THE "BLAMELESS ETHIOPIANS"

Reading in "Nichomachean Ethics" by Aristotle, Book iI, Ch. 6, the phrase "the blameless Ethiopians " recurred to me upon seeing "...for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; 'for men are good in but one way, but bad in many.'" https://shekereblog.wordpress.com/print-editions/the-blameless-aethiopians/comment-page-1/#comment-246

well done

If a good work is done, I say "well done," by whomever it may have been done!

INTELLIGENCE GATHERERS

INTELLIGENCE GATHERS When notorious liars, deceivers, assassins, economic hit men and women, spies, etc., are integral parts of the national "intelligence-gathering" apparatuses; but their opposites are not, thereby evil, wickedness. murder and mayhem are honored, enshrined, encoded, while their opposites, the good, the righteous , the wholesome are dishonored, discarded, destroyed. This is not to suggest from the foregoing that the men and women of our nation's seventeen security agencies must be terminated and their former duties vacated. Not so! Rather, it would seem that a more counterbalanced regime of their opposition must be incorporated into, configured into, our national government to rectify its harmful malevolent tendency to infamy . This may well duplicate, reprise, echo Benjamin Banneker 's vain plea to Thomas Jefferson in 1791, for the establishment of a "Peace Department" to counter the War Department, then extant . If so, good, great, blessed, salubrious! More recently, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, final book, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE : CHAOS OR COMMUNITY (1967), which I have just concluded, also includes many similar ideas and concepts as Banneker's about the natural need to endorse "peace." I also need to mention, here, James Armistead Lafayette on this New Years' Eve, 2016, a black man, a slave, who was the most critical "intelligence gatherer," whose 1781 clandestine work contributed to the birth of our nation. Now little  known "Revolutionary War" hero, and spy, James Armistead Lafayette so won the confidence of General Charles Cornwallis, British Commander-in-Chief, that he was able to deliver him and his whole army into a surprised surrender at Hampton, rather than into certain annihilation at Yorktown, Virginia . http://www.blackpast.org/…/lafayette-james-armistead-1760-1…

WHAT OBAMA STILL CAN DO FOR BLACKS

Friends are asking what could President Obama have done by himself for black people, were he so inclined, given the GOP opposition in Congress. Issue Executive Orders is one thing he could have done alone. The Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln was an Executive Order. As was the Louisiana Purchase of Thomas Jefferson, another. Look at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. President Obama is still the President representing 1/3 of its power. He still can use his pen!

DEAD AVERAGING, DEAD RECKONING

DEAD AVERAGING, DEAD RECKONING No "averaging" nor reckoning of anything need include you, necessarily, nor anyone else. "Averages" are mean mathematical fictions, postulates, hypotheticals that are cast as statistically symbolically, archetypally, representative, but are not actually, really you. "Averages, then, may or may not mirror you, unless you are dead! Lacking dynamism and power; since averages measure what is static, not dynamic. So if you are alive, and move, be not dismayed by averages reckonings, nor by polls, since they mask much more than that they can ever accurately disclose about you. Example 1: What is the Mean of these numbers? 6, 11, 7 Add the numbers: 6 + 11 + 7 = 24 Divide by how many numbers (there are 3 numbers): 24 / 3 = 8 The Mean is 8

HOLD ONTO YOUR HAM BONES!

HOLD ONTO YOUR HAM BONES! Be sure to hold onto your ham bone! It will go good in your black-eyed peas on New Years Eve/Day. It may bring good fortune to you too! I recall reading that among the other debris exhumed from the site of the working men's residences at the Great Egyptian pyramid of Giza, there was an appreciable quantity of unspecified pork bones. I have no doubt but that some of those pork bones were ham bones, neck bones, pork chop bones, amid all the other debris of them brothers, THOSE "SONS OF HAM"! Hold onto your bones! And if you ain't got'm, get'm to go with that cornbread, black-eye peas, okra, you know.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!🎆

"GOD" OF ALL, "GOD" IN ALL

"GOD" OF ALL, "GOD" IN ALL Plotinus cites Plato and Aristotle in THE ENNEADS. Plato cited Egypt. Aristotle cited Egypt and Plato, his teacher. Both wise men who were, yet are, foundation stones of Greek Philosophy, studied , lived in Egypt. The Jews come from Egypt, wrote the Torah, their sacred book, and claim "Israel" that once was Egypt. The Bible was written in Egypt. The Muslims preserved the works of Plato, Aristotle, and many others and disseminated them to mankind after their ascent into power after the 7th century rise of Muhammad, as they spread their sacred Qur'an. So, neo-Platonism and "religion," whether Jewish, Christian or Islam all derive largely from Egyptians. Since all routes lead back to Egypt whether via Philosophy or Religion, it may be most prudential to study Egypt, to return to the, to OUR common source; in order to acquire some means of extrication from plethora of current complications, canards clouding understanding the interpretations of ancient Egyptian literature, mathematics, truths, proofs, philosophy, crafts. This restorative focus upon Egypt does not exclude other civilizations or persons in other lands or times, since all emanate from and are ever immersed in the ineffable essence of our common "God" by whatever name, creed or culture; who is God of all, God in all, and God to us all.

