THE PAST

THE PAST Never neglect the past. All that can be known has already passed. That, or those, which, or who, urge you to forget the past, or your past are counseling calamity to you. It is better to know it; to face it; to derive lessons, value from it; use it! None can know tomorrow with certainty; which they may not live to see! The future cannot be known, nor taught; merely speculated upon. The present is but a sensory blur. Mine that at hand. Dig where you can, be it under water or on land. Therein dwells and abides the past, your past. At last!

APPLES

A discarded apple core contains black seeds that reproduce that apple's likeness greatly! What is more the seeds "know" much, having learned truths by osmosis from their parental apples, genetically and epigenetically! Glory!

BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL

https://www.facebook.com/VCTMcentee/videos/10206634354235358/?theater "I AM BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL." REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KIN

LIFE

life is suspended in space tethered tenuously to earth

UMOJA does not need all

"Umoja" (Unity) : not "all" is needed! Galled by "all," am I, on this day! "When we all, as blacks, get together, we can all do this and that," is especially galling to me, as an oft repeated, utterly untrue, mantra that is both mortifying & misleading ! First, it is ahistorical . Merely a few people have done great things many times, repeatedly, in history. Secondly, it is non-mathematical. Therein, in mathematics, one finds operating: addition , subtraction, multiplication and division ; square roots and exponents; fractions and integers; geometry and arithmetic ; trigonometry and algebra, etc. there is no mathematical "all!" Theologically , God admonished Gideon to reduce his 3,000 men to 300 in order to win the battle over enemies. Thus God took those who "lapped like a dog," while drinking from a river. Again, no "all," y'all! "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump," says scripture to like effect. So, as we meditate on the meaning of unity on "Umoja," this first day of Kwanzaa, do know, now, that no "all" is ever needed, historically, mathematically, theologically, or scripturally, in order to win, or prevail, whatever the travail!

JAMES MCCUNE SMITH "VITAL STATISTICS"

"The keen and practiced eye of Southern men can instantly detect the most remote admixture of African blood... But here at the North, the boundary line is less distinct; the colored white has merely to change his place of abode, cut his old associates, and courtesy will do the rest--he is white. There is no path in literature or science in my State in which I could not point out very distinguished colored men . Of the one hundred boys who attended with me the New York African Free School in 1826-7, I could name six now living --all white.... "During the last thirty years the northern States have been the scene of a silent struggle . The combatants have been and are, in the one hand, the great Anglo-Saxon race , the Irish people, and the Berserkirs (I have borrowed the term from Mr. Emerson), having in their possession the 'arts of war and peace,' their numbers swelled by an immigration of 23,000 per year , which has fallen into rank and file by naturalization and enfranchising laws---on the other hand are the free blacks, taught to believe themselves naturally inferior, barely admitted to common school instruction , shut out from the temples of higher literature , and taunted with ignorance, barred from the jury bench and driven from what are called churches , yet branded with impiety. This has been no trifling conflict . The Indian race have perished in a like encounter . It has severely tried the vitality of the free blacks, whilst the slaves of the South have had no such battle to fight in their struggle for bread . This should show the percentage of longevity in favor of the slaves, other things being equal.... "Longevity is an admitted test of relative condition. Take two classes of people equal in other respects, and place them in like condition, their longevity will be equal. Place the same classes of persons in different conditions, and that condition which yields less longevity will be the 'worse' condition . By the census of 1840... "It follows that slavery has actually destroyed at the very least 7.19 percent of the slave population. Had the slaves been in no worse condition than the free blacks of the North, instead of numbering only 2, 487, 355 in June 1840, they would have numbered 2,666,440; the difference , 179,085, having been MURDERED by the system of slavery. "... "There is corroborative evidence in the annals of this city. Dr. Niles states that in 1824, '5, and '6, the deaths among the free black population of this city were 1 in 18.88. By the city inspector's report for 1840, I find that deaths for the same class were only 1 in 32.16. Slavery was abolished , or terminated in New York in 1827; and a large proportion of those who died in 1825, &c. were slaves recently emancipated . These facts prove that within fifteen years after it became a free State, a portion of the free black population of New York have improved the ratio of their mortality 75 percent --a fact without parallel in the history of any people. " P. 62-4, "Vital Statistics," THE WORKS OF JAMES MCCUNE SMITH: BLACK ABOLITIONIST AND INTELLECTUAL , edited by John Stauffer (2006)

STUDY THE STARS

STUDY THE "STARS" Heroes and heroines are the stars and constellations by which, by whom, we may successfully chart our own destinies, our own way. But, how can we chart by that which we do not know; and how can we know if we do not inquire; and how inquire without studying first our context and conditions? "Study to show thy selves approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of truth."

