CHECK IT BEFORE YOU WRECK IT

CHECK IT BEFORE YOU WRECK IT One's innocent joy, might well annoy, one's hero I have learned. So carefully weigh whatever you say, or risk spurn. Better to suppress, exultant zest, than to be branded. A stalker or worse, not blessing but curse, and be stranded. Restraint is advised, aggression unwise, from the git-go. For all that they know, one's zeal is a show, to hurt them. And simple felicity, is disguised complicity, in a plot to destroy them.

THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, EXCERPT

THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “Injustice to Colored Troops,” by William Wells Brown (1867), pp.248-254: “When the War Department commenced recruiting colored men as soldiers in Massachusetts, New Orleans and Hilton Head, it was done with the promise that these men should receive the same pay, clothing, and treatment that white soldiers did. The same was promised at Camp William Penn, at Philadelphia. After several regments had been raised and put in the field, the War Department decided to pay them but ten dollars per month, without clothing. The Fifty-fourth MassachusettsVolunteers, and the Fifty-fifth, were both in South Carolina when this decision was made, yet the government held on to the men who had thus been obtained under false pretenses. Dissatisfaction showed itself as soon as this was known among colored troops. Still the blacks performed their duty, hoping that Congress would see the injustice that was done to them. The men refused to receive less than was their full due when the paymaster came round... “It was left, however, for Massachusetts to take the lead, both by her Governor, and by her colored soldiers in the field, to urge upon Congress and the Administration the black man's claims. To the honor of John A. Andrew, the patriotic Chief Magistrate of the Bay State during the Rebellion, justice was demanded again and again... “The subjoined letter, from a soldier of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, needs no explanation--- “'We are still anticipting the arrival of the day when the Government will do justice to the Fifty-fourth and the Fifty-fifth Regiments, and pay us what is justly our due. “We have fought like men; we have worked like men; we have been ready to serve at every call of duty, and thus have proved ourselves to be men, but still we are refused the thirteen dollars per month. “Oh what a shame it is to be treated thus! Some of us have wives and little children, who are looking for succor and support from their husbands and fathers; but, alas! They look in vain. The answer to te question, 'When shal we be able to assist them?' is left wholly to the Congress of the United States. “What will the families of those poor comrades of ours who fell at James Island, Ft. Wagner, and Olustee, do? They must suffer; for their husbands and fathers have gone the way of all the earth. They have gone to join that number that John saw, and t rest at the right hand of God... “It was all false. They only wanted to get the halter over our heads, and then say, 'Get out if you can.' “Sir, the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Regiments would sooner consent to fight for the whole three years, gratis, than to be put on the footing of contrabands...'” “Sergt. William Walker, of Company A, Third South Carolina colored troops, feeling that he and his associates were unjustly dealt with, persuaded his company to go to their captain's tent, and stack their muskets, and refuse duty till paid. They did so, and the following was the result:-- CONDEMNED AND SHOT FOR MUTINY “Sergt. William Walker of Company A, Third South-Carolina colored troops, was yesterday killed, in accordance with a sentence of a court-martial. He had declared he would no longer remain a soldier for seven dollars a month, and brought his company to stack their arms before their captain's tent, refusing to do duty until they were paid thirteen dollars a month, as had been agreed when they enlisted with Col. Saxon. He was a smart soldier and an able man, dangerous as a leader in a revolt. His last moments were attended by Chaplain Wilson, Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, and Chaplain Moore, of the Second South-Carolina colored troops. The execution took place at Jacksonville, Fla., in the presence of the regiments there in the garrison. He met his death unflinchingly. Out of eleven shots fired, but one struck him. A reserve firing-party had been provided, and by these he had been shot to death. “The mutiny for which this man suffered death arose entirely out of inconsistent and contradictory orders of the Paymaster and the Treasury Department at Washington.'--Beaufort (SC) Cor. Tribune”

A SOLDIER'S WAGES: LIBERTY, DIGNITY, INTEGRITY

"I will wait until my change comes." So said the brave, bold and black soldiers of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts, who refused to accept laborers' wages of $10, instead of the $13 per month soldiers' wages, they were promised upon enlistment. Their letters to Gov. John A. Andrews derided the prejudice in the North, as tantamount to the slavery of the South; and the government's lack of "magnanimity" in adhering to its promise as rank hypocrisy! Fighting without any pay for 11 months, while in the field, in 1864, they finally got their promised soldiers' pay and back wages! All the while, they had remained steadfast, unyielding and resolute in battle and in their demands! They did not fight for money, they said, they fought for liberty and for dignity and for integrity! (Taken from William Wells Brown's THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION (1867)) JOB 14:14 If a man die, shall he live [again]? all the days of my appointed time will I wait,... www.kingjamesbibleonline.org

IN VS. OUT

What is inside is more important than what is outside; what comes out of a thing matters more than what goes in. So taught the Savior Jesus Christ with respect to drinking vessels and the human mouth; yet these truths apply broadly in life, being universal.

BROTHERS' KEEPER

…15'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' 16"So the last shall be first, and the first last." MATT. 20:

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS

Today, February 27, 2014, I finished reading LDF Director-Counsel, Jack Greenberg's revealing legal-historical, autobiographical and personal, anecdotal compendium of the Civil Rights era from 1949, when he was hired by the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.'s Thurgood Marshall, until his resignation in 1984, to return to Columbia University Law School, his alma mater, as a law professor. CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS: LEGAL BATTLES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (2004) is singular in many respects. It affords an inside-out look on social, political and legal developments that only an attorney involved in the muck and mire of litigation can possibly know. As a civil rights lawyer, and as a Howard University lawyer, in plaintiff's practice for over twenty years in Kansas City, Missouri, I brought a unique perspective to the reading of this seminal work, one which clashed with LDF's notion of the inherent inferiority of blacks to whites, which could only be cured by "integration," or other public policy palliatives. That said, I appreciate Mr. Greenberg's scholarship, service, and candid insights, which shed great insight into icons, trends, and canards, which bring us to 2014. I commend this masterful work to all lawyers, and to persons interested in the legal and historical evolution of 'the movement' and of this moment! Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement, Anniversary Edition www.amazon.com

FOOL OVER FASCIST

The only good thing I can say about the scandal plagued years of the Bush-Cheney administration is that Bush lived. Had he died, Dick Cheney, the fascist, would have become President. I, for one, prefer a fool to a fascist.