MY DEFINITION OF "WISDOM"

MY DEFINITION OF "WISDOM" Wiser than Egypt and Babylon was Solomon? So says, 1 Kings 4:30 : "Solomon's wisdom was greater than all the peoples of the East and greater than the wisdom of Egypt." Is this scripture necessarily limited in time and space, to likes of Egypt or Babylon, or does it pertain to all time and space, including Jesus'? How then does Solomon compare to Jesus Christ? Which one is wiser than the other, thence wiser than all Egyptians, Babylonians, or other wise men or women of the "East," who have ever lived, may ever live? Origen, the iconic early 3rd century African Christian of Alexandria, Egypt, was a renown theologian, whose classic work, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES (2013), inspired me to seek my own definition of wisdom, since Origen does not define "wisdom," himself, in Book 3, Chapter 3, where I am now reading of his comparison of the wisdoms of Solomon and Christ, both of "Israel," which was culturally part of northeast Africa, in that early era. Their relative wisdoms, both of nature and kind, is intellectually quicksand for inquiring minds. Origen actually asks aloud whose wisdom bests whose in his text: "[W]e must inquire whether he means that this wisdom of God, which has been hidden and in other times and generations has not been made known to the sons of men as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, is the same as that wisdom of God which existed before the Savior 's coming the wisdom by which Solomon became wise. But the Savior by his own word declares that his teaching is greater than Solomon's, when he says, 'And behold, a greater than Solomon is here' (Mt. 12: 42), in which declaration it is shown that those who were taught by the Savior were taught something more than Solomon knew." P. 291-292. Rashly, surely , but as ineluctably as well, I have undertaken to define wisdom, in default of Origen having done so at this point in his book, by God's grace. Bear with me, please: WISDOM: MY DEFINITION: "Wisdom is of God. "Wisdom is that amorphous spiritual insightful occlusion engaging man and God, irregularly, unremittingly. Wisdom transfigures divinity into natural humans' nativity. Wisdom, as thus perceived or conceived, is outside of time and space like God. "To man, wisdom is a very rare speciation of near perfect cognitive dispensations of truthful awareness as affirmed by, and in nature , or in the heavens. Wisdom is sent by, or seduced from, natural inferences and evidences of an eternally divine existence. They are in turn refracted by, or through, visitations on human consciousness in its many variations and forms of sensory, extrasensory, cognitive flashes and/or intuitive flushes. "These thoughts have been, were freed, out of the infinite "black and blue" hues of everlasting being. All were sent preternaturally to gifted, chosen, bewildered recipients of its epochal resonances, unexpectedly. "Wisdom is that spontaneous, articulable understanding of the divine nature immanent in man." http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/wise-wisdom/ Jesus and Solomon conjointly epitomize the sacred wisdom of the ages, coming down to us from ancient Egypt and Babylon from which the Christian creed was abstracted and upon which the Old and New Testament rest, being bounded by Africa and Asia. One humble man deflected a proffered kingship for himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, while the other man is the embodiment of kingship itself in the regalia of Solomon. Neither can ever it be forgotten that Moses was educated in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and was raised in Egypt. Similarly, the Apostle Paul was mistaken for an Egyptian himself. Neither man was a neophyte when it came to divine arcane wisdom. http://biblehub.com/acts/21-38.htm

INSPIRATIONS

INSPIRATIONS In your rush to secure the greater glory, never neglect the smaller glory, the one that completes you. Progress and inspiration come in, and are measured by multiple means, including: observational, mystical, conversational, statistical, educational. So, what you attempt to do to complete yourself, will , as assuredly, motivate and inspire the desired progress in others, as what you have neglected to do, will not . "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step" yours. Those who starve can feed no one; those who drown can save no one. Feed yourself first. Save yourself first. Your victory alone will inspire. Secure the smaller victory first and the greater will follow just as surely. 

YOU EXPRESSLY YOU

YOU EXPRESSLY YOU!  Understand what you're in. Fish know water. Birds know wind. Stars know sky. What of you, my friend? Have you the slightest clue? Can you take a hint ? Do you feel your flow to know that you were sent? To occupy this space in time, and this time in space. With earthly human bodies and a recognizable face? Do you know? Believe or suspect that you, uniquely you, are select? Amid infinite possibilities you enjoy earthly amenities, as girl or as boy. You, particularly and expressly you!

HONOR FAILED ATTEMPTS

HONOR FAILED ATTEMPTS Do not have contempt for failed attempts. They begin the process of completion. In illumining: limits, dangers, parameters, useful facts are derived to enable later success. Have contempt, instead, for those who did not attempt due to a fear of failing, for fear of condemnation. As you encourage a baby to walk, to talk, become potty-trained, so must you encourage one another! Do not scorn any failed attempts! Study them. Learn from them. Benefit by reason of them. Most importantly, honor them; honor those who have attempted bodily, valiantly, though futilely, to gain the victory by risking all, by daring to attempt, even if they are crucified.

