AMERICAN FLAG FLIES AGAIN OVER FORT SUMTER

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uncucumbered/historic_fort_sumter_where_the_civil_war_began_removes_confederate_flag?recruiter_id=17 COLONELS SHAW, HIGGINSON AND THE MEN OF THE HEROIC MASSACHUSETTS 54TH AND 55TH WOULD BE PROUD1

REDISTRICTING AND YOU

http://ballotpedia.org/State-by-state_redistricting_procedures In light of the profound decision by the U.S. Supreme Court this week involving electoral redistricting, it would be prudent for you to look at the above link to determine how your state's legislative and Congressional boundaries are drawn, by whom, subject to whose veto, if any. In Arizona Legislature v, Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, the Supreme Court held that such power belongs to the people's initiative-established independent redistricting commission, not to the legislature, under the Election's Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Court said the legislature's vested interest in protecting its own power or each political party's individual seats was subordinate to the "animating power" that it derives from the people to define that allocation themselves. Missouri lacks such an independent redistricting commission. I believe that it would materially benefit by having one. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_kjfl.pdf

KEBRA NAGAST

"The chef d'oeuvre of Ethiopian literature is the 'Kebra Nagast ' ("Glory of the Kings") which has as its centerpiece the legend of the Queen of Sheba (based on the narrative in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and liberally amplified and embellished ), how she visited Solomon, accepted his religion, and bore him a son (Menelik I), and how the son visited his father, and abducted the Ark of the Covenant which was taken to Aksum, the new Zion... "The 'Kebra Nagast' is not merely a literary work, but--as the Old Testament to the Hebrews or the Quran to the Arabs--it is the repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings." P. 74-75, "The Kebra Nagast," ETHIOPIA AND THE BIBLE by Edward Ullendorff (Oxford: 1967)

ENCOURAGEMENT

ENCOURAGEMENT Encouragement is a powerful affirming enzyme that activates, accelerates all human activity. Shower it especially on youth! They bound to unthought-of heights in the throes of its love. Withholding encouragement purposely cruelly stunts or stymies personal development. Active discouragement dooms or distorts personal initiative, and development making dullards, even demons, of many people, whom timely and continuous encouragement might have redeemed!

MARK TWAIN'S GRAY LIZARD

"Gray lizards, those heirs of ruin, of sepulchres and desolation , glided in and out among the rocks or lay still and sunned themselves. Where prosperity had reigned, and fallen; where glory has flamed, and gone out; where beauty has dwelt, and passed away ; where gladness was, and sorrow is; where the pomp of life has been, and silence and death brood in its high places, there this reptile makes its home, and mocks at human vanity. His coat is the color of ashes; and ashes are the symbol of hopes that have perished, or of aspirations that came to naught, of loves that are buried. If he could speak, he would say, Build temples: I will lord it in their ruins; build palaces: I will inhabit them; erect empires: I will inherit them; bury your beautiful: I will watch the worms at their work; and you, who stand here and moralize over me: I will crawl over your corpse at the last." P.387, THE INNOCENTS ABROAD by Mark Twain (Library of America, NY: 1984)

TAKING ON WHITE TERRORISTS

TAKING ON WHITE TERRORISTS Anyone who would burn a cross would burn a church . Wood is wood. Pagans burn it regularly. Anyone who would dishonor the Constitution would dishonor the laws engendered by it, under it. Anyone who would defiantly fly the battle flag flown by former treasonous rebels, instead of that of the United States of America is a traitor to the United States of America, remains actively at war. Anyone who disrespects and kills loyal, faithful black citizens of this nation merely because of color or heritage is a despicable terrorist! Anyone or anything which avers, salutes, teaches, preaches, or in any manner promotes the racist doctrine of white supremacy is a threat to national security and must be prosecuted as terrorists! Anyone or anything which aids, permits, acquiesces in, suffers, assists, or ignores activities that tend to demonstrate traitorous conduct against this country are complicit in the misprision of such white supremacist terrorists.

KEEP ON TACKING, BABY!

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae438.cfm LIKE SAILBOATS IN A HEADWIND, WE AMERICAN BLACKS HAVE LEARNED TO "TACK" INTO THE RACIST HEADWINDS OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE BY ZIGZAGING. THEREBY, WE HAVE INEXPLICABLY ADVANCED AGAINST THE RAGING WINDS. IT HELPED THAT WE USED THE TRIANGULAR SAIL OF THE TRINITY TO PROPEL OURSELVES FORWARD THROUGH RUGGED WINDS AND SEAS AND A CENTERBOARD (OVERDEVELOPED KEEL) FOR COUNTER BALANCE. WHAT WAS "INEXPLICABLE" TO SOME, WAS SOUND PHYSICS TO US. INDEED, THEY THE SAIL AND KEEL WERE NAVIGATIONAL TOOLS ACQUIRED FROM US BY EUROPEANS, AS THIS ARTICLE EXPLAINS. IT IS ALL BY DESIGN WHETHER WE CAN UNDERSTAND OR APPRECIATE THESE SPIRITUAL FORCE VECTORS --GRACE--OR NOT! SO, DEMOCRATS TODAY, REPUBLICANS, YESTERDAY. ZIGZAG! INTEGRATIONISTS TODAY, SEPARATISTS YESTERDAY. ZIGZAG! POOR TODAY. RICH TOMORROW. ZIGZAG. THE TOUGHER THE HEADWINDS BEAT US BACK THE FASTER FORWARD WE FLOW AND WE GO. GLORY TO GOD!

