CHAMPOLLION AND OBENGA

CHAMPOLLION AND OBENGA Translations and transliterations, which are unbiased by race, are as vital in the field of linguistics as they are in the broader realms of human endeavor, and of human dynamics. Truth liberates as it invigorates all. Untruths stultify, enslave all to lies . When Jean-Francois Champollion in 1822 decoded the ancient Egyptians ' hieroglyphics by use of the "Rosetta Stone,." His worked proved the script to be both phonetic and ideographic. His careful translations and truthful transliterations opened up that lost language of the earth's most ancient and advanced civilization: Kemet, also known by its Greek name: Egypt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-François_Champollion The "Rosetta Stone,"'itself was pulled from a rock pile by a Nubian laborer in the course of his work, in 1799, by reason of the varied curious markings etched on it. Those marking were a translation table, being the same text written in Hieroglyphics, Demotic (another Egyptian script) and Greek. Sensing its value, he turned it in to higher-ups, and found its way to the Frenchman, polyglot, Champollion . Long the principal source of stolen archaeological treasures, ranging from fragile papyri to towering solid stone obelisks , the written sacred language of the priests, scribes, sages, merchants, had been veiled in obscurity, over 1,000 years, since the murder of the last priests who could read and interpret their tongue on the Island of Philae in southern Egypt, in the 5th century, by zealous, jealous Christians attempting to displace the competition from the land of blacks. These thoughts surge back to my mind, the rich reward of decades of study, as I read the translation and transliteration of the Papyrus Bremner Rhind by Dr. Theophile Obenga in his truthful, classic, beautiful work of philosophical retrieval and redemption: AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY, 2780-330 B.C. (2004). To God be the glory for the things He has done !

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY, EXCERPT...

"HOW WHAT IS CAME INTO BEING "The book of knowing Ra's ways of being, and of thus overcoming the serpent Apep. "Thus spoke the Lord of the Universe. He said: "I came into being as the Existent, first to come into being. "Having come into being as what exists, I then was. "That was how existence came into being, for I was before the ancient gods, my creation. "Before they were, I was. "My name preceded theirs, for I created antiquity and the ancient gods. "I made all that I desired in this world, and I spread over it. "I reached out my hand by myself, before they were born, before I spat out Shu and Tefnut. "I used my own mouth, and Magic was my name. "It was I who came into being in my manner of being, taking on existence as what exists. "Thus I came into existence in Primal Time. After that beginning a host of ways of being came into existence , "(For before then) there was no mode of existence whatsoever in the world. "All that I did I accomplished alone, before any other being came into existence to create along side me in these places. "There I created the modes of being with the energy in me. There I created in 'Nwn', while still drowsy, while I had yet to find any ground on which to stand upright . "But then my heart was filled with energy, "The design of creation appeared before me, and I accomplished everything that I wanted to do, being alone. "Conceiving designs in my heart, I created a different mode of existence "And multitudinous ways of being born of the Existent." P. 61-63, "ONTOLOGY AND COSMOGENESIS," AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD, 2780-330 B.C., by Theophile Obenga; [from 'Papyrus Brenmer Rhind,' p.69-79; transliteration and translation by Theophile Obenga]

DR. BEN CARSON'S CASCADE

Dr. Ben Carson had attained iconic status, as a black boy from Detroit and Boston, within a single parent family who rose stratospherically in medicine, before tarnishing himself, and his public perception, in politics. Too much often leads to too little!

GOLDEN RULE VERSUS SOCIAL EQUALITY

Golden Rule versus Social "Equality" Is not "equality" an impossible social illusion, which projects an ideal, that is theoretical in conception, therefore is utterly unattainable in human life? If "equality" means to be "exactly alike," since no two things, even in nature, are exactly alike, whether leaves , water, or blades of grass, how can any human society ever be? Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you--the golden rule--is a better rule than illusory "equality."

GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI DINNER

GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI DINNER As I continue reading WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY (1967) by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my mind goes back to 1971, when I was among 90 students from Howard University who had traveled down to Mississippi on busses to campaign for Charles Evers, who was running for Governor. A colleague and I were walking down the street in the black section of Greenwood, when an attractive young woman came from the other direction . My friend, who was from Alabama, greeted her. He told her who we were, and where we were from. He then said, "We are hungry. Take us to your people." To my utter amazement, she did just that! As we stepped up into the dwelling, it was saturated with the sweet savor of down-home, dinner-time scents ! She introduced us, first, to her mother, who allowed us to sit in the living room, awaiting dinner. She also introduced us to her father, who entered shortly after from work. After grace, me and my buddy chowed down on fried chicken , pinto beans, greens, cornbread , peach cobbler ! I was so overwhelmed by this show of unusual hospitality, and so busy eating, praising God, and thanking them for our delicious meal, that I don't recall ever getting their names! My Howard U. friend was a native of Birmingham, and knew the folkways of our people, much better than me! Still, I was shocked by his audacity to stop that fine woman on the street , much less to request that she take us home! When she actually did and her mother fed us, my faith was renewed, not only in our ultimate goodness as a people, but in the certainty of civil victory in God's own good time!

TRUMP'S PEOPLE ARE PROBLEMS

TRUMP 'S PEOPLE ARE PROBLEMS The Donald Trump dilemma is that he is all racist Americans' salvific angel. He has not mentioned blacks, per se. That is no reason for comfort for us blacks. Neither did the "Slaughter House Cases" mention blacks. But, that first case to construe the new Fourteenth Amendment, although factually involving a dispute about sites where butchering animals could be done--at designated sites owned and taxed by the government, or at private sites as before--was later construed against blacks exclusively. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter-House_Cases Donald Trump 's supporters are the descendants of demagogues that escaped treason trials , after the Civil War, or any sanctions whatsoever. These are those who burned, killed, raped, stole, lied, cheated, swindled with legal immunity, and impunity, from blacks with the law doing zero! They are bold. He is bold but no fool. George Wallace lost by being openly racist, while Richard Nixon, & other GOP candidates hid such unseemly sentiments! Nixon had learned from Goldwater's defeat how to modulate. Trump is symbolic of the racist angst whose objects are non-WASP (white Anglo -Saxon Protestant), i.e., you! The Obama Presidency is that sphere about which they orbit for torque and for speed onwards toward election! Demographically Trump cannot win, absent cheating and voter fraud and intimidation. No problem, they did it before in 2000, in Florida. They can do it again. If Trump wins, he may well transform into a "Fuhrer"-type , rather than be subject to checks and balances. The Senate has refused to conduct hearings for a new Supreme Court nominee. Anarchy is here now ! I make no predictions. But Trump 's people are the problem . He is a vain opportunistic business man who has wrecked the GOP and might yet win! As long as the white man wins office again, Trump's troops may be happy. But, if not, who knows what evil woes abide within his implacable people?

black life affirmation

"Black lives matter" is more affirmation than declaration; more mantra than movement. It sticks in the legal, economic, political craws of traducers who have continuously disregarded certain black lives as worthy of acknowledgement , much less of any formal respect. Affirming it affirms us!

