character: the heart's content

CHARACTER: THE HEART'S CONTENT Character is what a thing is made of; its true constitution ; its elements. "To make a silk purse from a sow's ear" is contrary to character: that of the pig's ear and that of silk, both. Yet, in this cyber-age of synthetics, cosmetics, prosthetics; even of inane aesthetics, one's true character is too often overlooked or as often mistook! One of the greatest teachings of all times dissociates the color of one's skin from their content of character. Character, then, is neither cosmetic nor genetic ; it is deeper still, being essential, derived from essences. Character is quintessential. It is that without which a thing is not. It is also that with which a thing necessarily is. Character is both within and without. "When you get right down to it, isn't this really what it's all about, girl?" So sung the Delphonics' popular lyric. Character is the spiritual expressed through the material. It is the soul of man, of life, of all things: even that of the "wet from water or the dry from sand." As sung by Smokey Robinson. The character of a thing is its nature. "Unnatural" is contrary to its nature. Solid, liquid, gas, plasma are the four states of matter. These natural phases of matter respond to, react with, every environmental change. Does the spirit respond and react to environmental change, like matter, in its own interests of self-preservation? Or is the spirit singularly defiant of any environmental change, or of any other change, if possible to know? Are matter and spirit even severable? Or is this notion of their distinction a false, imposed dichotomy; a gloss? If matter is spirit, being the same, then, they would experience the same four transitional states in the same environmental contexts, or in any other context regardless. The 4-chambered human heart is the seat of, as it is also emblematic of this joint 4-phased character of man; this mysterious amalgamation of the spirit and matter in man codified is "soul": liquid, solid, gas, plasma. Yes, the heart is deceitful above all things, says the Bible; that none can know but God. http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/17-9.htm Yet, at the same time, we are assured that both the deceived and the deceiver are God's. Job 12:16 "Character" can be camouflaged like nature uses camouflage to disguise plant and animal life to survive alive. So, be discerning of character and of characters of all kinds, because it is possible to deceive the very elect. "Man, know thyself" means character. Knowing your character, first, enables you to discern and to recognize the specific, unique character of others surrounding you, by the Holy Spirit. "21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. " 1 John 3: Character is the content of the heart.

SCHOLARLY PHILANTHROPISTS OF CHARACTER

SCHOLARLY PHILANTHROPISTS OF CHARACTER "What we need is a grand moral revolution which shall touch and vivify the inner life of a people, which shall give them dissatisfaction with ignoble motives and sensual desires, which shall bring to them a resurrection from inferior ideas and lowly ambitions; which shall shed illumination through all the chambers of their souls, which shall lift them up to lofty aspirations, which shall put them in the race for manly moral superiority.... "The revolution I speak of is one which must find its primal elements in qualities, latent though they be, which reside in the people who need this revolution, and which can be drawn out of them, and thus secure form and reality. "The basis of this revolution must be character. That is the rock on which this whole race in America is to be built up. Our leaders and teachers are to address themselves to this main and master endeavor, viz., to free them from false ideas and injurious habits, to persuade them to the adoption of correct principles, to lift them up to superior modes of living, and so bring forth, as permanent factors in their life, the qualities of thrift, order, acquisitiveness, virtue, and manliness. "And who are the agents to bring about this grand change in this race?... "'They' are to be the scholars; for to transform, stimulate, and uplift a people is a work of intelligence; it is a work which demands a clear induction of historic facts and their application to new circumstances,--a work which will require the most skillful resources and the wise practicality of superior men. "But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims. And hence, these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists; the intellect rightly discerning the conditions, and the gracious and godly heart stimulating to the performance of the noblest duties of a people." p. 132-133, "The Need for New Ideas and New Aims," (1885) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS: SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL ON THE SOUTH edited by J.R. Oldfield (University of Virginia Press: 1995)

"N----R NAVIGATOR"

http://www.ask.com/wiki/La_Amistad?o=2800&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com When we learned of the "Amistad" slave mutiny in high school in the late '60s, certain of us coined the phrase "N----r navigator," as a metaphor to refer to black leaders who could not steer straight toward their desired destination, owing to ignorance of navigation principles. In so doing, we were humorously mocking the heroic Cuban slaves who had taken over the Amistad in 1839 in Cuba, but wound up in North America, after being deceived by a surviving white crew member who steered north, not east. So, instead of returning to Sierre Leone, Africa, their intended destination, they ended up in slave-holding America. Still, they won freedom in court and thanks to black abolitionists were repatriated to Africa, thereafter.

CONTINUE TO STUDY AND TO LEARN

CONTINUE TO STUDY AND LEARN Studying a part of a thing is good, but studying the whole of a thing is best. Of course, one must start some place, at some part. Then, slowly, and gradually one works one's way up until one has attained a view of the whole; if not a grasp of the whole. "One's reach ever exceeds one's grasp," someone once truly said. Or as Dr. Martin Luther King famously said, in substance, on the eve of his apotheosis, his last night on earth: "But, He has allowed me to look over and to see the promised land. I may not get there with you. But, We, as a people, will get to the promised land. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." Apostle Paul has said, in substance, "we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… These teachings are generally true for anything. Black history month 2015 is ending soon. Keep on studying world history of which it is a very vital part. One can not learn addition and not learn subtraction nor multiplication and not learn division. Neither can one learn fractions without learning integers; or vice versa. Verily, the part implicates the whole and the whole contains the part. Continue to learn!

