THE INDOMITABLE GEORGE WASHINGTON FIELDS: FROM SLAVE TO ATTORNEY

Today, I completed the book, THE INDOMITABLE GEORGE WASHINGTON FIELDS: FROM SLAVE TO ATTORNEY, by Kevin M. Clermont (2013). Clermont is a Cornell U. Law School professor, who happened upon this underlying rare and forgotten manuscript, while perusing that Ithaca, New York campus' card catalog. George Washington (Cock Robin) Fields, a former Virginia slave, was in the first graduating class of that law school in 1890, who went on to pursue a successful practice in Hampton, Virginia, his home. His presence in that class and his distinction as the first black graduate was lost to history, until uncovered by Professor Clermont. The book is fascinating in too many ways to iterate in this blurb. I would urge anyone interested in Civil War and post-Civil War history; interested in law and legal history; interested in African American history; interested in trial by jury to read this unforgettable book. You will be glad that you did!

SAINT MAURICE OF THEBES, MARTYRED ROMAN LEGION COMMANDER

http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2008/09/saint-maurice-martyr-black-saint-and.html RATHER THAN KILL OTHER CHRISTIANS, THIS BLACK MAN SUFFERED HIMSELF AND HIS ENTIRE 6600 MAN LEGION TO BE MARTYRED IN GERMANY IN THE 3RD CENTURY Photo: http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2008/09/saint-maurice-martyr-black-saint-and.html RATHER THAN KILL OTHER CHRISTIANS, THIS BLACK MAN SUFFERED HIMSELF AND HIS ENTIRE 6600 MAN LEGION TO BE MARTYRED IN GERMANY IN THE 3RD CENTURY

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, EXCERPT...

The Underground Railroad by William Still (1877), p.90-91 “The following are of the Cambridge party, above alluded to. They all left together, but for prudential reasons separated before reaching Philadelphia… we had twenty-eight in one arrival, as hearty-looking, brave, and interesting specimens of Slavery as could be well produced from Maryland. Before setting out, they counted well the cost. Being aware that fifteen had left their neighborhood only a few days ahead of them and that every slave-holder, and slave-catcher were on the alert, and raging furiously against the inroads of the Underground Railroad, they provided themselves with the following weapons of defense: three revolvers, three double-barreled pistols, three single-barreled pistols, three sword-canes, four butcher knives, one bowie-knife, and one paw (A paw is a weapon with iron prongs, four inches long, to be grasped with the hand and used in close encounter.). Thus resolved upon freedom or death, with scarcely enough provisions for a single day, while the rain and storm was piteously descending, fathers and mothers with children in their arms (Aaron Cornish had two)—the entire party started. Of course, their provisions gave out before they were fairly on the way, but not so with the storm. It continued to pour upon them for nearly three days. With nothing to appease the gnawings of hunger but parched corn, and a few dry crackers, wet and cold, with several sick children, some of their feet bare and worn, and one of the mothers with an infant in her arms incapable of partaking of the diet—it is impossible to imagine the ordeal they were passing. It was enough to cause the bravest of hearts to falter. But not for a moment did they allow themselves to look back. It was exceedingly agreeable to hear even the little children testify that in the most trying hour on the road, not for a moment did they want to go back. The following advertisement, taken from the Cambridge Democrat of November 4, tells how the Rev. Levi Traverse felt about Aaron— ‘$300 Reward.—Ran away from the subscriber, from the neighborhood of Town Point, on Saturday night, the 24th inst., my negro man, AARON CORNISH, about 35 years old. He is about five feet ten inches high, black, good looking, rather pleasant countenance, and carries himself with a confident manner. He went off with his wife, DAFFNEY, a negro woman belonging to Reuben E. Phillips. I will give the above reward if taken out of the county, and $200 if taken in the county; in either case to be lodged in Cambridge jail. October 25, 1857. Levi D. Traverse.’”

NUMERACY

NUMERACY: Some folks can't count. Some folks won't count. Some folks don't count! Some folks count continuously... Go figure!

PERFIDY AND CALUMNY: RUEFUL BLACK SCHOLARS AND BOOKER T.

The historical scandal on the name of, and on the honor of, Booker T. Washington, which is falsely attributed to his so-called "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, by certain black scholars, deceitfully ignores several preexisting facts and conditions. First, there was the widespread lynching, murder, voter suppression of freedmen by white terrorists in the South, during which economic peonage was re-imposed upon many blacks. Second, there was the shutting down of the Freedmen's Bureau, before "Reconstruction" was complete, and before the Confederates' "abandoned lands" were redistributed to the newly freed men. Third, the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877, resulted in the withdrawal of the remaining federal troops from the South, enabling and signaling the negation of the blacks' Constitutional rights under the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Fourth, there was the plunder of, raid upon, and the closing of the Freedmen's Savings Bank that same year by Republican, Wall Street speculators (our then-liberal "friends"), in which Freedmen lost millions in their hard-earned saving, and lost confidence in saving itself; this money never having been recouped! Fifth, there were the negative Supreme Court decisions, starting with The Slaughter-House case, through The Civil Rights Cases of 1881, which overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, deeming it unconstitutional. Sixth, there was the "Exodus Movement" in the 1880's, when blacks fled the South en masse forlornly looking for relief in Kansas, Nebraska, anywhere but the South! All of these preceded Washington's 1895 "Atlanta Exposition" address, now sadly suborned! Such calumnies on Washington's great works and enduring legacy are despicable. They besmirch law, history, education, and African American culture. In fact, they are analogous to the parallel, equally wrongful vilification of the character, "Uncle Tom," in Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous, 1852 novel, with whom Washington is too often ignorantly confused and cruelly conflated, by those who have not read, nor analyzed beyond the surface, if indeed, they have ever read anything, of consequence, at all! Such in personam perfidy upon Booker T. Washington is part our continuing plight as a people! Whom we should sanctify, we vilify. Whom we should vilify, we sanctify! Marcus Garvey, a Washington votary, Founder of the UNIA, and Jamaican emigrant's legacy has suffered the same plight as Washington's, at the hands of the same scholars and historians of rueful African descent!

OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, JESUS CHRIST AND LOVE

OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, JESUS CHRIST AND LOVE By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman 08/29/13 A mother's love, like a mother's milk, is the most wholesome form of nutrition for her baby. I was blessed to have both during my infancy. Love's lactation has never stopped, drizzling, even now, upon my soul, although Mama died in 2004. Mama loved school and learning. But, she dropped out in 1950 to birth me, her matrix-opener. From my earliest days of existence, Mama told me repeatedly of 2 men, over and over again. They were the educator and leader, Booker Taliaferro Washington, and our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. She told and retold to me the story of the Tuskegee Institute-founder's life, as much as she knew. She told me how he had started out in slavery, had walked hundreds of miles to college. Then, once there, he earned his fees and tuition, and got his lesson by sweeping the floors, cleaning rooms, and listening. Although Mama never finished high school, nor did Daddy, they made sure that all 8 of their children did complete high school and went on to college. That's where Jesus Christ comes in most critically. Alone and away from home, one meets life frontally and unfiltered. It is then that you need an anchor. A mother's and a father's prayers and efforts are that anchor. Financial crises are overcome thereby, as are personal crises, indecisions and doubts allayed thereby. For me and for my family, constant succor came through the knowledge of, and through the faith in, Jesus Christ, whose light and whose love had shone steadily through both sides of our family, guiding and protecting our lives in Mississippi, in Missouri, and well beyond. Jesus Christ was present in our every day lives as a source of strength, and as a present help! Even the youngest and most common of mothers can love, should love, must love their babies! Love requires no education nor advanced training; it needs no expensive formulas nor implements, either. Even the most basic of mothers has a hero or heroine, that she can inspire and regale her children with. Even the rudest and crudest of mothers have heard of the baby Jesus who was born in a manger; who confounded the scholars, doctors and lawyers, at puberty; and who died on a cross to save mankind. Love, history and spirituality are, to sum up, the most critical factors in child-rearing and development. For us, it was Booker T. Washington and Jesus Christ. For you it may be others. That is your choice. But, either way you go, do recall and never forget that “the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13.