HATRED NOT SUSTAINABLE

"Hate" is not sustainable. Predation is. The lion does not hate the lamb or antelope . It preys upon them. The building does not hate its foundation . It stands upon its foundation . Know the difference and deport accordingly

TRUTH IS BEST REGARDLESS

It is better to know the truth than not to know it, no matter how burdensome, inconvenient, distasteful, or bitter such knowledge may first be seem to be,

HATRED: THE AVATAR OF IGNORANCE

Ignorance causes more injury than knowledge ever has. In fact, "hatred" --the emotion--is a vacuous hoax, is ignorance's avatar, a veiled impostor bereft of love, truth and knowledge !

OBAMA SYMBOLIC OF BLACKS

Symbolic of the effort of black people is President Obama's! Since before the founding of the nation, through every war, every challenge, hardship America has faced or endured, blacks have patriotically surpassed and surprised every traducer and detractor to establish its power!

FORT FISHER, CAPE FEAR RIVER NC

"It was shortly after midnight on January 13, 1865, when the long roll sounded to summon the garrison of Fort Fisher to the ramparts. Looking seaward, the officer commanding the Rebel bastion at the mouth of the Cape Fear River could see the distant, flickering lights of a massive Union fleet. This was the second time in less than a month that an amphibious Federal force had descended on Fort Fisher, which kept open the Confederacy's last seaport--Wilmington , North Carolina . The first attempt had come on Christmas Eve, heralded by one of those trademark devices so favored by the commanding officer of the Union landing forces , Major General Benjamin F. Butler... "This time, even Benjamin Butler's political power base was not enough to shield him from the repercussions of his failed scheme: the man who had been the highest ranking officer actively to promote the combat service of black troops was summarily sacked by Lt. General U.S. Grant. In almost the same motion, Grant ordered a new expedition to be mounted against Ft. Fisher. The command this time was given to Major General Alfred H. Terry, who eschewed the elaborate designs of his predecessor in favor of a simple direct approach ... "Terry's force comprised two divisions, drawn for the most part from the Army of the James. One of these consisted of black infantry commanded by Brigadier General Charles J. Payne.... "Worried that a single white division would not be enough to capture Fort Fisher , General Terry drew off one of the two white brigades posted with Paine's men to support his effort, leaving his rear line held by all of his black troops and a single white brigade. Then on the afternoon of January 15, he began his land attack against Fort Fisher. Henry M. Turner , the black Chaplain of the 1 USCT, accompanied some of the assaulting units as a surgeon's aide. "Never had I seen grape and canister used so effectively as on our troops on this occasion," he wrote soon afterward . "At one time I thought they could never stand it, neither do I believe they would have stood, but for the fact they knew the black troops were in the rear, and if they (the white troops) failed, the colored troops would take the fort and claim the honor." P. 358-360, "Ye's Long Been A-Coming," LIKE MEN OF WAR : BLACK TROOPS IN THE CIVIL WAR, 1862-1865 by Noah Andre Trudeau (1998)

"SOLDIERS"

"SOLDIERS" Since "soldiers" die in battle, and since a war of repression has been waged against the Constitutional rights to life, liberty, property, and voting, since the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras into the present, then the blacks who have lost their lives since then to agents of such repression, while pursuing or exercising those rights are "soldiers" worthy of honor and recognition, and their families are likewise worthy of death benefits!""

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: AMERICAN HISTORY IN BLACK AND WHITE excerpt

"African American history--so much of it is truly unknown today. For example, few know of James Armstead--a black patriot and spy who helped make possible the 1781 Yorktown victory during the American Revolution that established America as an independent nation.... "And in the famous 1776 crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, two men depicted at the front of the boat include Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell --two black patriots who served with George Washington and other American generals during the Revolution . "Few Americans are aware that many of the soldiers who fought during the American Revolution were black--and unlike the later segregated units in the Civil War, many of the units in the American Revolution were fully integrated, with black patriots fighting and dying side by side with their fellow white comrades and soldiers." P. 5, SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT : AMERICAN HISTORY IN BLACK AND WHITE by David Barton (2004)

SALUTE TO LINCOLN UNIVERSITY IN JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI

Lincoln University's --Jefferson City, Missouri--statuary tribute to its black colored troop founders in 1866 is pictured above. Those troops were the 62nd and 65th USCT (U.S. Colored Troops). They raised $6,400 among themselves to fund education for the blacks of Missouri , knowing that they had "no time to lose,"--as they put it-- to arm themselves with knowledge and wisdom for the unfinished work of equality that lay ahead, notwithstanding their newly won freedom from chattel slavery through victory. Their money was given to their white commander, Lt. Richard B. Foster, who faithfully discharged this sacred trust from his troops, becoming its first principal! Gary Kremer's vivid 2014 book describes it all: Foster, his heroic Civil War troops, Lincoln, and their Missouri legacies. http://www.lincolnu.edu/web/about-lincoln/our-history