IS PREVENTING PRAVITY POSSIBLE?

IS PREVENTING PRAVITY POSSIBLE? "Pravity" means wickedness, evil , corruption. It is the root of the word, depravity. Plotinus, an ancient African philosopher, used pravity in his classic, third century work, THE ENNEADS, to say that merely to look upon pravity is to be corrupted by it. Reading his words, I had thought instinctively of that pravity upon persons who viewed "Medusa" of the snake-hair in Greek mythology; and of the "Sirens," whose alluring sounds and songs attracted lost sailors to destruction of shipwreck . Both myths Medusa and the Sirens having been other forms of pravity. I then thought of that pravity that is so prevalent in modern media, of both the entertainment and of the news genres. I had noted how that, even today, pravity is ever upon us: corrupting, influencing, attracting young and old alike, by repetition and reward, despite our prior presumed knowledge of Greek mythology and our own presumed knowledge of the proven human ramifications from behavioral modification experiments like those infamously involving "Pavlov's dog." Plato, predecessor of Plotinus, in his book THE LAWS, says that the ancient Egyptians averted pravity by prescribing forms of art and music that were permissible for thousands of years, explaining that nation's longevity, wonders, and powerful influences upon others. Moses in the Bible employed the raised ensign of a snake to rid the Hebrew children of their plague of snakes. I am not sure what, if any particular thing might be done, if any, to rid our nation of its pravity , but it will not hurt to study how it might be done by those interested!

AMERICAN POLYMORPHISMS

AMERICAN POLYMORPHISMS  I came to an enhanced conception of American society this Christmas morning, upon viewing the word, "polymorphism ." It means being bound by two or more organisms or elements into a syncretic whole. "E Pluribus Unum" our national motto, that is on our dollar bills, itself means "out of many parts, becoming one," in Latin; i.e. , that is the proof of our "polymorphism!" This joint metaphor and scientific principle within it prevails in art, music, biology, physics, chemistry, sociology, mathematics, as real, as authentic, much more so than the mythology of "melting pot", or the political canard of racial "diversity." We are one. We have ever been one. The Constitution ascribed to African slaves the status of 3/5s. This was over 70 years before the Supreme Court in 1857 took away what was legally encoded in 1789. Given that 3/5s, an additional 2/5s makes 1. Completes the whole. But even if one parces or processes the fractions differently, it is undeniable that blacks are, were, and will forever be, a very significant part of this American organism, if not the most significant part, being its basal agricultural mitochondria, its energy dispensary, military skein, epidermis, semipermeable sleeve. "American polymorphisms!" Merry Christmas to each and all of you! https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polymorphism https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polymorphism

ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE!

Acquisition of knowledge by studying, investigating, observing or experiencing brings complete freedom within reach. It is free to all! Whoever wants it can get it, have it, keep it. "Once knowledge is inside of your head, nobody can take away," our knowledgeable forebears used to say! "So get knowledge, get education. And in all of your getting, please get an understanding!" Fact is, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

FORGIVENESS?

Forgiveness never means forget. Moreover, "forgiveness," also requires the prior, complete knowledge and understanding of that whole body of wrongs, harms, or injuries, previously inflicted, for which forgiveness is being sought. Know before you forego any option. 

NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS

"Actions, then, are called just and temperate when they are such as the just or temperate man would do ; but it is not the man who does these who is just and temperate, but the man who also does them 'as' just and temperate men do them. It is well said, then, that it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced, and by doing temperate acts the temperate man; without doing these no one would even have a prospect of becoming good. "But most people do not do these, but take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way, behaving somewhat like patients who listen attentively to their doctors but do none of the things they are ordered to do. As the latter will not be made well in body by such a course of treatment, the former will not be made well in soul by such a course of philosophy." --Aristotle, NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS, Book 2, ch. 4, ll. 1105-1118 (1941, 2001) [As I was typing this basic quote from Aristotle, I could not help but reflect that in law school, as in the legal practice of the common law as well, that ours is and was the "reasonable man," standard, not the "just and temperate" standard explained so carefully by Aristotle.]

TERTIARY PERPETRATOR

"Tertiary perpetrator" is an imputed legal culpability that is extended from a principal wrongdoer to that person's family and society which produced the prime perpetrator. I ran across this term and notion, of "tertiary perpetrator," while reading about Ubuntu, uhuntu, and other allied, Bantu, traditional African philosophies from Southern Africa. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)

MANKIND MODELING UNIVERSE

Ancient divine Mysteries enabling Mamas' famed constancy; and enabling Papas' productive periodicity: these make for, enable humans' stability and fertility like the Earth and the Moon. Like the hydrogen atom. Like synchronized carrier wave beams and oscillating wave beams moving at light speed and perpendicularly to each other from the same source . Modeling the spiritual, astronomical, chemical, electromagnetic, geometrical, biological:    Man.