IDEAS ARE COSMIC ENERGY

IDEAS ARE COSMIC ENERGY Ideas are bursts of flowing cosmic energy that engage, that produce the mind, body, spirit of mankind, of all! Where they come from is as unknown as is where ideas, like wind, may go. "The wind blows where it lists, one hears it, but no one knows where it comes from or where it goes. Such are those born of the Spirit of God." John 3: 8. http://biblehub.com/kjv/john/3-8.htm Ideas can be and have been, by man, captured. Ideas can be, or have been literally plucked from the ether, from infinity, from eternity; then, they have been brought to earth. Here, these bursts of energy have been "reified", that is to say, they have been made "real," been concretized; have been proven, materialized. Arguably all that we human beings are, all that we eat, speak, write, produce, build, float, do, destroy, kill, alter, conceive, wear, live in, drive, fly, work on, is an idea made manifest on earth by flowing energy. Progress, reduced from the realm of abstraction to the plane of existence, is ideas expressed in mankind's tools, techniques, technology, processes . Since Ideas are energy, like mankind itself, ideas are easily assimilated by other men, who have not previously been exposed to energy's expression in a particular form. But, men adapt. Doubtless there are cellphones in use in the Kalahari Desert, or televisions in use in the Arctic. Boomerangs do exist, certainly, in Berlin. Egyptian Obelisks dot America and in Europe. Ideas are cosmic energy concretized.

AMERICAN RACIAL CONSTRUCTS

"Whites" is an American-made reductionist construction for Western European emigrants. "Blacks" is the same for "Moor" or "African." Englishmen like Shakespeare had a very high regard for Moors in his 17th century plays, "Othello" and "Titus Andronicus." As did Renaissance-era Italians, have respect for the Moors, whose Hindu-Arabic mathematics they copied, replacing cumbersome Roman numerals, which were brought to them from Africa by Fibonacci of Pisa. In like manner the Christian Religion of Rome and Greece and Assyria, came from Alexandria, Egypt, and from the Maghreb, though Plotinus, Tertullian, Origen, Augustine, and many African sages, before being appropriated across and around the Mediterranean Sea to Rome, Constantinople, Damascus, Antioch, and elsewhere. Similarly, and even earlier, the Greeks in the pre-Christian era learned all they knew from the black Egyptian priests as recorded by Homer, Plato, Herodotus. Black-engineered obelisks even now stand in Washington, Paris, Berlin, Rome, elsewhere. In short, it is inaccurate and untrue to say that "we whites have never respected black lives." White lives are mutations of black lives, genetically, culturally, philosophically, politically, pedagogically, aesthetically, religiously. Unfortunately, this truth is unknown to many. If anything, "whites" have respected black lives too much prompting distortions!

THE POOR AIN'T STUPID HILLARY AND DONALD

THE POOR AIN'T STUPID HILLARY AND DONALD! The white poor does not constitute a monolith meaning the "white stupid," any more than the black poor is a monolith meaning the "black stupid!" All life is intelligent. Some beguile, bully, brutalize, or indoctrinate others to gain a coercive advantage by the exercise of raw power. Capitulation to raw power in the face of massive disproportionate advantages on the ruling side is not stupid, it is wise and prudent. Poor whites who bucked the prevailing white power paradigm, which used them as foils, were killed as surely as blacks, whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, who sought self-determination. Therefore, whatever the outcome of the impending elections, the eventual winners must deal with income and wealth inequalities, since the internet and search engines have democratized news, knowledge, information, away from the mass-media monopolists. Thus, nobody will stand for the okey-doke, like before. Both the black poor and the white poor want their fair share for their taxes. Cries arise from the white poor and from the black poor, who are not only not stupid, but many of whom are professionally educated and college attendees. The term "poor," assumes that U.S. poverty subtends to those who earn less than $205, 000 per year, as 95% of Americans do, according to the "New York Times.". A very big number is 95% of the American population, enough to takeover! http://www.nytimes.com/…/250000-a-year-is-not-middle-class.… Whoever wins will meet a whirlwind for redistribution of wealth!

REDEMPTION SONGS, EXCERPT....

Deeper than Sherlock Holmes' detective stories, deeper than Nancy Drew's mysteries, or any other work of acclaimed fiction, is the actual history of Peter McNelly and Queen, his wife, two slaves who sued for and won their freedom under the 1787 "Northwest Ordinance," the first to do so, by early territorial courts' judges. Their breathtaking history was dug up by University of Iowa law professor, Lea Vandevelde, in her simply amazing book, REDEMPTION SONGS : SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT (2014). Finding such "first freedom suit records" was more than mildly problematic. It was more like finding a proverbial needle in a very large haystack, she writes. Although some early archival papers were available in territorial courts' records such as "sales contracts, land sales, probates, and other lawsuits--these records were conspicuously missing." Then came her breakthrough ! "On one frosty day in December 2011, the very same day that my resourceful reference librarian received the final communique that we had emptied the last official pocket and the records were not available anywhere , I found what I was seeking. That day, legend and folklore took the definite shape of historical fact. I discovered authentic documents in the form of six signed, firsthand, eyewitness depositions, including the ultimate prize: a particularly detailed deposition by the enslaved man, Peter McNelly himself, the first slave suing for freedom and for the freedom of his wife, Queen. The first redemption song. "The records were discovered where they would never have been expected. They were discovered among the personal papers of a nineteenth century man who knew their importance and had intended to write the history of these cases himself but never completed the task.... The manuscript was never published. And the original records were never returned to the state [of Indiana]. William H. English died in 1895, and his heirs held the records for almost thirty years before donating them to the University of Chicago in 1924. Yet, understood as a collection of research papers of an Indiana politician, their full importance for American history and the law of the frontier was never realized . ... "There was the case of "Peter McNelly v. Henry Vanderburgh," complete with the six corroborating depositions of the circumstances that led Peter and Queen to claim freedom under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and details of the kidnapping that resulted immediately thereafter . "Discovering Peter McNelly's identity led to more discoveries: Peter McNelly was not only the first freedom litigant under the Northwest Ordinance , he had also been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Learning his identity led to a Revolutionary War pension file with additional information about the sweep of his life." P. 24-25

BIRTH OF RACISM

THE COLONIAL BIRTH OF AMERICAN RACISM "Uncle Tom's" are to the "black" vanguard , WHAT white "radicals" are to the "white" vanguard. Traitorous. Both so-called American vanguards are convenient political constructs that were contrived by clever colonial slaveholders to divide and to conquer fearsome threats posed to their ruling power in the 1660's in Virginia & Maryland , by their indentured servants, who were, then, both black and white. They were followers of later-poisoned, Nathaniel Bacon, an ostracized wealthy Virginian, whose harrowing 1676 Rebellion for access to western lands and trade, resulted in the recall of the British governor, William Berkeley. This was the first American revolution, the invention of racism, as the racist paradigm for continued rule. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion These still-divided vanguards yet underlie and form the American political bedrock, crudely represented by evanescent interests.