'THE OTHER SIMON"

Today, I read a very powerful sermon with which I personally identified, based on my own experiences as an itinerant elder in the AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. That sermon was entitled "The Other Simon," from the text, Luke 23:26. The preacher was Rev. Vernon Byrd. Ironically, this preacher is the son of our late Bishop Vernon R. Byrd, who actually ordained me in 1998. Bishop said at that time that his son was also an attorney like me, who had also recently been ordained in the itineracy. I read his sermon in THE A.M.E. CHURCH REVIEW, Jan.-March, 2015 edition, that I have only recently received in the mail. I sought the sermon online, unsuccessfully, that I might share it with you. But, I could not find it, nor pull up a current issue of the journal containing it. I was, however, able to find a link to his church in Trenton, New Jersey, which I now share. http://www.philasun.com/…/grant-ame-church-of-chesilhurst-…/. Very briefly, his sermon describes the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Golgotha, when Simon of Cyrene was made to bear the cross of Christ. This was "the other Simon" referred to in the sermon, the African, the lowly one, the forgotten and despised one; this was not the more famous Simon Peter, Christ's chosen disciple, the one that is now revered; but he ran away and hid on the "via dolorossa," the way of tears, when Christ struggled under the cross's weight, alone! No, this saintly Simon Peter now widely renown was he who even thrice denied that he knew Jesus. But, this other Simon, this black man from country Cyrene, carried the Savior's cross up the hill! The "other Simon" is further analogized to those unarmed, slain black men immortalized by the "black lives matter" movement. Men like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, et. al. He also describes "other Simon" as those who do for Jesus, rather than pleading with Jesus to do for them. He really rocked that word! I relate to it in my own "other Simon" experiences in Butler, Missouri; and in St. Joseph, Missouri, where with a mere handful of people God yet moved in a mighty way, to the uprooting of strongholds and glorifying forgotten ones!

MONEY IS A NEED NOT A LUXURY

Money is a Need not a Luxury Money, capital is always a foremost consideration, being a basic need like air, food, water, shelter, love, even among those who most deny its primacy, especially among these who most vehemently renounce it!

FIGHT BACK

In a fight, fistfight, or otherwise, one does not win and cannot win, by merely blocking the blows, or by absorbing the blows, of one's opponent, in a "rope-a dope." Rather, one must throw and land some meaningful blows on the foe. Remember that. All defense and no offense is a bloated punching bag.

GOOD COMPANY

GOOD COMPANY "We are known by the company we keep," our parents used to say . Or "birds of a feather flock together." Good company contributes to your happiness and convenience, even while you also contribute to theirs. Measure for measure is good company's mutually convivial measure, though its mode and methodology may differ with time, place, opportunity, and need. Everybody cannot be, or bring the steak. Somebody must be or bring the fire, coals, and grill; just as others must be or bring the right seasonings and the side dishes; yet still some others must be or bring tables, chairs, trash bags, the plates, napkins, dessert, cutlery ; surely someone must be, or bring the music, beer, wine, water, pop. Now, that's good company for a barbecue picnic . That identical principle applies more broadly in daily life with you and your friends. Human life is a dynamic differential equation, constantly evolving, being adjusted and balanced. This life requires that its divine energy, which is already based on fusion, fission, and grace; which is guided by love, nurture and light- -both seen and unseen light, be balanced . This dimension of life is cosmic, being star-derived and star-driven. It is based on astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and the Holy Spirit, the unknown, which it is briefly housed here on earth, ephemerally; that is, for a season, to replicate, to reproduce, until its "change comes" at its pre-appointed time in space. Good company is needed every step of the way, as "it is not good that man should be alone," ever.

MORDECAI WYATT JOHNSON

"In addition to my family concerns, I had ambivalent feelings about leaving the South in spite of my resolve not to live there. On the Sunday before commencement this inner conflict was stirred up again by Dr. Mordecai Johnson 's impassioned appeal to the graduating class in his baccalaureate address . One of the great spellbinders of his time, he had the capacity to sway even the most skeptical of his listeners. That Sunday he was at his best as he urged the graduating seniors of Howard's professional schools to go South, placing their knowledge and skills at the service of southern Negroes. 'Why don't you put your degree in your back pocket or hand it to your mother,' Dr. Johnson asked us, 'and go down to "Brassos Bottom " in Mississippi where you are needed most?' He reminded us that more than three-fourths of the nation's Negro population lived in the southern states, while two-thirds of the twelve hundred of the nation's Negro lawyers lived outside the South. 'If men like Bilbo and Rankin refuse to see the needs of our beloved Southland because of their blind spot on race,' he said, 'why don't you go down there and become the true spokesman for those people?'" P.246-247, "Further Adversities," PAULI MURRAY : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BLACK ACTIVIST , FEMINIST , LAWYER, PRIEST AND POET (1987, 2003)