OUR FOREBEARS MIRACULOUS SURVIVAL IN LIVING HELL

Our forebears survived woes comparable to those of the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the lion's den, so frequently celebrated on Sunday mornings. And that survival was after they'd come up from slavery; after they'd saved this country from dissolution; after they'd protected and provided for Ole Missus on abandoned plantations; after they had given back land that was rightfully theirs with growing crops, they had worked for years for free; after the rights guaranteed to them were ignored willfully by the courts, and by their racist oppressors; after they had won the Spanish-American War and after they had defeated and subdued the recalcitrant plains Indians in the southwest and Mexico; and after they had saved the allies' bacon in World War I. One may search sacred text or secular history all that one likes, but nowhere, nowhere, will be found any people like us, as resilient as us, as tough as us! A black minority within a hateful, exploitative, and murderous white majority, that were able to exploit the whites' internal differences in order to effect their own freedom, consistent with that nation's alleged Christian creed of love, and consistent with its constitution's alleged credo of justice for all, only to be betrayed again and again; lied to repeatedly; vilified as inferior savages in politics, in religion,in academia, and in popular culture: schools, books, film, television,while being repressed unmercifully! Surely we are part of a new human canon, surely our history is a new theology, and our triumph new science to inspire and enthrall the future of man and our own present, if we would read! THE ROSEWOOD MASSACRE A Documented History Of the Massacre which occurred at Rosewood, Florida, in January 1923. "Racial unrest and violence against African Americans permeated domestic developments in the United States during the post-World War I era. From individual lynchings to massive violence against entire black communities, whites in both the North and the South lashed out against black Americans with a rage that knew few bounds. From Chicago to Tulsa, to Omaha, East St. Louis, and many communities in between, and finally to Rosewood, white mobs pursued what can only be described as a reign of terror against African Americans during the period from 1917 to 1923. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, law and order was suspended for 13 days in July 1919 as white mobs made foray after foray into black neighborhoods, killings and wounding 365 black residents and leaving another 1,000 homeless. In June 1921, the black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was almost burned out and thousands were left homeless following racial violence by white residents. (1) What had happened to the public's commitment to make the "World Safe for Democracy" that had become the national by-words during World War I? And why had white citizens turned against black Americans with such fury, after many had participated directly in the war effort and others had patriotically supported it? And finally how did Rosewood and Florida fit into these racial developments? During the second decade of the twentieth century, African Americans began to leave the South in record numbers to escape the oppression of segregation and the economic havoc created by the boll weevil's devastation of the cotton crop. They were also drawn to the North by the promise of economic opportunity and greater freedom. Over 40,000 black Floridians joined 283,000 African Americans from other southern states in the migration to Chicago and other midwestern and northeastern cities where a shortage of labor had created great demand for black workers. Labor agents from northern industries and railroads descended on the South in search of black workers. The Pennsylvania Railroad, for example, brought 12,000 to work in its yards and on its tracks, all but 2,000 of whom came from Florida and Georgia. (2) In a recent study, two historians argue that, while all these issues were important, African Americans went north principally because of the mounting racial violence in the South. With the number of lynchings averaging over 40 per year, the threat of lynching and mob violence had become a serious threat to the average black citizen. As one older study of the black migration noted, both whites and blacks believed that lynching were "one of the most important causes" and that the fear of the mob had greatly accelerated the exodus...."

BOOK FOUNTAIN--CINCINNATI PUBLIC LIBRARY

THE BATTLE OF OLUSTEE RAGES ON

http://ourwarmikepride.blogspot.com/2013/12/for-some-battle-of-olustee-rages-on.html "When did the "Freedom War" a/k/a the Civil War really end?" was the subject of two scholarly panel discussions in Missouri and Kansas that I chaired in 2011 for ASALH-KC

ISIS FACT

Isis was a Black African goddess of Nile Valley civilizations whose worship eventually diffused to most of the ancient world. Isis was worshipped by the Nubians well over 300 years before the first Egyptian dynasty. The Egyptians then gave the Isis religion to Greece, Rome, and Western Asia.The first "Black Madonna and Child" statutes and portraits were of Isis and Horus, and these were taken throughout the world by the Roman Empire. — with Tangololo Fofana and 2 others.

SUNDAY MORNING

"Race superiority" an American delusion

"Race superiority" is an American delusion created to rule over all by a few, beginning in the late 1660s in Virginia and Maryland. By subjugating blacks and those in sympathy with them in law, in custom, in commerce, in culture, and in personal practice. This delusion, this paradigm, was persistently propagated and relentlessly permeated across the land, debilitating blacks and whites, in its pernicious and noxious wake, which is rooted in lies, mythology and distortions, on every level. Eventually, the accretion of superior individual and collective acts of blacks, in a multitude of endeavors, including self-liberating acts, exposed the great lie upon which the delusion is based. Finally through war and resistance by blacks and by some non-blacks, it is abating, gradually, reluctantly away.

BISHOP HENRY McNEIL TURNER

My favorite AME Bishop, after founder, Richard Allen. Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915), African American leader and a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, argued for African American emigration to Africa. Henry M. Turner was born free near Abbeville, S.C., on Feb. 1, 1834. Unable to go to school because of state laws, he was "apprenticed" in local cotton fields but ran away and found a job as sweeper in a law office. The young clerks surreptitiously taught him to read and write. He was converted to Christianity and at age 20 was licensed as a traveling evangelist for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He preached to white and black audiences throughout the South until 1858. When he learned of the all-black African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), he joined it. In Baltimore, Turner studied languages and Scripture as well as his new Church. In 1862 he moved to a church in Washington, D.C. His fiery sermons earned him the title "Black Spurgeon" (a reference to a famous English sermonizer of the day). Congressmen attended his preaching, and Turner frequented the Capitol to watch politicians in action. After emancipation of the slaves in 1863, he agitated for putting black troops into the Civil War and was commissioned the first black chaplain in the Union Army. After the war Turner was assigned to the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia, but he resigned to recruit blacks for his Church and, later, to organize them for the Republican party. He participated in the Georgia constitutional convention of 1868 and later was elected to the legislature. When blacks were refused their seats in the legislature, Turner was appointed postmaster at Macon, Ga., and then a customs inspector at Savannah. Meanwhile, in 1876, he was elected manager of the AME Book Concern, and in 1880 he was elected one of a dozen bishops in the Church. Turner was interested in Africa as a potential homeland for African Americans. His experiences in Reconstruction politics disillusioned him with white America, and after 1868 he urged talented young blacks to establish a nation in Africa which would give pride and encouragement to blacks everywhere. His writings and speeches in favor of pan-African nationalism and his scathing attacks on white racism antagonized many middle-class blacks but inspired many black farmers. Turner wrote for Church and public newspapers. In Atlanta he founded the Southern Recorder (1888), the Voice of Missions (1892), and the Voice of the People (1901). He also published a catechism, a hymnal, and The Genius and Theory of Methodist Polity (1885). When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Reconstruction civil rights laws in 1883, he issued a blistering attack in The Barbarous Decision of the Supreme Court…, revised as The Black Man's Doom (1896). During the 1890s Turner visited Africa four times to supervise Church work and publicize emigration. In 1893 he summoned a national convention of Afro-American leaders to protest lynching and political attacks on blacks and get support for his emigration schemes. However, Turner's appeals were heeded only by poor blacks who could neither afford passage to Africa nor support themselves there. He continued his agitation, attracting nationwide attention in 1906, when he reportedly called the American flag a "dirty rag." He died in Windsor, Ontario, on May 8, 1915

ARAB/MUSLIM AND EUROPEAN/CHRISTIAN @ AFRICANS

Predecessors to Western Europeans/Christians in the study and appreciation of the arts and sciences, Arabs/Muslims also preceded them in the massive centuries-old, African enslavement and exportation. Sadly, Africans lagged behind both Muslims and Christians in the arts and sciences, which earlier African people had invented centuries earlier, and taught to the ancient Greeks, who studied it in Africa itself. If there is a moral here, it is this: mastery of the arts and sciences is essential to freedom. Enslaved are those without it, it seems! Godfried Wiafe Published on 17 June 2012 Muslim Arabs hunted, enslaved, tortured and killed over 140+ million ethnic Africans for a millennium. Middle Eastern Muslim Arabs have a history of over 1400 years of human slavery, which even continues today in the Middle East. Arab Muslims controlled, maintained, initiated slavery of ethnic Africans. Islams Arab prophet Muhammad himself brought, kept and sold African slaves. Over 90% of these slaves died in transport, while slaves were killed in Arabia when they became aged, pregnant or useless, to avoid a population growth of slave offspring on Arab soil. To Learn more read: THE LEGACY OF ARAB-ISLAM IN AFRICA by John Allembillah Azumah. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Legacy-Ar... Sahih Muslim Book 10 Number 3901 "Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave and pledged allegiance to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) on migration; he (the Holy Prophet) did not know that he was a slave. Then there came his master and demanded him back, whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: Sell him to me. And he bought him for two black slaves, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)."