ONE

WE ARE ONE WITH THE ONE This plane of being known as 'life' is an ephemeral product of the spiritual or energetic phases of being, and the physical or material phases of being. Both phases of being are but evolving differential aspects of ever-increasing, inconceivably larger, universal phases of infinitely dynamic "being" known to mankind as God, Allah, Jehovah etc. The differential interactions of these phases of being is continuously ongoing, although our conceptions apprehend them as constant and invariant. For similar reasons, we do not feel the earth's rotations nor its revolutions. Yet, that such occurs is the basis of all our calculations and conceptions of time and of space. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, " in Matthew 26:41, neatly encapsulates differential interactions, whose resonance and friction, powers and empowers our inquiry and our motion toward greater inquiry and motion, ineluctably, inescapably. Life's evolution 'began' on earth from cosmic interstellar dusts blown by solar gas/winds onto and into earth's rocky crevices; earth itself being a product of the same gases and dusts. This process of accretion enabled microscopic and macroscopic life forms to emerge, to feed, to mate. In process of time and space, these ancient 'life' fundamentals combined with matter and spirit; physics and chemistry; astronomy and biology; geometry and mathematics, some how mysteriously and geophysically, Life scaled up and scaled upon each life's predecessor in accordance with climate and environment to produce man, not linearly, but quadratically; dynamically and epistemologically. Man came, in turn, to consider the why's, how's, what's, when's and wherefore's of his own being. These considerations evolved from typology to symbology to mythology, leading to theories of mankind's own existence from the sacred mound of Ptah of ancient Kemet ("Memphite theology"); to Euclid's "Elements" and infallible proofs; to Plato's forms in his "Timaeus;" to the books of Genesis through Revelations of Christianity's authorized Bible; to Newton's Natural Mathematics and his "Scholia;" to Darwin's theory of natural evolution in his "Origin of the Species" and his later, "The Descent of Man," to Einstein's yet prevailing two theories of general and special relativity, which are founded upon all other scientific and mathematical precursors' works that were known to him, Riemann's geometry especially. In truth, as windblown Saharan dusts yearly enrich depleted Amazonian soils with minerals and phosphorous, we are one with each other, enriching the other, whatever our phase or form on earth; thus one with the One of all.

QUIXOTIC 'POOR WHITES' -- THE WEAKEST LINK

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In America, the weakest link is not the poor blacks. It is the quixotic 'poor whites'. The poor blacks usually act and vote in accordance with their perceived self-interests. Poor whites, ironically, do not. They usually vote for those who recompense their want with illusions of 'white' superiority. This large aggregation of white poor people is the Republicans' reliable base. They continually accept lies for truth, and white favoritism for fairness. Dispossessing this mentally deranged base of its enormous annual receipt of federal/state benefits, the inevitable consequence of "conservative" politics, and instating true justice in the legal system from police to politically appointed judges, may hopefully disabuse this befuddled recreant subclass of its 'poor white' superiority and strengthen that chain.

NOTES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

"These were errors of thought which cost me two years of excessively hard work, until I recognized them as such at the end of 1915, and after having ruefully returned to the Riemannian curvature, succeeded in linking the theory with the facts of astronomical experience. "In light of the knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion, and the final emergence into the light--only those those who have experienced it can understand that." p. 289-290, "Notes on the Origin of the General Theory of Relativity," IDEAS AND OPINIONS by Albert Einstein (1954, 1982)

PERSONAL WORTH IS FROM BIRTH

MAN'S TRUE WORTH IS FROM BIRTH Personal worth is not measured by college degrees. As humans, we are endowed by our actuator and Creator with limitless potential in this sphere, and in this phase of being, on earth. First, a disclaimer : I have two college degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism, and a Juris Doctor degree both from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in '73 and '76. That said, until late in the 19th century, neither journalism nor law, required any college at all. One simply apprenticed on-the-job with mavens already in the field until one acquired proficiency. Afterwards, one passed an oral examination in front of a judge and other lawyers, for one's law license, or one was given a job as a journalist or launched one's own publication. The same held true for other fields whether teaching, preaching, or becoming a physician. While there were colleges and universities for centuries, their use was optional. Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest writer in the English language, did not attend college; neither did Dumas perhaps the greatest writer in the French language; nor did Pushkin the founder of Russian literature. While there are war colleges today, neither Toussaint L'Overture nor Jean Jacques Dessalines, who combined to defeat Napoleon's troops attended one, in route to liberating Haiti from France's slavery and duplicitousness. Jesus of Nazareth had no college degree. Yet his words, that were recalled and written many decades after his death; indeed some words, after centuries of Roman oppression and persecution, are "Gospel," the good news, to the Christian world. The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, who some say wrote many books of the New Testament, was formally educated under Gamaliel, a leading doctor of laws of their day. But, all that Paul later wrote was in glorious exposition and exultation of the humble man from Galilee, Jesus the Christ, who changed Saul to "Paul!" My point is that college, though wonderful and preferable, is not essential to one's self-actualization. One can get along without it, if one is willing to envision a specific end and to apply one's God-given gifts to work toward that end's realization. God's innate gift that enables mankind's special capacity has long been known, intuitively, and has long been worshiped openly. That knowledge was later recorded, educed, preserved, promulgated, as prior proof, evidence for the benefit of later generations attending colleges, temples, mosques, and cathedrals. To reiterate, the gift is innate. College is a powerful accessory, but into and of itself, it imparts no more than a prima facie societal badge of worth. Man's true worth is his from birth!

Egyptian Philosophy

Call it what you will, Ancient Kemet's teachings underlie all else, being the alluvial and astronomical offspring of Kush (Ethiopia); the brother of Nimrod (Sumeria); and the veritable template of Greece, Rome, Christianity and us.

DESTRUCTION OF MYTH OF 'WHITE' SUPREMACY

There lies the lying and pernicious doctrine of 'white' supremacy that has enthralled so many 'whites'; that has disillusioned or destroyed so many blacks for economic exploitation purposes, initially, later for political purposes, now for no purpose at all!

DEFINED: INFORMATION-FACTS-KNOWLEDGE

Defined: Information-facts-knowledge Information is data derived from sensory perception. Facts are deductions derived from information. Knowledge is patterned facts.

