mentally deficient” and “uneducable” child was now making startling progress, that teacher reported.

Go figure.

I told Alexis to report that very teacher to the proper authorities, in order to save some other mother, or father, not blessed with her background, from such trauma, and to save some other child from such racist and arbitrary condemnation.

If this were not true, I would not share it with you! Be on your guard! Ten-thousand foes arise!

This profoundly disturbing and deeply personal report was prompted by—compelled by--my contemporaneous reading of “Not 'Waiting for Superman,” a chapter in the book, THE BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS: Beyond the Numbers and Toward A New Discourse, pp. 96-97 (Information Age Publishing, Inc., Charlotte, NC: 2013), Jacqueline Leonard and Danny B. Martin, Editors.

Our black boys (and girls) are in grave danger, as this testimony attests, even in 2013, even if they are just 7 years old. Be zealous for them and solicitous of all of them! Let them know that they were born into an unfinished FREEDOM WAR, which began in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia through 1865 in Appomattox to the present. Tell them that they are also on the very front lines, and because of that vulnerable spot, they too must fight the good fight of faith, by being: aware, attentive, cooperative, inventive, adaptive, collaborative, brave, obedient, studious, curious, clever, and communicative.

Onward Christian soldiers!

FORK IN THE ROAD--FOURTH OF JULY RETRO-REPRISE

“FORK IN THE ROAD”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf7pAV1ZlhU

(A poetic retro-reprise)

BY Larry Delano Coleman

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Blue lights on  basement floor.

Heat and humidity at the door.

“Beware, beware…”

Smokey Bill.  Miracle thrill.

Pull one quick and close the deal. 

45s spinning on silent steel.

Brothers  cool.  Sisters coy.

Burgeoning love. Girl and boy.

Slow drag.  He and she.

Old Spice and Dixie Peach.

“If there is something that

 you don’t see eye to eye

you better think before

you tell your love good-bye…”

Help me Lord.

Neck  to neck. Loin to loin.

Brush, mush, thrush, and gush.

Oh Lord!

“Make sure you take the same bend

At the fork in love’s road. “

#30

EMERSON: A MIND ON FIRE, EXCERPT...

EMERSON: THE MIND ON FIRE by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. (U. of California Press, Berkeley: 1995), p.16-17

“In August  of 1821, during the same month that saw Missouri admitted as a state and revolution in Europe and just a few days before [Ralph Waldo] Emerson graduated, a young master’s candidate named Sampson Reed delivered his “Oration on Genius” at Harvard…Reed made a strong impression on hat Emerson that August day. Years later…he still remembered the speech as his first—and still standing—benchmark for true genius or original force. ‘The human heart has always had love of some kind,’ Reed began. ‘There has always been fire on the earth… Every man has a form of mind peculiar to himself.’ But what he had come to say was not that genius is the apotheosis of individual talent but the opposite, that geniuses are the means by which general truths are revealed to the rest of us. ‘The intellectual eye of man is formed to see the light, not to make it, Reed says. ‘When the power of divine truth begins to dispel the darkness, ‘ he goes on, ‘the first thing we see are the geniuses, so called, the people of strong understanding and deep learning.’ Completing this wonderful cosmological metaphor, Reed said that when truth begins to get through to us is when ‘Luther , Shakespeare, Milton, Newton, stand with their bright side towards us.’

“Reed’s vision is religious, but it is not narrow or sectarian. ‘Know, then,’ he says, ‘that genius is divine, not when man thinks he is God, but when he acknowledges that his powers are from God.’ He then looks to science and scientists, to the study of nature, for new truth.’ He shows no interest at all in the church. ‘It needs no uncommon eye to see,’ he observes, ‘that the finger of death has rested on the church.”

RIGHTEOUSLY ROYAL RECTITUDE

ARE BLACKS IN A "SUSPENDED STATE" IN AMERICA?

ARE BLACKS IN A "SUSPENDED STATE" IN AMERICA?

sus·pen·sion  (s-spnshn)
n.
1. The act of suspending or the condition of being suspended, especially:
a. A temporary abrogation or cessation, as of a law or rule.
b. A temporary debarment, as from school or a privilege, especially as a punishment.
c. A postponement, as of a judgment, opinion, or decision. See Synonyms at pause.
2. Music
a. The prolongation of one or more tones of a chord into a following chord to create a temporary dissonance.
b. The tone so prolonged.
3. A device from which a mechanical part is suspended.
4. The system of springs and other devices that insulates the chassis of a vehicle from shocks transmitted through the wheels.
5. Chemistry A system in which microscopically visible particles are dispersed throughout a less dense liquid or gas from which they are easily filtered but not easily settled because of system viscocity or molecular interactions.

The chemical definition of "suspension" is an apt definition and description of the African American economy from the late 19th century. That was when white terrorists, with government condonation or participation, violently destroyed nodes of black economic assertion in many cities and towns. Subsequent attempts to rally economically by blacks in the mid to late 20th century, were further undermined by the triumph of the social, political, and economic ideology of "integration," which deemed everything all-black  or nearly so, to be inherently inferior to its white counterpart, whether businesses, schools, churches, colleges, etc. Though somewhat discredited by its humongous failure in the public school sector, and that failures destructive sequel on communities and families, the ideology of  integration--which is really "disintegration"--yet holds nominal sway over our hearts and minds.

Turning to 5, above, the chemical definition of "suspension," blacks are the visible particles--Ralph Ellison notwithstanding--dispersed through out the American economy and geography. We are easily filtered due to our particular visibility and historical vulnerability. This filtering is effected by "system viscosity" which clogs up and fails where we are uniquely concerned. Also, molecular interactions, subsumes everything from black on black crime to "crabs in the barrel" to dispirited acceptance of repression in such fields as politics, religion, education, law, business etc.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by William Still

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15263

TODAY, July 1, 2013, I received and immediately began reading William Still's amazing book detailing the factual heroism and incomparable bravery, that chronicles the lives hundreds of persons of African descents' bold and of unrelenting bid for freedom, aided by their collaborators, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. I cannot put it down! Tears well up and my spirit soars as I read it; alive with love, joy, resolve and hope.

Like gold is God

God can be accessed interminably, by anyone, anywhere, at any time, for any purpose. Like gold, God's value is undiminished by purpose employed, by time sought, by place found, nor by status of seeker. Amen.