PLEASE READ THE BIBLE!

http://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradictions.html MY GREATEST SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT IS TO HAVE READ THE ENTIRE "KING JAMES VERSION" OF THE BIBLE COVER-TO-COVER IN THE EARLY 1980'S. IA 2 YEAR PROCESS, IT HAS EMPOWERED ME LIKE NO OTHER GREAT BOOK THAT I HAVE EVER READ HAS . IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS WONDROUS WORK OF ANCIENT HUMAN GENIUS AND WISDOM, PLEASE DO. EVEN SO, IT MUST BE READ WITH AN OPEN SPIRIT, OPEN HEART AND MIND, IN ORDER TO ABSORB ITS TOTAL ESSENCE. THEN, YOU MAY INTERPRET IT AS THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS YOU, THROUGH ITS SEEMING CONTRADICTIONS AND TRUTHS!

FREE AT LAST!

Getting the left testicle caught, while sitting, in a slot of the handicapped shower seat is surely no fun! I can truly testify to that as of today 7-20-2016! After turning and tussling this way and that, that way and this , calling on Jesus, and cussing too, I finally cupped my circumstances as best I could, and rocked back and forth, singing ,"I feel like going home, I feel like going home..." Then, just like that! My valued jewel slipped out of the slot in the shower seat's slat! "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I am free at last!" Naturally, I texted my wife later about this most painfully discommoding incident. She said I should place a towel over the handicapped seat when showering . I told her that thought had occurred to me, parenthetically! I was using that towel for a footfall, to step on, while exiting. Metaphors aplenty

KNOWING AND LOVING SELF

KNOWING AND LOVING SELF As water extinguishes fire, so love extinguishes fear. Thus, "There is no fear in love. For perfect love casts out fear." Therefore, those who fear do not yet know God, neither do they yet love God, perfectly. Know & love God .http://biblehub.com/1_john/4-18.htm Live in love. Lave in love. Lube in love .http://biblehub.com/1_john/4-16.htm Acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the son of God is obvious & natural. So are you and me, God's children! http://biblehub.com/1_john/4-15.htm God's "spirit" abides in us as do we in God, as proof of our divine paternity. http://biblehub.com/1_john/4-13.htm

SUGAR CANE

Corn or cane? Both are tall, leafy and green. Sugar cane grew on our paternal grandparents ' Mississippi farm in the 1950s, during my infancy. I had trouble telling them apart by sight. That is one other area, where I never surpassed Daddy. He could look out of a car window, at crops , while driving down the road, and call them by name. That, I still cannot do, and so envy him!

TITANIC LEGAL TRIBULATIONS

TITANIC LEGAL TRIBULATIONS The ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are written in, and with, the betrayed blood of black men, who fought SO fiercely for the Union, and who won, literally, that Conflict, that preserved our nation, United States of America. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, unless "duly" convicted of a crime. The 14th Amendment gave blacks the incidents of "citizenship" : due process of law; equal protection of the law; privileges and immunities of the same sort held by white people; and section 2 of the 14th, also called for a state's proportional reduction in Congressional representatives, for any breach of any part of it. The 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to vote the same as white men. These high-sounding laws are partial spoils that were paid by a relieved nation to these brave black men for their heroic patriotism in that conflict that was also their fight for freedom! These laws have come down to us in theory, but rarely in substance. For, it yet appears that, despite these laws, that a "black man still has no rights" that a white man is bound to respect! For "freedom" is an abstraction , as is "equality" subject to judicial scrutiny . That scrutiny would be passed upon by essentially the same Supreme Court, which gave us Dred Scott V. Sanford in 1857, the catalyst for war! https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&q=1857+supreme+court+justices&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5lcLVr4bOAhWoz4MKHcOpDJ8Q1QIIRygA&biw=320&bih=529 Not only did these same jurists strangle the life and substance from the Civil War Amendments, they, or their fellow cretin, "copperheads," Confederates, did the same to the Civil War Amendments' enabling statutes, through 1883, when they reversed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as unconstitutional in the combined agglomeration "Civil Rights Cases." http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101281.html There the law still remains in 2016, despite many contradictory surface appearances. Various "immunities" created by the Courts have not only shielded racist judges, prosecutors, legislators from civil rights suits but they have also shielded police and sheriffs from civil suits or criminal prosecutions for injuries or deaths, inflicted on blacks in violation of law! From this icy glacier streams the icy waters that stills and kills our motions. This accreted, crystalline blockade of ice is the challenge confronting black judges, lawyers and patriotic jurists in America. Defrosting, blasting, melting this frozen, obstructive, crafted, legal mountain; this racist iceberg must be removed, must be blown into the sea!

MAKING KEY DISTINCTIONS

MAKING KEY DISTINCTIONS Prejudice and hatred are private. Racism and violence are public. Another's prejudices and hatreds disinterest me, since they are personal. But, another's racism and violence affects me, as they are impersonal! Prejudice and hatred I do not feel. BUT Racism and violence I directly do feel!

NICE FRANCE, NEGRITUDE & USA

NICE FRANCE, NEGRITUDE, & USA The Nice, France, truck pogrom on their national holiday--"Bastille Day"--resonated with me on several levels. Apart from the over 89 deaths and as many injuries following that famously rich, renown French Riviera locality's fireworks display, the event rived my pedagogical past & political present. I had learned of the launching the July, 14, 1789, "French Revolution," with the storming of the dreaded Bastille prison of "America's oldest ally," to quote President Obama,in my 7th grade, Steger Junior High School French class, where Mrs. Ferry was our memorable, 1st-hour, teacher in the 1963-1964, academic year. In later years, I had also learned how French Dominique , France's rich black colony on its half of Hispaniola, had itself been inspired by France's cries of "liberte ' egalite ' fraternite ' " to seek its own freedom from slavery.