GRACE IS COSMIC FAVOR

GRACE IS COSMIC FAVOR Being vain and earthly we tend to look toward our own progeny as most befitting their predecessors' offices, rewards, wealth, honors. "Chip off the old block" is an idiom describing that association. That view is too short-sighted, akin to the royal blood canard, or automatic entitlement fiction. Grace is usually a function of faith, works, environment, chance, and associations. Right people, right place, right time, right project, right breaks are the five critical right angles of grace. Wealth, extraordinary wealth, or power, can be and has been, accumulated in one lifetime, by reason of the conjunction of these five right angles. That same wealth or power has been lost in one lifetime too, due to their lack! Expecting that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s children or Elijah Muhammad 's children would have their fathers' gifts is to be unreasonable and unrealistic. Similarly foreseeing Bill Gates' or Mark Zuckerberg's fabulous riches is equally unreasonable. God disseminates cosmic favor, indiscriminately, fortunately. Thereby, Barack Obama can be twice elected President and I can be blessed to write these lines!

STANDING AT THE PLUMB LINE

…7Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8The LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 9"The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." AMOS 7:

"REVEREND PRESIDENT ROCKED!

"REV. PRESIDENT" ROCKED! The President spoke reverently and brilliantly at Rev. Clementa Pinckney's funeral today at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina . Watching those AME Bishops in their purple regalia, hearing their piquant praise, while imbibing the beauty, power, pathos, solemnity of all the celebratory proceedings for the dead made me swell with pride at my church on display . I am proud to be AME! The President did not miss a beat! He stepped right up, and stepped right in, with all of that gravitas, veritas and auctoritas, appropriate to the occasion and to his office and "knocked the ball" deep into the depths of Charleston's storied harbor, with his rendition of "Amazing Grace." This congregational hymn he led as part of his powerful peroration, wherein he called aloud each decedent's name in seriatim. His insouciance, humility, tact, taste, soul, command and love: of God; of country; of African American history and worship, translucently shone through, being spiritually felt, reciprocated, appreciated! It was both healing catharsis and panegyrics at their very best ever! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/18/full-text-obamas-remarks-on-fatal-shooting-in-charleston-s-c/

DON'T MESS WITH GOD'S FOLKS

DON’T MESS WITH GOD’S FOLKS Thursday, June 25, 2015 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Just who do you think you are, Dylann Storm Roof ? Think you can just walk up in here, in this house; kill the Lord’s folks? And hide? What kind of fool are you ? Have you not heard the 105th Psalm say, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” Don’t you know not to mess with God’s folks? Are you crazy, too, white boy? Or, just demon-possessed? You knew of historic “Mother Emanuel” African Methodist Episcopal Church. You drove there expressly, to Charleston, South Carolina, from 100 miles away. To kill and destroy nine of God’s good folks; who welcomed you, you killed. Don’t you know not to mess with God’s folks? You heard them pray; saw them study. Them you shot and killed. Then “fled.” Where to? “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Where to? Outside Shelby, North Carolina, you were spotted by a Christian minister. She called the police, followed you. They busted you the morning after. What “race war,” Dylann Roof? Didn’t out-race God, did you? Down you come with those racist battle-flags, too….down. down. down. Dilapidated storm roof molts down to dirt! Don’t mess with God’s folks! #30

ON A ROLL...

ON A ROLL... "Get a roll and keep a roll" is the idiom that means keep it moving! Since this contrition is being expressed nationwide by the non-sales of Confederate flag paraphernalia and the lowering of those flags over state capitols, that is the roll. But, to keep that roll, it will be necessary to move from symbolism to substance. The substance is economic, cash money, dollar bills, y'all! Come on now, before the tears dry up! This is what we were cut off from during Reconstruction, before 1914, and after 1945, when our white brothers were racking up on government largesse we were getting royally rooked and took! Japanese got $20,000 each for 4 years in the interment camps. Indians got thousands from the Obama administration for violating treaties. The Jews in Israel get billions of our tax dollars each year! With us the Constitution, itself was violated and state and federal laws, so no less than $200,000 each must be paid, for the period, 1877 to the present. I would add to that total federal and state tax abatement for 10 years and zero reprisals. I realize it is a very modest sum. But we are reasonable people. But, whatever the terms may be, now is the time to get roll--which we are now on--and keep a roll!