PROBLEM SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION, excerpt...

"The psychological mechanism of animalization has been so deeply implanted in white culture, with respect to African Americans, that most white Americans have been unaware of their usually unconscious complicity as well as the significant benefits they have reaped from their 'transcendent whiteness.' Especially during the period of racial slavery, the process of animalizing blacks enhanced whites' sense of being a rational, self-disciplined and ambitious people, closely attuned to their long-term best interests. Racism became the systematic way of institutionalizing and justifying the individual white's projection of an 'animal Id' upon blacks. It took the form of an intellectual theory or ideology, cloaked in science, as well as actions and behavior legitimated by laws, customs, and social structure... "Finally, as we have seen, the populist lynching of blacks began to reach epic levels in the 1880s and '90s. The widespread acceptance of scientific racism, a central prop for Jim Crow segregation and white supremacy, reinforced the traditional fear of sexual contamination through rape or intermarriage--the invasion of the black Id, a reprisal of all of the animalistic traits that had been projected on blacks to achieve white purity. In 1897, Rebecca Latimer Felton, a prominent Georgia feminist, journalist, and eventually the first woman to become a U.S.Senator, aroused national attention with a near hysterical speech on the peril of black rapists: '[I]f it takes lynching to protect woman's dearest possession from drunken, ravening human beasts,' she cried, 'then I say lynch a thousand [blacks] a week if it becomes necessary.' Later, emphasizing the 'moral retrogression' of blacks since the days of slavery, Felton accused the 'promoters of Negro equality' of preparing the way for an imminent 'revolutionary uprising' that 'will either exterminate the blacks or force the white citizens to leave the country.' Fortunately, such extremists never came close to shaping federal policies, but it is significant that at the turn of the twentieth century the Chief Statistician of the U.S. Census, Professor Walter Francis Wilcox, and other prominent statisticians, happily predicted the gradual extinction of the Negro race." P.20-22, THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF EMANCIPATION by David Brion Davis (Alfred A. Knopf, NY: 2014)

Understanding God's Word

UNDERSTANDING GOD'S WORD "God's word is not confined to a book. God's word is written in nature; be it: celestial or terrestrial; plant or animal; airborne or aquatic; chemical or physical; intellectual or intuitive; musical or verbal; geometric or arithmetic; light or dark; "good" or "evil"; fusion or fission; infinite or infinitesimal; human or non-human. All that IS, is of God; embodies God. Study all of God's "word"for knowledge, for wisdom; for understanding; for love. Thereby you show yourself approved unto God; thereby you show yourself worthy of God's greatest word, life!

2 CORINTHIANS 11: 13-15

…13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. 2 Cor.11: 13-15

PLATO "TIMAEUS"...EXCERPT

PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS, “TIMAEUS,” edited by John M. Cooper (Hackett Pub., Indianapolis, IN: 1995), 1249-1250 “We must pronounce the soul to be the only thing there is that properly possesses understanding. The soul is the invisible, whereas fire, water, earth, and air have all come to be as visible bodies. So anyone who is a lover of understanding and knowledge must of necessity pursue as primary causes those that belong to intelligent nature, and as secondary all those belonging to things that are moved by others and that set still others in motion by necessity. We too, surely, must do likewise: we must describe both types of causes, distinguishing those which possess understanding and thus fashion what is beautiful and good, from those which, when deserted by intelligence, produce only haphazard and disorderly effects every time. “Let us conclude, then, our discussion of the accompanying auxiliary causes that gave our eyes the power which they now possess. We must next speak of that supremely beneficial function for which the god gave them to us. As my account has it, our sight has indeed proved to be of supreme benefit to us, in that none of my present statements about the universe could ever have been made if we had never seen any stars, sun, or heaven. As it is, our ability to see the periods of day-and-night, of months, and of years, of equinoxes and solstices, had led to the invention of number, and has given us the idea of time and opened the path to inquiry into the nature of the universe. These pursuits have given us philosophy, a gift from the gods to the mortal race whose value neither has been nor ever will be surpassed. I’m quite prepared to declare this to be the supreme good that our eye sight offers us. Why then should we exalt all the lesser good things, which a non-philosopher struck blind, would ‘lament and bewail in vain?’ Let us declare rather that the cause and purpose of this supreme good is this: the god invented sight and gave it to us so that we might observe the orbits of intelligence in the universe and apply them to the revolutions of our own understanding. For there is a kinship between them, even though our revolutions are disturbed, whereas the universal orbits are undisturbed. So once we have come to know them and to share in the ability to make correct calculations according to nature, we should stabilize the straying revolutions within ourselves by imitating the unstraying revolutions of the god. “Likewise, the same account goes for sound and hearing—these too are the gods’ gifts, given for the same purpose and intended to achieve the same result. Speech was designed for this very purpose—it plays the greatest part in its achievement. And all such composition as lends itself to making audible music sound is given in order to express harmony, and so serves this purpose well. And harmony, whose movements are akin to the orbits within our souls, is a gift of the Muses, if our dealings with them are guided by understanding, not for irrational pleasure, for which people nowadays seem to make use of it, but to serve as an ally in the fight to bring order to any orbit in our souls that has become unharmonized, and to make it concordant with itself. Rhythm, too, has likewise been given us by the Muses for the same purpose, to assist us. For with most of us our condition is such that we have lost all sense of measure, and are lacking in grace.”