ALL-N-ALL ENTHRALLED

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161213093123.htm ALL-IN-ALL ENTHRALLED Since God is the be-all, the end-all, the quintessential wherewithal of all, how can anything, much less anyone, be, or ever have been, beyond, outside, a vastly effluent, everlasting, eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient flow that is ever within the fact of infinite God? Nothing can be. Nothing has been. Nor can anything, anyone, ever be! This idea was stimulated in part by my recent readings in THE SECOND MESSAGE OF ISLAM by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha (1996), who wrote, representatively for all: "Whoever adds to his own disbelief by inciting others to disbelief or to shun the path of God must be suppressed before he takes up arms in the cause of disbelief..." P. 135-136. "Belief." Breath requires no belief. It is. Nor does light nor dark, that are. New energies emote, evolve, as do new synergies. Meet. Meld. Blend. Bless. Emerge. DNA's twin coils, when or as commanded by RNA's scripts, squeeze new life from or into life's quiescent, reticent, coils, consequent to which, we manifest, become. We luminesce, effervesce. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2016/…/161213093123.htm 

INFLUENTIAL

INFLUENTIAL CAN AS EASILY BE PESTILENTIAL AS PROVIDENTIAL.

LITTLE "WHITE" LIES? NOT!

LITTLE "WHITE" LIES? NOT! That now-infamously purposeful embargo of plain truth that was venal in its applications to matters of: economic, cultural, legal, political, philosophical, educational, religious, historical, significance; that "whitenization" of things that are either wholly or partly tinctured by African or African-Americans' achievements: accomplishments, victories, triumphs, cultural accretions, discoveries, traditions, by the white ruling classes, has harmed both the black and the white victims of such inveterate "white" lies, that are not so little! On reading NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA 'S "Query XIV," (1785) by Thomas Jefferson, I had sensed that there was something sinisterly dissembling, of some sort, on his part, in what he wrote. He wrote a string of racial absurdities about our black forebears, whom he knew, not only intimately, as with Sally Hemings, the slave mother of six of his children; but whom he knew scientifically, mathematically as well, in the person of Benjamin Banneker, whom he placed on the team that surveyed the new capitol, Washington. D.C. Benjamin Banneker, whose almanac's calculations Jefferson had had confirmed in France by the leading European expert; and with whom he exchanged letters in the 1790's about his "Query XIV's" scurrilous assertions, was refutation, was indeed living proof of Jefferson 's shameful canards, misrepresentations and white lies. Lies, like water, save life, give life, mold, and destroy life. As none are or were unaffected or detached from water, nor is anyone now living or dead, unaffected by, or detached from, American society's malicious, pernicious, historic lies! "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. Truth is the key to victory! 

FORETHOUGHT FOR 2020

FORETHOUGHT FOR 2020 In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President, there were 4 political parties in contention for that office. His new Republican Party was only formed in 1856, 4 years earlier; its first candidate was John C. Fremont, "the Pathfinder." I mention this retrospective of 4 political parties, because third parties have not won historically. A sage move to make in 2020 is to field a 4th-party to round out the pack. Its platform would have to engage a cross-section of interests to be viable, with support in areas of the nation typically deemed to be the bailiwicks of other parties. The idea is to ratchet onto some issues that can be driven home as wedges. I do not here and now flag any issues for elevation aloft. My focus here is to call into being the 4-party political mechanism itself. The time to start is now, before the Donald Trump inauguration, before the Democrats figure out what has just happened, while tears are in all eyes, be they joyous or not joyous! Give it forethought ! Now forward!

CEPHEUS

"In Greek mythology we read of the great Ethiopian king, Cepheus, whose fame was so great that he and his family were immortalized in the stars. The wife of King Cepheus was Queen Cassiopeia , and his daughter, Princess Andromeda. The star groups of the celestial sphere, which are named after them are called THE ROYAL FAMILY--the constellations CEPHEUS, CASSIOPEIA, and ANDROMEDA . It may seem strange that legendary rulers of ancient Ethiopia should still have their names graven of star maps, but the voice of history gives us a clue. A book on astrology attributed to Lucian states: 'The Ethiopians were the first to invent the science of stars, and gave names to the planets, not at random and without meaning, but descriptive of the qualities they conceived them to possess; and it was from them that this art passed, still in an imperfect state, to the Egyptians.'" P. 27-28, "Ethiopia and Astronomy," ETHIOPIA AND THE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION by John G. Jackson, edited and illustrated by Dr. C.S. Moore (2015)