PLATONIC SOLIDS AND UNIVERSAL SYMMETRIES

GOLDEN RATIO: THE STORY OF PHI, THE WORLD’S MOST ASTONISHING NUMBER, by Mario Livio (Broadway Books, NY:2002), PP.67-68, 70 “In Timaeus, Plato takes on the immense task of discussing the origin and workings of the cosmos. In particular, he attempts to explain the structure of matter using the five regular solids (or polyhedra), which had been investigated already to some extent by the Pythagoreans and very thoroughly by Theaetatus. The five Platonic solids are distinguished by the following properties: They are the only existing solids in which all the faces (of a given solid) are identical and equilateral, and each of the solids can be circumscribed by a sphere (with all its vertices lying on the sphere). The Platonic solids are the tetrahedron (with four triangular faces); the cube (with six square faces); the octahedron (with eight triangular faces); the dodecahedron (with twelve pentagonal faces); and the icosahedron (with twenty triangular faces). … “To Plato, the complex phenomena that we observe in the universe are not what really matter; the truly fundamental things are the underlying symmetries, and those are never changing. This view is very much in line with modern thinking about the laws of nature. For example, these laws do not change from place to place in the universe. For this reason, we can use the same laws that we determine from laboratory experiments whether we study the hydrogen atom here on earth or in a galaxy that is a billion light-years away. This symmetry of the laws of nature manifests itself in the fact that the quantity which we call linear momentum (equaling the product of the mass of an object and the speed, and having the direction of the motion) is conserved, namely, has the same value whether we measure it today or a year from now. Similarly, because the laws of nature do not change with the passing of time, the quantity we call energy is conserved. We cannot get energy out of nothing. Modern theories, which are based on symmetries and conservation laws, are thus truly Platonic.” Platonic Solids www.mathsisfun.com

COLORED TROOPS AT THE BATTLE OF WESTPORT, MISSOURI IN 1864

Thursday, May 26, 2011 By Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman 2nd Vice President, Civil War Roundtable of Kansas City ‘COLORED’ TROOPS AT THE “BATTLE OF WESTPORT” IN 1864 I had long wondered whether black troops had fought in the “Battle of Westport?” Said long-ranging battle, involving a combined 40,000 troops, was the most prominent battle to be fought in or near Kansas City during the Civil War, 1861-1865. No one gave me a straight answer. I intuited, however, that black troops must have done so, given the “Kansas dynamic,” that tendency of bold and resolute Kansans to launch black troops into battle, whether officially sanctioned or not by Washington. Well, I can now categorically state my intuition was accurate! Black--"Colored"-- troops definitely fought in the “Battle of Westport,” in October 1864, and did so under the command of colored officers, William D. Matthews, Lieutenant, and Patrick H. Minor, Lieutenant. The evidence is linked below. They were known as "The Independent Kansas Colored Battery." As things turned out, they were indeed truly “independent” in the sense that they were not officially mustered into the Union army, until December 1864 at Ft. Scott, Kansas. Their status was similar to that of the “First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry,” the first black unit to fight in the Civil War in October 1862, winning the “Skirmish at Island Mound.” They defeated a much larger force of Confederate “irregulars” in Bates County, eight miles southwest of Butler, Missouri, near the Osage River. Both Kansas “colored” units were mustered into the Union army, long after they had already rendered signal service. The “Independent Kansas Colored Battery’s” formation, however, was officially sanctioned by order of U.S. Secretary of War E.M. Stanton. Not so, for “The First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry”. It was not only “not authorized” by Washington, but was independently formed, organized, and out-fitted by Kansas U. S. Senator James Lane (“The Grim Senator”) at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas before Abraham Lincoln issued the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation . In fact, General Lane directly disregarded Lincoln’s countermanding directive not to go forth. The First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was mustered in January 13, 1863. http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/first-kansas-colored-infantry/12052 The “Independent Kansas Colored Battery,” long before it was officially mustered into the Union Army, had already fought with the Kansas militia as part of the Third Federal Brigade, under the command of Major General Samuel R. Curtis, the same commander of Ft. Leavenworth, who had requested and received permission for its formation, as a “colored battery” under “colored officers.” In the Battle of Westport, the Union forces defeated and diverted Confederate General Sterling Price’s last desperate offensive foray into Missouri, and sent him retreating “back to Arkansas.” The unit was mustered in under the command of Hezekiah Ford Douglass. All of its officers were black, which was an exceedingly rare occurrence during the Civil War, or any American war! http://www.kansasguardmuseum.org/dispunit.php?id=2 PHOTO: LT. WILLIAM D. MATTHEWS, INDEPENDENT KANSAS COLORED BATTERY

THE COLORED GREEN TREE

THE COLORED GREEN TREE by Larry Delano Coleman (Amazon.com/ Kindle (c) 2011) This novellette, by retired Kansas City attorney and A.M.E. Pastor, Larry Delano Coleman, examines an all-too-familiar sight in black America, “sagging pants.” So, too, were collard greens at one time an all-too-familiar sight and smell in black America! He uses collard greens, which he puns as “colored greens,” that most nutritiously potent of vegetables, as the basis of an extended analogy in his short, but powerful ,7500-word, easily-read, first novellette. The 24-page book analogizes the evolution of “saggin',” that defiant/nihilistic fashion statement, and those who “sag,” to collard greens, that have yellowed, and now 'sag.' This vegetable's sagging creates a crisis in the green grocers industry, in the black community, and among the genomes of the collard greens themselves. They all separately convene in search for a cause and for a cure for 'sagging.' Gene transfers from the humans that harvest and grow the greens to the young greens themselves, due to the mystery of epigenetics, is suspected as the cause. Happily, a cure is found for sagging, and a remedy for the dietary/nutritional/cultural/spiritual deficiences that caused it! Along the way, a short genetic and cultural history of collard greens is given. Current cultural commentary, some of it unfavorable, is made by Tiger Woods and Fuzzy Zeller controversy, NBC television's black history month hullaballou, and by dietary snobs of all races. More favorably for this maligned vegetable, however, an Annual Collard Greens Festival that is held each year in North Carolina is highlighted. Likewise, the State of South Carolina, where collard greens are the official state vegetable, is lifted up. Southern blacks and whites still enjoy this nutritious food. Epigenetics, the study of the environmental impacts on intergenerational genetic transfers, has been validated earlier this year by geneticists and molecular biologists. That boosts this book's cogency. #30

ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT, excerpt

ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT, “Introductory, Chapter 1,” by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, p.1 “These pages record some of the adventures of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first slave regiment mustered into the service of the United States during the late civil war. It was, indeed, the first colored regiment of any kind sp mustered, except a portion of the troops raised by Major-General Butler at New Orleans. These scarcely belonged to the same class, however, being recruited from the free colored population of that city, a comparatively self-reliant and educated race. 'The darkest of them,' said General Butler, 'were about the same complexion of the late Mr. Webster.' “The First South Carolina, on the other hand, contained scarcely a freeman, had not one mulatto in ten, and a far smaller proportion who could read or write, when enlisted. The only contemporary regiment of a similar character was the 'First Kansas Colored,' which began recruiting a little earlier, though it was not mustered in the usual basis of military seniority till later. These were the only colored regiments recruited during the year 1862. The Second Carolina and the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts followed early in 1863.”