WE, AFRICAN AMERICANS, ARE STILL HERE

WE AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE STILL HERE THROUGH IT ALL! We, African Americans, have evolved to become extremely adaptive to the most hateful and evil people to have ever lived! They not only killed all of the Indians in North America, untold millions, and the beaver and bison, but, they did so, while subjugating the Africans. However, with Christ, the blacks learned to endure suffering, even to welcome its release, in death, from the white-hot fires of racism, rape, slavery, familial destruction, imposed ignorance and brainwashing, that has enabled that top white minority's leadership to profit incredibly from the free exploitation of African laborers, yet hypocritically claiming itself to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave." And killing, intimidating, buying off, or ostracizing those fewer whites who always resisted the lies and exploitation to succor the blacks. Most whites were cowed. Meanwhile, it was counting them as 3/5s of a "person" for their US political numeration purposes, though the blacks could not vote . The foreign fruit of American apartheid is to be seen in South African and in Rhodesian apartheid ; in German Nazism and Italian fascism--who all sought to replicate the American example with Africans! That they failed is due largely in part to these blacks' inspirational examples; to their Olympian athleticism; fighting capacity; and to the intelligence gathering of black world travelers, scholars, writers, activists; and especially to colored troops in both world wars and in all others, though their exemplary valor was suppressed by officials, lest the colored men learn of their potential and strike for full freedom at home. Yet, we multiplied greatly and did not die off as predicted by them. After saving the country in the Civil War from ruin and dissolution and ourselves from slavery, we moved in great waves, spasmodically, from the South to the North and West to escape terrorist the hellfires determined to keep us suppressed, though no longer enslaved, in the South. Still we, those who remained in the South rebuilt, repeatedly, adapted, and grew strong. That increased adaptability and assimilative capacity frightened many whites who tried to kill them/us off, secretly and legally with disease, poverty, laws, taxes, racist police, prosecutors, and judges; by incarceration, discrimination, drugs, illegality, white supremacists mobs; black criminal terrorists and inane gangbangers! But, like Daniel in the Lions' den; Jonah in the belly of the whale; and Shadrach, Meshak and Abnego, we are still here! And growing.

self-declaration and deceit

SELF-DECLARATION AND DECEIT Does self-declaration make it so? The Klan recently declared itself to be a Christian organization, not the racist, terrorist group which burns crosses and lynches! When I scoffed at that notion, a friend rejoined that ISIS was not Islamic, a fact we have frequently debated. This appears to be principally a preoccupation of man, since it is inconceivable that other life forms would concern themselves with this question -- though they may! Some animals may indeed ask: is that food or foe; is that a mate or an intruder; is that mine or his? Deceit derides all divisions of life. Deceit is an acceptable mode of life for some life forms, man being one the best of them! That brings us right back to self-declaration. Proof is required always due to the ever present possibility of deceit! So self-declaration does not by itself make something so. Proof makes it so! 1 Thessalonians 5:21King James Version (KJV) 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

AFRICAN METHODISTS EPISCOPALS, BLOODY BUT UNBOWED

Christians of African descent were crucified, fed to the lions, broken on the wheel, packed into slaveships, lynched, lied to, segregated, profiled, shot in cold blood, burned at the stake, drowned, raped, imprisoned, shackled, poisoned, vilified, ostracized--yet, through it all, over the way that with tears and blood has been watered, triumphed over lying Jews, plagiarizing Greeks, triumphed over imperialist Rome, triumphed over despicable Spain, triumphed over frantic and frenetic France, triumphed over the disdainful Dutch, triumphed over malevolent Muslims, and will triumph over the amercing Americans - and all others, through the example and power of Jesus Christ, the Son, of Almighty God! Unbowed: Emanuel AME Opens For Sunday Service Following Terrorist Attack Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina opened its doors for worship Sunday morning, mere days after domestic terrorist Dylann Storm Roof,... NEWSONE.COM http://newsone.com/3129016/unbowed-emanuel-ame-opens-for-sunday-service-following-terrorist-attack/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=NewsOne+Subscribers+-+SEND+TO+ME&utm_campaign=NAT+-+NewsOne+-+Daily+Dynamic+Send+2015-06-21&omcamp=es-n1-nl

SPLITTING THE ATOMS OF JESUS CHRIST

As horrific as the massacre at Mother Emanuel may appear or may now seem to be, when you split the loving atoms of Jesus-enriched humanity, its irradiation overspreads the earth, even to the pulling down of strongholds. Such were our Bible-studying brothers and sisters who died, gloriously, triumphantly that the gospel of Jesus Christ might more boldly abound for good! To die for Christ is eternal gain! So, dry your eyes pick up your sword, strap on your armor, and go forth into the highways and byways and confront evil in its lair, everywhere! God's got this! "There is a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, and I know that it's the presence of the Lord!" Roof thought he and his "mission" might invoke an American race war--fool! Instead, what we are here witnessing is the early dissolution of his utterly hateful racist idiocy, and its symbols at the home of the 1861 secession Charleston, SC, within sight of Fort Sumter and Sullivan Island, where 40% of the 400,000 slaves imported into America disembarked. Storm Roof's "mission" met African Methodist Episcopal Christians who were loving missionaries for Jesus! This outcome with Roof has already been written in the book of Revelations where Satan attacks the churches and fails! Dylann Storm Roof has also failed, like Saul who became Paul, like Judas' disenthrall! Roof's Confederacy too will fall through the inverse intercession of the Holy Spirit. wonderful! http://www3.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/splitting-the-unsplittable