VIRGINIA FARMLAND

"On the morning of the 17th [December 1864] we all left the boats. It was an interesting sight to see them land cavalry horses, pitching them overboard and allowing them to swim ashore. Everything being landed, we were ordered to cook our dinner as quick as possible, after which we fell into line, and then commenced the raid. We took our line of march across the most fertile country that there is in Virginia . Talk about Secession being hard up, it is all a mistake. Passing you would observe in the fields and pastures any amount of cattle and sheep, and around their houses any amount of poultry , and on entering you would find their smoke-houses filled with meat and their barns filled with grain to repletion. But the Philistines were upon them. We helped ourselves to anything that we saw and wanted in the shape of poultry , meat, tobacco, corn, horses, or rebs. The boys emptied their haversacks of all government grub, replacing it with turkeys, chickens, ducks, sweet potatoes etc, etc. the boys were living high, and it was hard for them to fall back on hard tack and salt horse again." P.125, A GRAND ARMY OF BLACK MEN edited by Edwin S. Redkey (1993)

TETRABIBLOS

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrabiblos One of the most important books ever written on astrology is this one, "Tetrabiblos" by Claudius Ptolemy of 2nd Century A.D., Alexandria, Egypt. Its previously written companion text, the ALMAGEST, was the definitive book on astronomy for over 1,000 years, until its geocentric perspective, Aristotleian in descent, was overthrown by Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo Galilei, definitively, in the 1600s with their heliocentric perspective. Under heliocentricism, the sun is the center of the Solar System, NOT the Earth as Ptolemy and Aristotle's plethora of disciples so dogmatically believed, Threatened by the Catholic Church, in which he was a priest, with banishment, ex-communication or worse--the torture of the Inquisition--unless he adjured (renounced) heliocentricism, Galileo's tacit renunciations of it saved his life. Fortunately, modern science has redeemed him, Galileo. Accordingly, the TETRABIBLOS, being astronomically based on the now moribund ALMAGEST, may now also be as moribund, albeit fascinating!

ALGOL TRINARY STAR HIERATIC

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151217151651.htm https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_Star The study and ASTRONOMICAL and ASTROLOGICAL interpretation of the triple star ALGOL predates the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt where it is noted in hieratic script papyrus as the star of HORUS, the son of ISIS and OSIRIS.

LOVE IS THE GREATEST

LOVE IS THE GREATEST Five fingers, five toes normally align each side of human beings. Yet, ignoring this basic clue, --why not 4 or 6?--we acknowledge only four states of matter, or of being, not 5! Four states of being have now replaced the three old states of matter or being that we grew up on, as children, under different coordinates in space and time. The newest state is plasma. It is that molten-solid, essentially, either hot or cold, lava-like or ice floes. The former, familiar classifications were : gas, liquid and solid. These concepts were taught in grade school science, and were affirmed by empirical observations in nature. But I now wonder whether "love" is not also another state of being? Is not love also affirmed in nature? I say that love is another state of matter, one that is profoundly felt; one that subliminally influences all life, but that which is unseen like music; and one that is as natural as washing your face, as combing your hair, as brushing teeth, or as feeding yourself and your babies. Love is simply divine. Love joins the natural state to the spiritual state in an ineffable, indispensable bridge, that is joyfully ridden over so easily, repeatedly, daily by us all who love. But, love's actual physical status is not cognate in physics, chemistry, biology, as each is now conceived. "The greatest of these is love." Says the Bible. "God is love." Many of us profess our love for one another or for this or that, routinely. Love is. Therefore love is matter. Moreover, love really does matter marvelously, figuring prominently in our own mental, spiritual, physical health, and in relation to all others'. I say that love is the fifth state of being or matter along with plasma, solid, liquid, gas. Thus, no longer confining "love," merely in the spiritual or mental states, but incorporating love into the material and corporeal states of being, we now have a new robust lineup: Gas, liquid, solid, plasma, love, 5! That "one for the thumb" mantra of the former Super Bowl champions, Pittsburgh Steelers, was "love." That mantra is as apt here with respect to our new champion, love. Truly, the greatest of these is love.

EYES

Eye contact may trigger intuitive communications. Prolonged eye contact, whether stare or glare, is so palpable it catalyzes conduct. The eyes have it and convey it.

