AFRICAN AMERICANS OLDER THAN THE U.S.A.

AFRICAN AMERICANS OLDER THAN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA With respect to African American slavery, it is what it is. Without it, America would not be what it is. But for slavery, America would not be! African American slavery is older than the United States of America. It predates the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. So, also, do African Americans--and by extension--their descendants, predate those founding documents. African Americans, in fact, predate the British in America. Africans arrived here with the Spanish, French, and the Dutch, then finally with the British in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia. We, African Americans, go back to the early 1500's, not always as slaves, but also as ship pilots as Pedro Alonzo Nino, with Columbus, or as explorers of Texas, New Mexico etc. with Estevanico.

"WHITE" NEGRO SLAVES

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/the-young-white-faces-of-slavery/?_php=true&_type=blogs&nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20140131&_r=0 Harriet Beecher Stowe used nearly-white slave characters for heroine Eliza and her son, in UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, as did Francis Watkins Harper in her novel IOLA LEROY.

POST-PETE SEEGER PARDON

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-remembers-pete-seeger-he-had-a-backbone-of-steel-20140129?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter I sneered ignorantly, when another friend posted a notice of Pete Seeger's death. "Why should I care?" I wondered. "Just some old hippie." Then, today, another friend wondered aloud why her news-feed had contained no Pete Seeger postings. That did it! I liked her post, without commenting, and whirled into action. No more sneer. "Who in the heck was Pete Seeger," I wondered, as I searched. Then, I read a NY TIMES obituary of this great soul (posted below) and song-writer, and I wept. From "Where have all the flowers gone;" to "We shall overcome"--a real SHOCKER--to "If I had a hammer" and much, much more. A man among men he was and one great soul! Often persecuted, but resiliently resistant. American hero, legend and cultural icon in its finest sense.Forgive me Lord for my self-righteous sneer!

hardly prosaic mosaic....

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD... EXCERPT.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by William Still (Benediction Classics, Oxford: 1878, 2008), pp.217-218 “With the above three arrivals on hand, it may be seen how great was the danger to which all concerned were exposed on account of the bold and open manner in which these parties had escaped from the land of the peculiar institution. Notwithstanding, a feeling of great gratification existed in view of the success this new and adventurous mode of traveling. Indulging in reflections of this sort, the writer on going from his dinner that day to the anti-slavery office, to his surprise found an officer awaiting his coming. Said officer was of the mayor’s police force. Before many moments had been allowed to pass, in which to conjecture his errand, the officer, evidently burdened with the importance of his mission, began to state his business substantially as follows: ‘I have just received a telegraphic dispatch from a slave-holder living in Maryland, informing me that six slaves had escaped from him, and that he had reason to believe that they were on their way to Philadelphia, and would come in the regular train direct from Harrisburg; furthermore I am requested to be at the depot on the arrival of the train to arrest the whole party, for whom a reward of $1300 is offered. Now I am not the man for this business. I would have nothing to do with the contemptible work of arresting fugitives. I’d rather help them off. What I am telling you is confidential. My object in coming to this office is simply to notify the vigilance Committee so that they may be on the look-out for them at the depot this evening and get them out of danger as soon as possible. This is the way I feel about them; but I shall telegraph back that I will be on the look-out. “While the officer was giving this information he was listened to most attentively, and every word he uttered was carefully weighed. An air of truthfulness, however, was apparent; nevertheless he was a stranger and there was case for great cautiousness…”

LADDERS AND HIGHWAYS

WHile I thoroughly enjoyed the President's SOTU address last Tuesday, for its hopeful audacity, it still fell short of what is required, for real restitution of the structurally omitted. Even the POTUS's metaphor of "ladder to the middle class" is inadequate! Only 1 at a time can ascend a ladder! We need economic infrastructure akin to a highway to the middle class, meaning: higher wages, fair tax policy, good jobs, and fairness in the justice system, top to bottom! We have certainly descended on a highway to marginality, without these things en mass, since 1968, exceptions noted!

AWESOME A.M.E. BISHOP DANIEL PAYNE

http://www.blackpast.org/1839-daniel-payne-slavery-brutalizes-man

PORT HUDSON AND FORT PILLOW

After reading William Wells Brown's historical account of the senseless slaughter and abuse of black soldiers in Louisiana's "Native Guard" at the Siege of Port Hudson, in his THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION (1867), wherein so many were needlessly sacrificed, including their incomparable Captain Andre Callioux, I cannot help but regard General Nathaniel Banks, their racist commander and a former Massachusetts governor--who succeeded Benjamin F. Butler, as the Union Commander at New Orleans--in the Civil War, as mean-spirited and demonic, based on this appalling, battle strategy, which succeeded in spite of him, and not because of him! Frankly, the inhuman savagery at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee, by Confederates upon elements of the 2nd Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, whose fort had been overrun, and were killed in cold blood after they had surrendered-in contravention of all rules of war-pales in comparison! Just goes show that a Northern, political 'copperhead' was just as racist, just as venomous, as its Southern kindred, during that great struggle, wherein our people gained their own freedom and saved the nation from dissolution against all odds, all comer's, and expectations!