"POPCORN"

"Popcorn!" Who measures popcorn by the corn kernels that do not pop, instead of eating those that do? That is how popcorn gets its name, isn't it? Everything is measured by its manifestation not by its duds. Duds are everywhere, from fig trees that don't bear fruit, to artillery shells that do not explode, to sown seeds that do not grow. Some people are duds, too. They are the popcorn that does not pop. They are the barren fig trees, the nonexploded munitions, the sown seeds that, for whatever reason, do not grow. They are the salt that has lost its savor, that is good for nothing, but to be thrown "into the draught." Bear these facts in mind as pundits and critics malign the progress of African Americans since 1963, this 50th Anniversary since the March on Washington and "The Dream." Our progress as a people has been and continues to be extraordinary! From constitutional slavery in 1789, the year of this nation's founding; through 1865, the year we won our freedom on our "Freedom War's" battlefields, we have progressed. From 1877 to 1965, we have progressed beyond the political betrayal by the Republicans, our falsely acclaimed "liberators;" beyond "Jim Crow" segregation and the denial of voting rights in the South; and beyond its political, legal,and economic equivalent in the North. From 1965 through 2013, we have progressed through: the political assassinations, COINTELPRO, community-busting and family-destroying busing for integration, which was negligently, if ignorantly, fomented by black civil rights organizations' litigations. Beyond white flight, purposeful job scarcity, the deliberate introduction of drugs and guns in black communities, in that same era, 1965-2013; beyond the war on drugs in those ghettoes, beyond ensuing mass incarcerations, and the resulting "welfare state," we have progressed. There have been casualties, true. Many casualties! Too many. But these are still the exceptions. The great bulk of us are still popping! Like popcorn, we have overcome and are still overcoming! My loving parents, now both deceased, would be amazed at our progress! I am amazed myself from even though I steadily study history, theology, law, science, geometry, and literature! So, when the pundits and the critics start citing statistics to suggest our lack of progress; and when anyone else starts deprecating our people's progress, or making predictions of our demise--in order to promote their next book, charity, or whatever--just say, like our late Brother James Brown, "Popcorn!"

GHANA ART

SELF-INVESTIGATION

SELF-INVESTIGATION 08/23/13 BY Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman 2 Corinthians 13:5  “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Any thing can be misused or abused, by anyone, even by one's own self. That is no reason to fear, to avoid, nor to resent that thing, reflexively, automatically. Without one's own rigorous, faithful investigation, one can never know the truth for oneself. “Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is sure!” Everything first must be tested, proven, and assayed by you, in its own right, and light, not in that of another. That “thing” might be a substance, a government, a creed, a deed, an implement, an animal, a plant, a teaching, a person or a people. That “thing” might also be “you.” You must be its metric. Of course, “you” may now be, or “you” may once have been, either consciously or subconsciously, ostracized, vilified or nullified, by others; or by your own indolent inertia, i.e. “apathy.” Consequently, you may not now perceive, nor believe, yourself to be a sufficiently reliable metric. So, you may have too quickly ceded that most important of duties to others, who are no better than yourselves! Check yourself before you wreck yourself! You misuse and abuse yourselves by not examining yourselves, as Jesus Christ examined himself, in the wilderness subject to doubt and to temptation. Whether you are a self-abuser, a self-misuser, or an abuser or misuser of others, candid self-investigation will reveal that to you in your spirit in due time. From such rigorous self-investigation will arise a proven metric, and a proven methodology, that you will find to be equally applicable to all other persons, and to all other things. That is simply because it will be rooted in you and your God-given metric, which is your truth, as revealed by your own rigorous self-investigation! Your metric and methodology both irrupt within you, revealed by the Holy Spirit. Rejoice and be glad! Read the entire Bible, study science and mathematics; read classic literature; construct useful things; cultivate food and beauty; meditate, pray, have faith, work daily, create music and art, etc. These activities promote the self-examination and fulfillment, requisite to joy, peace, and love of self and all. #30

QUIET DIGNITY AND GRACE ON DISPLAY

Anoinette Tuff and Sybrina Fulton are beautiful women, through and through! Physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially! Well-seasoned sisters with a whole lot of soul! Representative of the bridge that brought our people over the way that with tears had been watered, treading a path through the blood of the slaughtered and nearly-so! Ms. Tuff (l) talked that deranged gunman in DeKalb County, Georgia into dropping his AK-47 assault rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition and surrendering to police this week. Syrina Fulton (r) is the mother of martyred, 17-year old Trayvon Martin, whose quiet dignity is redolent of that displayed by Mrs. Betty Shabazz, Mrs.Coretta Scott King, and Mrs. Pearlie Evers- Williams! Praise be to God for such sterling examples of women!

DISCRIMINATION AND DISCERNMENT IN VIEWING AND CONSUMER CHOICES

If you derive your entertainment, news or information, exclusively or primarily, from popular sources like movies or television or magazines or the like, without digging beneath the surface for authenticity or the truth. Or if you neglect the viewing of alternative sources of any of them for correction; then, you are being processed, culturally, politically, mentally and spiritually, unknowingly. Popular sources of entertainment, news, and information all are responsible to their financial hierarchies, who finance and prescribe a certain perspective, doctrine, code, or angle to promote their appearance of honesty, truth, or legitimacy, while being other. This insulates their power. Like chemicals in a flask, or specimens in a Petri dish are you, even barbecue on a grill unless you use discrimination and discernment in your viewing and consumer choices, continually!

REMINISCENCES OF MY LIFE IN CAMP...EXCERPT

REMINISCENCES OF MY LIFE IN CAMP: AN AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN'S CIVIL WAR MEMOIR, by Susie King Taylor, introduction by Catherine Clinton (U. of Georgia Press, Athens: 1902, 2006), PP. 2-3 “My grandmother went every three months to see my mother. She would hire a wagon to carry bacon, tobacco, flour, molasses, and sugar. These she would trade with people in neighboring places, for eggs, chickens, or cash, if they had it. These, in turn, she carried back to the city market, where she had a customer who sold them for her. “The hardest blow to her was the failure of the Freedmen's Saving Bank in Savannah, for in that bank she had placed her savings, about three thousand dollars, the result of her hard labor and self-denial before the war, and which by dint of shrewdness and care, she kept together all through the war. She felt it more keenly, coming as it did in her old age, when her life was too far spent to begin anew; but she took a practical view of the matter, for she said, 'I will leave it all in God's hand. If the Yankees did take all our money, they freed my race; God will take care of us.'”

CRUSADERS IN THE COURT, EXCERPT

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS: Legal Battles in the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack Greenberg (Twelve Tables Press, NY: 2004), p. 393 “When Thurgood was sitting on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, he would sometimes come up to Columbus Circle for lunch. Jim Nabrit, Thurgood and I would go to Whyte's on Fifty-seventh Street for seafood and then back to the office, where Thurgood would sit on a table in the library and regale the staff with war stories. Sometimes I would go downtown to see him at the Courthouse at Foley Square, where the Second Circuit sat. We would shoot the breeze and then go out to lunch. On one such visit in July 1965, he told me that Lyndon Johnson had called him and asked if he would leave the court of appeals to become Solicitor General. This posed a problem for someone with a family. He would be giving up life tenure on the court of appeals and taking a substantial cut in pay. But, the president had added, 'This won't be the end of the road.' The president wasn't promising anything, but still... “Thurgood accepted Johnson's offer. The Solicitor General's job was to represent the government in the Supreme Court, and when we had LDF cases, we sometimes saw Thurgood argue cases in traditional morning coat and striped trousers. The cases were usually of a conventional, non-civil rights variety, which could not be invested with the feeling and familiarity with which he had used to argue our cases. He presented them in a more business-like manner. President Johnson was true to his word—it wasn't the end of the road. In 1967, Johnson nominated Thurgood to the Supreme Court, where, after a bruising confirmation process, in which white racism once more reared its ugly head, he began sitting that fall, the first black Supreme Court justice.”

SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION OF ASSERTIONS IN MY SCI-FI NOVELETTE, 'THE COLORED GREEN TREE' @ AMAZON.COM

http://breakingbrown.com/2013/08/the-ghost-in-your-genes-how-human-genetics-makes-the-best-case-for-african-american-reparations-video/

MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH...I AM...

Exodus 3:1-22 New International Version (NIV) Moses and the Burning Bush 3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. 16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. 21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, EXCERPT...

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (A RECORD OF FACTS, AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE, LETTERS &C,...) by William Still (Benediction Classics, Oxford U. Press: 1878, 2008), p.67-68 “Robert was a very intelligent young man, and from long daily experience with the customs and usages of the slave prison, he was as familiar with the business as a Pennsylvania farmer with his barn-yard stock. His account of things was too harrowing for detail here, except in the briefest manner, and only in respect to a few particulars. In order to prepare slaves for the market, it was usual to have them greased and rubbed to look bright and shining... While not yet twenty-three years of age, Robert expressed himself as becoming so daily sick of the brutality and suffering he could not help witnessing, that he felt he could not possibly stand it any longer, let the cost be what it might. In this state of mind, he met with Captain B. Only one obstacle stood in his way—material aid. It occurred to Robert that he had frequent access to the money drawer, and often it contained the proceeds of fresh sales of flesh and blood; and he reasoned that if some of that would help him and his brother to freedom, there could be no harm in helping him the first opportunity. “The captain was all ready, and provided he could get three passengers at $100 each he would set sail without much other freight. Of course he was too shrewd to get out papers for Philadelphia. That would betray him at once. Washington or Baltimore, or even Wilmington Delaware were names which stood fair in Virginia. Consequently, being able to pack the fugitives away in a very private hole in his boat, and being only bound for a Southern port, the captain was willing to risk his share of the danger. “Very well,” said Robert, “today I will please my master so well, that I will catch him in an unguarded moment, and will ask him for a pass to go to a ball tonight (slave-holders love to see their slaves fiddling and dancing), and as I shall be leaving in a hurry, I will take a grab from the day's sale, and when Slater hears of me again, I will be in Canada.” So after having attended to all of his disagreeable duties, he made his “grab,” and got a hand full. He did not know, however, how it would hold out. That evening, instead of participating with the gay dancers, he was just one degree lower down than the regular bottom of Captain B's deck, with several hundred dollars in his pocket, after paying the worthy captain one hundred each for himself and his brother, besides given the captain an additional present of nearly one hundred. Wind and tide were now what they prayed for to speed on to the U.G.R.R. Schooner, until they reached the depot in Philadelphia. “The Richmond Dispatch, an enterprising paper in the interest of slaveholders, which came daily to the Committee, was received in advance of the passengers, when lo! And behold, in turning to the interesting column containing the elegant illustrations of “runaway negroes,” it was seen that the unfortunate Slater had “lost $1500 in North Carolina money, and also his dark orange-colored, intelligent, good-looking turnkey, Bob.” Served him right, it is no stealing for one piece of property to go off with another piece,” reasoned a member of the Committee.

European genetic origins

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130423-european-genetic-history-dna-archaeology-science/

prince of egypt

self-taught, well-taught

Self-taught is well-taught. It is never too late to learn.

DR. KING: "NOW, WHEN WE COME TO WASHINGTON, WE'RE COMING TO GET OUR CHECK

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151509033171237&set=vb.615161236&type=2&theater

SESHAT, CONSORT OF THOTH, INVENTOR OF WRITING

STARVING IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY; DROWNING IN A DESERT LAND

Starving in the midst of plenty; drowning in a desert land-- Tragically, people do starve in a land of plenty, too ashamed to seek succor, too proud to present themselves as poor. Ironically, people do drown in the desert of their own illusions, submerged under their mirages.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

A friend of mine, Rev. Robert Earl Easley, used to track the movement of the "Ark of the Covenant" throughout the Old Testament, until it "vanished," "disappeared from the texts," without a trace, he told me. Knowing of that entity's quixotic propensities from my own studies, I dropped the subject. This morning, however, it occurred to me, in my near-sleep, that THE BIBLE, itself, both books, the Old and New Testaments, may be the "Ark of the Covenant," metamorphosed. I have no proof nor even evidence of this supposition. I simply share it, for whatever it may be worth, to whomever might receive it, this morning. Thank you, Rev. Easley, my Baptist friend! Amen.

TIMAEUS BY PLATO, EXCERPT

p. 1234, “Timaeus,” by Plato; PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS, John M. Cooper, Editor; D.S. Hutchinson, Associate Editor (Hackett Publishing Company, Indiapolis/Cambridge: 1997) “Timaeus: That I will, Socrates. Surely, anyone with any sense at all will always call upon a god before setting out on any venture, whatever its importance. In our case, we are about to make speeches about the universe—whether it has an origin or even if it does not—and so if we're not to go completely astray we have no choice but to call upon the gods and goddesses, and pray that they above all will approve all we have to say, and that in consequence we will, too... “As I see it, then, we must begin by making the following distinction: What is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is it that which becomes but never is? The former is grasped by understanding, which involves a reasoned account. It is unchanging. The latter is grasped by opinion, which involves unreasoning sense perception. It comes to be and passes away but never really is. Now everything that comes to be must of necessity come to be by the agency of some cause, for it is impossible for anything to come to be without some cause. So whenever the craftsman looks at what is always changeless and, using a thing of that kind as his model, reproduces its form and character, then, of necessity, all that he so completes is beautiful. But were he to look at a thing that has come to be and use as his model something that has been begotten, his work will lack beauty.”

EUCLID'S PROPOSITION 21 APPLIED

http://mathforum.org/mathtools/tool/1946/ EACH SUCCEEDING GENERATION HAS BROADER INSIGHT, YET LESS CAPACITY THAN ITS PREDECESSOR. GEOMETRIC PROOF PROVIDED.

PLATO, PYTHAGORAS AND JESUS

Neither Plato nor Pythagoras "claim discovery" of anything now attributed to them by others. Just like Jesus never "claimed" anything now attributed to him by others, with personal agendas who followed them later. Do not be fooled or get it twisted, then the distortionists make contortionists of simple understandings. Read Plato and discover the discrepancies for yourself! Read the Bible for the same reason. Do not be sold a bill of goods. Most importantly, immerse yourself in their teachings, in their love.

ETHICS BY SPINOZA. EXCERPT...

ETHICS including IMPROVEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING, by Benedict de Spinoza (Prometheus Books, Amherst NY: 1677, 1989), PP.33-34 “As regards the order of our perceptions, and the manner in which they should be arranged and united, it is necessary that as soon as is possible and rational, we should inquire whether there be any being (and if so, what being) that is the cause of all things, so that its essence, represented in thought, may be the cause of all our ideas, and then our mind will to the utmost possible extent reflect nature. For it will possess, subjectively, nature's essence, order and union. Thus we can see that it is before all things necessary for us to deduce all our ideas from physical things—that is, from real entities, proceedings, as far as may be, according to the series of causes, from one real entity to another real entity, never passing to universals and abstractions, either for the purpose of deducing some real entity from them, or deducing them from some real entity. Either of these processes interrupts the true progress of understanding.... This inmost essence must be sought solely from fixed and eternal things, and from the laws inscribed (so to speak) in those things as in their true codes, according to which all particular things take place and are arranged; nay, these mutable particular things depend so intimately and essentially (so to phrase it) on the fixed things, that they cannot either be or be conceived without them.”