THE ENNEADS by Origen

"When warmth comes in to make anything warm, must there needs be something to warm the source of the warmth ? "If fire is to warm something else, must there be a fire to warm that fire? "Against the first illustration it may be retorted that the source of the warmth does already contain warmth, not by infusion but by an essential phase of its nature, so that, if the analogy is to hold, the argument would make Virtue something communicated to the Soul but an essential constituent of the Principle from which the Soul attaining Likeness absorbs it. "Against the illustration drawn from fire, it may be urged that the analogy would make that Principle identical with Virtue, whereas we hold it to be something higher. "The objection would be valid if what the Soul takes in were one and the same with the source, but in fact, virtue is one thing, the source of virtue is quite another. The material house is not identical with the house conceived in the intellect, and yet stands in its likeness : the material house has distribution and order while the pure idea is not constituted by any such elements; distribution, order, symmetry are not parts of an idea. "So with us: it is from the Supreme that we derive order and distribution and harmony, which are virtues in this sphere: the Existences There having no need of harmony, order, distribution, have nothing to do with virtue; and nonetheless, it is by our possession of virtue that we become like Them. "Thus much to show that the Principle that we attain Likeness by virtue in no way involves virtue in the Supreme. But we have not merely to make a formal demonstration : we must persuade as well as demonstrate." P.16-17, "The Virtues," THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

"The writings of Harris and Gordon Cumming contain such full and nauseating details of indiscriminate slaughter of wild animals, that one wonders to see almost every African book sense besmeared with feeble imitation of these great hunters' tales. Some tell of escapes from situations which, from our knowledge of the nature of the animals, it requires a painful stretch of charity to believe ever existed, even in dreams; and others of deeds which lead one to conclude that the proportion of 'born butchers,' in the population, is as great as of public-housekeepers to the people in Glasgow. "The amount of ivory taken to the marts of the world shows that about 30,000 elephants are annually slain. It is highly probable, that as the great size of the ears exhibited on Roman coins prove the animals in use by that nation to have been African, and not of the Asiatic species, they must have been trained by negroes in the interior of Africa. This is the more likely, inasmuch as there is no instance on record of ancient Europeans daring to tame this animal. Never , since the time of the Romans and Carthaginians, has the African elephant been tamed, though it was believed to be much more sagacious than the Asiatic species." P.197, "The Batoka," NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI by David and Charles Livingstone (1865)

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by ORIGEN

https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Origen/dp/0870612794#immersive-view_1468494585583 "2. But if it is impossible by any means to maintain this proposition, namely, that any being , with the exception of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can live apart from a body, then logical reasoning compels us to believe that, while the original creation was of rational beings, it is only in idea and thought that a material substance is separable from them, and though that substance seems to have been produced for them or after them, yet never have they lived or do they live without it; for we shall be right in believing that life without a body is found in the Trinity alone. Now as we have said above , material substance possesses such a nature that it can undergo every kind of transformation. When therefore it is drawn down to lower beings it is formed into the grosser and more solid condition of the body and serves to distinguish the visible species of this world in all their variety. But when it ministers to more perfect and blessed beings, it shines in the splendor of 'celestial bodies ' (1 Cor 15:40) and adorns either the 'angels of God' or the 'sons of the resurrection ' (cf. Lk 20:36; Mt 22:30) with the garments of a 'spiritual body' (1 Cor 15:44). All these beings go to make up the diverse and varied conditions of the one world ." P.102, "The perpetuity of bodily nature," ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen (2013)

OSMOTIC POWER

Now this is deep! Osmotic power: proven generation where salt water meets fresh water with 3-atom thick molybdenum disulfide membrane filtering positive ions from negative ions; this yields voltage, current, power! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713143004.htm "James 3:11-12New International Version (NIV) 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

WORRIES

WORRIES Can't worry 'bout what you don't know about, cause what you don't know about, might not be about, nothing to worry about, at all. Rather, do something about, what you do know about, then, there will be nothing to worry about, inside of your body, at all!

ALBERT EINSTEIN: THE NEGRO QUESTION (1946)

ALBERT EINSTEIN: THE NEGRO QUESTION (1946) I am writing as one who has lived among you in America only a little more than ten years. And I am writing seriously and warningly. Many readers may ask: "What right has he to speak about things which concern us alone, and which no newcomer should touch?" I do not think such a standpoint is justified. One who has grown up in an environment takes much for granted. On the other hand, one who has come to this country as a mature person may have a keen eye for everything peculiar and characteristic. I believe he should speak out freely on what he sees and feels, for by so doing he may perhaps prove himself useful. What soon makes the new arrival devoted to this country is the democratic trait among the people. I am not thinking here so much of the democratic political constitution of this country, however highly it must be praised. I am thinking of the relationship between individual people and of the attitude they maintain toward one another. In the United States everyone feels assured of his worth as an individual. No one humbles himself before another person or class. Even the great difference in wealth, the superior power of a few, cannot undermine this healthy self-confidence and natural respect for the dignity of one's fellow-man. There is, however, a somber point in the social outlook of Americans. Their sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins. Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am clearly conscious; but they are unimportant in comparison with the attitude of the "Whites" toward their fellow-citizens of darker complexion, particularly toward Negroes. The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me. I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out. Many a sincere person will answer: "Our attitude towards Negroes is the result of unfavorable experiences which we have had by living side by side with Negroes in this country. They are not our equals in intelligence, sense of responsibility, reliability." I am firmly convinced that whoever believes this suffers from a fatal misconception. Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man's quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition. The ancient Greeks also had slaves. They were not Negroes but white men who had been taken captive in war. There could be no talk of racial differences. And yet Aristotle, one of the great Greek philosophers, declared slaves inferior beings who were justly subdued and deprived of their liberty. It is clear that he was enmeshed in a traditional prejudice from which, despite his extraordinary intellect, he could not free himself. A large part of our attitude toward things is conditioned by opinions and emotions which we unconsciously absorb as children from our environment. In other words, it is tradition—besides inherited aptitudes and qualities—which makes us what we are. We but rarely reflect how relatively small as compared with the powerful influence of tradition is the influence of our conscious thought upon our conduct and convictions. It would be foolish to despise tradition. But with our growing self-consciousness and increasing intelligence we must begin to control tradition and assume a critical attitude toward it, if human relations are ever to change for the better. We must try to recognize what in our accepted tradition is damaging to our fate and dignity—and shape our lives accordingly. I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes. What, however, can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by word and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by this racial bias. I do not believe there is a way in which this deeply entrenched evil can be quickly healed. But until this goal is reached there is no greater satisfaction for a just and well-meaning person than the knowledge that he has devoted his best energies to the service of the good cause. PLAY EPISODE DOWNLOAD EPISODE PLAY UNEDITED EPISODE PLAYLIST SHARE EPISODE GUESTS FREEMAN DYSON is a theoretical physicist and Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has published many scientific papers and written many books, including Disturbing the Universe. PAUL DAVIES is a theoretical physicist and director of BEYOND: The Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. He has written widely about Einstein's understanding of time, including How to Build a Time Machine. S. JAMES GATES, JR. is a theoretical physicist and John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. He's written widely on string theory, and has advanced unified field theories of the type first envisioned by Einstein. THOMAS LEVENSON is Associate Professor of Science Writing at MIT. He's produced "Einstein Revealed" for NOVA and has authored several books on science and technology, including Einstein in Berlin.