NUBIAN PYRAMIDS

Neither as massive nor as astronomically or as geodetically aligned, but certainly more numerous in Nubia, the ancestral home of the nation of Kemet.

STAY ON YOUR PATH TO GLORY

Stay on Your Path to Glory Rain consists of many raindrops. Snowstorms consist of many flakes. Fertile land consists of many rivers. Many misses soon result in makes. Stay on your path to glory; For no one can ever say, What will be the end of your story, For none has ever passed your way!

philippians 2:12-13

12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.…Philippians 2:12-13

Demystify math with the financial pages

Demystify math with the financial pages Application reifies and exemplifies theory, in anything, especially in math. Kids use their fingers to figure, until grown-ups slap their hands, insisting that they figure in their heads. Kids intuitively reify numbers. Without application, theory remains an abstraction to many that is lost. In public school mathematics, the financial pages of the daily newspaper could serve as a cheap "application-heaven" for students studying fractions, percentages, statistics, stocks and bonds, exponents, charts, graphs, even monetary policy. That this cheap and simple solution is not now being applied is a choice made by someone to promote public ignorance over public knowledge; and to divert public inquiry away from finances, money, and its real-life and life-altering application! So, defy them! Teach financial literacy. Learn and teach: fractions, percentages, compounding, amortization, dividends, treasury and municipal bond coupons, and "derivatives." While you are at it, learn and teach about the federal reserve, that secret private cabal, which controls our nation's public monetary supply. That's application that is real; which puts flesh and bones upon mystery mathematics you do not yet get!

One righteous brother you do not know: Dr. Cleveland Sellers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Sellers

inductive-deductive reasoning

http://www.livescience.com/21569-deduction-vs-induction.html INDUCTIVE REASONING IS EMPLOYED AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE DISPROPORTIONATELY,I.E.: 'TYREE IS A DRUG DEALER WHO IS BLACK. THEREFORE, ALL DRUG DEALERS ARE BLACK'.--- FAULTY REASONING FROM 1 TO ALL. DEDUCTIVE REASONING IS EMPLOYED RESPECTING WHITE PEOPLE DISPROPORTIONATELY, I.E.: 'WEALTHY MEN ARE WHITE. JOHN IS WHITE. THEREFORE JOHN IS A WEALTHY MAN.'-- FAULTY REASONING FROM ALL TO 1. BE WARY OF THESE FALLACIES AS YOU REASON AND READ. NEITHER IS CONCLUSIVE. BOTH MAY BE, AND HAVE BEEN, ABUSED WHEN CONVENIENT. Deductive Reasoning vs. Inductive Reasoning www.livescience.com

IS PROFIT PROFANE, PER SE?

IS PROFIT PROFANE, PER SE? Saturday, January 25, 2014 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Growing up without the material things that one desires can be especially difficult in a country with a capitalist economy or country. Therein one’s acculturated material desires are continually stoked, commercial after commercial, everywhere, by practically everybody. It can be unseemly profane. The seed of want is sown carefully and repeatedly in childhood at Christmas with jolly ole Santa Claus. “What do you WANT for Christmas?” he asks each child, echoing thereby, that child’s kin, peers, and friends who ask the same question. This spirit of want can be burdensome and cruel, if it morphs into covetousness, which is obsessively ‘wanting’ to the point of distraction. One’s “wants” can never be satisfied, because there is always so much more to want. “Hyper-wantism” ensues and warps values. Warped values on an adult level are projections of those from the childhood level, vastly multiplied. One purportedly warped value is the profit motive. But, is the profit motive profane, per se, or of itself? Is profit unworthy or, even, ignoble? It has evolved bad names or synonyms, like: lucre, avarice, rapacity or greed. These very bad, synonymous names are imputed to profit, by those who have “profited” most themselves, ironically! But, is this true or a fair conception of ‘profit’? Let us examine scripture. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, only to lose his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus asks in Mark 8:36-37. Herein, Jesus balances profit, world and soul at once. This wondrous triad –profit, the world and one’s soul--must be balanced to attain joy, peace, and love. Elsewhere, in 1 Tim. 6:10, it is said that “the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” “Coveting,” it appears, is the problem, not the money itself. Distortion, or inversion, of one’s values is the problem, not the money; that is what causes one to “pierce” oneself “through with many sorrows.” One of the Ten Commandments admonishes man not to ‘covet.’ It says: “17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Exodus 20:” To desire something or someone inordinately or culpably is to covet. “Inordinate desire” is imbalance, is sickness, is spiritual derangement. “Inordinate desire” or ‘coveting’ can pertain to many things, other than money, that belong to another; that are not yours: wives, houses, ox’s, asses, manservant, maidservant, or modern their equivalents. So, if having money is not evil by itself, neither is acquiring money necessarily evil, either. Therefore, neither is profit evil by itself. Anything or anyone can be abused or abusive: sunlight, water, air, food, shelter, clothing, love, faith, or money. All of these things are essential to life, and to the very good life! #30