MOTHER EMANUEL A.M.E. CHURCH HAS THE VICTORY

As horrific as the massacre at Mother Emanuel may appear or may now seem to be, when you split the loving atoms of Jesus-enriched humanity, its irradiation overspreads the earth, even to the pulling down of strongholds. Such were our Bible-studying brothers and sisters who died, gloriously, triumphantly that the gospel of Jesus Christ might more boldly abound for good! To die for Christ is eternal gain! So, dry your eyes pick up your sword, strap on your armor, and go forth into the highways and byways and confront evil in its lair, everywhere! God's got this! "There is a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, and I know that it's the presence of the Lord!" Roof thought he and his "mission" might invoke an American race war--fool! Instead, what we are here witnessing is the early dissolution of his utterly hateful racist idiocy, and its symbols at the home of the 1861 secession Charleston, SC, within sight of Fort Sumter and Sullivan Island, where 40% of the 400,000 slaves imported into America disembarked. Storm Roof's "mission" met African Methodist Episcopal Christians who were loving missionaries for Jesus! This outcome with Roof has already been written in the book of Revelations where Satan attacks the churches and fails! Dylann Storm Roof has also failed, like Saul who became Paul, like Judas' disenthrall! Roof's Confederacy too will fall through the inverse intercession of the Holy Spirit. wonderful!

FEMALE AS FOIL

SALUTE TO FEMALE AS FOIL "Foil" as used in this article means to contrast, to distinguish, and to highlight something else. Females are the foils of males. Males are the foils of females. "Sugar, spice, and everything nice" contrasts "nails, snails and puppy dog tails." This childhood nursery rhyme highlights the cultural, biological distinction between the sexes. The girls being sugar, the boys being nails. "Viva la difference!" Long live this difference! As we enter the observance of "Fathers Day," I cannot help but think of the affect of the powerful presence that women have as wives , mothers, sisters, friends. No greater joy could conceivably exist for man on earth than that of the woman . Nor any greater helpmate! "Behind every great man is a beautiful woman," the saying goes; to which young men add, "and behind every beautiful woman is a beautiful behind!" Procreation is the most essential of human functions. Creating the next generation necessarily precedes molding its wet clay on the potter's wheel of life, and firing it in the oven of adversity. Women gestate. Men inseminate. Both procreate together. Not just biologically, anthropologically, do they create and reproduce, but in every other kind of way literally conceivable to the human race. "That without which" is a Latin maxim expressed by lawyers to describe or to affirm essential mutuality. We say "quid pro quo." Such is woman to man; mothers to fathers; males to female: foils!

CLEMENTA PINCKNEY & DENMARK VESEY

http://www.nytimes.com/…/opi…/abolitionist-or-terrorist.html SENATOR CLEMENTA PINCKNEY, PASTOR OF EMANUEL A.M.E. CHURCH WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN RAISING FUNDS TO ERECT THIS STATUE TO DENMARK VESEY IN 2014, AMID EGREGIOUS OPPOSITION FROM RACISTS. THIS NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE BY DOUGLAS R. EGERTON, WHOSE BOOK ON VESEY I READ SOME YEARS AGO NEAR MY 2005 VISIT TO THAT CITY ILLUSTRATES THE DEGREE OF ENMITY. THE ABSENCE OF ANY KIND OF TRIBUTE TO VESEY IN 2005 WAS NOTED AND LAMENTED BY ME AS THE CITY'S MAIN DETRACTION.THE CIVIL WAR SITES I ENJOYED VISITING ALONG ITS QUAY

DYLANN STORM ROOF: WHITE SUPREMACIST PAGAN CULTIST

WHITE SUPREMACIST PAGAN CULTIST Mass murderer, Dylann Storm Roof, purposefully bypassed any number of churches, temples or mosques, of various ethnicities in his native Columbia and all others of any creed, sect, or faith, in-between himself and his chosen sacrificial target, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. So. Black churches in general were not the target. Neither were black parishioners generally targeted. Rather, that one church specifically was his focus. Presumably, that historic, chosen black church's symbolic status inexplicably attracted Dylann Roof, there being at this point, no other known nexus between Roof and that murder scene than that. Certain symbols such as occult amulets and talismans have magical status in pagan minds and cults. The Confederate license plate on Roof's car, and the former Rhodesian and South African flags worn on his vest on his FB profile were such magical symbols to him, apparently. They speak silently to others of like mind, just as do the Nazi swastika, hangman's nooses, hooded heads,burning crosses. That Dylann Storm Roof is a pagan white supremacist cultist is made very clear from his brazen, murderous conduct against black Christians during their Bible study, as it is from his chosen amulets and talismanic symbols that have publicly adorned him.