LET IT BE

LET IT BE Is the draftsman to be faulted for not being a craftsman; or the craftsman a draftsman? No! Each has unique and essential gifts. Why fault the nose for not being an ear, or an ear the nose. Absurd insistence that one thing seek to be another, is as unbecoming as either thing actually seeking to be the other.. Each thing has its own place, its own strata, its own purpose. Let them be

FREEDMAN'S BANK FINANCIAL BETRAYAL

"Chartered by Congress in 1865 in the District of Columbia , the Freedman's Savings Bank was founded with the express purpose of 'encouraging thrift among newly-emancipated Negroes.' The Richmond branch, one of many throughout the urban South, opened in mid-October 1865. The first deposits were from discharged soldiers, and many were accompanied by messages left for family members such as instructions with accounts designating kin who could have access to the money in time of need. Each branch had a northern white cashier and an advisory board of African Americans... "Heroic efforts were made to attract depositors to the bank. Leaders of churches and societies emphasized the idea of savings as the road to real freedom, and every little bit that individuals and groups could gather was solicited for deposit to Freedman's. With this sort of backing, it is not surprising that the bank's assets grew steadily. By the end of 1872, the Richmond branch had $162,000 in 3,400 accounts. Unfortunately, the money was not used for African American community development at the local level but was sent back to Washington, D.C.. The original stricture that the banks investments be confined to government securities was lifted in 1870; and investments in wildcat stocks, mortgages on worthless property, and unsecured loans to whites, quickly drove the bank under. A last-ditch effort to save Freedman's was made by putting Frederick Douglass in charge, but there was nothing he could do. The bank closed in 1874, having betrayed the aspirations of a people in the most scandalous way. "If Freedman's depositors were able to salvage anything, and most did not even know how to make claims, it was a small proportion of their accounts. Because many had mistakenly believed the bank's safety was guaranteed in some way by the government, they were doubly disillusioned. Efforts went on for years to get compensation from Congress, but none was ever forthcoming. Though Freedman's was not a black bank in terms of management, the two major messages the African American community absorbed was that to aggregate black funds was to become vulnerable and to trust any leader urging them to deposit their money with a particular bank was dangerous. The vast majority, if they trusted banks at all, later kept their money in white banks even when there were alternatives. In addition to the financial loss, it would be hard to exaggerate the psychological impact of the bank's failure on Richmond's blacks, particularly because the community's leaders were the ones who had been instrumental in aggressively recommending it. As one commentator noted, 'It served as a great setback for Negro financial energy.' [Maggie Lena] Walker at the time was in grade school, and neither she nor her parents had accounts at the bank, but St. Luke councils did, as did her future husband and his siblings." P.xxix-xxx, "Introduction," A RIGHT WORTHY GRAND MISSION: MAGGIE LENA WALKER AND THE QUEST FOR BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT by Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe (Howard U. Press, DC: 2003)

BETTER

Better Better empathy than antipathy in the pathways of life. Better knowledge than ignorance in the midst of strife. Better honesty than insincerity as we travel along. Better love and devotion and right than wrong, It!s not that I know what is best It's not that I know what is best I just defer to the One who does. I just defer to the One who does.

LIFE'S INEXORABLE ADVENTURE

LIFE’S INEXORABLE ADVENTURE Solving anything for the unknown must begin with what is known. Knowing the known, and manipulating its essences, yields the unknown. The unknown is immanent in the known. The known is immanent in the unknown . Certain rules, procedures, precepts, techniques ease this effort to solve. These methods, too, begin with what was known; their manipulation reveals the unknown. The known and the unknown are accessible essences of the Infinite Unknowable. Rejoice and seek to know the ever-receding known which scales to the infinite unknown. In truth, try as it might, mankind can never get past the known, like it cannot get past the present. Trying to do so, however, is the inexorable duty, goal, and adventure of life.

PEERLESS AND FEARLESS: A.M.E. BISHOP HENRY McNEIL TURNER

This great man and African Methodist Episcopal (AME) bishop was not guided by the spirit of fear; but by the spirit of love of, and for, his people; by the spirit of power of, and for, God's redeeming grace; and of and by the spirit of a sound mind, which he enriched by continually studying the Bible and the world's great books. These discerned truths, principles, rules and precepts, were then tested. If successful, they were then applied to our newly-freed people's challenges and hope, "post-Reconstruction". The office of bishop was neither sought nor attained by him as a prize. Rather, it was a means to an end, not as the end to his means; not as a sinecure or moneyed resting place. But as a forward post to better lead our race. Our denominational, AME ecclesiastical tree needs pruning of its dead limbs and branches, to improve its productive capacity, qualitatively. We need bishops, officers, preachers, and laymen with the spirit, love, power, and sound minds, akin to that which infused Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, et. al., to meet the challenges of our times, fearlessly, to the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. This age demands such and will inevitably produce such. Let it be our Zion from whose eyes the scales fall; from whose ears the wax is removed; from who minds gross darkness is lifted; from whose hearts fear is banished. Let it be us that come forth as pure gold: from this crucible of racist heat, from this crushing trial by ordeal.

KILL THEIR DELIVERERS UNAWARES?