CATARRH

As children, mother taught us to say "catarrh," not snot or boogers. These latter two were deemed by her to be exceptionally coarse, and crude, reflecting lack of culture or, even much worse, "home-training!" I was reminded of Mama, just now as I read how Union Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson in his 1866 classic, ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT, wrote: "One of these nocturnal visits to the wreck I recall with peculiar gusto, because it brought back that contest with catarrh and coughing among my own warriors which had so ludicrously beset me in Florida. It was always fascinating to me to be on these forbidden waters by night, stealing out with muffled oars through creeks and reeds, our eyes always strained for other voyagers, our ears listening breathlessly to all marsh sounds ,--blackfish splashing, and little wakened reed birds that fled wailing away over the dim river, equally safe on either side. But it always appeared to the watchful senses that we were making noise enough to be heard at Ft. Sumter, and somehow the victims of catarrh seemed always the most eager for any enterprise requiring peculiar caution. In this case I thought I had sifted them beforehand; but as soon as we were afloat, one poor boy near me began to wheeze, and I turned upon him in exasperation. He saw his danger and meekly said, 'I won't cough , Gunnel!' and he kept his word. For two mortal hours he sat grasping his gun, with never a chirrup . But two unfortunates in the bow of the boat developed symptoms which I could not suppress ; so, putting in at a picket station, with some risk I dumped them in mud knee-deep, and embarked a substitute, who after the first five minutes absolutely coughed louder than both the others united. Handkerchiefs, blankets, over-coats, suffocation in its direct forms, were tried in vain , but apparently the Rebel pickets slept through it all, and we exploded the wreck in safety. I think they were asleep, for certainly across the level marshes there came a nasal sound, as of the 'Con-thieveracy' in its slumbers. It may have been a bullfrog , but it sounded like a human snore." P. 71

EUCLID AND FIRST THESSALONIANS

Euclid and Thessalonians' Proof First Thessalonians 5:21 requires that we test or prove all things; that we hold fast to that which is good, to that which is proven to be true. http://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-21.htm This wisdom is applied visually, graphically, rigorously in the ancient geometry of "Euclid 's Elements", all 13 books. It is the world's second bestseller after the Bible in the Western world at least. Patiently and methodically, from the least geometric proposition, definition, postulate, common notion, "porism," (corollary), and "lemma," (assumed for another construction), to the greatest of these, a mutual web of reinforcing precepts are interactively applied, elucidated, and demonstrated, in support of prior references, proofs. Euclid 's methods of proof and presentation are set forth, copied, mimicked meticulously, brilliantly, in Benedict Spinoza's and in Sir Isaac Newton 's classic and revered magnums opus in philosophy and physics, with his geometry and mathematics undergirding them both, unapologetically, even boldly. Returning to 1 Thess. 5:21, we are reminded yet again of the need for rigorous righteousness in religion as it is in physics & mathematics. "Prove me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven , and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Malachi 3:10. http://biblehub.com/malachi/3-10.htm

MONEY REMONSTRANCES

MONEY REMONSTRANCES Money moves and removes. Money makes and breaks. Money leads and misleads. Money is the means to all and the end of all. Get some money. Guard your money. Combine your money. Above all, friends, prudentially Invest your money in your hopes, interests, your dreams, your loves, and then prosper as your money works!

BUDDHA AND KARMA

When asking about inequalities in life, one might also ask, why are some rocks mountains, while others are mere stones; or why some plants are trees and others are grass; or why some water is salty and other water is fresh, unless polluted. May it be that Karma subsumes a greater mystery than mere causality that we can see or understand? http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm

TASTE TESTS

TASTE TESTS The "taste test" allows sampling without consuming or swallowing. This taste test, and its concomitant sniff test, touch test, ear test and eye test, should be applied to food and drink, of course. But, also must be applied to religion, education, politics, family life, the job, and to everything else that is in one's life.

black radio in st. louis

Growing up black in St. Louis, Missouri , in the 1950s and '60s, black radio was the tie that bound us black teens together socially and politically beyond any other means or medium. Our radio personalities were that, literally, with the "Rocking Mr. G,"--George Edward Logan; Bernie Hayes; and my favorite, the mighty Steve Byrd, who featured our black student group from Webster Groves High School, Students for Black Awareness and Action (SBAA), on his very popular afternoon program on several memorable occasions to the chagrin of some! One prominent program each morning on KATZ-AM was "Roll Call." Students from area high schools would call in and state the name of their school, in sort of a show of camaraderie and popularity, while popular music singed the airwaves in the background. At the end of the program, when most students were already in school, that day's winner of "roll call" would be announced competitively, setting up the next day's show.