KANSAS CITY RHYTHMS, VIBRATIONS, AND BEATS

KANSAS CITY RHYTHMS, VIBRATIONS AND BEATS "Hey-hey-hey-Hey! KC! You look so good to me." Rhythmically and repeatedly: that roiling throng, in blue and white, chanted, squealed and intoned, continuously, insistently, ominously. "Hey-hey-hey-Hey! KC! You look so good to me...." The student section of KC Central High School's glee club, was accompanied by a mesmerizing bass drum beat that invoked even as it convoked primal African rhythms, vibrations, and spirits. The venue was Kiehl Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri; the year, 1966. The occasion: the Missouri State High School Basketball Championship finals. The combatants: Springfield Parkview High School from Springfield, Missouri, and Kansas City Central High School of Kansas City, Missouri. Me: I was a gushing, wide-eyed, 15-year old, spectator, still in junior high, who had traveled with a friend and his father "downtown" to see this game. My friend, having attended the preliminary round, and having read the sports pages, extolled, in-between our classes, this KC team. I had been rather blasé about his expostulations, at first; after all, St. Louis was the be-all and end-all of Missouri sports, I thought. KC was not on the radar of my perception. Then, he dropped the bomb: "Hey man, everybody on that KC team can dunk, even the little guy; and he's no bigger than us!" My jaw dropped! That was amazing. He and I were both runts, less than 5'11", and could barely touch the net of a ten foot high school basketball goal. Dunk? This I had to see. This, I did see! In the midst of their musical miasma, the KC Central players, after warming up, went to center court and lined up. One after another, the tallest going first, each and every member of that team dribbled to the hoop and dunked. Tensions mounted. The little guy's turn was coming up. Drum roll. The Central team formed a double row. The little guy dribbled through them. Then, gathering speed and himself, he approached the hoop. Rises. Rises some more. Still rises. And slams! The place explodes! "Woohoo!" Goes the crowd. "Woohoo!" Game over already! An unmistakable message had been sent to Springfield Parkview, a previously undefeated all-white team from southwest Missouri. A not-so-subliminal message, whose import was clear: "Prepare for the fire and the fury of KC, white boys. Top this!" I don't even remember the final score. Central won, needless to say, having been aided by twins named Odell and Rodell McMurray. These two McMurray brothers, another KC Central marvel, on display, dunked with basketballs in each of their hands, boom-boom! I was spent, pre-game. Too through. Before the game had ever begun, it was already over. Springfield knew that it was over, too! It had to be. They had watched KC's half-court histrionics and amazing athleticism, also. They had to have wondered, along with everyone else who witnessed: "My God! What is this?" "Hey-hey-hey-Hey, KC! You look so good to me!"

MARYLAND'S EMANCIPATION DAY AND MISSOURI'S

Beautiful! Missouri's Emancipation Week was formerly celebrated during August, in many cities and towns outside of, other than, St. Louis and Kansas City, curiously. August 31, 1861, was when Gen. John C. Fremont, Commander of the Department of the West, issued his Field Order manumitting Missouri's slaves due to military necessity. Lincoln later, on September 11, 1861, annulled that order, pursuant to which a number of Missouri slaves were freed. Now, the Missouri legislature, ignoring its own January 1, 1865, state emancipation of the slaves, has enacted legislation recognizing JUNETEENTH, a Texas holiday, as Emancipation Day! Confusing? Yes. Distressing? Yes. Embarrassing? Yes. Ridiculous! Founder of 'Emancipation Day' in Talbot County, Maryland Nathaniel Hopkins (pictured with his wife Caroline and two of their six children) was born a slave in Trappe, Maryland around 1831. He was affectionately known throughout Talbot County as "Uncle Nace." After serving the Union army in the Civil War, Hopkins returned to Talbot County to work for the betterment of the newly-free black population in the southern area of the county, including the establishment and construction of Trappe’s first black school in 1878. In 1867, he founded Emancipation Day in Talbot County, to celebrate Maryland's emancipation of its slaves, which occurred on November 1, 1864 with the adoption of the new state constitution. This momentous event marked Maryland as the first slave state to voluntarily free its slaves by popular vote (Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 had only freed slaves in states of rebellion, of which Maryland was not one). Trappe's Emancipation Day festivities included church services, speakers, food, music, and a parade. Every year, Hopkins himself led the parade, dressed in his full Union army uniform, with his epaulets adorning his shoulders, a colorful sash around his waist, and his gleaming sword in hand. Upon his death in 1900, the citizens of Trappe decided to continue the tradition of the Emancipation Day festivities. "Uncle Nace" and his contributions to the post-emancipation African-American community are remembered to this day every October on what is now known as "Nace Hopkins Day." Trappe Town History — with Rose Cannon.

way-maker and haymaker

A way-maker precedes the hay-maker, like a jab precedes a knockout. I salute President Obama for being a way-maker. He definitely is not the hay-maker. All things in time and in turn...

Dying Deeds on Dying Days

Dying Deeds on Dying Days Albert Einstein died in bed, pen in hand, with writing pad, while drafting a beautiful mathematical equation. Samuel L. Clemens, a/k/a Mark Twain, died in bed, with pen in hand and writing pad, while composing a beautiful literary work. None of us know how, nor when, we shall die. Hopefully, we too will be found doing that which we love to do; that which we were divinely gifted to do; at least, such is my hope for me!

ROOTS OF LAW

Roots of law Monday, February 17, 2014 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Court has nothing to do with 'righteousness' or with 'truth' only with 'law' which is neither. Law is rooted in nature from whence also comes symbolism and philosophy. Initially all were one; or, "on the one," to mimic master-philosopher/musician, James Brown. Then evolution and human mutations produced further divisions over the ages, giving rise to sciences, religion, politics, fine arts, mathematics, the guilds or practical arts, liberal arts, government and law, as separate disciplines that were presided over and governed by separate human hierarchies. Law, like the others, is self-perpetuating, defined by its own dogma and precepts, and selection processes, which reflect the values, and protect the property and privileges of those in power, whose imprimatur it bears; being amenable to change only slowly and grudgingly. Yet, law appears to be "good," while not being so, in fact; appears to be open, while actually being closed. Power, property, privilege, and protection of status quo, being law's true ends, which are not altogether unreasonable alternatives, considering that “no law” like: anarchy, chaos, hooliganism, corruption, is even worse. I hope that this helps, Rev. Gary Cornelius Jones , of the U-Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Racism is an endemic cancer on American law historically. Fortunately, its sickness is now recognized.