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS...EXCERPT

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS: Legal Battles in the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack Greenberg (Twelve Tables Press, NY: 2004), p. 512-13, 516 – “LDF Goes to Washington” “The case, United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh v. Carey (1977), became one of the leading cases dealing with gerrymandering, multi-member districts, and affirmative action. We represented the local NAACP, and I asked Lou Pollak to argue the case...the Supreme Court held that a reapportionment does not violate the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments 'merely because a State uses specific numerical quotas in establishing a certain number of black majority districts.' The Court likened the districting to creating single-member districts out of multi-member districts in order to increase minority representation, a practice that it approved. “In 1976, Jim Blackshear, one of a small number of cooperating lawyers, won a multi-member district case in federal district court against the city of Mobile on grounds similar to those later approved in the Williamsburgh case. But by 1980, after Blackshear's case had struggled upward, the Supreme Court changed its mind. It reversed the lower court Mobile decision, writing six separate opinions that, pieced together, concluded that the Voting Rights Act required proof of discriminatory intent. Discriminatory result would not be enough. Intent was especially hard to prove in Mobile because its election system originated in 1810, and went through many changes over the years. As a result of that decision most multi-member district cases became unwinnable. “Blackshear asked for a new trial and set out to prove intent, knowing well that to come up with a smoking gun in such matters is almost impossible. I allocated $20,000 for a team of historians of the South to dig up Mobile's past. They unearthed material from archives in Montgomery, newspaper clippings, and other repositories, tracing Alabama history back to the early nineteenth century to the present, demonstrating that, after the Civil War, Mobile's at-large system had been perpetuated to maintain white control. My favorite piece of the history is an 1869 legislative committee report of an attack on black voters during a Mobile election: 'One organization known as a “Fire Company”... threw open the doors of of their engine house and ran into the street a piece of artillery which had been concealed... and actually loaded and trained it upon the crowd at said polls... As may be expected, especially from the timid, hundreds left that place as fast as possible.' “The smoking gun, indeed! “In April, 1982, the trial judge found that Mobile's at-large system was infected by discriminatory intent. But it would be impossible to win many at-large cases if it were necessary to prove intent. The evidence might not always be found and the expense would be prohibitive. The answer was for Congress to tell the Court that it didn't understand its intent in enacting the 1965 Voting Rights Act... “In a curious irony, some Republicans in the late 1980's began advocating creation of majority black districts, because where black voters are zoned compactly fewer can join white Democrats to create Democratic majorities in white areas, making Republicans even more the party of the white majority area.”

ALL EYES ON ME

“ALL EYES ON ME” 01/23/14 by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Slavery embarrasses too many black people of this era, especially African Americans. With “Black History Month” --February-- rapidly approaching, it is inevitable that American chattel slavery will be mentioned. It cannot be avoided. How African Americans relate to slavery, however, is vitally important! Their children's attitudes will be affected by the adults around them, and their children's etc. African American slaves were extraordinary people! They chose life over death: survival over suicide; heroism over homicide. They self-liberated themselves and preserved the nation known as United States of America's very sheer existence—through the force of sable arms in the Civil War (“The Freedom War”)--in doing so! Never before in history nor mythology has any minority of people achieved both their own self-liberation while, at the same time, preserving the existence of their oppressor! These were extraordinary people! From the Christian religion of their oppressor, they formulated a self-identity as the “people of God,” consisting of a genetic amalgamation of the tribes from all of Africa; ethnic groups from all of Europe; and natives from all over the Americas merged by blood, language, custom, and systematic oppression into an irrepressible creature. More than a genetic amalgamation, though, they crafted a cultural assimilation and a cosmology founded upon Jesus Christ, their oppressed and crucified “joint-heir” and fellow-sufferer. Jesus they reshaped into their own likeness and image, allegorically, creating a new music thereby called “spirituals,” which they sang while they worked, played, worshiped and secretly communicated in code with each other. These spirituals, in turn, formed the basis of all other forms of uniquely American music, from blues to hip-hop! Hip-hop music and culture, like its African American predecessors, has become the music of the world, not just of black American youth. Its predecessors were rhythm and blues; jazz; blues; ragtime; gospel, and their myriad permutations. From their music came dance, culture, style, fashion elan, and soul. In addition to being extraordinary soldiers and musicians, they were inventors, authors, explorers, laborers, cowboys, film-makers, physicians, teachers, sailors, mathematicians, architects, engineers, scientists, attorneys, judges, politicians, ministers, seamstresses, domestics, washerwomen, and more, including a President! Shame on any black person—man, woman, or child—who is ashamed of slavery! The descendants of slaves--them--are the greatest people in world history or mythology! As all eyes are riveted on the amazing and the unusual out of awe and admiration, it is only natural that all eyes will be on the extraordinary YOU during Black History Month! The late Tupac Shakur's song, ALL EYES ON ME recognizes this just necessity. Smile, black people! Your time has come! “Arise and shine your light as come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.” Isaiah 60:1