KILL THE DELIVERERS UNAWARES? When I read of the heroic deeds of colonial-era black troops in defeating British troops, I am moved to wonder, in light of later events in our history, whether they gullibly and credulously killed their true deliverers, unawares? For example, John Wesley Cromwell, Esq., an early Howard University Law School graduate, writes in his great book, the one that inspired the iconic Carter G. Woodson, THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN HISTORY; MEN AND WOMEN EMINENT IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN OF AFRICAN DESCENT (1913), the following : "Salem Poor was the subject of a memorial to the General Court of Massachusetts for his soldierly bearing and bravery. To Peter Salem belongs the distinction of killing Major Pitcairn at Bunker Hill, and Jordan Freeman killed Major Montgomery at the storming of Ft. Griswold. At the battle of Rhode Island, August 29, 1778, a battalion of 400 Negroes withstood three separate charges from 1,500 Hessians under Count Donop. In his description of the battle, Arnold says: 'It was in repelling the furious onslaught, that the newly raised black regiment under Colonel Green distinguished itself by deeds of desperate valor. Posted behind a thicket in the valley, three times they drove back the Hessians who charged repeatedly down the hill to dislodge them; and so determined were the enemy in these successive charges, that the day after the battle the Hessian Colonel who had led the attack, applied to exchange his command and go to New York, because he dared not lead his regiment again to battle lest his men should shoot him for having caused so much loss." P.51 "

MY BLACK COLLEGE PEP TALK BY UNCLE WILEY HARRIS

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/02/12/historically-black-colleges-enrollment/23335687/ I was headed to college in Boston or Ithaca, NY, until my first wife's late uncle, Wiley Harris, shamed black-oriented-me into enrolling at Howard U. My earlier fantasies about Boston U. or Cornell were all based on magazine articles (Ebony especially) about their Black Student Unions. He asked me: "You like black people? Want to be around black people?" When I said, "yes." He said, "Then go to a black college. In fact, go to Howard." I protested that "They might not be ready for me." He replied with a chuckle. "They are more than ready for you, young man. Some of our greatest leaders went there. If you like black, 7,000 blacks is better than 70." Mind you, this man had just met me that same day! He totally blew my young mind. And I am so glad that he did! Encourage promising students near you to go to black colleges please. You know better than they could ever know, based on having lived!

A.M.E. BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER, PEERLESS AND FEARLESS

Bishop Henry M. Turner is a towering figure in African Methodism and in black history. Angell's biography of him is a must-read. He spread the AME church into Africa; preached that "God is a Negro," founded a number of church publications; doubled the size of the entire AME denomination in the country by proselytizing to the South's freedmen; wrote a number of books, including AME Polity; and encouraged the development of literary societies and learning in all churches and districts. Peerless and fearless he was! '#RootDisruptor: Henry McNeal Turner Henry McNeal Turner was a minister, politician, and the first Southern bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born free in South Carolina, he moved to Georgia after the American Civil War, where he pioneered in organizing new congregations for the independent Black denomination. Angered by the Democrats’ regaining power and instituting Jim Crow laws in the late 19th-century South, Turner began to support Black nationalism and the emigration of Blacks to Africa. He was the chief figure in the late 19th century to promote the movement, which expanded after World War I.' TheRoot.com ‪#‎RootDisruptor‬: Henry McNeal Turner Henry McNeal Turner was a minister, politician, and the first Southern bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born free in South Carolina, he moved to Georgia after the American Civil War, where he pioneered in organizing new congregations for the independent Black denomination. Angered by the Democrats’ regaining power and instituting Jim Crow laws in the late 19th-century South, Turner began to support Black nationalism and the emigration of Blacks to Africa. He was the chief figure in the late 19th century to promote the movement, which expanded after World War I.

THIS LAND IS OURS

This land is ours by right of birth, This land is ours by right of toil; We helped to turn its virgin earth, 15 Our sweat is in its fruitful soil. --James Weldon Johnson, "Fifty Years" (1913) excerpt

MY FAVORITE CHARLIE PARKER MUSIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K9vD26U0BEQ#t=1514 My favorite Charlie Parker music

REAGAN WAS THE WORST

REAGAN WAS THE WORST! In the lead-up to the 1980 national election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan , popular media had dubbed Carter as "our most ineffectual postwar President," presumably meaning the Civil War. While my favorable regard for Carter's Presidency substantially plummeted, following his decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics , I still thought that the popular estimation of him was too harsh. Having studied the matter more closely since 1980, I now conclude that the popular punditry was wrong. The choices for most ineffectual U.S. President since the Civil War are ample. Given the paucity of good ones--like Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, and Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt--my pick for the worst three are: Rutherford B. Hayes, Woodrow Wilson, & Ronald Reagan. Rutherford B. Hayes, in order to become President, sold his soul to the conniving devil. He betrayed the Constitution, federal law, and the Republican Party's dutiful blacks, by capitulating to capitalist pressures to abandon Reconstruction in the South following the closely contested election of 1876. His rich Republican Party leaders' back room bargain with the Democrats of Samuel Tilden hooked him in the nose like a pig. Woodrow Wilson ranks near the bottom, because he was an ardent racist, viewing "Birth of A Nation" in the White House; invading Haiti, outlawing black hiring in the federal government, imposing the income tax; installing the privately owned federal reserve system, and being a supporter of the Klu Klux Klan. Ronald Reagan was very inept, nearly senile in office, which, in the end, was run by his wife, Nancy, and her team of handlers. Reagan was the movie image, "the Gipper," the electable puppet of "conservative" corporate interests, which assailed the freedom of trial lawyers, by implementing rules that sanctioned them monetarily for perceived breaches of those same rules by racist federal judges he had appointed. Reagan also cut back on federal aid to cities and for student loans, both of which affected blacks adversely, disproportionately as planned. And he launched the "War on Drugs, when drug use was declining to double-down on vulnerable urban blacks, and its accompanying apparatus: civil and criminal forfeitures and mandatory minimum sentence. He also ridiculed and gutted affirmative action efforts. So, for me, while I detest all three: Hayes, Wilson, and Reagan, Ronald Reagan ranks as the worst President since the Civil War. What say you?