Battle of Olustee, Florida

THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “Battle of Olustee, Florida,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923) pp. 217-218, 220--224. “The battle of Olustee was fought in a swamp situated thirty-five miles west of Jacksonville, and four miles from Sanderson, in the State of Florida. The expedition was under the immediate command of Gen. C. Seymour, and consisted of the Seventh New Hampshire, Seventh Connecticut… Eighth United-States (colored) Battery, Third United States Artillery, Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored), and the First North-Carolina (colored). The command having rested on the night of the 19th of February…took up its line of march on the 20th and proceeded to Sanderson… “The Eighth (colored), which had never been in battle, and which had been recruited but a few weeks…met with a most shower of musketry and shell. Gen. Seymour now came up, and pointing in front toward the railroad, said to Col. Fribley, commander of the Eighth, ‘Take your regiment in there,’—a place that was sufficiently hot to make the oldest and most field-worn veterans tremble, and yet these men, who had never heard the sound of cannon before, rushed in where they commenced dropping like grass before the sickle; still on they went without faltering, until they came within two hundred yards of the enemy’s strongest works… “They were compelled to leave the battery, and failed to bring the flag away. The battery fell into the enemy’s hands… “Up to this time, neither the First North Carolina nor the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts had taken part in the fight, as they were in the rear some distance… “The First North Carolina was in light marching order; the Fifty-fourth was in heavy marching order, with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, and every other appurtenance of the soldier. But off went everything as they double-quicked on to the field. At the most critical juncture, just as the rebels were preparing for a simultaneous charge along the whole line, and they captured our artillery and turned it upon us, Col. James Montgomery, Col. Hallowell, and Lieut-Col. Hooper formed our line of battle on right by file into line. “The Fifty-fourth went in first, with a cheer. They were followed by the First North Carolina (Colored). Lieut-Col. Reed, in command, headed the regiment, sword in hand and charged upon the rebels… But the two colored regiments had stood in the gap, and saved the army! The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, which, with the First North Carolina, may truly be said to have saved the forces from utter route, lost eighty men… “It is well known that the general in command came to the colonel and said, ‘The day is lost, you must do what you can to save the army from destruction.’ And nobly did they obey him. They fired their guns till their ammunition was exhausted, and then stood with fixed bayonets till the broken columns had time to retreat, and though once entirely outflanked, the enemy getting sixty yards in the rear, then undaunted front and loud cheering caused the enemy to pause, and allowed them time to change front. They occupied the position as rear guard all the way to Jacksonville, and, wherever was the post of danger, there was the Fifty-fourth to be found. “When the forces arrived at Jacksonville, they there learned that the train containing the wounded was at Ten Mile Station, where it had been left, owing to the breaking down of the engine. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, fatigued and worn out as it was, was dispatched at once, late at night, to the assistance of the disabled train. Arriving at Ten-Mile Station, they found that the only way to bring the wounded with them was to attach ropes to the cars, and let the men act as motive power. Thus the whole train of cars containing the wounded from the battle of Olustee was dragged a distance of ten miles by that brave colored regiment… “A letter from Beaufort, dated February 26, from a gentleman who accompanied Gen. Seymour’s expedition, has the following passage relative to the conduct of the Fifty-fourth in the repulse in Florida— “A word about the terrible defeat in Florida. We have been driven from Lake City to within seven miles of Jacksonville,--fifty-three miles. The rebels here allowed us to penetrate, and then, with our ten to one, cut us off, meaning to ‘bag’ us; and, had it not been for the glorious Fifty-fourth, the whole brigade would have been captured or annihilated. This was the only regiment that rallied, broke the rebel ranks, and saved us. The Eighth United States (Colored) lost their flag twice, and the Fifty-fourth recaptured it each time. They had lost in killed and missing, about three hundred and fifty. They would not retreat when ordered, but charged with the most fearful desperation, driving the enemy before them, and turning their left flank. If this regiment has not won glory enough to have shoulder straps, where is there one that ever did?”

REDEFINING RICHES

It would be easier to take the definition of "riches" back to its philosophical ideal and origin than to try to redistribute such wealth as tangible property. In other words: Just by changing the definition of 'rich', from material possessions to immaterial accessions, like joy and contentment, or like 'love and happiness' --attitudinal and behavioral changes can be effected. Life, itself, is riches. Something that all persons that live already possess! This redefinition of wealth/riches frees man from the fear of want and from the delusion of riches. Such conceptional change can become perceptional then perceptible quickly. It will return "wealth" to the spiritual realm, its original and natural home, whence it was born, and from whence it was enslaved to the hard rock of materialism, by quiescent sufferance in time. It would also be safer to change the definition than to redistribute wealth, because those who have wealth are likely to resist property redistribution violently! However, with the definition of wealth or riches being changed they will give away, nonviolently, the old "riches" in order to acquire the much greater "new, true riches," thereby. So, this change will be much less costly in lives, money or property, and much more loving and long-lasting! This change will enable immediate societal gains and spiritual freedom. To quote Smokey Robinson, "it would be easier to take the wet from water or the dry from sand, than for anyone to try to separate us, stop us from holding hands; cause I love you. I love you from the bottom of my heart, and what love has joined together let nobody take it apart." No army, navy, air force or marines are required to effect this change. Its battlefield is in the hearts and minds of men and women worldwide. Its weapons are epistemology, sociology, theology, science, music, and art. Each of you is a soldier-teacher-practitioner-preacher-philosopher of it!

INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL

"Writing about the abolitionist movement in the 1840s, one northern editor commented, 'Argument provokes argument, reason is met by sophistry; but narratives of slaves go right to the heart of men.' A genre that first appeared in 1760, the slave narrative helped persuade much of antebellum America that slavery was a great blight on the nation's integrity as a system totally irreconcilable with moral and spiritual values...." p. v, "Note" INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, by Harriet Jacobs (Dover Pubs., Mineola NY: 1861, 2001)

history of man

History of man flows like a river from ancient African estuaries. Unbrokenly.

RICH

To be rich is to have joy and contentment.

INTEGRATING INTEGRITY INTO AMERICAN JUSTICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

Integrating integrity into American justice and law enforcement Integrity is lamentably lacking in the American judicial process to such an extent that the nation's Attorney General, Eric Holder, has declared that the justice system is "broken!" Hardly surprising was this austere conclusion from one, whose ancestors were, by constitutional law, counted as only 3/5s of a man, at best, since 1789. Given this disparity in the dispensation of justice, whether distributive or restorative, respecting black 'citizens,' it is apparent that integrity has never been a part of the law enforcement, judicial, nor political processes of the United States of America. Never. While exceptions did prevail in rare and unique individual cases, such "exceptionalism"establishes the rule. Now, scientific evidence has established a plethora of rigged pathology reports in different states. Moreover, independent forensic investigations have documented too many other violations to document them all herein. But, among these is: planted evidence, lying professional "informants," illegally withheld exculpatory evidence, rigged line-ups, unfair juries, improper jury instructions and charges, etc. The foregoing irregularities are routine, resulting now in the release of hundreds, if not thousands, of wrongly convicted persons, in state and in federal court; not counting those who may have already been "lawfully" and irrevocably executed! Just as there are irregularities on the criminal side of America law, there have also been similar abuses on the civil side of American law, again, exceptions notwithstanding. Integrity must be inculcated on both sides of the law: civil and criminal. This means that people of integrity must be hired, appointed and/or promoted in law enforcement as well as in the court system, itself. While the attorney general of the country may have been too polite and too politic to speak more boldly, when addressing the American Bar Association in 2013, I am not so constrained as he! The truth is that the justice and law enforcement system is 'broken,' because its handlers are broken: judges, prosecutors, police, and their allied support personnel, particularly those politicians who appoint them and the people who elect them! Integrity means honesty in the even application of ethical principles, and the rigorous adherence to its pursuit. That is the missing ingredient in American justice. Simple integrity.

NOT INSTRUMENTS BUT INFERENCES

"NOT INSTRUMENTS BUT INFERENCES" There is a range beyond this range. There is light we cannot see: Wherein dwell inconceivable sensations and possibilities. There is a loop beyond this loop. Which beckons us to dream: Of strangely opaque spaces within Rhythmically nuanced themes. There is a world beyond this world, Felt and sensed by you and me: Wherein serenity, love and order Meld dimensions fluidly. Yet, no one having been there, None can ever know whether: Sensate poetic suggestions Is proof that such is so? Invisible to deepest telescopes Outside all acoustic sounds: Not instruments, but inferences Discern what's not yet found.