What's left...

What's left matters more than what's lost! Celebrate.

FIRST THINGS FIRST!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: MAXIMIZE THIS MOMENT, WHILE YOU CAN. Make the best of what is offered in public education, while you still can! It is on its way out. Given the all-too-public difficulties its students, teachers and administrators face, daily, with each other and with the general public and the rise of so-called "charter schools." The public's tax dollars now line private pockets, with no discernible benefit to American education. Free, public education was instituted by black Reconstruction governments, after the Civil War, don't forget. This was done to assure that the black former slaves were educated. So, stop making excuses about why your child cannot read or compute! Values drive achievement. Our forefathers, who had only a fraction of the worst opportunities afforded to the current generation, did much more with much less, in education and in every other worthy field. All these cries about "white supremacy" miss the mark! Black ignorance, stupidity and cupidity make "white supremacy" profitable! Bill Cosby had it right years ago. Too many blacks are their own worst enemy, regardless of socioeconomic strata! Maximize the moment, while you can!

HEART + BRAIN = SOUL

The heart-brain union in the body, mysterious as it may be, is the seat of the soul. The vortex of feelings, intuition, and cognition. My soul must be touched, moved or engaged before I can love, appreciate, or commune.

THE LEAD DOG

http://www.metaphordogs.org/Dogs/entries/leaddog.html My daddy, who was raised on his parents' Mississippi farm, once referred to me as "the lead dog" of my younger siblings in a conversation. The spirit has been moving me to share this idiom for several days. Daddy was full of aphorisms or wise says, many dropping, on the spur of the moment. Now that I have found this conforming essay, I marvel again at daddy's sagacity.

GOATS ARE TENACIOUS, DETERMINED, WELL-BALANCED AND STRONG

SUGAR-PIE HONEY-BUNCH

Michelle Alexander: successor to Dr. M.L. King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gln1JwDUI64&feature=youtube_gdata_player THIS SISTER IS ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF HISTORY; AN AWESOME LAWYER, MOTHER, WIFE, AUTHOR, SCHOLAR, ACTIVIST, PROPHET: DR. KING'S TRUE SUCCESSOR IN THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM! RECOGNIZE.

ETHICS...EXCERPT

ETHICS including IMPROVEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING, by Benedict de Spinoza (Prometheus Books, Amherst NY: 1677, 1989), p. 240-241: “Prop. LXXIII. The man who is guided by reason, is more free in a State, where he lives under a general system of law, than in solitude, where he is independent.... “Note.-- These and similar observations which we have made on man's true freedom, may be referred to strength, that is, to courage and nobility of character... I do not think it is worth while to prove separately all the properties of strength; much less need I show, that he that is strong hates no man, is angry with no man, envies no man, is indignant with no man, despises no man, and least of all things is proud. These propositions, and all that relate to the true way of life and religion, are easily proved from... namely, that hatred should be overcome with love, and that every man should desire for others the good which he seeks for himself....that the strong man has first ever in his thoughts, that all things follow from the necessity of the divine nature; so that whatsoever he deems to be hurtful and evil, and whatsoever, accordingly, seems to him impious, horrible, unjust, and base, assumes that appearance owing to his own disordered, fragmentary, and confused view of the universe. Wherefore, he strives before all things to conceive things as they really are, and to remove the hindrances to true knowledge such as are hatred, anger, envy, derision, and similar emotions... Thus he endeavors, to do good and to go on his way rejoicing....”