BLACK BOY WITH A BOOK

“Black Boy with a Book” By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Friday, March 16, 2012—began Sunday, August 11, 2013—finished Black American boys are famously averse to books for numerous reasons. There are, however, notable exceptions. I unexpectedly encountered two of them in 2007 at St. John Missionary Baptist in Alton, Illinois, during a “youth rally” at which I spoke. Two boys, aged 14, and 15, who did not know each other, shocked me when one said that he had read BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER by Lerone Bennett, Jr. and the other one said he had read THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Alex Haley. There were about 70 children present; only these two responded. Their exception establishes the rule. Even so, I was encouraged. That small percentage, 2.8%, was undoubtedly greater than the percentage of black adults in America who had read either book! It was certainly no worse! That vast non-reading adult public explains the aversion to books of most black boys, and to a lesser degree, of most black girls who read erotic fiction, primarily. Not to overgeneralize about female readership habits, though, another surprise awaited me. A guest church’s female van driver extemporaneously recited a beautiful Civil-War era poem by Frances E. Watkins Harper, by heart, being so moved by the Holy Spirit. The children applauded her. Still, seeing a black boy with a book is an anomaly. Returning home from school, most of them carry no books at all, apparently disdainful of that “punk” image. In school, itself, they can barely read them. This fact was disclosed by a 7th grade, Rochester, NY 13 year-old black girl, when her book report on The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, generated so much controversy in February 2012. Black male thugs, gangs, and their hangers-on, beat-up on, maim, or even kill, the few black boys who dare to interest themselves in anything so “white” as reading, learning. Refusal to join their gangs, or to conform to their debased “values’” structure symbolically, is a death warrant for many. This black male undertow complements larger societal negations, which the boys perceive as “white. “ By the same token, their haughty insolence and willful ignorance they misconstrue as “black,” tragically. Their concomitant fratricide and parasitism they deem manly. “White” to these perverted pupae is the opposite of “black,” which to them, means cool, hip, “what’s happening,” or “dope.” By implication, then, “white” is unhip, uncool, non-happening, and non-dope. These children have twisted cultural preferences with respect “learning,” itself. Much of it is derives from home, where reading is the exception, and where unfiltered television is the rule. These non-readers’ adoring girlfriends, meanwhile, actively denigrate the readers. They mock or tease them into conformity with their reading-averse, consumerist-orientation, whose lactation is non-productivity, delinquency, or worse. This fatal phenomenon has long, famously, occurred in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and in other major American cities. It has now poisoned the smaller cities, towns and villages. It has also stigmatized, terrorized and ostracized black boys and black girls who are secretly interested in learning, in reading books, but who are fearful. Fortunately, as stated earlier, there are small, but encouraging exceptions to this rule of peer-group beat-down, to this rule of adult non-readers, described above. One of them is a 13-year old girl from Rochester, New York, Jada Williams, the Frederick Douglass essayist referenced above. Here is her video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T-lG1Wb2AfM Sadly, this child’s truly commendable effort was not greeted with enthusiasm by school officials in Rochester, New York. Retribution has set in for this child. After her presentation, she received 3 D’s, when she used to get all A’s. She was negatively impacted for having written and delivered her essay on Frederick Douglass, a former Rochester, New York resident, as was Harriet Tubman. Below is a news article setting forth the price Jada paid for being truthful and honest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/jada-williams-student-allegedly-harassed-for-essay_n_1321926.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=1683625b=facebook So, black kids are condemned if they do not read, and mistreated if they do read! Still, books open the mind, the heart, and the spirit. It is better to read than not. “Learning to Read,” the poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, alluded to above appears here below: Learning to Read BY FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER Very soon the Yankee teachers Came down and set up school; But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,— It was agin’ their rule. Our masters always tried to hide Book learning from our eyes; Knowledge did’nt agree with slavery— ’Twould make us all too wise. But some of us would try to steal A little from the book. And put the words together, And learn by hook or crook. I remember Uncle Caldwell, Who took pot liquor fat And greased the pages of his book, And hid it in his hat. And had his master ever seen The leaves upon his head, He’d have thought them greasy papers, But nothing to be read. And there was Mr. Turner’s Ben, Who heard the children spell, And picked the words right up by heart, And learned to read ’em well. Well, the Northern folks kept sending The Yankee teachers down; And they stood right up and helped us, Though Rebs did sneer and frown. And I longed to read my Bible, For precious words it said; But when I begun to learn it, Folks just shook their heads, And said there is no use trying, Oh! Chloe, you’re too late; But as I was rising sixty, I had no time to wait. So I got a pair of glasses, And straight to work I went, And never stopped till I could read The hymns and Testament. Then I got a little cabin A place to call my own— And I felt independent As the queen upon her throne. #30

GOLDEN RATIO...EXCERPTS...

GOLDEN RATIO: THE STORY OF PHI, THE WORLD’S MOST ASTONISHING NUMBER, by Mario Livio (Broadway Books, NY:2002), PP.64-66 “In considering the role of Plato in mathematics in general, and in relation to the Golden Ratio in particular, we have to examine not just his own purely mathematical contributions, which were not very significant, but the effects of his influence and encouragement on the mathematics of others of his and of later generations. (emphasis added) To some extent, Plato may be considered as one of the first true theoreticians. His theoretical inclinations are best exemplified in his attitude toward astronomy, where, rather than observing the stars in the motions, he advocates to “leave the heavens alone” and to concentrate on the more abstract heaven of mathematics. The latter, according to Plato, is merely represented by the actual stars, in the same way that the abstract entities of a point, a line, and a circle are represented by geometrical drawings…. “There is little doubt that Plato’s guidance was far more important than his direct contributions. A text attributed to Philodemus from the first century reads: ‘Great progress in mathematics [was achieved] during that time, with Plato as the director and problem-giver, and the mathematicians investigating them zealously.’ “Nevertheless, Plato himself certainly had an intense interest in the properties of numbers and of geometrical figures… “Plato, himself, a pupil of the Pythagoreans, was also aware of the fact that the sum of the cubes of the sides of the famous 3-4-5 Pythagorean triangle is equal to 216. “Plato and the Golden Section are linked mainly through two areas that are particularly close to his heart: incommensurability and the Platonic solids. In Laws, Plato expresses his own feeling of shame for having learned about incommensurable lengths and irrational numbers relatively late in his life, and he laments the fact that many of the Greeks of his generation were still not familiar with the existence of such numbers.”