MYTH DEFINED

MYTH DEFINED Myth is extended metaphor espousing proffered proof, assuaging community values--instead of the actual truth.

OUR STOLEN CAPITAL LEGACY

OUR STOLEN CAPITAL LEGACY A moral man in a land of thieves is like a lamb in a land of wolves, prey. So were our newly freed ancestors with their Freedmen's Saving Bank. Their thrift, extra work, and patient sacrifice had enabled them to save while enslaved. These virtues were recognized by Congress when it incorporated the "Freedmen's Savings Bank," across from the White House, later expanded to 37 cities in at least 11 states in 1865, the very year their "Freedom War" ended at Appomattox, Virginia. Millions of their hard-earned, long-preserved dollars (many billions by today's standards ) were poured into these banks by our ebullient people, as they watched with pride other colored people working as clerks, tellers, bank officials, even a few as trustees, which was all but unimaginable a few years earlier! Capital investment of its funds by this new bank was restricted by law, at first, to government bonds and treasury notes. This was done to assure its integrity and allay spurious speculations with their capital. As additional protection, no loans could be made, locally, but were restricted to Washington, D.C. This large pool of money sitting in Reconstruction-era Washington DC soon was sniffed out by corporate raiders and financial "sharpies" as potential prey to be stolen away. So, having attracted the interest of "Wall Street," getting that bank's capital use restrictions removed to allow speculative investments, well outside of government securities, and outside of Washington, D.C., was just a simple matter of paying off a few politicians, Republican and Demoxrat. Once this was done, the depredations began in earnest. From funding flimsy real estate deals, shaky stock transactions; any scheme that could fly, a few feet, these viruses ate away! These acts were committed by the so-called "friends of the Negro" till their money was nearly all gone! When the alarm was sounded in the late waning months, after the damage was done, the public relations experts were rushed in. Frederick Douglass was appointed a trustee. He had invested $10,000 of his own money in the bank, and was appointed its President to restore investor confidence. Also appointed as a trustee in these last days was John Mercer Langston, Esq., who had founded the Howard U. Law School in 1869, much for the same reasons as Douglass'. As deposits were not guaranteed by the government, at that time, when the bank failed in 1872, a mere seven years after its singular founding, its many tens of thousands of depositors were only able to recover a fraction of their money. Nor did Congress ever "bail out" this bank, nor refund any lost money to the duped black savers! On January 7, 2016, 150 years later, the "Freedmen's Savings Bank" will be rededicated at its original site, where the "U.S. Treasury Annex" now stands in Washington, D.C. , across from the White House; and will be renamed, officially. That ceremony and this history should give added impetus to the push for reparations of our "stolen capital legacy," also delayed 150 years! http://www.blackpast.org/aah/freedmen-s-savings-and-trust-company-1865-1874

MILKY WAY MEDITATIONS

Since our galaxy was formed 13 billion years ago, and the earth formed 4 billion years ago, and since early man came to be about 4 million years ago--says 'Lucy' and the like in Ethiopia--, it stands to reason that man may have attained the present stage of evolution 1,000 times before. I have to smile at that one , myself. A billion is a thousand million.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151210095321.htm

MICHAEL HARRIS, ESQ,, MY FRIEND

MICHAEL HARRIS, Esq., my friend Michael Harris, Esq., my dearly departed friend, from Chicago, Illinois, has filtered through my mind recently in no particular context, just generally, persistently there, awaiting acknowledgement. Hello, Michael, how are you ? Michael was already a campus legend , when I arrived at Howard in August 1969, my freshman year. He was the preeminent militant on the yard. Being of a like disposition myself, I had noticed him in a social context, of some other brothers, "vibing," seriously, as such bloods were wont to do, back in the day. Of course, I wrote about what I saw, there and elsewhere, about "the yard," somewhat obliquely, as a "Concerned Freshman" in a Letter to the Editor in THE HILLTOP, our weekly student newspaper. Mentioning no names, only clues, its impact was immediate! Michael came to my dorm and introduced himself to me. That was how we met, and over the years became fast friends and compatriots. Despite a gruff exterior he was a warm, witty, personable guy, who was supremely eloquent. In fact, I called him "Old Man Eloquent." He confided that his family consisted of Chicago Police Officers, and that he had gone to a premiere Catholic High School, with Mayor Daley's son as a classmate. At Michael's apartment one evening, pursuant to invitation, Dick Gregory dropped by, who told us that the pyramids were built from the top-down ! Michael was the consummate black power organizer, who had come to prominence with the Administration Building takeover in 1968; and later the campus-wide shut-down in 1970, after the Kent State and Jackson State student killings by Ohio National Guardsmen and Jackson, Mississippi police. Michael also related the history to us of the old advocates who had gone before that had graduated already or has otherwise left, like Stokely, Lou Myers, Courtland Cox. His closest male associates were "Smooth" Sam Wallace of Brooklyn, New York, and Gary Ayers, who rarely smiled. These three men could muster: Money, troops. Passion. And target it precisely! Michael became 1971's student body President, running a political party called "The Family." He also was involved in creating free bus trips for dozens of Howard students to Newark, New Jersey; Birmingham, Alabama ; and Greenwood, Mississippi in 1970-1971, respectively, for helping in political campaigns for blacks. After I graduated in 1973, I was surprised to see that Michael had joined me at Howard Law School, since he was already ahead of me. Anyway, we both graduated from that history laden school in 1976. Thereafter our paths parted. A few years later he died back home in Chicago of an illness . Great man. Great friend. Michael Harris. Rest in peace, my brother.