POWER PAIR

Gyroscope of greatness

Gyroscope of greatness

MY "APPOLLO 12"

Some high school friends called me last night, laughing uproariously about my old, high school jalopy, the only car that our coterie had: the one and only "Apollo 12." It was a white, two-door, very-well- used sedan that I had purchased from saved-up busboy earnings in the summer 1967. I had paid $175 for that 1961 Chevy Impala, whose trunk would not shut; which consumed no oil, but drank transmission fluid like a fiend; and which had gaping a hole in the rusted floor board in the back seat, beneath the mat, through which the street was visible. Yet, it never failed to start. It sure "weren't purty" but it rolled! It was all we had. A friend named "Party" Moore had named that car, after we skidded on some ice one night and bounced off a curb . No one was injured. No damage was done. But them brothers laughed and laughed at the christening of my car. Mobility is a liberating thing. My first date in that car I ran out of gas. No kidding. My date--whom I married years later--took it all in stride. Literally, she walked with me to a gas station a few blocks away for a gallon of gas! Anyway, a gaggle of my friends called me, fondly recalling vehicular escapades in which we found ourselves in the years, 1967-1968 that I dare not repeat here! Or anywhere else as far as that goes! Whatever may have happened in the Apollo 12, stays in the Apollo 12! Anyway, here's to good friends and remembered, old cars and teenaged adventures in our St. Louis adolescence! Love you guys!

acclimated and at ease

FEEDBACK

Feedback makes a difference! Are you praying with me? Rubikcubeoctahedron ! If you gave a blind person a traditional Rubik's cube (hypothetically) and asked him or her to make a move once per second, they could have worked on it since the big bang and sill not have ordered the colors on the faces randomly, by chance. Without a feedback loop of information letting you know if you are getting closer to or further away from the solution (being able to see the colors), it would take more a lot longer than 13.8 billion years to randomly come upon the solution to something with 43 quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000) possible permutations. However, given the proper feedback of being able to see a Rubik's cube, it has been calculated that any cube can be solved in no more than 20 moves. So, by moving your hands once per second you could technically solve any Rubik's cube in 20 seconds or less (some people can actually do it in under 6 seconds! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCrTrtxAUbA )

"SOCIETY AND PERSONALITY" by Einstein..excerpt

IDEAS AND OPINIONS, “Society and Personality,” by Albert Einstein (Three Rivers Press, NY: 1954, 1982), p.13-14: “When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires is bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that our whole nature resembles that of social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of languages that others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact we live in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth, would remain primitive and beastlike in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave. “A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed toward promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to his attitude in this respect. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities. “And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It can easily be seen that all valuable achievements, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society have been brought about in the course of countless generations by creative individuals. Someone once discovered the use of fire, someone the cultivation of edible plants, and someone the steam engine. “Only the individual can think, thereby create new values for society, nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of society is unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community. “The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion….”

MUTANTS AMONG US

MUTANTS AMONG US Friday, January 17, 2014 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman After reading the amazing findings of Penn State University pathologist, Keith C. Cheng, MD, Ph.D., yesterday, that white people had mutated from black people about 10,000 years ago, when a single amino acid in three billion DNA base-pairs, in one man, near the region of the Caucasus Mountains, had flipped, producing white skin, I marveled. Apart from its scientific implications, such a discovery also carried profound sociological implications, in an American society founded upon the doctrine of white supremacy, and whose racist legacy yet affects every segment of American life, especially among some young blacks! Ironically, I had written about the epigenetic effects of oppression on the outlook, behavior, fashions, and academic performance of too-many black youth, especially boys, in my self-published novelette, The Colored Green Tree, in January 2012. “Epigenetics” means, in the book’s context, the baneful inter-generational transfer of debilitating environmental cues-like racism- from parent to child, person to person. From people to collard greens picked by them flows this phenomenon, in my book, resulting in sagging and yellowed greens. All forces were mobilized in my book to stamp-out this affliction, which affected many interests. It also threatened the green-grocers’ food industry, and the healthy diets of all races who eat collard greens, that most nutrient-rich of all foods according to USDA. Of course, my book uses a figure of speech, a trope known as metonymy, wherein I transpose “colored” for “collard” in my book’s title, “The Colored Green Tree,” in a much-too-subtle play on words. It throws off or confuses too many people, which affects sales. But, the few see through my literary malarkey! Compounding the paradox, there really is such a vegetable known as a “collard green tree.” It is commercially available on line. I have seen, touched, and eaten from that tree, all as described in my book! These “tree” greens taste the same as regular collard greens, being indistinguishable in every way. Given Dr. Cheng’s research, I would wonder whether there are “mutations” among the young blacks to account for their conduct, in my book? This acquires particular impetus given his statement that mutations occur “every day,” not just in the distant past! He states: As every student of science knows, mutations are a fact. Mutations occur spontaneously from the normal chemical instability of DNA, from characteristic levels of inaccuracy of the cellular machinery that handles our DNA, and from normally-present mutagenic substrates for DNA and mutagenic influences of our environment (such as sunlight). These mechanisms have been my career interest (see the Cheng and Loeb paper above). Mutations provide the fuel for evolution. Evolution, through mutation, provides a plausible scientific mechanism for the diversity of us as individuals, and the diversity of organisms. Geneticists watch evolution occur every day in their laboratories, whether in the form of new combinations of genes (recombinants) during mitosis or meiosis, spontaneous mutations that make bacteria resistant to viruses or fish strains with different patterns of pigmentation arise. Physicians see the results of evolution every day in patients in which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, or cancers become resistant to chemotherapy. Unfortunately, that evolution will be accelerated in the presence of mutagenic chemical or physical agents. http://www.pennstatehershey.org/web/pathology/faqs-cheng-lab. I wonder if Dr. Keith C. Cheng, the geneticist/pathologist, would enjoy reading “The Colored Green Tree?” I know you would! #30