NEHEMIAH 4:16-18

Discouragement Overcome …16From that day on, half of my servants carried on the work while half of them held the spears, the shields, the bows and the breastplates; and the captains were behind the whole house of Judah. 17Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon. 18As for the builders, each wore his sword girded at his side as he built, while the trumpeter stood near me.… NEHEMIAH 4:

TWO DIMENSIONS

TWO DIMENSIONS In one sense our fight is spiritual. In another it involves both flesh and blood. For man is but flesh imbued with spirit. So, as was Jesus Christ, so are we, both matter and spirit--we being the primordial man and woman. Needful of both faith and works! Hence, Jesus said, "greater works than these can you do, cause I go unto my father," for those who believed, and who could receive it, that being us! Those persons like terrorist Dylann Storm Roof of Columbia, South Carolina, who do not and cannot believe, because lacking a sufficiently evolved soul in their body, they also lack soulful receptacles to receive the spirit. (Note : he sat where they sat for 1 hour before he started shooting and killing). No soul. Savage. Pagan. One dimension. So they--those like him, with non-evolved souls--lie, steal, kill, fake, deceive, pretend, and then by force of arms, or money, or fame, demand that we the true primordial ones worship them as gods, not the true God-Creator! But, we are evolved into two dimensions being man/woman and gods, Psalms 82:6, but having forgotten our true nature, are now only beginning to understand what the pagans have clearly seen, plagiarized and feared for centuries: that we are two dimensional man and woman, both water and spirit, who might one day revive and resurrect from the dearth of knowledge of our true selves. Two dimensions! Love you.

LOVE IS A NUTRIENT

Love is an essential spiritual nutrient, whose absence is as injurious to the soul as protein is to the body. Life without love is evil, wicked, distorted, & cruel.

THE PLAN OF ATTACK

Larry Delano Coleman THE PLAN OF ATTACK It is becoming clearer. Attack the father to get him out of the house, due to unemployment. Attack the mother to get her off of public assistance, due to violations. Attack public education to get their kids out of schools, due to testing. Then, attack the black church, the final barrier between them and the abyss of evil, depraved, despond, due to homosexuality and scandals. Then, vilify "them" all publicly as ne'er do wells, criminals, hustlers, loafers, pimps, welfare queens, mentally impaired miscreants, needing affirmative action, and rejects in media and in public policy debates. That will dispose of a significant plurality of the most vulnerable, low-lying fruit; turn these against each other through materialist desires, ghetto dwelling, ignorance, gang warfare, alcohol, poverty,and drugs. Then, imprison them en masse, making them work for slave wages, while deducting their costly 'upkeep' and court fees from their meager earnings to prevent any kind of capital accumulation, as was done to their forebears, colored peons and rural colored sharecroppers. The cumulative effect of these deprivations and degradations was supposed to have frustrated their conceptions of themselves, to deflate their personal and racial ambitions, to divert their momentum for economic reparations and legal justice; thereby to justify their continued repression, their vile, invisible, pragmatically political, monetary masters had vainly hoped! But God...... The foregoing diatribe was deduced, indeed intuited, after reading the following "results" of the most comprehensive study of American and Western European capital ever undertaken. It reads: "The history of the distribution of wealth has always been deeply political, and it cannot be reduced to purely economic mechanisms. In particular, the reduction in inequality that took place in most developed countries between 1910 and 1950 was above all a consequence of war and of policies adopted to cope with the shocks of war. Similarly, the resurgence of inequality after 1980 is due largely to political shifts of the past several decades especially in regard to taxation and finance. The history of inequality is shaped by the way economic, social, and political actors view what is just and what is not, as well as by the relative power of those actors and the collective choices that result. It is the joint product of all relevant actors combined." P. 20, "The Major Results of the Study," CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Thomas Piketty (Belknap: 2014) During the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Republicans rose up, repressively, remember? Clinton followed and maintained the same. So, here we are in 2014! NOW 2015:The racist attacks grow more desperate day by day as evil--IN THE FORM OF MASS-MURDERER/TERRORIST, DYLANN STORM ROOF--senses the great falling away!

SANGUINARY ASSAULT ON AN HISTORIC CHARLESTON, SC HOUSE OF GOD

"The Emmanuel AME church is a historic African-American church that traces its roots to 1816, when several churches split from Charleston's Methodist Episcopal church. One of its founders, Denmark Vesey, tried to organise a slave revolt in 1822. He was caught, and white landowners had his church burned in revenge. Parishioners worshipped underground until after the Civil War. The house of worship is the oldest AME church in the South, with has one of the oldest and largest black congregations south of Baltimore, according to its website." ---MANAWATU STANDARD Not just any black church, but a powerful symbol of resurgence!