MEMNON

"The traditions concerning Memnon are interesting as well as instructive. He was claimed as a king by the Ethiopians , and identified with Pharaoh Amunoph or Amenhotep, by the Egyptians. A fine statue of him is located in the British museum in London. Charles Darwin makes a reference to this statue in his the 'Descent of Man' which is well worth producing: 'When I looked at Amunoph III, I agreed with two officers of the establishment, both competent judges, that he had strongly marked Negro type features.'" P.33-34, ETHIOPIA AND THE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION by John G. Jackson, edited and illustrated by Dr. C. S. Moore (2015) https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/02qtqm6&hl=en-US&kgs=640cd6bf907572f7&q=Younger+Memnon&shndl=0&source=sh/x/kp&entrypoint=sh/x/kp

packaging and contents

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS Intellectual and spiritual vigor is not confined to a body type or its state health. God speaks through all ills. Saul stood ahead above other men. Yet David, a mere boy, beheaded Goliath, the great Philistine, with Goliath's own sword, even as David severed Saul's hem while that King of Israel squatted in a cave; that as easily might have been his head! Karl Steinmetz, the great scientist, whose biography I read as a boy, was gnarled, crippled, hunchback, handicapped; of like infirmities is Richard Dawkins the prolific British astrophysicist who is wheelchair bound and speaks by voice device. Many world renown musicians have been blind and black including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, the Five Blind Boys, Blind Lemon Jefferson. Packaging does not define content. "…8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.…" 2 Cor. 12:

satisfaction not satiation

Moderation bests both exuberance and abstinence, when enjoying the natural bounty of seasonal harvests. Satisfaction, not satiation, of the appetite is best, in every genre.

EXPRESS DIVINITY AS YOURSELF

EXPRESS DIVINITY AS YOURSELF People err, take offense, separate themselves needlessly from others over prideful, personal, issues that the innocent person may be totally unaware of or did nothing to cause. If you, merely by being you, cause another to become unsettled, to seethe, or to flee, that is not your concern, nor problem. That is their problem to redress redeem resolve! Must you stop being you for their sake? Must you diminish your ardor in order to placate or please them? Continue forth to do you. Continue forth to be you. Continue, then, to love you, to express divinity as you. Life is uneven, is inherently unequal in its distributions of many things. So what! That someone else may have more, at a given space or time, than others in such physical, fleeting, material resources, as wealth, beauty, musculature, voluptuousness, foot speed, age, height, weight, eloquence, political power, cultural standing, offspring, culinary skills, artistic skill, musical skill, book-learning or innumerable other regards, is no reason for you to be envious, covetous, hateful. Everyone exceeds every other one somehow, in someway, sometimes. Everyone is as alive as all who live. Therein lies all possibility, our lives . If you want distinction, work harder to distinguish yours from less hard working people, nations, or groups. In the end, those who work harder than others usually win, something; if that is no more than self-respect! Self-respect is the greatest love of all, the greatest victory of them all. Always love honor respect yourself! Hence, express fully, not fearfully, that peculiar divinity that is of you, that is in you, as life, as God's gift

OBAMA: "POLITICIAN" NOT A BLACK RACE-LEADER

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, (famous for his "Jeremiads") once, in 2008, accurately characterized his former member, then-Senator Barack Obama, as a "politician." Barack Obama won the Presidency in 2008, in Philadelphia with his transcendent speech on race and racism, in response to the media's repeatedly running of Rev. Wright 's jeremiads on "God damn, America !" Although many of us, would have rather reinvented him, that is, would rather re- make President Barack Obama into a race-leader, me among those, he never was, in retrospect, a race leader. He said specifically that he was not the leader of black people, but of all the American people. We excused this utterance as being noble, as being Presidential, when actually he was being truthful. Barack Obama may never be, given his unique pedigree, nativity, personal history, a classic race leader! But what a wonderful, inspirational, politician he was and is!

AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD

"The ancient Egyptians were convinced there was a higher order, living and eternal . They conceived of this deified cosmic order as a combination of justice and truth, and called it 'Maat.' Given that premise, the process of living the inner life, deepening and perfecting it, became synonymous with the exercise of intelligence. Whoever aspired to live forever the life of gods, in the company of the Blessed, has to make a conscious effort to live according to a set of 'rules' designed for the purpose of dominating death, transcending mortality and affirming life. "The straight path to eternal life was morality...all this panoply was imagined, invented and deployed in order to help the dead to attain eternity, that is to say, to merge self and cosmic order, thanks to the achievement of bodily and spiritual purity. For only under conditions of absolute purity could the deceased take on the name of Osiris, ruler of the kingdom of the Blessed.... "The ancient Egyptians, whether they were Kings or ordinary persons, lived under the imprint of Maat, Justice-Truth, the one-way to true happiness, peace, beauty and intelligible life. Hence the use of solar light as a symbol of Maat. "What, after all, is true knowledge but that which leads to wisdom? Pharaonic Egypt made an enormous contribution to human progress when it defined an ethical ideal..." P. 219-221, AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD, 2780-330 BC by Theophile Obenga (2004)