THE DESTINY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR (1843)...EXCERPT

"We are an oppressed minority, then, and are men of kindred power with those who oppress us. What has been the fate of oppressed minorities who have resisted oppression? History is full of evidence on this subject.... "It is the law then, that an oppressed minority shall ultimately obtain a ruling influence over their oppressors. This is a startling proposition to apply to the case of our people, yet it is not discordant with probability. It is not probable that like the Jews, we will wield power by the influence of money, for our efforts do not bend that way.... "For we are destined to write the literature of this republic, which is still, in letters, a mere province of Great Britain. We have already , even from the depths of slavery, furnished the only music which this country has yet produced. We are also destined to write the poetry of the nation ; for as real poetry gushes forth from the minds embued with a lofty perception of the truth, so our faculties, enlarged in the intellectual struggle for liberty, will necessarily become fired at glimpses of the glorious and the true, and will weave their inspiration into song. "We are destined to produce the oratory of this Republic; for since true oratory can only spring from honest efforts in behalf of the RIGHT, such will of necessity arise amid our struggle --no holiday speeches in which shall be uttered eloquent falsehoods, garnished untruths, and hollow boastings of a state of things which exist only in the imagination ; but on the contrary, we shall utter the honest pleadings of downtrodden humanity , seeking security from wrongs too long inflicted, no longer to be endured. In fine, we are destined to spread over our common country the holy influence of principles, the glorious light of Truth. And as physical light falls upon and penetrates the dark bosom of the earth, giving light and sustenance to the herbs and plants which yield their increase for the supply of the physical wants of man, even so shall there go forth from our minds, the glorious light of truth, which shall penetrate the hearts of those who oppress us and give life and sustenance to those long dormant germs (of our common humanity) whose kindly fruits shall be brotherly love and Christian Charity." P.56-59, "The Destiny of the People of Color (1843)," THE WORKS OF JAMES MCCUNE SMITH edited by John Stauffer (2006) [NOTE: I find this prophesy of our people to be remarkable in several regards. First, it was written 2 years before Frederick Douglass published his first autobiography in 1845. Second, it was written both before the Civil War and 100 years before the emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X.]

AFRICAN LANDS IN DIFFERENT HANDS

African Lands in Different Hands The lands extending up to and including present day Syria from Egypt, down to Iraq, were once all under the power, control of Egypt. Over centuries, various invaders, starting with the Hittites (present day Turks), Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Muslims, France, and England, also invaded, then conquered, occupied those lands, former African lands, now widely denominated as "The Middle East." Those land are : Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt itself, Libya, Iraq, down to Ethiopia , where they were finally turned back. Indeed the name ,"The Black Sea," has often made me wonder about the ethnicity of the "Colchians," the people who settled that watery region after Sesostris, Pharaoh, had conquered it, according to Herodotus, famed Greek historian.