ANTI-"BLACK LIVES MATTER" POLICE

Police officers who walk out of public events to protest "Black Lives Matter" t-shirts should keep right on walking, out of their jobs, out of the city. Such police are clear and present dangers to all black lives; such conduct and police, discountenance our Constitution which declares and decrees the beneficence of the equal rights to life, liberty, property, due process to all American citizens. Such protesting police, worst yet, are demonstrably traitors or terrorists !

INSINUATING SELF-LOVE

INSINUATING SELF-LOVE Love radiates beyond its object, like the Nile used to overflow its banks; like the sunshine outshines the earth. Love must love. It cannot help itself. It sweeps up, and sweeps in, all around. Love infiltrates beyond any longitude. Love genuflects before no latitude in prayer. Love is an infinite expression divine energies insinuating self-love.

low-level hustle lethality

LOW-LEVEL HUSTLE LETHALITY Eric Garner was choked to death while selling loose cigarettes to passers-by on a public street in New York. That was his light hustle. Alton Sterling was a CD and DVD seller who was on private property with the owner 's consent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Light hustle once again, when he was shot and killed. Both black men were killed by white cops, who thereafter were given paid vacations--"administrative leave"--with pay, all while gaining celebrity. Taking away administrative leave and, indeed, revamping the entire training process, hiring, firing, promotion process is most necessary for the 50 states to undertake immediately! Both of these men were trying to make money. Is it a crime for black men to hustle for a living? Why? State regulators and regulations have stifled entrepreneurs in urban areas, needlessly. There are no low level jobs for these men, so let them hustle as others have hustled before them! What right have police to interfere with a low-level hustle? None ideally! The state legislatures need to rein in their police! Their laws and policies are what the cops are pretending to be enforcing and/or interpreting that leads to so much lethality or violence against low level hustles as described above. State laws afford a pretext to approach these low entrepreneurs, who are just selling trying to survive ! There are 50 states. Each one must take away low level hustling from the purview of police to allow breathing room to these unemployed persons! And these legislatures also must weed-out white supremacists police, prosecutors and judges, who have massively entered the ranks for hire without their white sheets to kill, brutalize, to terrorize black citizens! This must be done in every state now!

ARGUMENTS

As first-year law students at Howard University School of Law, we were taught that if we had the facts, argue the facts; but, if we had the law, then argue the law. But, if we had neither facts or law, just argue! This rule of thumb may assist somebody today, when you are next in court. Do not argue with police! They are trained to kill, not to argue; trained to execute not to cogitate nor to deliberate. Live to get to court, so that you can play lawyer temporarily until shut down!

ARIUS AND ARIANISM

I have often wondered about Arius, a 4th century scholar, whose writings were twice burned, once by Constatine, after the Council of Nicea in 325, and again by orthodox Christianity, which abhorred his teaching that if Jesus is "begotten ," he could not have always been, as consubstantial with God, but a later addition like us. These theological speculations may find comity today in the general theory of relativity 's proof that the fabric of the universe is not the same everywhere; which at least is susceptible to demonstration and persuasion. Arius and Arianism has been foresworn and desecrated, as has he, for centuries as heresy, by the Catholic and Protestant hierarchy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius

ALEXANDRIA VIRGINIA AND MY FAMILY

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA AND MY FAMILY Last Sunday, our family of seven people attended Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, where Rev. Howard John Wesley is pastor. Our family attended the 12:00 noon service, which is one of three that is held at that fine progressive church . I had learned of this church from a Facebook post, after it hosted a scholarship fair for area students at which attending colleges awarded $3,000,000 worth of scholarships and financial aid to certain students. Fortunately, fortuitously, my sister and her wonderful husband, Lorenzo, are members at Alfred Street, and introduced me to their pastor upon our arrival. He preached a powerful message anchored in scripture that moved and resonated melodically . After church, my sister pointed out on Duke Street, a notorious, historical slave trading establishment from which, she says, that our paternal great-grandfather, William Coleman, had been sold down South before 1860, to Natchez, Mississippi, per her research on ancestry.com. That was very deep, as was Alexandria itself!

"VAIN IMAGININGS?"

"VAIN IMAGININGS?" NO WAY! Everyday is a day of thanksgiving. The biggest bang is opening your eyes with a reasonable portion of your renewed health and strength. Einstein said imagination is greater than knowledge. Ebbing with still challenging relativistic knowledge , his work was replete with imagining. From the iconic e=mc^2 to displacing Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravity. But, why simply stop with physics or mathematics ? Why not extend the aphorism further into the outer limits of demonstrable probity, should such there be, imagination being infinite. Why not imagine God? Why not imagine the cosmos? Why not do it? "Vain imaginings" are only "vain" to those who do not allow themselves to imagine. These are they who contend with themselves, against themselves. The power of imagination is explained at the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis 11:6. There, "The Lord said, 'Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: now there is nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.'" That's power! There is nothing vain about imagining nor about human imagination! Do it! Although the Apostle Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we: "Cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," Jesus says: "Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' doubting not in his heart, but believes that what he has said will come to pass, and it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours ." Mark 11:23-24. That is purely imagination applied! Imagination is of the heart and knowledge is of the brain. Man is both! Matter & spirit; heart & brain. Therefore free both! Be both in God!

SOUTHERN NEGROES' 20 MILLION ACRES IN 1912

"When the serfs were freed in Hungary, as in many other parts of Europe, provision was made to give them land, though to a very large extent they were denied the political privileges enjoyed by the upper classes. "In Italy also it was intended, in giving the serfs freedom, to give them likewise land. Again, when the vast estates of the Church were taken over by the State, an attempt was made to increase the class of small owners and to give land to the people who tilled it . In both cases, however, it was but a few years before the greater portion of peasant owners were wiped out and their lands absorbed into large estates.... "The case of the Negro was just the opposite. When the masses of the Negro people were turned loose from slavery they carried in their hands the ballot that they did not know how to use, but took no property with them. At the present time, I believe, by a conservative estimate, that the Negroes in the South own not less than twenty million acres of land, an area equal to the five New England States of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. "On the other hand, the Negroes have largely lost, at least temporarily, many of the political privileges which were given them at emancipation." P. 102-103, "Strikes and Farm Labor," THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN: A RECORD OF OBSERVATION AND STUDY IN EUROPE by Booker T. Washington and Robert E. Park (1912)

IMAGINE THAT!

BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER Sunday, July 10, 2016 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Life matters. All that lives is matter. All lives matter. Black people live. Ergo: “Black lives matter.” That a mere slogan could incur such alarm and consternation as “Black lives matter,” is confounding! That is, unless, all lives do not matter--black lives in particular--to certain pre-programmed, unpatriotic: police, politicians, other very sick people of all colors, genders, nationalities, ages, incomes, capacities. During American chattel slavery black lives not only greatly “mattered,” but such lives at slave auctions and estate sales were most highly valued even more valuable than land! “There is more in the man than there is in the land,” my grandfather Toney Mitchell Coleman once remarked, looking upon family land. Only after the end of chattel slavery, when black life could no longer be auctioned off to the highest bidder, did black lives lose their value, at first gradually, then later, precipitously, after blacks began massively migrating outbound from the South to the American North, West and Midwest for freedom. To “gild this lily,” so to speak, poor, European immigrants were sought and recruited among “the man farthest down”—to quote Booker T. Washington’s book about this highly-sought class of immigrants. They were brought in, and brainwashed at Ellis Island to know that they were now “white,” whatever their language, personal history, nationality, culture, income, education, vocation, class; now “white!” By the millions these now “white” bottom-feeders displaced the black skilled laborers, farm laborers, and common laborers who had fled from Southern lawlessness in quest of the opportunity to realize the national economic, political, social freedom that their black United States Colored Troops, sailors, and Contrabands had “preserved” from dissolution and destruction, intact, rather than disunited in tatters. Instead of the usual “spoils of victory” like free land, money, loans, technical assistance, scholarships being given to the blacks by the government, these hereditaments and emoluments went to the white immigrants—indeed, to the “white” anybody immigrant or not—as a reward, an incident of whiteness. These benefits did not go to the blacks, since that would dilute the value of whiteness, which is a right coupled with an interest. Blacks have no rights—let them tell it—and no enforceable property interest. Thus the “dilution” continues with “Black lives matter” becoming “All lives matter,” itself a canard, a lie. Dilution blacks know all too well, since even federal laws passed exclusively for blacks after the Civil War have been construed to include white women, gay women, gay men, and foreigners by federal courts. If “all lives really mattered,” there would be no wars in foreign lands, no abortions of living unborn babies. So, “black lives matter”—the slogan—is an American land mine, a naval torpedo, as it was known to Admiral David Farragut, who famously said: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead,” before triumph! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farragut #30

VISIT TO BENJAMIN BANNEKER'S FARM

BENJAMIN BANNEKER’S FARM Saturday, July 09, 2016 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman This time last week, July 2, 2016, we visited Benjamin Banneker’s farm and home outside of Baltimore, Maryland. It was a family affair for us. I was accompanied by my son, Imhotep, his two sons; my wife, Lyla; my sister, Pamela, and her husband. It was a first-time visit for all of us. This Benjamin Banneker Museum had just opened in 1998, and I became aware of it by online search, fueled by my readings. Although I had long known of Benjamin Banneker, he became fixated in my spirit when I read John Wesley Cromwell, Esq.’s brief, biographical account of his life in his book, “The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent” (1914). Cromwell’s explanation of how Banneker created his own annuity by selling off his fruit orchards on a contractual basis for an annual sliding scale sum, not only ridded him of the burden of taxation, but it also eliminated the even more baneful burdens of tenancies that perplex many landlords who so rely. The annual ephemeris or almanac, I knew about; as I did his astronomy, surveying, wood-clock-making, mathematics, paternal West-African-Dogon tribal-descent, i.e. “Bannaka;” knowledge of binary nature of Sirius star; his white grandmother, Molly, a farmer and former indentured servant from England. These things I knew. But, his self-created annuity that paid him and freed him, really resonated in me. By visiting his museum, however, and by watching a 30-minute video starring Ossie Davis, I also learned that Banneker’s famous correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, was critical to his getting his first almanac published. Banneker had sent Jefferson a copy of his ephemeris, along with his letter, to refute and to confound Jefferson’s erroneous assertion about the lack of scientific or mathematical acumen in the Negro. This was contained in Jefferson’s “Query XIV,” in his 1785 book “Notes on the State of Virginia.” By reason of this famous, epistolary exchange, between two iconic heavy-weights of science and learning, a formerly reluctant publisher relented, and then published Banneker’s Almanac for years. Thus, to the annuity, I now add, Banneker’s almanac, as a sagacious and most enterprising achievement. Banneker’s Almanacs were published 1792-1797, titled “Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris.” It was a visit and time well spent. Take your whole family to visit!

NILE WATERS

A desert is dry not merely because of too little rain. A desert is a desert because of too little water. The presence of water not the absence of rain is what matters most. The land of Egypt is a 1,000 mile-long desert bisected by the Nile River. Thereby, ancient Egypt became the breadbasket of the Biblical world, and real world, when its engineers redirected the Nile's waters to fecundate its dry land. Although, that ancient land is rightly known for, and by, its many stone monuments, papyrus scrolls, navigation, gemstones. philosophy, megaliths, 3 forms of writing: hieroglyphics, hieratic, demotic; magic, medicine, art, musical scales, and mathematics; perhaps its most overlooked achievement is that pertaining to water. Hydrologically, in its tapping into, and redirecting the effluvia-rich Nile, it enabled the "dry bones" in that great river valley to live again.

CAVORTING IN GOD'S GRACE

CAVORTING IN GOD's GRACE Each point on the grid of life has an occupant that presently, previously , or ultimately will be encumbered by someone by something at some time. Each point is a linear projection of an infinite dimensional conception, idea, that may not exist at all, now, or ever. It is by grace, then, that we, the finite, created ones, Homo sapiens sapiens, are blessed to estimate, to speculate, to hypothecate, to guess, upon the Creator, the Intelligencer, which or who--whichever--lives outside of life, as we know it; beyond infinity, time, space, matter, energy, or vacuity or their opposites marvelously, eternally. Gladly. Joyfully do I cavort therein!

and so it goes.....

AND SO IT GOES Soldiers do what soldiers do. Activists do what activists do. Thugs do what thugs do. Terrorists do what terrorists do. Police do what police do. Judges, prosecutors and politicians do what they do, along with mass media. Each does what it does, as conceived by it, whether paid or not. Sometimes discriminately. Oftentimes indiscriminately. And so it goes.....