"DADDY DID IT" -- A FATHER'S DAY TRIBUTE

Daddy Did It! Poignant remembrances of my father on this Father's Day flood my heart and eyes with endearing tears. I will share just two: Daddy stepped up and drove our first-ever, black awareness float in the 1968 Fourth of July parade in Webster Groves Missouri, near St. Louis. This first-time foray for black community residents of the Webster Groves, Missouri School District, resulted in Daddy receiving a ticket in the mail, two weeks later, from the City of Webster for reckless and imprudent driving. This was in spite of the fact that the white policeman had deliberately rammed into us, to prevent us from joining that parade. The black and white communities rallied to Daddy's defense, due to this injustice. The black community posted Daddy's bond, and the white community furnished a top-flight lawyer, who later became Missouri Bar President. At the ensuing trial, in Municipal Court of Webster Groves, we won! Case dismissed! That experience inspired me to go to law school. Daddy did it! Another time, in October 1969, I lost my meal ticket at Howard U. my freshman year. I called home. Mom and Daddy said "No! You stay there. Somehow, we will get the money." Was I shocked when just five days later, I got a registered letter from home containing $250! This wholly unexpected gift came to me in my Cook Hall dorm room. Mind you, Howard's tuition was only a mere $200 a semester back then. Mind you again, I was the eldest of 8 kids in St. Louis, whose parents made only minimum wages at work. But, Daddy had other skills, like bricklaying, asphalting, painting, etc. So, what he had done, I later learned, was to find a private contracting job, putting in a patio or driveway and they sent me the proceeds. Amazing. Daddy did it, again! So, on this Father's Day, I salute my Earthly father, ELVIS MITCHELL COLEMAN, who in obedience to the will of my Heavenly Father, made a way for me to stay in school, and thereby to secure a pathway for my younger siblings, all of whom later attended colleges, confidently, knowing that, come what may, Daddy was always there and would always be there! Daddy did it (and Mama too)! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL DADDYS, FATHERS & PAPPAS!

EACH IS UNIQUELY CALLED AND CREATED

Is each person living or who has ever lived, not specifically and specially created to occupy this, or their, unique space and time? 27"Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28"Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."…John 12

"CHESS" by James McCune Smith

"While men on Wall-street surged to and fro under impulses they no more understood and could no more govern than the iron waves in the howling storm : while men in Broadway and other streets adjacent --the masters suddenly arrested in their golden dreams of enormous profit , and the workmen sadly folding up their implements of labor; and while the poor, frantic with an unknown dread , rushed to the Savings Banks, or gathered in bread mobs in the distant parks--in the midst of this social hurricane , there was one house in Broadway, in which men daily gathered , and matters went on "'Calm as a summer's sea ,' "The very center of the vortex , yet calm as a moonlit pool, so deeply embayed in mountains that no breath of air could reach it--a land-locked haven , in which whoever entered, however storm-driven or care-crushed, became calm and still, and hung up his votive offerings to the 'genius loci,' which was neither music nor dancing, nor dice, nor wine, nor opium, nor lotus, nor hasheesh, but simply CHESS! The 'immortal game' painted as played on the inside of the tomb of Nevotp, the Egyptian. 3000 years B.C.; but who can paint it as played at the Donadi's rooms in Broadway , in the year of grace 1857?" P.283-284, "Chess," THE WORKS OF JAMES McCUNE SMITH: BLACK INTELLECTUAL AND ABOLITIONIST edited by John Stauffer (Oxford: 2006)

Bashful beautiful bride

THERE IS MORE...

THERE IS MORE If environmental pressures shape continents, rivers, mountains, rocks, rain, surely they affect us. Genetics we now readily concede are determinative in establishing who and what we are as people. Yet, even by conceding the presumed parity or equality of epigenetic connections, in our environmental and in genetic influences and confluences, they still do not explain the mystery nor unravel the majesty of mankind nor of life nor of order . There is more. We sense it. We feel it. We know and worship it! Amen.

UPGRADING "AMERICAN JUSTICE" TO THE LEVEL NOW FOUND IN AMERICAN SPORTS

UPGRADING "AMERICAN JUSTICE " TO THE LEVEL NOW FOUND IN AMERICAN SPORTS MUST BE DONE Sports have been made more fair by the addition of instant replay and conferences among officials to make sure that they get it right. That same approach should be adopted in courts to make sure that they get it right as well, on the spot, and transparently. None of that is now done. Courts are closed and cloistered in secrecy . Bias, bribery, and old enmity all affect sports and justice alike, because humans are, foremost, people too, regardless of their education, jobs, representations. Thus, everyone is more alike than different, environmental effects and sociological effects are also impactful equally on every one. Bringing the Justice System up to the same standard of fairness and excellence now exhibited in the world of professional sports would subserve the interest of the American public and ensure Justice, as well!

GOD'S GRACE "ON A HOT TIN ROOF"