THE FACE OF GOD

THE FACE OF GOD The song "Mary Did You Know" by Clay Aiken is exquisitely beautiful. It is also most meaningful to all who adore the life, love, lessons, legacy, faith, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially at this season, Christmas, the one holiday named in homage of this humble, yet exalted, "man's" birth on Earth. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JPsgIhlYQmM… Fixation upon and adoration of that above him by day, by night, day-in-day out, diurnally, led early man to notice, to record certain patterns, similarities between the heavens above, and the Earth below them. One such observation involved the star "Sirius," which rose each year immediately before the flooding of the Nile. This annual inundation of the land of Kemet deposited tons of rich, black earth, effluvium, and life-giving water from inner Africa onto the parched desert of the Northern African delta faithfully. Thereby that once-barren land was quickened, strengthened, fertilized, eventually reclaimed from the sea. The vital, fabled food supplies of Egyptians of meat, fish, fruit, nuts, legumes, bread, beer, vegetables absolutely derived from this flood. "Sirius," or "Sothis," is the name of the star whose helical rising (before sunrise ) heralded the New Year in Ancient Egypt . It consists of two stars that appear to be one star. It is a binary star, consisting of Sirius A, the larger, more luminous, and Sirius B, the smaller and denser. http://www.crystalinks.com/sirius.html As the brightest "star" in the sky, whose meaning presages renewal, rebirth, it is that very bright "star" seen by the Magi or wise men from the East, and by nearby shepherds, in the Bible's New Testament books of Matthew and Luke. Their binary viewing, allusions to this unnamed star symbolizes spirituality the birth of baby Jesus, resurrection of man, and the oneness of man and God. "When you see your little baby, you see the face of God," croons Clay Aiken, famously in his song. In doing so, he thereby completes the cycles of: above and below, life and death, time and space, energy and matter, in loving musical radiance.

personalities to avoid

PERSONALITIES TO AVOID Being at odds with inaccuracies in facts is more reasonable, and much more salubrious than merely being averse to others' personalities. Inaccuracies in anything can be corrected when the truth is supplied and proven. "Personality" being divinely innate is unchanging and unchangeable, pretending aside. It is what it is. One is what one is. We are what we are. Therefore make sure disputes involve inaccuracies rather than personalities; then, be doubly sure that the challenged factual inaccuracy is in fact inaccurate; even then, promptly factually support this truth by proof! Of course a fool and a reprobate are hostile to truth and reproofs. Such wicked personalities it is best to avoid! And that is a fact!

THE "REAL" POLITICS OF MATHEMATICS

This article makes some excellent points. I remember the "new math" in grade school in 1959. We students did not like and rejected it http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/opinion/the-politics-of-math-education.html?emc=edit_ty_20151203&nl=opinion&nlid=62585939&referer&_r=0 WHEN MATHEMATICS IS DIVORCED FROM ITS NATAL WONDER, ITS AUTHENTIC BLACK HISTORY, WE BLUNDER. SINCE MATH DID NOT JUST MIRACULOUSLY APPEAR, BUT DATES BACK AT LEAST 44,000 YEARS-- TO MOTHER AFRICA'S NOTCHED "LEBOMBO BONE," AND "ISHANGO BONES" NOT FROM EARTH'S ENIGMATIC ATMOSPHERE. EARLY BLACK MEN AND WOMEN BROUGHT MATHEMATICS HERE, PERFECTING IT YEAR-TO-YEAR, SHARING WITH OTHERS FAR AND NEAR. SO IT WAS IMPLIED IN "PROMETHEUS BOUND" WHO CHAINED TO A MOUNTAIN, PROCLAIMED ETHIOPIA'S "IO" AS THE FOUNTAIN-- FROM WHENCE FLOWED, THE EMPYREAN WATERS OF WISDOM TERMED, THE "FIRE OF THE GODS", WHICH-- PLAYWRIGHT AESCHYLUS RECORDS THAT PROMETHEUS--TITAN'S SON-- "STOLE" FROM THE GODS AND GAVE TO THE GREEKS. FOR PENANCE HIS PROTAGONIST'S SENTENCE WAS TO HAVE HIS LIVER EATEN DAILY BY A BIRD AND GROW BACK FOREVER SOCRATES WAS MADE TO DRINK THE POISON OF HEMLOCK'S CUP, FOR BRINGING UP, TO GREEK'S YOUTH ANCIENT EGYPT'S "STRANGE IDEAS;" SOCRATES' STUDENT, PLATO, WRITING IN HIS BOOK, "THE LAWS" GIVES ALL WHO HAVE READ IT PAUSE, SAY MATH IS AFRICAN AND GREEKS ARE BABES; SAYING MATH GAMES WERE TAUGHT TO EGYPTIAN TOTS ON UP THROUGH LIFE, WHICH PERFECTED MASTERY, WHILE GREEKS STUMBLED BEING HUMBLED. MATHEMATICS ROBBED OF ITS HISTORY, IS ALSO ROBBED OF ITS MYSTERY, AND OF ITS MAGIC, MUCH LIKE EUCLID'S GEOMETRY "ELEMENTS". NOW, ISN'T THAT JUST TRAGIC! MATHEMATICS MUST LIVE AND BREATHE TO GROW, LIKE TREES, LIKE CROPS, LIKE MAN, WATERS, AND AIR; RIGHT NOW MATH IS DEAD. HAVING BEEN CHOKED TO CHECK THE RISE OF ITS CREATORS, SO MUCH NOW DESPISED--THE BLACKS--MATH'S PROCREATORS!