"DISINTEGRATION" BY ASSIMILATION

Questioning the value or necessity of historically black colleges/universities (HBCU) is as ludicrous as questioning the value or necessity of the black: church, sorority, fraternity, family, lodge, and inevitably of black people themselves. What idiocy! Yet, there are some among us, who purport to speak for us; to lead us, and to love us, who mouth such shibboleths, and who harbor such destructive ambitions for us. They would "disintegrate" us out of existence slowly by assimilation, emasculation. They are not new. I read about them and their rationale in CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS, the fascinating legal historical compendium written by Jack Greenburg, the successor to Thurgood Marshall, as Counsel-Director at the NAACP/LDF. "God bless the child who's got his own!" His own house, his own car, his own dog or cat; his own groceries, wife (husband) or children; his own money; his own anything! To have to even discuss something so basic is to insult human intelligence. But, in this age of diminished historical memory and cultural affinity, it is very much needed!

FREEDOM'S SOLDIERS

Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War "In the final grueling operations of the eastern theater, General Ulysses S. Grant summoned every available Union soldier to assault the Confederate strongholds in Virginia. Grant's armies included the largest concentration of black troops engaged at anytime during the war, most of them eventually organized into the Union army's only all-black army corps. In the trenches before Richmond and Petersburg, black soldiers, like the white ones, dug earthworks, held the Union lines, pressed the rebel defenses, and at long last participated in the triumphant march into the capital of the vanquished Confederacy." P.37, FREEDOM'S SOLDIERS: THE BLACK MILITARY EXPERIENCE IN THE CIVIL WAR, edited by Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland (1998)

FEDERAL JUDICIARY'S FIAT POWER

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2015/02/17/obama-immigration-ruling-texas-court-josh-earnest-andrew-hanen/23539693/?csp=eMail_DailyBriefing_53313673 FEDERAL JUDICIARY'S 1857 "DRED SCOTT" CASE ABOUT BLACK SLAVES PROMPTED THE CIVIL WAR. ITS 1881 "CIVIL RIGHTS CASES" DECISION OVERTURNED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1875, ENDING CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. ITS 1896 "PLESSY V. FERGUSON" CASE ENDORSED SEGREGATION AND JIM CROW. ITS JUDGES HAVE LIFE TENURE AND DETERMINE THEIR OWN JURISDICTION'S PRESENCE OR ABSENCE BY FIAT. SUCH PERSONS "HAVE A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENY THE POWER THEREOF." NOTHING BUT A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT--OR REVOLT--CAN REIN THEIR POWER IN, WHICH IS MODELED ON PLATO'S "REPUBLIC'S" PHILOSOPHER-KINGS PREMISES AND FOUNDATION, RUDELY, CRUDELY.

INTELLIGENCE IS ENERGY

Intelligence is energy's infinite flow. Intellect genuflects its afterglow.

EMERSON: ARDENT ABOLITIONIST

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a passive abolitionist, who become an ardent one after the fugitive Thomas Sims' recapture and reenslavement in April 1851, pursuant to the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, in Boston, by 300 police. Sims' was manacled, hustled aboard a waiting ship, then sailed immediately back to Savannah, Georgia, where he was publicly whipped. Emerson inveighed against the Fugitive Slave Act and slavery itself from the lectern and by letters and articles. He wrote: "If our resistance to this law is not right, there is no right." He said. Emerson and his wife, Lidian, were agents on the Concord, Massachusetts, Underground Railroad , as was the entire family of Henry David Thoreau and friends. That Emerson's activist abolitionism is not so well known is, in part, due to "both Holmes and Cabot, the authors of the most influential of Emerson's biographies, before Rusk's." They "made careful and conscious efforts to underplay Emerson's antislavery work, much to the distress of Emerson's family." "Emerson entertained John Brown at his home, raised money for him, and spoke on his behalf. Whitman observed that when Emerson came out for John Brown, 'it was with the power, the overwhelmingness, of an avalanche.' Emerson recognized and approved of John Brown's apocalyptic finality and his intransigent moral absolutism and he quoted what John Brown said to him privately about the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence : 'Better that a whole generation of men, women, and children should pass away by violent death than that one word of either should be violated in this country.' Emerson did not believe in the Union above all. He was cool toward Lincoln until the Emancipation Proclamation , after which he said: '[Lincoln] had been permitted to do more than any other American man.'" P.495-499, EMERSON : THE MIND ON FIRE by Robert D. Richardson, Jr., (1995)

CHOICES MAKE AND MEASURE THE MAN

CHOICES MAKE AND MEASURE THE MAN. Knowledge is a choice, the conscious rejection of ignorance. Good is a choice, the conscious rejection of evil. Love is a choice, the conscious rejection of hatred. Courage is a choice, the conscious rejection of fear. Achievement is a choice, the conscious rejection of failure. Humility is a choice, the conscious rejection of vanity. Power is a choice, the conscious rejection of powerlessness . Wealth is a choice, the conscious rejection of poverty. Wisdom is a choice, the conscious rejection of foolishness. Piety is a choice, the conscious rejection of impiety. Faith is a choice, the conscious rejection of faithlessness . Life is a choice, the conscious rejection of death. Kindness is a choice, the conscious rejection of wickedness. Perfection is a choice, the conscious rejection of imperfection. Empathy is a choice, the conscious rejection of insensitivity. Hope is a choice, the conscious rejection of hopelessness . Activity is a choice, the conscious rejection of inactivity. Patience is a choice, the conscious rejection of impatience. All of these choices and more are within the conscious realm of man. Some men consciously choose to accept them, while others consciously choose to reject them. As man's life is temporal and fleeting and all is tinctured by chance; so too are man's choices, in both time and opportunity. Man sees in part, and knows in part, as man is only a part. Partake and perfect each particular part with which you are presented. This power of choice, the privilege to choose, distinguishes man from mere mammal or reptile or arachnid, insect, microbe, bird, fish, flower, snowflake, and all else, animate or inanimate. Choices make and measure the man.