GRADATIONS OF GIVING AND SHARING

GRADATIONS OF GIVING AND SHARING Thursday, March 17, 2011 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman A. INDEX: 1. Matthew 5:42—Share with beggars and borrowers 2. Matthew 13:44—share no precious information. Purchase first! 3. Matthew 25:10—Don’t share with a foolish virgin; it may imperil you 4. Matthew 7:6—Beware of with whom you share sacred pearls of wisdom 5. Luke 10:25-37—merciful and compassionate sharing is true religion 6. Matthew 15:21-28—Christ’s crumbs are a shared blessing! 7. Matthew 10:5-15—Freely you have received, freely share, if worthy 8. Luke 6:38—Share and it will be shared with you in good measure! 9. Matthew 25:41-46—Sharing with one of “the least of these” is salvific. 10. 1 John 3:17—Share your excess with a needy brother or sister 11. Matthew 21:33-41—Treachery can pervert sharing and merit reprisal 12. John 15:12-13--Ultimate sharing; “Lay down his life for his friends” B. TREATMENT: I could not find, nor do I recall where, in the gospels, Jesus Christ specifically used the word “share” or “sharing;” or, for that matter, if he ever used either word. Even so, “sharing,” as we understand it, was his lifelong mission and purpose. It was what he taught, encouraged, and commanded wherever we went on Earth. Instead of “sharing,” the verb “giving,” or a derivative, appears to be used instead throughout the gospels. “Money” was meant, primarily, then as well as now. But, not only money was to be shared or given. Also included was love, faith, and hope. Provisions like food, water, clothing, and visiting the sick or the imprisoned, were also to be shared or given. Jesus also understood the risk of indiscriminate sharing with the unworthy. He, therefore, counseled discernment and circumspection even upon his disciples. There are, it appears, gradations of “giving” or “sharing” that he recognized and acknowledged, which depend upon time and circumstances. These, too, are treated. C. APPLICATIONS 1. Matthew 5:42 says, Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Here, both beggars and borrowers are to be paid by you. 2. Matthew 13:44 says: New International Version (©1984) "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Here, there was no precious info sharing at all, before the field was purchased. 3. Matthew 25:1-10 says: The Parable of the Ten Virgins 1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Here, the wise virgins did not share with the foolish virgins. 4. Matthew 7:6 says: New International Version (©1984) "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. Dogs don’t appreciate sacred things and pigs don’t eat pearls, so use discretion. 5. Luke 10:25-37 says: The Parable of the Good Samaritan 25(AS) And behold, a(AT) lawyer stood up to(AU) put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to(AV) inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" 27And he answered,(AW) "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and(AX) your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have answered correctly;(AY) do this, and you will live." 29But he,(AZ) desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man(BA) was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a(BB) priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise(BC) a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a(BD) Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34He went to him and(BE) bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35And the next day he took out two(BF) denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' 36Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." Here, merciful and compassionate sharing trumps religion; is true religion 6. Matthew 15: 21-28 says: The Faith of a Canaanite Woman 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. Here, Christ blesses the believing Canaanite woman, content with his “crumbs”. 7. Matthew 10:5-15 says 5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,b drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep. 11“Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Here the message is direct: “Freely you have received, freely give” Matt.10:8, if worthy. 8. Luke 6:38 says: Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Here, the promise is reciprocal, intuitive and endearing “Give, and it will be given to you.” 9. Matthew 25:41-46 says: Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Here, whatever one does not do to “one of the least of these” is the salvific test. This test very much echoes one of John’s epistles: 10. 1 John 3:17: If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion--how can God's love be in that person? Share you excess with the needy brother and sister 11. Matthew 21:33-41 says: "Listen to another illustration. A landowner planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, made a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to vineyard workers and went on a trip. 34"When the grapes were getting ripe, he sent his servants to the workers to collect his share of the produce. 35The workers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned a third to death. 36So the landowner sent more servants. But the workers treated them the same way. 37"Finally, he sent his son to them. He thought, 'They will respect my son.' 38"When the workers saw his son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Let's kill him and get his inheritance.' 39So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40"Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those workers?" 41They answered, "He will destroy those evil people. Then he will lease the vineyard to other workers who will give him his share of the produce when it is ready." Here, we have treachery perverting and corrupting sharing, warranting retribution. 12. John 15:12-13 says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” This is ultimate sharing, the highest exemplification of love, sharing one’s very life. There may be other kinds of sharing in the gospels not mentioned herein, as in the Bible. But these few examples as taught by Jesus are not mere echoes. They are from the Source, and of undoubted reliability.

MANKIND MOLTS. REJOICE!

The planet is experiencing a great falling away of encrusted delusions, such as: ignorance, vanity, inhumanity. As a bird or snake molts, sheds its old skin, its exoskeleton, so too does mankind in this era. We are all witnesses. Rejoice!

science math and humanity

http://biomimicry.net/inspiring/secondnature/ ARE NATURAL SCIENCE OBSERVATIONS AND MATHEMATICAL INSIGHTS APPLICABLE TO THE PRESENT DAY HUMAN CONDITION? I WOULD SAY SO!

'WHO'S THE JUDGE?'

"WHO'S THE JUDGE?" HE WHISPERED, SOMEWHAT CONSPIRATORIALLY, TO ME, AS I AWAITED MY CAR IN HIS DOWNTOWN KC PARKING GARAGE. BEING A YOUNG LAWYER IN 1986, NEWLY ON MY OWN, I NEITHER KNEW NOR CARED WHO THE JUDGE WAS; AND WAS PUZZLED BY HIS QUESTION. I WAS JUST GLAD TO BE GOING TO COURT. NOW, DECADES LATER, I REALIZE THE SINGULARITY OF THAT QUESTION.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURATE AND TIMELY RECORD-KEEPING TO THE LIFE AND HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICANS

The Importance of Accurate and Timely Record-Keeping to the Life and History of Black Americans Recently, Fred Gray, Marion Jordon, and William Still have all made the same point: That any people must maintain accurate and timely records of the major events in every day life, which are the grist and substance of their unique history. Everything has a history. Trees have rings and roots, which tell theirs. Rocks have minerals, colors and textures, which tell theirs. Animals leave ossified fossils in layered sediment, which tell theirs. Even gamma ray bursts tell the history of star formation and destruction from over ten billion of years ago. Man, of course, leaves monuments, fossils, and minutes--writings on clay, granite, papyrus scrolls, wood, or paper, to tell his story for those that follow to read and to glory in. William Still, an escaped slave, wrote the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD based upon records that he had maintained, while serving in the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society offices. There he had assisted thousands of slaves, materially, financially, familiarly, and logistically. Quite often he helped anonymously, or through others, due to such critical support being declared Constitutionally and statutory illegal across the country. To assist escaping slaves, was an inherently dangerous activity! Among those that the great William Still helped on their journey to Canada, was the great and now-renown Harriet Tubman, and her family members. Still, fortunately for us in this century, understood the value, short and long-term, of accurate and timely record keeping. His thrilling book is an historical masterpiece, an abolitionist who's who, and a literary tour de force! Attorney Fred Gray told me directly in Miami Beach, Florida, at the National Bar Association Convention in August 2013, that it was important that blacks tell their own story or someone else will. He said that, as he was handing me a personally autographed copy of the updated and revised, 2013 edition, of his autobiography, BUS RIDE TO JUSTICE. I had already read his earlier edition, as well as his sister's book, THE FRED GRAY STORY, well over 10 years ago , and I could not agree more! Gray has dedicated his life to "destroying everything segregated" that he could find, he writes. In case after historic case, he proves true to his secret/sacred pledge, with a quiet, unassuming efficiency based upon sound legal methods. From the Montgomery Bus Boycott, to the personal representation of Martin Luther King,Jr. , to Birmingham and it numerous litigations, to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, and others, Gray is true to his troth. Rev. Gray, also a Church of Christ preacher, walks the walk, talks the talk, writes the writs, and rights the wrongs, in case after immortal case! Marion Jordon is the Editor and publisher of THE KC GLOBE weekly newspaper, a successful food processor and distributor, and a close friend of mine. He recently published a celebratory 40-year anniversary issue commemorating his and other black KC businesses' longevity. He has requested that I paradigmatically synthesize the articles therein to enable a vision, a perspective that transcends mere colloquialisms. He noted that our people will comment, but that too few will write! Truth once again is spoken. So, an author-abolitionist from the antebellum and "Reconstruction"era, William Still; an iconic trial lawyer-author from the Civil Rights era, Fred Gray; and a businessman-newspaper publisher in the present era, Marion Jordon, all agree on the importance of timely and accurate record-keeping for life and history. I could not agree more!

IS MEDIOCRITY A SIN?