ship of Khufu ancient Egypt

ship of Khufu ancient Egypt

THE VALUE OF MONEY

To truly understand the value of money is also to understand the cost of liberty and the price of freedom. So,"...treasure up every dollar [you can] get hold of until [you can] accumulate at least enough to get out of [your particular predicament]." Inspired by and quoting: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, "Samuel Bush, Alias William Oblebee," by William Still, p.204 (Benedictine Classics, Philadelphia: 1878, 2008)

CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTELLIGENCE

"Consciousness and Intelligence" Thursday, January 16, 2014 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman The subtle difference between consciousness and intelligence is that consciousness is awareness of one's self and of one's context, while intelligence is the animating spirit from which consciousness derives, and upon which it feeds and rests. Consciousness is active and inquisitive. Intelligence is passive and inert. Consciousness is limited, and quantifiable. Intelligence is unlimited and unquantifiable. Consciousness, being active and inquisitive, can be greatly expanded," by seeking a greater awareness of one's self and of one's context: the more the better. Intelligence is like God is: The two being one. Intelligence need not, and does not, seek anything, being already omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and being immanent in all things from the infinite to the infinitesimal.

AFRICAN AMERICAN PASSOVER

“AFRICAN AMERICAN PASSOVER” God, give us the vision to see, the faith to believe, and the courage to do, your will. Amen. Conceived by the Holy Spirit & Presented by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Pastor, Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri (816) 561-6699; fax: (816) 561-0895; E-mail lcole81937@ aol.com Presented at St. John A.M.E. Church, Kansas City, Missouri Rev. Ronnie McCowan, Pastor April 19, 2000, a/k/a 14 Nisan 5760 1. What Is the “African American Passover?” African American Passover is a religious celebration of the “passing over” of people of African descent from slavery to freedom, and from “Jim Crow” to desegregation. In short, it is a memorial to our corporate deliverance, as a peculiar people, with no citizenship to second class citizenship, and finally after the shedding of blood and sowing of tears, to full citizenship. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”( Psalms 126:5) 2. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to the Passover of Exodus? In Exodus, God intervened to effect the deliverance of the Hebrew Children from Egyptian oppression through the instrumentality of Moses and Aaron. In America, God intervened to effect the deliverance of African children from American oppression through the instrumentality of the Civil War. In the former case, God divided the Red Sea. In our case, God divided a nation. While the Hebrew Children were able to walk across on dry land, through a divided Red Sea, over 250,000 black soldiers were blessed to fight and to win our freedom, by fighting with the North, against the South, in what our people called “The Freedom War.” The Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox, Virginia. 3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now? African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free. 2 4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?” The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ 5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.” In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “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 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18) 6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline? The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration. 3 7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans? No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality. 8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith? No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” 9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover? Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) 10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom? “Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)

THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD, EXCERPT...

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (A RECORD OF FACTS, AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE, LETTERS &C,...) by William Still (Benediction Classics, Oxford U. Press: 1878, 2008), p.205-206 “Robert was about thirty years of age, dark color, quite tall, and in talking with him a little while, it was soon discovered that Slavery had not crushed all the brains out of his head by a good deal. Nor was he so much attached to his 'kind-hearted master,' John Edward Jackson, of Anne Arundel, Md., or his old fiddle, that he was contented and happy while in bondage. Far from it. The fact was, that he hated Slavery so decidedly and had such a clear common-sense view of the evils and misery of the system, that he declared he had as a matter of principle refrained from marrying, in order that he might have no reason to grieve over having added to the woes of slaves. Nor did he wish to be encumbered, if the opportunity offered to escape. According to the law he was entitled to his freedom at age twenty-five. “But what right had a negro, which white slave-holders were 'bound to respect?' Many who had been willed free, were held just as firmly in Slavery, as if no will had ever been made. Robert had too much sense to suppose that he could gain anything by seeking legal redress. This method was considered, therefore, out of the question. But in the meantime, he was growing very naturally in favor of the Underground Rail Road. From his experience, Robert did not hesitate to say that his master was 'mean,' 'a very hard man,' who would work his servants early and late, without allowing them food and clothing sufficient to shield them from the cold and hunger. Robert certainly had unmistakable marks about him, of having been used roughly. He thought well of Nathan Harris, a fellow-servant belonging to the same owner, and he made up his mind, if Nathan would join him, neither the length of the journey, nor the loneliness of night travel, the coldness of the weather, the fear of the slave-hunter, nor the scantiness of means should deter him from making his way to freedom. Nathan listened to the proposal and was suddenly converted to freedom, and the two united during Christmas week, 1854, and set out on the Underground Rail Road. It is needless to say they had trying difficulties to encounter. These they expressed, but all were overcome, and they reached the Vigilance Committee, in Philadelphia safely, and were cordially welcomed. During the interview, a full interchange of thought resulted, the fugitives were well cared for, and in due time both were forwarded on, free of cost.”