THE ESSENTIAL GALILEO...excerpt

"[.03] A main reason for delay was that beginning in 1609 Galileo became actively involved in astronomy. To be sure, he had been previously acquainted with the new theory of a moving earth published by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543. He had been appreciative of the fact that Copernicus had advanced a novel argument supporting that ancient idea, namely, a detailed mathematical demonstration that the known facts about the motion of the heavenly bodies could be explained more systematically and coherently (not just more simply) if we attribute to the earth a daily axial rotation and an annual heliocentric revolution. Galileo had acquired the general impression that this geokinetic theory was more consistent with the new physics he was researching than was the geostatic theory. In particular, he had also been attracted to Copernicanism because he thought that the earth's motion could best explain why the tides occur. But he had not articulated, let alone published, this general impression and this particular feeling. "On the other hand, Galileo had been acutely aware of the considerable evidence against Copernicanism. The earth's motion seemed epistemologically absurd because it contradicted direct sense experience. It seemed astronomically false because it had consequences that could not be observed, such as the similarity between terrestrial and the heavenly bodies, Venus' phases, and annual stellar parallax. It seemed mechanically impossible because the available laws of motion implied that bodies on a rotating earth would, for example, follow a slanted rather than vertical path in free fall, and would be thrown off by centrifugal force. And it seemed theologically heretical because it contradicted the literal meaning and the traditional interpretation of some passages in the Bible. Until 1609 Galileo apparently judged that the anti-Copernican arguments far outweighed the pro-Copernican ones. Thus we find him teaching geostatic astronomy in his courses and reacting in a lukewarm and evasive manner when an enthusiastic Copernican like Johannes Kepler tried to engage him. "[.4] However, the telescopic discoveries that began in 1609 led Galileo to a major reassessment of Copernicanism, and so for the next seven years he was seriously and explicitly involved in astronomical research and discussions. In 1609 he perfected the telescope to such an extent as to make it an astronomically useful instrument that could be duplicated by others for sometime. By its means he made several startling discoveries, which he immediately published in The Sidereal Messenger (Venice, 1610): that the moon's surface is full of mountains and valleys; that innumerable other stars exist beside those visible with the naked eye; that the Milky Way and nebulas are dense collections of large numbers of stars; and that the planet Jupiter has four moons revolving around it at different distances and with different periods. As a result, Galileo became a celebrity, resigned his professorship at Padua, was appointed Philosopher and Chief Mathematician to the grand duke of Tuscany, and moved to Florence the same year. Soon thereafter, he discovered sunspots on the phases of Venus." p.4-5, "Introduction," THE ESSENTIAL GALILEO, edited and translated by Maurice A. Finocchiaro (Hackett Pubs, Indianapolis: 2008)

Meter and meaning

Meter often mediates, indeed modulates, meaning.

ghost writers

"Hosts and hosts of ghost-writers" Many major authors have had ghost-writers and researchers who helped in their productions over the ages. "Homer," the blind father of western literature, about whose life and image, practically nothing is known, including when he lived, is the reputed author of THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. When I first read the ILIAD in high school, or in junior high, in the 1960's his authorship was undisputed. Now, not only is his authorship, but his actual existence itself, is wrapped up and is subsumed within the "Homeric question." Ghostly, indeed! Alexander Dumas, the most masterful of French novelists, and the most prodigious, certainly had such helpers, as I have learned from reading the introduction to TWENTY YEARS LATER, a work that I never knew to exist until last year, 2013. I thought that I had read his complete corpus upon reading THE THREE MUSKETEERS, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, THE BLACK TULIP, and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, my personal favorite. James A. Michener, the much-celebrated author of CENTENNIAL , which I read, ironically, in 1976, while moving cross-country, and SOUTH PACIFIC, which I have not read, along with others of his bevy of block-buster novels, was another such employer of researchers, ghost writers, and aids. Missouri's own immortal, Mark Twain, née Samuel L. Clemens, whose early works like TOM SAWYER, and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, his, and my, former slave-state adores, to the exclusion of his later works, was another such writer who has employed, or utilized, collaborators in, LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI and THE GILDED AGE, being among them. Twain's later works, I continue to read. It has been argued for centuries that William Shakespeare was not a single person, but a guild of learned writers that employed that "nom de plume" to conceal their identities. Others argue that college-educated writers were really Shakespeare: like Christopher Marlowe or Sir Francis Bacon. That debate yet rages. All of Shakespeare's plays I have read, but I prefer OTHELLO above all others. Of course, who wrote the BIBLE has long been a debated question over its thousands of years of existence. Similar questions have also nagged the QURAN, given the Prophet Muhammad's alleged illiteracy. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these great works, and return to the Bible frequently for solace, for allusions and for references. Writing that stands the test of time is difficult and rigorous, to say the least. Given human vagaries and varieties, it must manipulate universal themes and memes in its ministrations. Otherwise, it is dust! Personally, I am not offended by ghost writers being present or absent in connection with a great work. So long as that author's or creator's "touch" and genius is evident, it is of no consequence to me who the various laborers, subcontractors, suppliers, distributors, and artisans may have been, now and then, in any literary production, ancient or modern. Doubtless, other professions and vocations, from science to theology with the fine and practical arts, in between, including music, have also been collaborative efforts. As relates to "ghost-writers," John Donne's inspiring poem still rings true: "no man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main..."

RECENTLY DISCOVERED SPEECH OF DR. KING FROM 1964 AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

http://www.whur.com/whur/rare-martin-luther-king-jr-speech-found-in-arizona-listen-to-it-here/

"THEM BONES'' GRANDPARENTS

There is more to our people than "dry bones" or dice or chicken bones! There is also the mighty Lebombo Bone! Going back over 35,000 years! Pick up on that bone, my brother! What's the Oldest Mathematical Artifact? (I) numberwarrior.wordpress.com

CARTER G. WOODSON

Where you start is immaterial. Where you finish matters. Carter G. Woodson was the son of former enslaved Africans James and Eliza Riddle Woodson. He gained a master’s degree at the University of Chicago in 1908, and in 1912, he received a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History” started Negro History week in 1926, which later became Black History Month.

ALICE WALKER ET. AL.

Inspiration can be direct, inverse, and perverse. I know. I partially watched a program about novelist, Alice Walker, last night. She was featured autobiographically on PBS' "American Masters"series. I was not directly inspired by it. Nor inversely inspired. Maybe perversely inspired I was, just to notice it at all. I remember the black feminists of the 1970's, having felt both their feral fury and their fatuous folly, myself. I remember THE COLOR PURPLE, a book I pointedly refused to read. Neither for similar reasons did I read Ntozake Shange's FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW WAS ENUF. I did attend a poetry reading by June Jordan in KC. I remember asking her in the Q & A: "Is rhyme dead?" She was offended, and vented her free-verse spleen upon my inquiry's veiled invective of her form. Nevertheless, I bought her book, which she perfunctorily signed dispassionately.Then, I read it and forgot it, until last night's program on Alice Walker, when I learned about their black women's writer's group, the "Sisterhood"-- Walker, Shange, Jordan, these three, and more. Then, I understood. These were not random irruptions from the black soul. These were hired assassins of the black spirit. Through them flowed that woeful domestic dissonance which devolved into divorce, sexual deviancy, demonism, and the near-destruction of the black family. When I saw Gloria Steinem and MS Magazine was one of their mentors, it became perfectly clear what I had long suspected; that American publishers, producers, and entertainment/ intellectual moguls subscribe to a meme: the black manhood beat-down, which these "black" women fulfilled, completely. So, even if not inspired by last night's show: directly, inversely or perversely, I was at least, and at last, satisfied to write these word. That was more than enough, itself. Acclaimed Author Alice Walker Profiled on PBS’American Masters examiner.com On Friday, February 7th at 8pm (Central) on PBS, THIRTEEN's American Masters will air Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth. The documentary is in honor of Ms. Walker's

COPERNICUS: "the freedom to imagine..."

http://hem.bredband.net/b153434/Works/Copernicus.htm "the freedom to imagine"...