MAJOR GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER WAS MY FAVORITE GENERAL , along with the "Pathfinder " In St. Louis, John C . Fremont! Embedded in Major General Benjamin F. Butler's extensive report as commander of the Department of Virginia with headquarters at Fort Monroe. Bennie -------------------- HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Fort Monroe, May 24, 1861. Lieutenant-General WINFIELD SCOTT: I have the honor to report my arrival at this post Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock. I found that no troops had arrived except some recruits for the Third and Fourth Massachusetts Regiments of three-months' men and two detached companies of three-years' men which have been temporarily annexed to those regiments. This morning the Second New York Volunteers have reported themselves in good condition, numbering 782 men. These I have encamped on the farm of Mr. Segar, which is at the end of Mill Creek Bridge toward Hampton, and have also ordered into camp in connection with them the First Vermont Regiment (militia), Colonel Phelps. The force at this post may be stated thus: Colonel Dimick, commanding U.S. Regulars, 415 men; Third Regiment Massachusetts Militia and one company three-years' men, 727 men; Fourth Massachusetts Militia and one company three-years' men, 783 men; First Vermont Militia, 779 men; Second New York Volunteers, three years, 782 men. As there is very little sickness, the effective force kill be probably 3,375 men. Of these, the New York and Vermont regiments only are furnished with camp equipage. Upon my arrival I put myself in communication with Colonel De Russy, of the Engineers, and consulted him upon two subjects: First, as to the supply of water. I found that on that day the Minnesota was supplying herself from a well or spring on land of Mr. Clark, near the end of Mill Creek Bridge, about a mile from the fort, and that after pumping 800 gallons the well was exhausted, but refilled itself during the night, and from personal examinations of its surroundings I think it may be trusted to supply 700 to 1,000 gallons daily with a little enlargement of the reservoir. The water is of the best quality, and as it is immediately under the guns of the heaviest battery of the fort on the land side, I have thought it proper, with the advice of Colonel De Russy, of the Engineer Corps, to direct that a pipe be put in to bring it into the fort along the bridge and causeway, first having a cistern excavated at the fountain which will contain the whole supply of the spring. I have also advised with Colonel De Russy of the propriety of finishing the artesian well which had been begun here, and he is now in communication with a contractor for that purpose. There is an appropriation, as I understand, of $14,000 made by Congress for that purpose. On Thursday I directed Colonel Phelps, of the Vermont regiment, to make a reconnaissance in force in Hampton and its neighborhood within two miles of the fort, in order to examine its capabilities for en-camping the troops about to arrive, and at the same time I made personal examination of the ground, Colonel De Russy being of opinion that the wood suggested by the Lieutenant-General might be a little unhealthy, and I was further determined upon encamping in this direction by considerations of probable advances in this direction, to which I will take leave to call your attention soon. The rebels upon our approach attempted to burn the bridge over Hampton Creek, but the fire was promptly extinguished by the Vermonters, assisted by the citizens. Colonel Phelps passed into the village of Hampton, and found only a few citizens, who professed to be watching their negroes, in which occupation I have not as yet disturbed them. I therefore encamped Colonel Phelps' Vermont regiment and Colonel Carr's New York regiment on the point of land just above the spring, about half way between Fort Monroe and Hampton. Saturday, May 25.--I had written thus far when I was called away to meet Major Cary, of the active Virginia volunteers, upon questions which have arisen of very considerable importance both in a military and political aspect, and which I beg leave to submit herewith. On Thursday night, three negroes, field hands, belonging to Col. Charles Mallory, now in command of the secession forces in this district, delivered themselves up to my picket guard, and, as I learned from the report of the officer of the guard in the morning, had been detained by him. I immediately gave personal attention to the matter, and found satisfactory evidence that these men were about to be taken to Carolina for the purpose of aiding the secession forces there; that two of them left wives and children (one a free woman) here; that the other had left his master from fear that he would be called upon to take part in the rebel armies. Satisfied of these facts from cautious examination of each of the negroes apart from the others, I determined for the present, and until better advised, as these men were very serviceable, and I had great need of labor in my quartermaster's department, to avail myself of their services, and that I would send a receipt to Colonel Mallory that I had so taken them, as I would for any other property of a private citizen which the exigencies of the service seemed to require to be taken by me, and especially property that was designed, adapted, and about to be used against the United States. As this is but an individual instance in a course of policy which may be required to be pursued with regard to this species of property, I have detailed to the Lieutenant-General this case, and ask his direction. I am credibly informed that the negroes in this neighborhood are now being employed in the erection of batteries and other works by the rebels, which it would be nearly or quite impossible to construct without their labor. Shall they be allowed the use of this property against the United States, and we not be allowed its use in aid of the United States? Major Cary, upon my interview with him, which took place between this fort and Hampton, desired information upon several questions: First: Whether I would permit the removal through the blockade of the families of all persons who desired to pass southward or northward. In reply to this, I informed him that I could not permit such removal, for the reasons, first, that presence of the families of belligerents in a country was always the best hostage for the good behavior of the citizens; and, secondly, that one object of our blockade being to prevent the passage of supplies of provisions into Virginia so long as she remained in a hostile attitude, the reduction of the number of consumers would in so far tend to neutralize that effect. He also desired to know if the transit of persons and families northward from Virginia would be permitted. I answered him that with the exception of an interruption at Baltimore there was no interruption of the travel of peaceable persons north of the Potomac, and that all the internal lines of travel through Virginia were at present in the hands of his friends, and that it depended upon them whether that line of travel was interrupted, and that the authorities at Washington could better judge of this question than myself, as necessary travel could go by way of Washington; that the passage through our blockading squadron would require an amount of labor and surveillance to prevent abuse which I did not conceive I ought to be called upon to perform. Major Cary demanded to know with regard to the negroes what course I intended to pursue. I answered him substantially as I have written above, when he desired to know if I did not feel myself bound by my constitutional obligations to deliver up fugitives under the fugitive-slave act. To this I replied that the fugitive-slave act did not affect a foreign country, which Virginia claimed to be, and that she must reckon it one of the infelicities of her position that in so far at least she was taken at her word; that in Maryland, a loyal State, fugitives from service had been returned, and that even now, although so much pressed by my necessities for the use of these men of Colonel Mallory's, yet if their master would come to the fort and take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States I would deliver the men up to him and endeavor to hire their services of him if he desired to part with them. To this Major Cary responded that Colonel Mallory was absent. This morning the steamer Alabama arrived, having on board Colonel Duryea's regiment of New York, 850 strong, fully equipped. I have caused them to be landed and encamped with the First Vermont. The steamer Pembroke, from Massachusetts, has arrived, having two unattached companies---one of rifles and the other of infantry, 101 men each, and without equipage--so that now the actual number of men ready for service may be set down at 4,400, but not very efficient, some being quite new recruits and others not fully equipped, two regiments being wholly without tents. The rebels have built a very strong battery on Sewell's Point, at the entrance of Elizabeth River, about four miles from this post, and about two and one-half miles from the Ripraps, or Fort Calhoun, and supported in the rear, at the distance of about a mile across Tanner's Creek, by the rebel forces gathered about there, amounting, as nearly as I can ascertain, to some 3,000 or 4,000 men, it being understood from the attack of the Monticello on Sunday last that I intended to menace Norfolk in that direction. Of course I had not at my disposal any force sufficient to make such an attack and carry this battery with any hope of holding possession of it should it be taken. I had determined, however, upon consultation with Commodore Stringham, to engage the battery with the naval force, and to endeavor, under the cover of their fire, to land and at least destroy the guns and works, and such plan was arranged for this morning; but yesterday Commodore Stringham received orders from the Navy Department to sail at once for Charleston, so that our expedition was disorganized. As we had no sufficient force to make such an attack--in the absence of the flag-ship Minnesota and her guns at long range--as would give the movement that assurance of success which I understand you desire should seem to attend our operations, it has been abandoned. I have, however, directed Colonel De Russy to prepare to put some guns of long range upon the Ripraps, so as to prevent any further approach towards us from Sewell's Point or Willoughby's Spit. In this connection I beg leave to suggest to the Lieutenant-General the necessity in coast operations for say fifty surf-beats, of such construction as he caused to be prepared for the landing at Vera Cruz, the adaptation and efficiency of which have passed into history. May I respectfully request and urge that such a flotilla be furnished for coast operations. I have learned that the enemy are about to fortify a point at Newport News, about eleven miles from this place, at the mouth of the James River, and on the northerly side of it. They have already a battery at Pig Point, on the southerly and opposite side of the river, which commands the Nansemond River. I think it of the last importance that we should occupy Newport News, and I am now organizing an expedition consisting of two regiments for that purpose, unless I find unexpected obstacles. I purpose this afternoon, in the steamer Yankee, to make a personal reconnaissance of that point, and at once to occupy the same with that amount of force, intending to intrench there for the purpose of being in possession and command of the entrance to the James River myself, and from that position, by the aid of the naval force, to be in condition to threaten Craney Island and the approaches of Norfolk, and also to hold one of the approaches to Richmond. By a march of nine miles, at farthest, I can support the post at Newport News; by the sea, in two hours, I can afford it relief. There is water enough to permit the approach of the largest sized vessels--indeed the Lieutenant-General will recollect that Newport News Point was once counted upon as a naval depot instead of Norfolk. Trusting that these dispositions and movements will meet the approval of the Lieutenant-General, and begging pardon for the detailed length of this dispatch, I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant, BENJ. F. BUTLER, Major-General, Commanding. [Indorsements.] MAY 29, 1861 There is much to praise in this report, and nothing to condemn. It is highly interesting in several aspects, particularly in its relation to the slave question. Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. WINFIELD SCOTT. I agree with the Lieutenant-General in his entire approval of the within report. SIMON CAMERON. SOURCE: Official Records of the War of the Rebellion