ESSAY ON MAN by Alexander Pope

ESSAY ON MAN, by Alexander Pope (Forgotten Books: 1848, 2012), p.12 "Two principles in human nature reign: self-love to urge, and reason to restrain: "Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, each works its end, to move or govern all: "And to their proper operation still, Ascribe all good, to their improper, ill. "Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; Reasoning's comparing balance rules the whole. "Man, but for that, no action could attend, and, but for this, were active to no end. "Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, to draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; "Or meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, destroying others, by himself destroy'd...."

COMMANDER KING

Akili Ron Anderson, was a fellow student at Howard U. during my era, 1969-1976. His extraordinary talent was featured in a massive mural above Cramton Auditorium and another above the College of Fine Arts, his school.

IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN: ARCHITECT OF THE COSMOS

"Meanwhile, let us recall that Imhotep was not only the high priest of Heliopolis, but also, and more significantly, personal architect of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty and, as such, the designer of the celebrated Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara. Before Imhotep, there was no construction done in Egypt using quarried and hewn stone blocks; everything built before him used mud bricks. Before Imhotep, there were no pyramids, and it would be another century before Khufu erected the great pyramid at Giza. So it is appropriate to ask: If the mound of Giza was so important and so sacred, then why did Imhotep not choose this site for his project? Why did he instead choose a site some eight kilometers farther south? As we shall see, Imhotep indeed had good reason to do so. "In the next chapter, we examine the mysterious complex of Saqqara in order to discover the true motive behind Imhotep's choice of location. As we do, we will draw closer to understanding who this genius really was." Pp. 46-47, IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN: ARCHITECT OF THE COSMOS, by Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Ph.D. (2013)

CRUCIFIXION IN BLACK, OF BLACKS

'hoist the flag'

THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment,” by William Wells Brown (1867), pp.157-158: The following song was written by a private in Company A, Fifty-Fourth (colored) Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and has been sent to us for publication by a friend of the regiment-- Boston Transcript “Air—'Hoist up the Flag' Fremont told them, when the war it first begun, How to save the Union, and the way it should be done, But Kentucky swore so hard, and Old Abe hid his fears, Till every hope was lost but the colored volunteers Chorus-- Oh! Give us a flag all free without a slave, We'll fight to defend it as our fathers did so brave The gallant Comp'ny A will make the rebels dance And we'll stand by the Union if only we had a chance. McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave He said 'Keep back the niggers' and the Union he would save Little Mac he had his way, still the Union is in tears Now they call for the help of the colored volunteers. Chorus-- Oh! Give us a flag all free without a slave, Old Jeff says he'll hang us if we dare to meet him armed A very big thing, but we are not at all alarmed, For he first has got to catch us before the way is clear And that's what the matter with the colored volunteer Chorus-- Oh! Give us a flag all free without a slave, So rally, boys, rally, let us never mind the past We had a hard road to travel, but our day is coming fast, For God is for the right and we have no need to fear The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer. Chorus-- Oh! Give us a flag all free without a slave...”

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS...EXCERPT

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS, "Affirmative Action," by Jack Greenberg (2004): "I knew that the Solicitor General's brief would go our way when Attorney General Griffen Bell and Vice President Mondale came to the Second Circuit Judicial conference, which I was attending, in Buck Hills Falls, Pennsylvania. Jim Nabrit had heard that they would visit and called me to suggest that I lobby Mondale. I intercepted him as he descended from his helicopter. He interrupted, 'Don't worry, Jack, it's going to be okay.' "The brief the government filed led off with the statement that 'race may be taken into account to counteract the effects of prior discrimination,' but argued against rigid quotas. The "Bakke" decision was close and complex. By a vote of five to four the court upheld the use of race as a basis for university admissions, but would not support fixed quotas. Justices Stevens, Rehnquist, and Stewart and Chief Justice Burger thought Title VI prohibited taking race into account at all. They voted to admit Bakke, but had only four votes against any consideration of race. Justices Brennan, Marshall, White, and Blackmun agreed that the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI permitted race to be taken into account, even though Davis set aside a fixed number of places for qualified minority applicants. One vote short for the sort of affirmative action that the University of California had employed. "Justice Powell's opinion held that Congress, in adopting Title VI, which outlaws discrimination in institutions that receive federal funding, employed the strict scrutiny standard of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. He concluded that a quota could not be justified under the standard. But, he decided, taking race into account in order to create diversity was an aspect of academic freedom. So long as Davis considered race among other factors in considering each applicant and did not admit a fixed number of minority students, the university might constitutionally have an affirmative action program. Powell decided that Bakke had been treated unconstitutionally because a fixed number, sixteen places, had been reserved for minorities. Davis had to admit Bakke, even though under a system of non-preference quotas affirmative action would be acceptable. Race-sensitive admissions had survived, for that added up to five votes for an affirmative action program, although not the one Davis had used in rejecting Bakke. "Ironically, Powell's swing vote approved admitting blacks because in part it helped whites..." Pp.505-506 Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement, Anniversary Edition amazon.com