God's Grace "on a hot tin roof" We've all experienced God's grace, whether we call it that, or whether we have the intuition to recognize its rendition as that. Scanning back, I can visualize many "breaks" which favored me that I have long since kept secret, to myself. That I share them with you, now, Dear Reader, is further testament to the Grace of God. I will share just one of my many, exceedingly vast, and deep quiver--larder--of God's acts of beneficent grace toward me. This one involves my beloved alma mater, Howard University in Washington. D.C. This happy one occurred over the "Christmas Break" my Freshman year, 1969. Unbeknown to me, our American literature professor, Mrs. Newman, had assigned the play "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof " by Tennessee Williams, to be read over the holidays and to be tested upon, when we returned. I am not sure, now, how I missed that assignment, unless I skipped her class to get an earlier flight back home to St. Louis, Missouri to family, food, fun, friends, and to my sorely-missed girlfriend! However I missed it, be assured that I was shocked, stupefied, when she started passing out the essay examination the very first thing at the recommencement of class. My surrounding classmates looked at me with that "What? You didn't know" expression after I verbalized my horror and dread! Thinking back, I readily recalled how I had been somewhat obstreperous in Mrs. Newman's class, having already read many of the books assigned, and items assigned, then, engaging her in nuanced extrapolations, therein. She always got the better of me, being the teacher, but I was rising up ever higher, so I had thought! To top it all off, Mrs. Newman was a white woman who was married to a black man, and teaching at a black university. My emergent, yet puerile, yea, juvenile, black nationalist consciousness bristled at all of these things, internally. Thus, calling on all the creative juices that I could muster, I wrote as the opening line of my essay's answer to her "surprise" test: "Dear Mrs. Newman, I am 'The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof.'" I then went on to explain the fact that I had not read the play, nor known of the need to read the play, in my rush to get home for Christmas. I also apologized to her for the many occasions that I had unduly extended her classroom discussions into unassigned areas by my impassioned, insatiable curiosity and interests in the subject matter of her fascinating class. I also stated that I was the first person in my immediate family to attend college, indeed , the great "Capstone of Negro Education," Howard University, and that I would deem it to be a signal honor, if she would look beyond my faults, in this instance, and evaluate my merits as a man, as her student, and as a writer. I also told her that I did not hold her race against her ; that I had many good white teachers in high school and junior high school; that my blackness was based in black love, not in white hatred. Thinking that I had flunked that exam and that course, imagine my joy, Dear Reader, when she returned our papers, and I discovered that I had been awarded an "A+" with notes commending my resourcefulness and candor by my American literature teacher, Mrs. Newman, whose course I also later aced! "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof," indeed! Nothing but God's Grace!

RACHEL DOLEZAL'S "PARENTS"

Since when has a lie been material to anything in America, a nation built upon lies? Babies lie. Plants and insects lie, as do all men and all women. So what? Did anyone die? Was anyone injured? Was any property damaged or stolen?? That's when a lie is material. Otherwise it is immaterial. The alleged "lies" of Rachel Dolezal have been disingenuously advanced by most of her critics as their basis for disapproving this Howard University-educated, white woman's claim that she is "black." Not since Bo Derek wore cornrow braids have I witnessed such vitriol. This woman, in addition to having been married to a black man, to whom one child was born. She also teaches African American studies at Eastern Washington University. Oh yes, she is President of the Spokane, Washington NAACP. In that context, she has stated the not-so-well-known fact that all humanity is descended from Africans, which makes everyone of African descent, her "parents" included!

WHERE ARE THE ELDERS?

WHERE ARE THE ELDERS? When I recall or recount notable occurrences and incidents from my childhood and adolescence in the 50's and 60's on FB, I cannot help but to note, not only the rarity of concurrences from other online correspondents, but also the almost complete absence of earlier recalls by any others! Where are the elders?

RACHEL DOLEZAL, BISON SISTER

The notion of a Rachel Dolezal is too novel for too many black people to stomach. Why would any white person--especially a white woman (gasp)-- want to be black? Can they be? 'Black' and 'White' are made-in-America racial classifications (later borrowed by South Africa Afrikaaners and Nazi Germany and Italy's Fascists). They were economically, politically, and culturally contrived to justify centuries of enslavement, brutalization, miscegenation, discrimination, and oppression. In Africa, there were no blacks just tribes. In Europe, there were no whites just nations. America needed classifications to divide the privileged from the poor; the have's from the have not's; the white indentured servants from the black indentured servants. So voila! Racial categories were created, and inculcated in politics, in business, in science, in culture, in law, in religion, in education, in public accommodations. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/rachel-dolezal-delusional-construction-perception-of-race

MARK TWAIN ON READING

RETHINKING THE 'CRIMINAL' EXCLUSION IN LAW ENFORCEMENT

RETHINKING CRIMINAL EXCLUSION: hire the less than perfect ones! Who better could be hired in law enforcement than someone who has already gone to jail or prison? The adage, "It takes one to know one," is particularly apt for law enforcement officials. Who better to ferret out the real criminals? Therefore laws and regulations that exclude persons from that field, or any other, without more, are counterproductive and wrong. Corruption, selective enforcement and disparate treatment already exist, overwhelmingly, among those presently employed "perfect ones" without records; that is all the more reason to hire the "less than perfect" ones!

RACE & MEANING by Gary Kremer

Today I finished reading an extraordinarily powerful book for black Missourians, particularly: RACE & MEANING: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN MISSOURI by Gary R. Kremer (2014). Dr. Kremer is also the Executive Director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, and a friend of mine. As good as its sweeping history is, its Epilogue is even better, as it contains many, many sources which can be accessed online and offline for anyone curious or interested in writing about any aspect of Missouri history!