STUDY

Seriously studying and applying things learned to current issues is the major missing link to achieving salvation and freedom by Africans and African Americans' descendants. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." These "people" are African Americans, the persons for whose benefit the paths , landmarks, guideposts were laid down from Ancient Egypt, through the freedom suits in Missouri, through the Civil War, through the Civil Rights Movement, until and through the present day. Study! "Study to show thy selves approved unto God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

EDWARD BATES, LINCOLN'S ATTORNEY GENERAL

Edward Bates of Missouri, an eminent attorney and slaveholder, who later became President Abraham Lincoln's Attorney General, famously said during Bates' closing argument at the conclusion of his representation in the trial of then-slave, later author, Lucy Delaney, in her freedom suit, in St. Louis: "Gentlemen of the jury, I am a slaveholder myself, but thanks to the Almighty God, I am above the base principle of holding anybody a slave that has as good a right to freedom as this girl has been proven to have; she was free before she was born; her mother was free,...and no free woman can give birth to a slave child, as it is direct violation of the laws of God and man!...[H]ere I rest this case, as I would not want any better evidence for one of my own children ...." Encapsulated in this ironic drama of Lucy Delaney's freedom suit is the classic archetype of American history, wherein the advocate is often tainted by the very sin from which his client seeks extrication ! No one is perfect or pure. Edward Bates won Lucy Delaney's freedom from slavery, and extrication from jail, where she had been held for 17 months, until her case was called. As did Lucy Delaney and Edward Bates in court in the 1840s, so now we their allegorical scions continue the campaign for freedom for the children of free mothers until today. P. 156, FREEDOM SONGS: SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT (2014) by Lea Vandervelde

TRUTH

TRUTH IS NOT ANTITHETICAL TO NATURE, ALLEGORY OR GEOMETRY. THEY ARE AMONG THE TRUTH'S MEDIUMS OF EXPOSITION AND PROOF

UNIFY!

DON'T CRY, UNIFY! Unity is not group uniformity. Not everyone is necessary in order to achieve unity or to unify. Only two or more people can succeed, or have succeeded, in contests or battles pitting minorities against majorities. Lesser against greater . Proof of this fact, that unity does not mean uniformity, is found in the recent election, in history, and in the Bible 's parables and allegories. These thoughts are offered to help those who may be deceived by, or discombobulated by, the election of Donald Trump as USA President. For those who are in unwarranted despair, who are anxious, fearful and apprehensive about what the future may hold for themselves, and for our country, this is written. Unity is not uniformity; it does not require uniformity; indeed, unity disdains uniformity, wherein, but a sole exception can destroy the whole structure, the entire edifice of uniformity-based undertaking . The elections of Obama are proof, themselves, of this proven, truthful principle, inhering in historical fact. So, rather than cry, unify! with the few who agree with you, and go to work, doing what the spirit says do! "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:19-20

OUR SILENT SENTINELS

OUR SILENT SENTINELS One wonders why so little has been heard from Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or other traditional sentinels of our folks' flocks? Donald Trump is at large, on the loose, about to assume the highest office in the land, if not the entire world, from Trump Tower, from Mount Olympus in New York. Yet, practically all that is heard is fear and dread, as to what may follow. Maybe on Sunday's talk shows they will sound the alarms! Maybe not. Such sententious silences are certainly conspicuously noted. Disappointed Clinton supporters, of course, are mad, sad, sullen, short-tempered, hurt, because she lost, twice, first to Obama, now Trump. I am not. Actually, I am rather relieved that she lost to Trump, even though I voted for her. Directly, based upon my readings in Michelle Alexander 's book and in Ron Walters' book, one Clinton's legacy was already enough for me. No need for more! Yet, many disappointed Hillary Clinton operatives, allies, and supporters have kept up quite a hubbub online about what the future might be, sans Hillary, and specifically, under Donald Trump. Still, where are our sentinels? our watchmen? Where are those usual suspects who typically cry aloud, whenever any storm clouds are seen, or when predators appear? Meanwhile, a steady stream of visitors of African descent, foreign and domestic, are gravitating to Trump. These visits are decried, assailed as self-serving, sell-outs, by Hillary people mentioned above. I shall withhold judgment until the action begins. What have I to lose? Meanwhile, unless the guard dogs bark, unless the trumpeters blow, until the sentinels sound an alarm, I shall assume that the coasts are all clear! Trump or no-Trump clear!

REDEMPTION SONGS

I have long heard the name of Lucy Delaney, but never knew of her St. Louis, Missouri, connection, or of her being an author, till today, reading REDEMPTION SONGS: SUING FOR FREEDOM BEFORE DRED SCOTT (2014) by Lea Vandervelde. https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/lucy-delaney.htm