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S "WHITE GLOVES TEST"

Booker T. Washington's famous "White Gloves Test": Importance of Always Doing Your Very Best! Booker T. Washington taught many important life principles to our newly "freed" forefathers which helped to make them the marvels of the world. They had incredibly struggled up from oppression to become literate in one generation, and from being landless to landowners of 1/3 of American farmland by 1915. All by applying these vitally practical lessons passed down to them from and by Tuskegee's great founder. One of them was to always do your best. That is, to go back over your work, again and again, until it is free of imperfections of any kind; until it is something you are proud to show! In UP FROM SLAVERY, his classic, timeless, and much-too-seldom-read autobiography, he explains how he came to understand this lesson, vividly! He says that he had acquired a reputation for competence as a young man in West Virginia, which earned him an opportunity to apply for employment working as a cleaning boy for a demanding old New England spinster who lived in the area. She had a stern reputation for requiring punctuality and perfection from her cleaning boys, so she had gone through a slue of them, before getting to Booker T. She gave him a room to clean and returned to inspect it within an hour. Booker quickly cleaned the room, top to bottom, and proudly presented it to her upon her return. Upon her return, that spinster did the unthinkable: She pulled out a pair of white-gloves! Rubbing her hands in corners, under table tops, and in other out-of-the-way places, her gloves became quite dirty, naturally. Showing these to Booker T, she told him that unless he could pass her "white gloves test," that he would not be hired as her house boy. Booker T desperately wanted that job, so he begged for another opportunity to clean that room, which he granted. This time, Booker T cleaned and re-cleaned, scrubbed and re-scrubbed, swept and re-swept, mopped and re-mopped, dusted and re-dusted, and waxed and re-waxed, until that room was spic-and-span, spotless. He got the job! This time, knowing her extremely high standards, he had fully and faithfully applied himself to the job at hand, and he had passed that stern lady's "white gloves test!" But, more importantly, he had learned an invaluable life lesson, which he applied successfully and repeatedly in his own life. He became thereby widely known as "Dr. Booker Taliaferro Washington, the 'Wizard of Tuskegee!" He employed Dr. George Washington Carver, an immortal soil scientist and inventor. He also employed the first black architect with a college degree, Robert Taylor, who designed the campus and its many structures. Washington's rules, clues, lessons, instructions, and attributes he passed down in time, and in turn, to us all in his 12 or 13 books that he authored, and through his college's programs and graduates. He taught that in whatsoever you do for yourselves or for another, whether at work, leisure, or at play, always do your very best without fail. "White gloves" easily incriminate fake diligence, and, they are ever vigilant to impugn and to correct!

1 KINGS 19:18

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18

GALILEO

"Thirdly, the historical circumstances of Galileo's time and his own personal inclinations made Galileo into a kind of philosopher. Of course, he was not a systematic metaphysician who speculated about the eternal problems of being and nothingness. Instead he was a concrete-oriented critical thinker like Socrates, with the difference that whereas Socrates dealt with moral or ethical questions of good or evil and the meaning of life, Galileo dealt with the epistemological and methodical questions about the nature of truth and knowledge and the truth and knowledge of nature."

SPINOZA, "THE ETHICS"

"IX. Nothing can be in more harmony with the nature of any given thing than other individuals of the same species; therefore ... for man in the preservation of his being and the enjoyment of the rational life there is nothing more useful than his fellow-man who is led by reason. Further, as we know not anything among individual things which are more excellent than a man led by reason, no man can better display the power of his skill and disposition, than in so training men, that they come at last to live under the dominion of their own reason." P.243, THE ETHICS, "Appendix," by Benedict de Spinoza (Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York: 1667, 1989)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN DID NOT FREE THE SLAVES...

Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves. I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves. No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction. Lincoln was "Forced into Glory" (Lerone Bennett, Jr.'s eponym) by the historically distorted canard that his reluctant, war-time, Executive Order, had "freed" the slaves in the South. That is patently untrue! Lincoln's September 22, 1862-issued order freed no one, not one slave! The Slaves seized upon its issuance, its audacity, like a fighter exploiting an opening, to intensify those acts of self-liberation, which they had long-since been effectively pursuing: principally, running away to the North. "The South," the Confederate States of America (CSA), had its own President, Jefferson Davis. It also had its own: Congress, Constitution, Flag, Money, Army, Navy, Diplomats, Media, Economy, Borders, and Culture. The "Emancipation Proclamation," Lincoln's Executive Order that became effective January 1, 1863, had zero legal impact upon the CSA, just as CSA's President's Executive Orders has zero legal impact upon the USA. They were separate and sovereign. War sought in blood that reification and ratification of separateness not secured by politics. What Lincoln's "Executive Order" had actually done: was to arm, to organize, to train, and to militarize those self-liberating Slaves who could, somehow, reach the USA's military lines on their own. Millions of Slaves overwhelmed those lines, upon learning that by reason of Lincoln's military-measure, the "Emancipation Proclamation," they had been"freed." The affect upon them was magical, spiritual, psychological, emboldening, inebriating, and instantaneous! All African Slaves praised God and praised Mr. Lincoln for it, too! To be sure, those healthy Slaves mustered into USA service, were too-quickly trained, haphazardly armed, inadequately shod, fed and housed; were sometimes led by some less-than-sympathetic whites; and without any colored officers of their own. These troops were also underpaid, if ever paid. But--at last and at least--they were free of slavery. They were also sufficiently armed and sufficiently organized and sufficiently supplied to defeat slavery and to defend their still-constitutionally-dubious freedom. Hundreds of thousands of Slaves were mustered into the USA Army and the Navy. The rest, deemed "contraband," meaning "war gains," provided labor, nursing, undertaking, transport, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, provisioning, and especially the growing cash crops, like cotton, on contraband or "abandoned" lands. Thousands of Slaves also died from starvation, disease, injury, exposure, and murder by USA and CSA officers' indifferent orders. These U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) were that "Sable Arm" (Dudley Cornish's eponym) that actually "won" the "War Between the States," a/k/a the Civil War, and what the Slaves termed, THE FREEDOM WAR: which those Slaves had long predicted, promoted, participated in, and disproportionately profited from! Prior to the infusion of Slaves into USA lines, the CSA had been winning the war, militarily. In battle after battle, until Gettysburg and Antietem, in the Summer of 1863, which were at best "draws," the CSA was victorious. Then, finally, after January 1, 1863, with the Slaves' mythical "freedom," the tables slowly started to turn, at New Orleans, at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson, and elsewhere, splitting the CSA and reclaiming the Mississippi River and its transport, logistics and commerce for the USA. General John C. Fremont, USA's military commander of the Department of the West, in St. Louis, had unilaterally "freed" or "manumitted" many Missouri slaves on August 30, 1861, as a war measure, to divest the CSA of its chief resource the Slaves themselves. His Field Order was countermanded by Lincoln on September 11, 1861, out of fear and disdain. General David Hunter did the same thing in May 1862, also as a war measure, actually having trained Slave "volunteers" to fight, in South Carolina, in regiments. This, too, Lincoln also as quickly reversed. Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners. The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857. That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing! Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory. I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves. No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction. th," the Confederate States of America (CSA), had its own President, Jefferson Davis. It also had its own: Congress, Constitution, Flag, Money, Army, Navy, Diplomats, Media, Economy, Borders, and Culture. The "Emancipation Proclamation," Lincoln's Executive Order that became effective January 1, 1863, had zero legal impact upon the CSA, just as CSA's President's Executive Orders has zero legal impact upon the USA. They were separate and sovereign. War sought in blood that reification and ratification of separateness not secured by politics. What Lincoln's "Executive Order" had actually done: was to arm, to organize, to train, and to militarize those self-liberating Slaves who could, somehow, reach the USA's military lines on their own. Millions of Slaves overwhelmed those lines, upon learning that by reason of Lincoln's military-measure, the "Emancipation Proclamation," they had been"freed." The affect upon them was magical, spiritual, psychological, emboldening, inebriating, and instantaneous! All African Slaves praised God and praised Mr. Lincoln for it, too! To be sure, those healthy Slaves mustered into USA service, were too-quickly trained, haphazardly armed, inadequately shod, fed and housed; were sometimes led by some less-than-sympathetic whites; and without any colored officers of their own. These troops were also underpaid, if ever paid. But--at last and at least--they were free of slavery. They were also sufficiently armed and sufficiently organized and sufficiently supplied to defeat slavery and to defend their still-constitutionally-dubious freedom. Hundreds of thousands of Slaves were mustered into the USA Army and the Navy. The rest, deemed "contraband," meaning "war gains," provided labor, nursing, undertaking, transport, washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, provisioning, and especially the growing cash crops, like cotton, on contraband or "abandoned" lands. Thousands of Slaves also died from starvation, disease, injury, exposure, and murder by USA and CSA officers' indifferent orders. These U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) were that "Sable Arm" (Dudley Cornish's eponym) that actually "won" the "War Between the States," a/k/a the Civil War, and what the Slaves termed, THE FREEDOM WAR: which those Slaves had long predicted, promoted, participated in, and disproportionately profited from! Prior to the infusion of Slaves into USA lines, the CSA had been winning the war, militarily. In battle after battle, until Gettysburg and Antietem, in the Summer of 1863, which were at best "draws," the CSA was victorious. Then, finally, after January 1, 1863, with the Slaves' mythical "freedom," the tables slowly started to turn, at New Orleans, at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson, and elsewhere, splitting the CSA and reclaiming the Mississippi River and its transport, logistics and commerce for the USA. General John C. Fremont, USA's military commander of the Department of the West, in St. Louis, had unilaterally "freed" or "manumitted" many Missouri slaves on August 30, 1861, as a war measure, to divest the CSA of its chief resource the Slaves themselves. His Field Order was countermanded by Lincoln on September 11, 1861, out of fear and disdain. General David Hunter did the same thing in May 1862, also as a war measure, actually having trained Slave "volunteers" to fight, in South Carolina, in regiments. This, too, Lincoln also as quickly reversed. Meanwhile, Lincoln's own Commanding General, George C. McClellan, self-sabotaged the USA's opportunity for quick military victories, repeatedly, by delay, by miscalculation, by misinformation, and by endless excuses, say historians, until he was finally replaced, by Lincoln who favored gradual emancipation with compensation to owners. The only General in the field that Lincoln actually learned from was Benjamin Franklin Butler, a civilian lawyer, like Lincoln. Butler had refused to return three self-liberated Slaves to their CSA owner in June 1861 at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He claimed them as "contraband of war," for the USA, using a form of legal logic that deemed Slaves to be equivalent to livestock, grain, boats, any enemy property--not dissimilar to how they were. already viewed under the U.S. Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision of 1857. That clever characterization excused Butler from having to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that required the return of slaves to their "owners" wherever found, which Lincoln was still enforcing well-after April 9, 1861, when the CSA seceded, declared and started firing! Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, as part of a Surratt conspiracy that almost assassinated Secretary of State William H. Seward, a renown abolitionist, on that same date and time. Even so, the "freedom" of the slaves, was secured by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the USA's military victory, which their bold war effort produced. Lincoln the "Great Emancipator," was, in fact, the "Great Equivocator" that was forced into glory. I repeat: Abraham Lincoln did not "free" the slaves. No! The slaves freed themselves, freed Lincoln and freed the United States of America (USA) from self-destruction.

times, locations and climes

Times, locations, and climes Determine all human kinds. Put another way: Each age adduces people that are conducive To its ends.

instructions in stone

MEMNON OF THE ILIAD

a new day

A new day awakens and beckons our best.

READ

john 10: 1-18

John 10 21st Century King James Version (KJ21) 10 “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper openeth, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.” 6 This parable Jesus spoke unto them, but they understood not what things they were which He spoke unto them. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, “Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. 12 But he that is a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep and am known by Mine. 15 As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. 17 Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received from My Father.”

A SHARED LEGACY

A SHARED LEGACY Build each other up; support each other, and encourage one another. These must be the primary goals of any organization, whether a family unit, a club or association, church or school; or even city, state or nation. The health and vigor of each individual cell contributes to the health and vigor of the indivisible whole. Pump up the person, and the person will, in turn, pump up the whole. Neglect the person and that person, or unit, will neglect the whole. There is no one standard for all. Each cell or unit must be individually assessed, loved, nurtured, attended, instructed, disciplined, and endowed sufficiently to assist itself, first, as a preliminary matter, before it can be reasonably solicited for assistance by the whole; or be expected to be of material assistance to the whole! This lesson many groups, of all kinds, must learn, and re-learn. Vexations, taxations, and burdens do not bless those who are burdened, indefinitely. Empowering each person, or unit, is empowering the whole. Good fruit will yield many more good fruit seeds! The seed is not greater than its fruit, nor is the fruit any greater than its seed. Theirs is a shared symbiosis and legacy.

HENRY JOHNSON, WWI HERO, 369TH FRANCE

Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts were two World War I heroes, members of the 15th New York National Guard regiment (colored), redesignated the 369 Infantry battalion, when consigned to serve under French command, owing to racism in Gen. Pershing's USA forces. These men, assigned to a listening post in "no man's land," routed a German squadron of 24 men, killing and wounding many, while injured themselves. They were awarded the French "Croix de Guerre," the highest military award for their bravery and tenacity! Henry Johnson, Sergeant, United States Army www.arlingtoncemetery.net

TIME IS GREATER THAN MONEY

TIME IS GREATER THAN MONEY There is an erroneous belief that I once subscribed to. It was that : "Time is money." That is false. Time is not money. Time is vastly more valuable than money! Time is life itself. One can always get more money. But, not more time! Thank you for your time.