CREDO OF PRINCE HALL MASONS

"I believe in God, Grand Architect of the Universe, the Alpha of the unreckoned yesterdays, the Omega of the impenetrable tomorrows, the beginning and the ending. "I believe in man, potentially God's other self, often faltering on his own way upward but irrepressible in the urge to scale spiritual Annapurnas. I believe in Freemasonry-that corporate adventure in universal brotherhood, despising kinship with no child of the All-Father. "I believe in Prince Hall Masonry, a door of benevolence, securely tiled against the unworthy, but opened wide to men of good report, whether Aryan or Hottentot. "I believe in Masonic vows-the truths of true men plighted in their better selves." "CREDO"--G.W. Crawford P.187, "Epilogue " PRINCE HALL LIFE AND LEGACY by Charles H. Wesley (1983)

WHY NO NEW U.S. CONSTITUTION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR?

WHY NO NEW U.S. CONSTITUTION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR? A new U.S. Constitution should have been enacted and ratified, following the Civil War, to redress the many deficient provisions in the old one (our current one) that was promulgated to inculcate slavery and to deprive the black man of citizenship. That a new Constitution was not enacted and ratified speaks to the commonality of perspectives of the majority of the northern and southern whites respecting the inherent inferiority of the black man and of their common 'white' supremacists' responsibility to repress the black man, regardless of their political party or mode of economic development, and regardless of law: statutory, decisional, ecclesiastical.

PRISONERS ARE PARIAHS UNDER AMERICAN LAW

http://www.heritage.org/constitution… STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS WHICH DEHUMANIZE AND WHICH ANATHEMATIZE PRISONERS VIOLATE ARTICLE I, SECTIONS 9 & 10 OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, WHICH PRECLUDING RIGHTS: EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, FOOD STAMPS, VOTING AND OTHER ENTITLEMENTS, ARE.

DO YOU MINE?

DO YOU MINE? Minerals result from major geological processes, pressures, and accretions going back millions and billions of years, whether diamonds, silver, gold, emeralds, lapis lazuli, rubies, marble, granite or others. One must mine underground, deep in the earth to dislodge these riches, and refinements. As with minerals of the past, so with man's past history, language, literature, civilization. All of it is chock full of goodies waiting to be mined, dislodged, processed. Do you mine?

HARD WORK!

The body is conditioned and strengthened by running, weightlifting, exercising, and hard work. As the body, so also the mind is conditioned and strengthened by reading, studying, writing, discussing, and hard work. The soul is conditioned and strengthened like the body and the mind by listening, feeling, praising, loving and hard work. Hard work is common to all!

Dangerously deceptive depths

Just because you can see the bottom, does not mean you know its depths.

CASH MONEY PHONE CALL FROM JAIL

A guy called me from a penitentiary in Kansas about 7 years ago, saying that $19,000 cash had been confiscated from him by the KC police on a traffic stop; that they had never given it back even after he was not to be found carrying drugs. Could I get it back, he asked? He needed to pay back child support . I got his money back in the form of a check payable to me and him. I then drove 200 miles from KC to have him sign the joint check and to take my post-dated trust account check. He then told me that my check was "contraband" in jail, so he could not take it! Surprised at this, as I exited the security desk, I gave his check to the prison guard, who also said he couldn't take it, because it was "contraband." I said "Give it to the Warden," and left. I later got a letter of gratitude from that inmate, for helping him out, since he had gotten his money and paid back support. I wrote him back thanking him for my fee and the opportunity to be of service!

CALLING THE POLICE ON THE POLICE

Calling the Police on the Police In the early days of my law practice, I represented a young black couple in connection with a municipal court warrant that was being badly served. Many of the particulars from 1986 are now vague. What I do recall is that the young pregnant woman "called the police on the police," when those with a warrant for her spouse began to abuse him, to handle him roughly. We satisfactorily disposed of this minor matter--minor to me anyway--at the jury trial of a municipal appeal, to the great consternation of the city prosecutor and to the police involved. But, I have never forgotten the quick thinking of that young mother-to-be in that city-owned housing project, who lacking much formal education , had the requisite common sense and intelligence to call the police on the police! Her phrase led to her victory; her follow-through to family felicity.

EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE -- THE DIFFERENCE

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE IS THE SAME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIVE PLANTS AND FLORA BOUQUETS; ONE IS LIVING AND CONNECTED; THE OTHER IS DEAD THOUGH IMPRESSIVE.. IN ALL OF YOUR GETTING, BE SURE TO GET WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, PROVERBS 4:5, BEFORE A PRETTY FLORAL BOUQUET DISTINGUISHES YOUR TOMBSTONE.

KNOWLEDGE

As you know better, you can do better. As you know more, you can do more. Knowledge is the key. You shall KNOW the truth and the truth shall make you free. Knowledge is the basis of human progress, and it is growing daily. Refusing to know, to learn more than you now know, is acceding to subordinate status to those who know more, who know better, who do better with what they know than you. Again, you shall KNOW the truth and the truth shall make you free. John 8:44

APRIL 9, 2015, RING A BELL FOR "THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN PASSOVER"

APRIL 9, 1865, has been celebrated by me and others in western Missouri, from Saint Joseph to Kansas City to Butler, in churches that I have pastored, and in those pastored by my friends, as the "African American Passover" since the year 2000. This year it goes national! Glory! Get your church, community center, school or government to ring a bell at 3:00 o'clock, as a part of this blessed campaign. Bells across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox On April 9, 2015 bells will ring throughout the country in honor of the meeting between Generals Grant and Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Please join us in the historic 150th commemoration. Let bells ring across the land! To learn more visit http://www.nps.gov/mono/parknews/bells-across-the-land.htm Teachers, students and schools can participate too! Check out the teacher resource packet at http://www.nps.gov/mono/forteachers/curriculummaterials.htm #BellsAcrosstheLand2015 Monocacy National Battlefield Bells across the Land: A Nation Remembers Appomattox On April 9, 2015 bells will ring throughout the country in honor of the meeting between Generals Grant and Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Please join us in the historic 150th commemoration. Let bells ring across the land! To learn more visit http://www.nps.gov/mono/parknews/bells-across-the-land.htm Teachers, students and schools can participate too! Check out the teacher resource packet at http://www.nps.gov/mono/forteachers/curriculummaterials.htm ‪#‎BellsAcrosstheLand2015‬