HELPING OTHERS

HELPING OTHERS Those that do not help themselves do not deserve any help from me, I used to say and think until recently. I REASONED THUSLY: Unless that person is disabled by injury, disease, or some kind of congenital birth defect, they are equipped to do something for self; even for others who are like or unlike themselves. Many disabled, injured, diseased or congenitally defective persons, do already help themselves or others in some way, be it ever so humble. The effort to do for self or for others, is what distinguishes worthy from unworthy ; willing from unwilling; indeed, able from disabled. A kind word, a shared smile, gentle touch, a cup of water; or crust of bread, a few coins, or similar things, can and have helped many. Resiliency and brilliancy shine forth best in simple efforts expended on one's own behalf, or on another's behalf, aiding them to rise above the gravest of gravity, off life's lowest rungs, onto two feet. Such an attempt also attracts the help of others unto oneself, rather repelling such help by our disdain scorn or contempt. Each life has value. Each life has a lesson that our interaction with that life teaches us in our most vulnerable, most tender spots: inside of our hearts. Our burdens are lightened, when we do for ourselves as for others, that we "chance" to meet along the way. Everyone needs someone, sometimes.That is why societies are formed, in order to afford mutual support and help to members or to others in need. Societies run the gamut from clubs, from national governments, to international consortiums, to global religious organizations, to schools, businesses, fraternities/sororities . Even your "friends" on Facebook or followers on Twitter form societies . Dead weight is an onerous burden to bear. Such lethargy defeats life's blessing. Life animates. Life lifts up. Our lives require activity. It was hard enough for me just to help me, I had formerly reasoned until very recently, when quietly I experienced a double epiphany to clarify my own spiritual evolution: one from geometry, one on video. Both brought forth the value, the vision of a particular perspective. To be asked, much less required, to help someone, anyone, who will not even attempt earnestly, repeatedly, to help themselves was an unreasonable imposition upon me, I formerly reasoned, until I stopped to think: how many times have others now unknown to me helped me? Helped when they need not have done so? Helped when they may have perceived my own lack of initiative? Many! Just as others have helped them. The left hand washes the right. NEW ATTITUDE : Now I see simply helping someone whom we neither know, nor are obligated to help, is what makes us human beings, makes us alive; for even animals have helped those in dire distress out of danger. Life necessarily identifies with life, as life recognizes itself in others'. Self-Determination is essential to achieving salvation Therefore in spite of ourselves, we do what we must, as we must, for ourselves, for others, then, move on, leaving sequelae to God.

HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS

http://www.cogwriter.com/christmas.htm This is an intensely referenced and very lengthy expurgation on Christmas origins and customs from ancient days until now, 2016.

OVER-GENEROSITY LEADS TO PENURY

"OVER-GENEROSITY LEADS TO PENURY" ANY TENDENCY TO GIVE AWAY ONE'S BOUNTY FROM SUPPLY TO STRANGERS RATHER THAN TO GIVE TO THEM FROM ANY EXCESS, AFTER HOME IS PROVIDED FOR, ROBS ONE'S HOME. THIS PECULIAR PRACTICE IS CONTRARY TO NATURE, COMMON SENSE, AND BIBLICAL TEACHING. YET IT IS PREVALENT AMONG SOME SOI-DISANT, (SO-CALLED) "LEADERS" OF BLACK PEOPLE FROM THE LATE 1960S, RESPECTING OUR CIVIL RIGHTS GAINS. AS A CONSEQUENCE, THOSE AFTER US HAVE GONE BEFORE US, IN RELATION TO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, LEGAL PRECEDENTS, AND IN OTHER AREAS. WHAT WAS GIVEN AWAY WAS A CONCESSION OF SOME MEASURE OF PARITY IN RELATION TO WRONGS SUFFERED THAT REQUIRED IMMEDIATE REMEDIATION, RECTIFICATION. NO WRONGS ARE COMPARABLE TO AFRICAN AMERICANS'. BLACK LEADERS WHO HAVE MADE SUCH CONCESSIONS EITHER VERBALLY, BY POLICY, OR PRACTICES HAVE BETRAYED US. THE TIME IS NOW TO RECOGNIZE, TO APPRECIATE, TO PROTECT OUR "SUPPLY," OUR BRAND; OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; OUR LEGAL DECISIONAL VICTORIES; AND OUR HONORABLE, IMMINENT, FINANCIAL REPARATIONS FROM SUCH UNNATURAL, NONSENSICAL, NON-BIBLICAL DILUTIONS. BEING OVERLY GENEROUS IS TOO SELF-PENURIOUS!

DEFINITION OF "HUMAN CHANGE"

DEFINITION OF "HUMAN CHANGE" Objective conditions when coupled with subjective adaptations to such conditions contribute to change. Time and place are conditions. Human behaviors are subjective. Change in man is produced by the multiple and/or the equimultiple magnifications variously conjoined in emergent ratios relative to past or contemporaneous constructions upon human behaviors latent or dynamic in any given time or place. Nascent, tacit, implicit in all change is primal, preexisting, divinity that produces objective and subjective.