math and money

Whoever knows and controls the math also knows and controls the money. Any one's money. All of the money! Count on it!

HARLEM'S HELL FIGHTERS...EXCERPTS

HARLEM'S HELL FIGHTERS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN 369TH INFANTRY IN WORLD WAR I, “Ragtime in France,” by Stephen L. Harris (Potomac Books, Inc., Wash. DC: 2003), p.174-176 “'The size of the band and the unusual sight of its dark-skinned players surprised the French,' Ames recalled, adding that 'there is a tradition that no foreign musician can ever play the 'Marseillaise' properly—and here was a rendering of their national anthem that fairly swept them off their feet.' Hats were yanked off heads, and not a soul stirred. When Europe's musicians finished, there was a 'sudden and moving burst of cheers.' Standing close to Ames, an old Frenchman, tears streaming down his cheeks, cried out, 'Mais mon Dieu, c'est magnifique!' [My God, how magnificent!]... “Europe opened the concert with George M. Cohan's 'Over There.'... “When it was over, doughboys jumped on the tables, shouting and waving their caps and cups of chocolate. 'Play it again!' they yelled. Europe obliged, again and again and again.... “The Fifteenth's sixteen-day tour in Aix-les-Bains was to end on 2 March. But the popularity of the band stretched the tour another two weeks. Ames didn't want Europe and his men to leave. Even the townspeople had grown fond of the black musician. They besieged him with requests... “The additional two weeks passed quickly, and on 16 March, the band performed its final concerts for the doughboys. The first was at a nearby hospital filled with nearly a thousand patients, nurses, and doctors. The second, of course, was at the Casino Hotel theater. The band had been ordered to report back to the regiment. Hayward had finally won. The men of the Fifteenth New York had been moved out of St. Nazaire as common laborers and into the French Fourth Army as combat infantrymen.... “Later that Saturday evening, the band made its farewell performance at the Casino Hotel. After the final tune was played the YMCA's Reynolds stepped onto the stage. 'It is my sad duty to announce that we have listened to our last concert by the Band of the Fifteenth New York Infantry...rejoin their regiment. Tomorrow, these men... proceed to the front lines, to serve in the trenches against...' “At that moment, the stunned crowd cut off Reynolds. Everyone in the theater rose to their feet. Yelling and whistling made it impossible for Reynolds to continue...Captain Little wrote, 'On the stage, the colored soldiers who had been spat upon in Spartanburg [SC], rose and bowed—and grinned.' “The biggest irony, of course, was that no black soldier, certainly none in the Fifteenth, would ever set foot in Aix-les-Bains or any other rest area. These places were strictly off-limits to African-Americans... “The next day the band played a last concert in the town square and then marched to the train station. Along the route, the citizens of Aix-les-Bains pressed close to the musicians for one last farewell. At least four to five hundred people were on hand, old men, women, and children...”

coming to get our check

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=270107399810459&set=vb.114586642029203&type=2&theater coming to get our check

American Apogee

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apogee The apogee of American indifference and contempt for its cities came to a head in New Orleans in 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, a devastating natural disaster that was so terrible, that it prompted offers of international aid from Cuba and Venezuela, so-called "enemies" of the U.S., which offers shamed Congress into appropriating rehabilitative money to an American city--unlike European cities post-WWII--something deliberately not done, as a punitive political measure, since 1968 riots, post-Dr. M. L. King's murder.

"ESSAY ON MAN" excerpt, by Alexander Pope

ESSAY ON MAN, Epistle II, by Alexander Pope (Forgotten Books: 1848, 2012), p.11: "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, Being darkly wise, and richly great: With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reasoning such, Whether he thinks too little or too much; Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!..."

STOKELY-IMAMU-RAP

The four faces of "eive"

The four faces of "eive" Perceive is to sense physically Conceive is to imagine mentally Deceive is to trick or to betray Receive is to accept delivery of