REAGAN PRODUCED RAP MUSIC

REAGAN PRODUCED 'RAP' President Ronald Reagan and his successors' destructive and racist policies and slashes of federal funds for cities, where blacks have disproportionately lived since World War II, created the conditions that spawned rap-music culture, as a reaction to right-winger, Ronald Reagan's "Revolution." Wickedly evil, Republican repressions, during his two terms, 1980-1988, erased the gains of Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society', especially its "War on Poverty." "Crack-cocaine" the black ghetto-cocaine-based drug was produced by impoverished economic conditions under and during Reagan. It was the fruit and the fall-out from his and successors' failed "War on Drugs." His hyper-subversion of the already-unjust legal system led to black mass-incarceration. His goal was to destroy cities and the fiber of black families, and he almost did! Reagan's and the Bushes' repressive policies (in which Democrat Bill Clinton was covertly complicit) produced rap and hip-hop. They were young black males' reaction to sordid repression. No more love songs, ballads, or pretty music. Now it was 'F-you, sucker!' Drive-by's & gangs!

REDUNDANCIES ARE NECESSARY

REDUNDANCIES ARE NECESSARY Redundancies are back-ups, extras. We all have two eyes, two ears, arms, legs, hands, feet, ovaries, testicles. These are God-given redundancies. If we lose one, or one is disabled, we can still keep going somehow. That is the practical value of redundancies . The 10 bridesmaids were all told to bring along a flask of oil with their lamps, while awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom at an uncertain hour. The flasks of oil reified redundancy; the oil-filled lamps only immediacy . Five wise bridesmaids did get extra oil, but five foolish bridesmaids did not get extra oil, getting caught short! Their urgent requests to their more prudent sisters to share their extra oil was refused, lest they, too, though diligent, may also be found wanting like their foolish sisters on that night! Life can be as uncertain as the hour of the bridegroom's arrival, whoever and whatever that "bridegroom" may be, in your particular circumstances. Have your redundancies pre-placed. Whether such redundancies be your family, your monetary savings, your social or fraternal or sororal network in place; also your church; or other resources, allies, friends, provisions, and whatever redundancies in place. In short, be prepared! Use the warm sunshine of summer to prepare for the snows and storms of winter. Be literally like the ant and not like the grasshopper, those famous literary symbols contrasting redundancy and immediacy in nature and in humanity. When your bridegroom comes make sure you are ready with your extra oil to enter into the upper room with joy! Don't be left outside with an empty oil lamp. In an era of uncertainty, no one can be expected to share with those who were indolent and less diligent, thereby putting themselves at risk! Redundancies protect you and yours, being necessary and salutary to life!

BOURGEOIS REEXAMINED

"Bourgeois" Reexamined Had "virtue and industry" become so "bourgeois," as snidely claimed by Dr. Gary R. Kremer in his essay, "James Milton Turner and Black Masonry," as to warrant their tacit condemnation as appropriate guideposts for blacks; or to justify castigating Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington, and black Masons, their principal advocates and exemplars, in the 1902 perilous period of which he writes? I think not! He states in his book: "The committee also emphasized that American blacks had been loyal to their government. It recalled how 'the pages of history record no more brilliant achievements' than the role played by black men who bore arms in defense of their country from the American Revolution through the Spanish American War. Black literacy rates, the committee emphasized, had risen from 22 percent in 1880 to 46 percent in 1890 and 64 percent in 1900. In keeping with its bourgeois orientation, the Masonic committee singled out Booker T. Washington as an exemplar of industry and virtue, and identified Tuskegee as 'a magnificent testimonial to the capability and genius of the greatest Negro educator of the age." P.93, RACE AND MEANING:THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN MISSOURI (2014). Certain fish have and conceal sharp bones, however tasty their meat! Eat slowly and carefully! So also with all scholarship: scrutinize, analyze, and ostracize, the useful from the useless! "Virtue and industry" are great and universal traits, as their opposites, non-virtue and slattern, demonstrate! "Virtue and industry" are not "bourgeois" as that racially-divisive term is now commonly understood: "Bourgeois" is derisive. epitomizing banal preoccupation with petty possessions and fatuous social affectations and climbing, whatever may be its French antecedents.

SAY IT LOUD!

FORM, SUBSTANCE AND BREATH

Form and Substance and Breath Substance conforms to form, how or why exactly, being a divine mystery. Does form irrupt from energy's inert substance? Or: Is energy's inert substance teased into being by its cosmic form? Form appears first, soon followed by substance, being form's maturity. Form announces "I am"-- its identity. Substance completes form's destiny. Form is sketch: substance pigment. Form outlines . Substance colors in. Form is fraction . Substance is whole. Form is flesh; substance is spirit. Form is body. Substance is soul. One alone is impotent: substance lacking form; form lacking substance. It takes both: form and substance to subsist, but it takes the "breath" of life to exist. It invigorates the whole. These three make both me and thee: form, substance, and a breath of life.