ALL FAKES

ALL FAKES SO-CALLED "FAKE NEWS" IS NOT NEW. NOR IS IT CONFINED TO "NEWS," TO SO-CALLED "OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM. THIS FACT MAY BE NEWS TO SOMEBODY. BUT WE HAVE LONG HAD FAKE MEDICINE. FAKE FURS. FAKE JEWELRY. FAKE HISTORY, FAKE RELIGION. FAKE EDUCATION. FAKE EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE USED TO GET THE GULLIBLE, THE CREDULOUS, TO PART WITH THEIR MONEY OVER A FAKE HOLIDAYS , FAKE CELEBRITY. ANYTHING FAKE. TELEVISION PROGRAMMING, FILMS, "REALITY VIDEO." IN FAKE DEMOCRACIES. FAKE BEGETS FAKES,FAKERS.

WHAT IS TIME?

WHAT IS TIME? "Does anyone really know what time it is," asks a song, lyrically. Time. "What is time" may be asked as well, before answering the prior question. Most would say that a clock or a calendar is time . These tools tell us time in current human cultures . They are not time, itself. What is time? The stars, the galaxies? The sun? The moon? The tides? Is time rain? Seasons? Day or night. Life-death? All of these occur in time, on time, being but flickering tiny aspects of time. But none necessarily denote time, itself . Why? Because they are defined by time; exist inside time. Time precedes conception, much less perception, by man; for man is but another incident of time in time. What then is time? Rather, what is that force, that phenomenon, that is defined as being time, by itself? Maybe we should just call it "God."

THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIBES

Reading along in the autobiography, the forlorn, but hopeful, political soliloquy streaming through the pages of: THE ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIBES : MEMOIR ON THE SOURCES AND RESOURCES OF AFRICAN LITERATURE (2006), by Ayi Kwei Armah, of Ghana, I empathize as he "seeks" colleagues of the requisite consciousness with whom to effect much-desired African redemption. It is a lonely, frustrating sojourn for anyone to pursue without essential security; reinforcements of state power: whether by charter, letters marque and reprisal; independent means, money; intelligence agents; skilled leaders in the organization; experienced in the appurtenances of global empire consolidation . Thus far, he had none of these. Few Africans do. Few people do. But, indomitably committed to his quixotic vision of African liberation, he left Harvard in an attempt to reach the African training camps in Cuba or Angola. Traveling on the cheap, he reached Mexico City by hitchhiking largely. Denied access to Cuba thereby, he hopped a freighter to Spain, crossed into Africa; made it to Algeria where his attempt to get to Angola was preempted at the Ghanaian embassy, his home country. Finally after further frustration, he contracted hepatitis and was hospitalized in Algeria. Friends flew him back to the State of Massachusetts whence he'd begun this improbable wild-goose chase, in search of the revolution . Ayi Kwei Armah is a very powerful writer, even if he is an incompetent would-be African revolution-seeker!

HONORING THE ELDERLY

HONORING THE ELDERLY Old. Old time. Old fashioned. Aged. Infirm. Passé . Old school . Elderly. Not much respect nor regard is given to old things in our popular culture, which covets new money, new markets, new music, new literature, videos, new anythings. New for the sake of new is sought. But the end of the line can come at any time, not just in old age. Ere life begins it also ends for never-borns. Living to be 3 score and ten just as living to be one hundred or older is contingent upon many factors lying beyond your simple wish to do so. So too is life; populated with many facts, many factors that lay beyond you, indeed, even your imagination, life is ever absorbing mystery, that beckons and "fecunds" our future. Without the old there is no new. Without the past, no present. No present no future. Old is basic to all else. So, do revere old people, old places, old things. They reflect you. Not simply because they are old, or exist, are the aged and infirm to be revered, honored, but because of their inestimable, intrinsic value as witnesses to, as participants in, the past; thus, framers of the future. Lastly, they all produced you. So respecting them is self-respect. "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the earth." What goes around, comes around to you on the wheel of life.

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7Bn7kPkLo

OBAMA WELL DONE

DRED AND HARRIET SCOTT REMEMBERED

I attended this historical gathering in March 2007, where I met, greeted, questioned, lauded, laughed with, got autographs from, some of the leading lights of African American legal history. I also attended its many seminars and receptions. Few black lawyers from Missouri were present. Their absence from this major historical forum was disappointing to me, whose love of black history may someday be legendary. But, what matters most is to know that Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, were freed in May 1857. Even after losing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1857 which apocalyptically produced John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Amendments to the Constitution and enabling legislation: more importantly, their loss sparked freedom for all enslaved African Americans. In their legal defeat lay the veritable foundation of was our later freedom victories, which defeat freed them before any! http://www.thedredscottfoundation.org/dshf/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=80 http://digital.wustl.edu/dredscott/about.html

FOREVER FLOWS

FOREVER FLOWS Feel the flow. Field the flow.. Forces flow fluidly forever . To us. In us. On us. For us. Finally fielded forces flow from us, Back to the infinity of forever in God.

INDIAN MAP OF AMERICA

TABOOS

TABOOS Things that we don't do anymore are often things that we can't do. What we can do we will do often. Thus righteously sanctimoniously condemning sin, is more like taboo of what one is no longer able to do. Can I get a witness ? No not one!