SAPID UNITY OF MANKIND FROM AFRICAN AMERICAN PARADIGM

SAPID UNITY OF MANKIND FROM AFRICAN AMERICAN PARADIGM I would be bold to propose, suggest, even to hypothecate, that the African sojourn into the Americas, that was occasioned by the naval excursions of curious European adventurers, like Christopher Columbus, was ordained by God, as part of an unfolding order of nature to renew, to fertilize earth. Any undertaking of that extraordinary depth, dimension, duration , was not simply a whimsical idea about trade. Too many parts cohered for that. The final military expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492, by the Spanish monarchs, was certainly one big part. Moors were an integral part. These black or dark-skinned North Africans had early invaded, civilized, occupied Spain and Portugal for over seven hundred years, entering Andalusia as they called it, 711 A.D. from Morocco. Portugal has preceded Spain as a great naval power with its great global circumnavigations. The first was "Prince Henry the Navigator," who, following the conquest of Ceuta, in Morocco with his father at age 21, became most familiar with the artifacts and legends of Africans. Navigation skills of the Portuguese and the Spanish were refined from the Moors' Hindu-Arabic numerals, longitude-latitude measuring tools instruments, astronomical and tidal knowledge. Their 'caravel' ships were adopted from the lateen sails of the Moors and were used for the west African slave trade and for the Asian spice trade. This latter lucrative trade for spice produced an Iberian rivalry that was only settled by the Pope, who drew the line of demarcation around the globe in 1494 as curator. Under this, Portugal got the lands to the east of the line; Spain to the west. In process of time the indigenous people of the Americas were either slaughtered or decimated by disease, in the European rapacious quest for gold. Their decline necessitated the importation of the more robust Africans, to mine for gold and to labor as slaves for the Spanish. This expedient substitute was proposed by Bartholomew de Las Casas, a Spanish priest, who grieved the mass murders and dislocations of the indigenes, whom they called Indians. It was adopted by Spanish rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella as proper. The trade winds , ocean currents , and previous trading patterns favored the mass importation of Africans to the Americas in the 16th century. Consequently, the triangular slave trade fattened the coffers of Spain and Portugal, only, for over 100 years before the Dutch, English, French, entered the foray in the 17th century. African labors, know-how, creativity, and capabilities for adapting, created the brave new world from wilderness. Many tens of millions of Africans died during the 400-year long triangular slave trade, which enriched Western Europe while simultaneously depopulating and impoverishing Africa. The forced migrants died of all manners of distress, disease, starvation, exposure, brutality and despair; in Africa, in the Middle Passage, and during chattel slavery. The Africans in America who survived and reproduced are the forebears of each present day African American. These remarkable people were the ones who chose life over death, who chose slavery over extinction, whose faith in God, love of life, fidelity to the precious memories their forebears from whom they were torn, and sold, carried them through hell and back. To them we are indebted ; to them we owe our very lives, fortunes, liberties! Our forebears include not merely the African captives, but also the Moors who preceded them; and the fabled predecessors of the Moors, of whom Shakespeare wrote so glowingly in "Othello " and "Titus Andronicus" and "Antony and Cleopatra." And sooner still, we descend from those saints, who developed the principles and credo of Christianity itself in Latin Africa and in Greek Alexandria, Egypt. Farther back we are the "blameless Ethiopians" of whom Homer and Herodotus sung in the "Iliad" and "History." We are those Egyptians of whom Plato wrote in "The Timaeus" and in "The Laws." We are in short the produce of that primal, original people who first populated the Earth. Those who enslaved us came from us. They who slew us were imbued by us. Be they Arab or European or African, they are ours phenotypically, genetically, historically, culturally, philosophically, anthropologically. Recursively, discursively all humans who preceded us are from us, are of us, however they may look or speak, ours. We are one species: mankind! Inscrutable, immutable are the ways of the One, Amen! We are all one.