BLACK HISTORY'S "MUST-READ" BOOKS: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexander Dumas

There are many great books that are necessarily excluded from the "must-read" black history list on this page. Books like the Bible and the Quran, and Euclid's Elements and many other such universal works are missing. I recall an imprisoned Abbe (priest) telling another inmate, wrongly imprisoned in Alexander Dumas' THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO , that there were 150 books that must be read before he would be sufficiently skilled, courageous, wise, and educated to be able to exact much-desired vengeance on his enemies efficiently and exquisitely. The Abbe then secretly tutored that young man many years, before he died. Ironically, that man, Dantes, used that benevolent Abbe's shroud, body-bag to effect his escape, when the trusties threw it into the sea, unknowingly. Those books were not named, but since Dumas wrote in the 1800s, those works all antedated him. I have sought them since. That Abbe also gave that young inmate, Dantes, the location of a vast subterranean grotto filled with gold, jewels, silver, on the Italian coast, which he could use to carry out his destruction on those who had maliciously destroyed him. Of course, Dantes had to first escape from the Chateau d'If, a French prison in the sea in order to succeed! Riches I have not sought; but, those books, those books, I seek every day! Ha! I would say Dumas' book is definitely a "must-read!

INTROSPECTIVE ON OUR ELDERS

Introspective on our Elders Viewing another's achievements in their time and space through the prism of our present can be distorting for the ignoble among us, and very discomfiting for those yet ill-informed. Each age has its own imperatives, coordinates, and paradigms unique to itself, upon which its successors and survivors' must rise or fall, sink or swim, live or die. This includes us. Because we are here, it is clear that our forebears were then successful in negotiating with the lions and the bears, both tortoises and hares, to get us from here to there with care. Our historical legacy is being built and constructed now, each waking and working day. Let us go forth today, with balance and equanimity, with joy and hope, knowing that as we look now back upon others, yet others will in the future look back upon us, and also lyrically wonder "how we got over, made it on over." So, rejoice and be glad!

GIRL POWER

When we raise up our girls, on truth, knowledge and love, we thereby lift up our boys on the wings of doves.

glorious sunset or sunrise

FRESH IS BEST: WATER, AIR, FRIENDSHIP, LOVE

No flavor enhances the taste of fresh water. No scent enriches fresh air. No hardship or distance diminishes true friendship, nor its loving power impair.

CARTER GODSON WOODSON, FOUNDER OF AMERICA'S FORMAL "BLACK HISTORY" CELEBRATIONS

The man! Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and of "Black History Month, née, Negro History Week," in 1916, after reading and being inspired by THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN HISTORY;MEN AND WOMEN IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN OF AFRICAN DESCENT (1913) by John Wesley Cromwell, a graduate of Howard Law School, whose wonderful book I am now reading. Black History Notes Carter Godwin Woodson - Father of Black History 1875-1950 Carter G. Woodson, historian, educator, and editor. His life achievements are varied and many. He was the second African-American to earn a PhD in History from Harvard in 1912 after W. E. B. Du Bois. In 1915, along with several other scholars, founded the Association for The Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). During the period of 1903 to 1909, he served as supervisor of schools in the Philippines. He traveled to Asia, North Africa, and Europe, completing extensive course work and becoming proficient in Spanish and French. Back in the states, while in residence at Harvard University, he taught English, Spanish, French, and history at Dunbar High in Washington, D.C., from 1909 to 1918. While teaching, he also did research at the Library of Congress for his doctoral dissertation, "The Disruption of Virginia," and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912. ASNLH'S publishing subsidiary, Associated Publisher's, was for many years the leading African-American-owned press in the U.S. The following year he founded the Journal of Negro History. It was the premier professional journal of African-American history. He retired from the academy in 1922 to concentrate on the journal and ASNLH, both of which he headed until his death, as well as his own historical writing. He also worked passionately on stimulating popular interest in African-American History. This initiated Negro History Day; then Week (which later became Black History Month) in 1926 and founding the Negro History Bulletin (for the use in primary and secondary education) in 1936. Dr. Woodson's scholarly works, research and books are numerous. His early life is also very interesting. One of my favorites by him is "THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO". The philosophical quote most often used in reference to this book is; "If you can control a man's mind, you do not have to worry about his actions. If you make him feel inferior, he will seek inferior status. If you tell him to go to the back door and there is none, he will make one". As a result of his years of study and research, Dr. Woodson came to realize that the Black man's and women past contributions had to be documented and taught. He concluded that "if a race had no recorded history, its achievements would be forgotten and, in time, claimed by other groups." He found that many of the achievements by Black were overlooked, ignored and even suppressed by writers of history textbooks. It was his dream that the truth would be revealed as to Afro-Americans' contributions to the discovery, pioneering, development, and continuance of America. His prime ambition was that "young Blacks would grow up with a firm knowledge of their ancestors." One of his most popular textbooks, "The Negro in Our History," was widely used for years in high schools, colleges, and universities. Time Line: Born on December 19, 1875 in New Canton, Virginia. Worked in the coal mines as a young child instead of attending school. Family moved to Fayette, Virginia when Carter was 20 years old; he was able to attend Douglas High School. Graduated from Douglas High School on one and a half years, then attended Bera College in Kentucky. Supervised schools in the Philippines from 1903 to 1906; traveled throughout Asia, Northern Africa and Europe. Returned to Douglas High School in Fayette, Virginia as a teacher and subsequently became a principal. Received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Chicago in 1907, and a Master’s Degree in 1908. Taught English, French, History and Spanish at Dunbar High School in Washington, DC from 1909 - 1918. Earned a Ph.D. from Howard University in 1912. Started the "Journal of Negro History" and established the Association for the Study of Negro Life while teaching at Dunbar High School. Served three years as Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute where he organized the Associated Publishers, one of the most famous black publishing companies ever. Published a book "The Negro In Our History," which became one of the most popular textbooks in high schools and colleges. In 1926, Dr. Woodson started Negro History Week, which included the birthday of Frederick Douglass. Dr. Woodson received the NAACP Spingarn Awards in 1926. Dr. Carter G. Woodson died of a heart attack on April 3, 1950 at his home in Washington, DC. In 1976, Negro History Week became Black History Month. Brother William William Holman Black History Notes Carter Godwin Woodson - Father of Black History 1875-1950 Carter G. Woodson, historian, educator, and editor. His life achievements are vari... See More