Thursday, August 08, 2013 IS MEDIOCRITY A SIN? Sermon by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, Rev. Carmi V. Woods, Senior Pastor Delivered Sunday, September 16, 2007 Kansas City, Missouri Is mediocrity a sin? What is wrong with just being mediocre, being average, being common? Where’s the harm in “chillin,’” as the young folks say? Just “layin’ back,” as the old folks say? Waiting for blessings to wash up on your doorsteps, while you sleep? “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” Prov.6:9-11 Is mediocrity a sin? But first: some definitions. Mediocrity is the state or condition of being mediocre. Mediocre means “Of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate; rather poor or inferior.” Sin is “transgression of divine law; a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.” So, again, I ask, “Is mediocrity a sin?” Before I go farther, the Bible proclaims, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. That would include you and me. Everybody who ever was; everybody who now is; everybody who’ll ever be: Has come short. But does that excuse us? In other words, is it ever “OK” to willfully or recklessly to do less than our divine best in whatever we do, or endeavor to do? Or must: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?” Phill.3:14. Or is it “OK” for me to do nothing, and to depend on His Grace? Is it “OK” to be a mediocre mother, a mediocre father, a mediocre child? What about a mediocre husband or a mediocre wife? What about a mediocre principal, a mediocre teacher, a mediocre student? Who wants a mediocre doctor or a mediocre lawyer. Who wants a mediocre patient or a mediocre client? What about a mediocre restaurant or a mediocre grocery store. Who wants a mediocre school or church? What about a football team or baseball team? Let’s just tell the truth and shame the devil. Nobody wants anything mediocre if they have a chance to have something better. Period. Now our Decalogue does not mention mediocrity. Neither do the Ten Commandments. So, it must be cool to be mediocre, right? In the book of Revelations 3:15-16 it is written: “I know thy works that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wast cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth.” I want you to get sick and tired of hearing the word, mediocre. So sick and tired, in fact, that you leave here today, committed and determined to getting the mediocrity out of your own life! We ought to bury it, like they buried the N—word! I want you and me to stop sitting on the fence; to stop straddling the line; to stop shucking and jiving; to stop faking and shaking; being disobedient; waiting for someone else to do what God called us to do. Our standards are too low! We often recite the scripture, Ephesians 2: 8-9“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” And from those 2 verses, some of us are bold enough to conclude that’s it. That’s all that is required. We don’t need anything, but “faith.” I even had one good brother to tell me: “I’m going to heaven and I ain’t got to do nothing.” I didn’t argue with him, because Romans 14:12 says, “So, then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” And church, I for one, do not want to be “weighed in the balances” and “found wanting.” Daniel 5:27. So, there’s another part to that scripture, Ephesians 2:10, which states “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Did Christ work? Sure he did. Ask the woman at the well, to whom he gave “living water,” if he worked. Ask Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, if he worked. Ask the blind man, Bartimaeus, whose sight he restored, if he worked. Ask the five thousand that he fed with two fishes and five loaves of bread, if he worked? Ask Legion, whose multitude of demons he purged, if he worked. Ask Peter, who walked on the water, if he worked. Ask Paul, whom he temporarily blinded and converted on the Damascus road, if he worked? Ask John the Baptist, whom he baptized, if he worked? Asked his own mother, Mary, who saw him turn water to good wine, if he worked? Then, lastly, ask yourself: if he’s working in you? Is he enabling you? Is he sustaining you? Is he protecting you? Is he preparing you, and is he blessing you? He’s blessing me. He keeps on blessing me. Now, if Christ came here to work, loved to work, couldn’t help but work, was crucified, for his work, rose from the grave to prove the power of his work, and yet continues to work. How in the world can we, his professed followers, not work? James says “Faith without works is dead.” James 2:20. He also says “Seest thou how faith wrought with works, and by works was faith made perfect?” James 2:22. And he also says, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith, by my works.” James 2:18. Lastly, he says “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26. Jesus says, “You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” Matt.7:16-17. When I was a little boy, my momma used to say, “Son, when it comes to work, you’ve got to be twice as good as white people to get ahead.” My daddy used to say, “Boy, turn off that TV and get your school work.” And he meant it, too! I ask you again: Is mediocrity a sin! Surely, it’s alright to be a mediocre Christian? Right? All we have to say is “Lord, Lord!” and every thing’s alright? Listen closely: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7: 21-23. Do we worship a mediocre God? Is Jesus a mediocre savior? Is the Bible a mediocre book? Is God’s infinite and infinitesimal universe a mediocre creation? Are we mediocre people? Oh, no! We “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” 1 Pet.2:9-10. The opposite of mediocrity is excellence. (Oh Lord! How excellent! Is thy name? Oh Lord! How excellent! In all the earth!) It’s like the Lord told Cain when he rejected his mediocre offering: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Gen.4:7. Likewise, if we do well, excellently, we’ll also be accepted by God and man. But, if not, otherwise, for sin, mediocrity, will lie around our door. That’s what the quartet singers from Mississippi, the Williams Brothers, were talking about when they sang “Sweep around your own front door, before you try to sweep around mine.” Put another way, Ebenezer: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Pet. 4: 16-17. Thus, we have answered the rhetorical question: “Is mediocrity a sin?” Of course, it’s a sin. For we are made in God’s image and likeness. Gen. 1:26. Mediocrity is necessarily a sin, saints. A sin. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” Luke 17:10. We owe God our best. God does not owe us. God made us. Life is our reward. Thus, our obedience to God is a duty, not something to be rewarded. The duty we owe God is his reflection: perfection. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.” Matt.5:48. “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:…”Lev.11:44. Be perfect. Be holy. And in order to be holy and in order to be perfect, we cannot be mediocre, because mediocrity is a sin. In “Dr. Watts’” style, we used to sing, “A Charge to Keep I Have” by Charles Wesley, at St. Matthews, C.M.E. Church. It goes like this: A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, A never-dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky. To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill: O may it all my powers engage To do my Master’s will! Arm me with jealous care, As in Thy sight to live; And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give! Help me to watch and pray, And on Thyself rely, Assured, if I my trust betray, I shall for ever die. Closing and Final Words— I have a confession to make. When I was a sophomore at Howard University, back in the fall of 1970, I withdrew from two classes in which I was maintaining an “A” average? One class was the Greek and Latin roots of English words, and the other was a course in Greek literature. Why? Because I did not want to do the work. I did not want to invest the time. I did not want to do my best. I wanted to kick it, to hang out with my friends, to do other things, like socialize. I was overcome by a spirit of malevolent mediocrity. Even so, I graduated from Howard cum laude. But, I missed coming out magna cum laude by .01 points. I had a 3.49 and 3.5 was magna cum laude. Needless to say, in 1973, the year I graduated, I looked back wistfully, on those two classes I dropped back in 1970. My closing words to you, church, is don’t be mediocre! Don’t drop out! “Fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Tim.4:7-8. Benediction: Ephesians 3:20-21-- “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

BEJA BROTHER FROM NUBIA

George G.M. James in STOLEN LEGACY wrote of the Beja people in connection with the sacred island/temple of Philae in the Nile in Nubia, where the last priest who could read hieroglyphics reigned, all others having been murdered by invaders and the schools closed.

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, AS AMENDED, IS THE ORGANIC, LIVING LAW OF AMERICA, WHOSE WILLFUL VIOLATION IS TREASON!