READING HURTS IGNORANCE

McKINNEY TEXAS AND ME

The heroic acts of the teens in McKinney, Texas: blacks, whites, and others, at the now-infamous summer pool party reminds me of a similar occurrence on July 4,1968, involving me and my friends, in a like police encounter. In Webster Groves, Missouri, our rugged truck/float, a decorated-flatbed, rented by the "Students for Black Awareness and Action" our high school club, with 20-30 brothers riding in its van, was deliberately rammed by a cop car to prevent us from joining the main caravan of floats just ahead! Ironically, this occurred at the Annual "Fourth of July Parade." It was the first time that "north Webster," where we lived, had ever attempted to join what had previously been an all-white celebration in south Webster. But, being bright and impetuous and "rich" from our summer earnings as bus boys, parking lot attendants etc., we pooled our money, rented a truck, bought posters (Temptations, James Brown, Stokely, King, Smokey, Rap Brown,etc) and marveled as the truck, beautified by our resourceful sisters' decorative touches, with orange and black flags and streamers (school colors) was transformed into a true legitimate float, overnight! When we arrived at the parade's embarkation point, we were asked for our parade "permit," which we had left back in the hood! So, we had to leave the main body of the parade and return to north Webster to get it. Now, mind you, this big truck was a standard shift transmission that was being driven by our Hispanic classmate, Ed Cabanes, who had driven admirably up to that point. This oversight was a blessing in disguise for during our return trip to retrieve the parade permit, we were able to pick up a motorcycle escort, and a truck load of eager and excited brothers, fired up by the novelty of our patriotic foray. Fully loaded, we returned to find that the entourage at the parade staging area had left without us! Fortunately, we were able to trace its route by the manure imprints left in the street. We soon caught up with the stalled parade. But, we found ourselves positioned behind an old mule-drawn fire engine, behind which walked a brother with a shovel, heaving mule manure into a van, behind whom we were aligned, stopped. As the parade again lurched forward, our driver, Ed, could not put the truck in first gear. So, a neighborhood personality named "Tut" Rusan took the wheel. Tut, an older brother well renowned for taking an occasional nip, had no better luck. Suddenly, to my complete surprise, from the sidelines stepped my father, Elvis Mitchell Coleman, a St. Louis County Highway employee, and old farm boy, who could drive anything. Daddy put that sucker in gear, revved the engine, and away we went, to the hurrahs of the brothers on board and the pedestrians viewing the parade! Quickly, overtaking the mule and brother, who had moved on while we were changing drivers. Still, we were yet falling farther and farther behind the main body of the parade. To make matters worse, the Webster Groves Police blocked us in to prevent Daddy from passing the mule-drawn fire pumper and its accouterments! Even so, we made the best of the situation waving to residents of white Webster who seemed to be charmed by our ensemble. This, too, became frustrating in due course, as we wondered audibly, why with a permit, we were not permitted to rejoin the main body of the parade? Soon, however deliverance was at hand. One of the two police cars that was boxing us in turned off as we approached a corner on which sat an abandoned gas station. Daddy cut diagonally across its empty parking lot, bypassing the mule and company onto a clear street! Shifting gears, he hustled down the street to the main parade which was now again in sight, although it was nearing the parade's destination, the Forty Acres fairground and public pool. So deft was Daddy's geometric maneuver that it surprised the remaining cop, who had been blocking our progress. Incensed, that cop raced down the street and crashed-dived into the front passenger side bumper to force us off the road. Daddy stopped! Brothers began spilling off the back of the truck raucously relieved to be unhurt, and as equally incensed! Daddy came out to inspect the damage, as did the cop, whose driver's side was deeply dented, due to his hubris. As the officer approached a variety of queries were directed at him by a host of interrogators. Daddy then calmly said, "Boys, gone up to the fairgrounds and let me handle this." So, we did as he said, even me, though I did ask if his directive also included me. None of us had been hurt. Our truck was insured and minor damage was on our bumper only. Even so, two weeks later, Daddy got a call at home, telling him he was under arrest for reckless and imprudent driving, and to come up to Webster Groves City Hall. Daddy called Mr. Clarence Thomas, the father of Charles Thomas, another prominent leader and classmate, who accompanied Daddy to city hall to post Daddy's bond. Word spread of Daddy "arrest" to our friends in white Webster. One of them, a doctor Nancy Pennoyer, contacted a prominent Clayton lawyer named Bertram Tremayne. Tremayne, who later became President of the Missouri Bar, years later after I was admitted to practice. Tremayne skillfully and tactfully represented Daddy at no cost to us; the charges at the eventful trial--the first I had ever witnessed--were dismissed by the judge, to our great joy and relief! Thus ends my own personal, historically account of our July 4th, 1968, teenaged saga, involving police, members of the black, white, and Hispanic communities, and happy ending, as occurred recently in the video spectacle in McKenney, Texas.

TIYE THERESE COLEMAN

Pretty Tiye Therese! Grandpa's sugar plum!

RACISM DEFINED AND DISPLAYED

Definitions of "racism" require precision, as it involves the negative application of legally or culturally punitive power to an historically vilified and culturally deprived black people. It must not be confused with bias and prejudice, which are merely personal to all, lacking the negative application of punitive power to deprived black people. Otherwise, confusion ensues leading to imprecision in ameliorative efforts.

JAMES CARROLL NAPIER, BISON BROTHER

James Carroll Napier, was an 1872 Howard Law School classmate of John Wesley Cromwell, whose outstanding book, THE NEGRO IN AMERICAN HISTORY: MEN AND WOMEN EMINENT IN THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICANS OF AFRICAN DESCENT (1914), I am now reading; as well as a classmate of Charlotte B. Ray, the first black woman lawyer in America. All were intellectual and spiritual heirs of John Mercer Langston, of Ohio, who founded the Howard Law Department in 1869.