When the U.S. Constitution is defied and disrespected, as amended, a political reversion to antebellum slavery conditions--known as "original intent" prevails in government, the Constitution's trustees. After the Civil War, a historic "white-power" political reconciliation occurred between the Confederate-Democrats (South) and the Union-Republican (North) in 1877. The "Hayes-Tilden Compromise" resulted in the Congressionally-brokered election of Ohioan Rutherford B. Hayes, as President, although he had lost the popular vote. In exchange for this strategic political concession, all 3 branches of government abandoned the post-Civil War Constitutional Amendments-- 13th, 14th, and 15 Amendments--that were enacted and ratified to confer equal citizenship rights, privileges, and immunity upon the "freedmen" as was enjoyed by whites. But, after this white ruling class "Compromise," the aspects of the former regime of black oppression, suppression and repression recurred in the North and South, except there was no formal, systemic slavery. Instead, segregation, economic peonage, i.e. "sharecropping," vigilante terrorism, especially lynching ensued. Because blacks were valuable personalty during slavery, lynching was extremely rare, but afterwards, when "free" their value as personalty being gone, they were lynched with impunity by white racist psychopaths. The lack of federal protection, either in or out of court, and the denial of rights, privileges and immunity, plus absence of economic opportunity caused blacks to flee the South in the millions to other sections of the country in search of better opportunities, even if not "equal." This "Exodus" started in the late 1870's, and was led by Pap Singleton who believed that freedom could be found in Kansas, whence he led his votaries. Unfortunately, that freedom was more illusory than real, as the Kansas of James Montgomery, Jim Lane, Doc Jemison and John Brown was gone, having largely succumbed to the racism prevalent during that time. But, in the 1930's a litigation strategy employed by Howard Law School's brilliant Dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, and later by his student, Thurgood Marshall, chipped away at this chronic national Constitutional abandonment of blacks, while each served as NAACP General Counsel. This political and economic abandonment of blacks was also a breach of its national covenant, its Constitution, the Supreme Law of the land. So, America being now a scofflaw of its founding document, became an outlaw nation. This covenant, that had been consecrated by blood, sweat, tears, suffering and death of war, had now been cravenly breached by sub rosa double-dealing, political wheedling and dealing, at the expense of black people. This sorry state of affairs continues to this day to a great extent. Added now to abandoned provisions in the Constitution is the War-Making and Debt Payment Provisions which it is Congress' unique duty to address. Thus, undeclared wars, threatened government shut-downs, filibusters, sequestrations, judicial curtailment of voting rights and favored contractor privatization of the military and security apparatus of the nation have stealthily usurped government. Private interests run government today.

OXFORD DICTIONARY'S ACCURATE DEFINITIONS OF RACISM AND WHITE PRIVILEGE

https://www.diversityinc.com/ask-the-white-guy/ask-the-white-guy-is-the-oxford-dictionary-definition-of-racism-too-white-for-you/?utm_source=SailThru&utm_campaign=newsletterLuke&utm_medium=DI&utm_content=2013-08-07&utm_term=Ramp-up%20%28send%205%29

ASSATA SHAKUR, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, EXCERPTS...

ASSATA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, by Assata Shakur (Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago: 1987), pp. 257-258 “My mother brings my daughter to see me at the correctional facility for women in new jersey, where I had been sent from alderson. I am delirious. She looks so tall. I run up to kiss her. She barely responds. She is distant and stand-offish. Pangs of guilt and conscience fill my chest. I can see that my child is suffering. It is stupid to ask what is wrong. She is four years old, and except for these pitiful little visits—although my mother has brought her to see me every week, wherever I am, with the exception of the time I spent in alderson—she has never been with her mother... “I go over and try to hug her. In a hot second she is all over me. All I can feel are these little four-year-old fists banging away at me. Every bit of her force is in those punches, they really hurt. I let her hit me until she is tired. 'It's alright,' I tell her. 'Let it all out.'...'You're not my mother,' she screams the tears rolling down her face. 'You're not my mother and I hate you.' I feel like crying too. I know she is confused about who I am. She calls me Mommy Assata and she calls my mother Mommy. “I try to pick her up. She knocks my hand away. 'You can get out of here if you want to,' she screams, 'You just don't want to.' 'No I can't,' I say weakly. 'Yes you can.' she accuses. 'You just don't want to.'” ASSATA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, by Assata Shakur (Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago: 1987), pp. 262-265 “'I love you,' my grandmother said. 'We don't want you to get used to this place, do you hear me? Don't let yourself get used to it.' “'No, grandmommy, I won't.' “Every day in the street now, I remind myself that Black people in America are oppressed. It's necessary that I do that. People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After awhile, people just think that oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” “The Tradition” Carry it on now. Carry it on. Carry it on now. Carry it on. Carry on the tradition. There were Black people since the childhood of time who carried it on. In Ghana and Mali and Timbuktu we carried it on. Carried on the tradition We hid in the bush when the slavemasters came holding spears. And when the moment was ripe, leaped out and lanced the lifeblood of would-be masters. We carried it on. On slave ships, hurling our selves into oceans. Slitting the throats of our captors. We took their whips. And their ships. Blood flowed in the Atlantic-- And it wasn't all ours. We carried it on. Fed Missy arsenic pies. Stole the axes from the shed. Went and chopped off master's head. We ran. We fought. We organized a railroad. An underground. We carried it on. In newspapers. In meetings. In arguments and streetfights. We carried it on. In tales told to children. In chants and cantatas. In poems and blues songs and saxophone screams, We carried on. In classrooms. In churches. In courtrooms. In prisons. We carried it on. In sit-ins and pray-ins And march-ins and die-ins. We carried it on. On cold Missouri midnights Pitting shotguns against lynch mobs. On burning Brooklyn streets . Pitting rocks against rifles, We carried it on. Against waterhoses and bulldogs. Against nightsticks and bullets. Against tanks and tear gas, needles and nooses. Bombs and birth control. We carried it on. In Selma and San Juan. Mozambique and Mississippi. In Brazil and in Boston, We carried it on. Through the lies and the sell-outs. The mistakes and the madness. Through pain and hunger and frustration, We carried it on. Carried on the tradition. Carried a strong tradition. Carried a proud tradition. Carried a Black traition. Carry it on. Pass it down to the children. Pass it down. Carry it on. Carry it on now. Carry it on TO FREEDOM! ---Assata Shakur.

LET THERE BE ONE 'VET' FOR ALL

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130805/NEWS01/308050005/Black-farmers-closer-payouts?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1 THEY OUGHT TO "VET" THE ANNUAL 100 BILLION DOLLAR, REGULAR FARM AID PAYMENTS (WHITES-ONLY HISTORICALLY) AND THE ANNUAL 500 BILLION DOLLAR DEFENSE INDUSTRY PAYMENTS (WHITES-ONLY EXCLUSIVELY), WITH THE SAME ZEAL THAT THEY HAVE "SUPER-VETTED," THE IMPOVERISHED, BELATED, BLACK FARMERS' MINISCULE 1 BILLION DOLLAR, AND CENTURIES-LATE PAYMENTS, FOR WILLFUL AND HURTFUL, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, DATING WAY BACK TO 1877, AND THE 'HAYES-TILDEN COMPROMISE!

Enlightened artist depiction of Bible's 'true colors' wanted

http://www.stjohnwc.org/node/470 IDEALLY, ONE DAY AN ENLIGHTENED ARTIST WILL SHOW THE 'RACES' OF CHARACTERS IN THIS POWERFUL BIBLE STORY IN THEIR 'TRUE COLORS!'

JAMES MILTON TURNER AND JOHN BERRY MEACHUM: MISSOURI'S BLACK VISIONARIES AND EDUCATORS!

James Milton Turner Elementary was the name of our grade school in Meachum Park, Missouri. It was named for James Milton Turner, who established public education for blacks after the Civil War. Turner was a protege of the great, though little known, John Berry Meachum, a self-liberated slave in St. Louis, who purchased his and his family's freedom; who founded and pastored the African Baptist Church; who founded a school for blacks on a steamboat, in the 1850's that was moored in the middle of the Mississippi River, under Federal jurisdiction, which James Milton Turner (above) attended, furtively, learning being outlawed in Missouri for blacks in 1847. Students were transported to the school aboard Meachum's skiff, daily. Meachum also established a barrel-making business, whose proceeds funded the school and the church, in which slaves he had purchased earned wages, learned a skill and bought their own freedom through wage deductions. He died in 1855, regrettably, and his wife was hanged in the later 1850's for helping slaves escape to Illinois. The school also died with them!