ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI'S INCENDIARY PAST

This burning of a free black man, and sailor, without trial, in one day, Francis McIntosh, in St. Louis in April 1936, by a pro-slavery lynch mob was brought back to mind in reading THE KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853). Judge Lawless, his true name and true nature, did not allow a grand jury to prosecute anyone. Mob acts were above the law, he said. Abraham Lincoln, when running for state office in Illinois, condemned the lynching by slow roasting. Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy of Alton, Illinois, had his 4th printing press thrown into the Mississippi River for daring to write in his abolitionist newspaper about this travesty and others. He was later killed in November 1837 by another pro-slavery, St. Louis, Missouri lynching mob. No one was ever prosecuted, for the shooting of this white man, nor for the slow-roasting of the free black man!

BE AT REST

BE AT REST Tuesday, October 31, 2017 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Reconciling all, blending all, African American music, fraternities, history, philosophy, literature, arts, crafts, inventions, idioms, businesses, farms, families, into one organization, is impractical, given their American ordinates, coordinates. It is at least equally impractical for Africans’ ordinates, coordinates. Better, then, is a pervading spirit that inseminates and parturitions, than one that reifies or partitions. In this manner, intangibles outweigh tangibles, spiritual outweighs material, past and present are in parity. Start where you are. Continue with what you have. Your effort is as valuable as anyone’s, as everyone’s. As for the nature of the ‘pervading spirit,’ it is embedded in you. Your spirit is that life given you by God. You matter. Your ideas, imagination, investigations, speculations, attempts --all matter, magnificently. Apply yourself to that particular purpose for which you were placed here and now in time and space. Having done what you were sent here to do, having been true to that spirit of God in you, be at rest. For, you will have emptied your cup. You will have cleaned your plate; will have finished your course! BE AT REST.

EFFLUENT

WE INTUIT IN OUR EFFLUENT Each has its niche. Me mine. You yours. They theirs. Each its niche. To be conceived in, to be born in, to live in, work in, produce in, die in. In a flash all niche time has passed. As we have come we also must go. As we go we do not know whence hence wherefore whereof whereas thence. Yet we intuit in our effluent. And we say "Glory is God! Amen!"

BRAHMANS AND BURLESQUE

Typically, Brahmans remain hidden, lest, as with Nathaniel Bacon, in 1660s colonial Virginia, they risk their exposure, and with it, the loss of power, privilege, riches, enabled-anonymity. Then, along comes Trump; not a Brahman, but a burlesque, to expose, to reveal their subterranean habiliments, redoubts, by his populist "Make America Great again"--Russian-aided 2016 election. Trump's Presidential win even surprised him! He still cannot stop talking about it. Others surprised included NATO, Europe, Brahmans, pundits, politicians, Democrats. But not the Russians, who had exploited endemic "white" racism to help Trump to win. All did not end well for Nathaniel Bacon, nor for his mxied-race revolutionaries in the 1660s Virginian political history. As for President Donald Trump, and his predominantly white, alt-right, "white supremacists' retinue, who now knows?

CLOY

CLOY Monday, October 30, 2017 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman “Cloy.” A word that I learned, while reading some play by William Shakespeare, is “cloy. “ It means to be sickened by sweet excesses, to surfeit. When one’s cup runs over, one cloys. When excess runs out the nose, one has cloyed. It is my hope, my faith, that those few of us who are blessed to be able to read regularly, might someday soon cloy of reading pure fiction, in favor of far more filling, nutritious, nonfiction. I had cloyed of such salacious, cellophane, window-pane, fiction in the 1980’s. To what end, someone may reasonably ask, “what for?” For the same reason that one does not eat, nor permit children to eat, sweets nor candy all-day! One cloys! To go from a state of supreme knowledge in the arts and sciences, mathematics and philosophy, agriculture and animal husbandry, construction and navigation, to where we are now, fallen descendants of earth’s original people is proverbial, even if it was inevitable. It is shameful, if it is explainable. It is also remediable! So long as we are knowledge –averse, our perverse position will remain the same. To progress to our next stage of development, fiction must cloy, must sublimate to nonfiction, as the preponderant reading pursuit for we too few who read at all. CLOY! https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloy

JOY

God is good 😊! Happy Sunday morning !

THOMAS PAINE, "The Crisis Extraordinary," EXCERPT

"It is impossible to sit down and think seriously on the affairs of America, but the original principles on which she resisted, and the glow and ardor they inspired, will occur like the undefaced remembrance of a lovely scene. To trace over in imagination the purity of the cause, the voluntary sacrifices made to support it , and all of the various turnings in its defense, is at once both paying and receiving respect. The principles deserve to be remembered, and to remember them rightly is repossessing them. In this indulgence of generous recollection we become gainers by what we seem to give, and the more we bestow the richer we become. "So extensively right was the ground on which America proceeded, that it not only took in every just and liberal sentiment which could impress the heart, but made it the direct interest of every class and order of men to defend the country. The war, on the part of Britain, was principally a war of covetousness. The sordid and not the splendid passions gave it being. The fertile fields and prosperous infancy of America appeared to her as mines for tributary wealth. She viewed the hive, and disregarding the industry that had enriched it, thirsted for the honey. But in the present stage of her affairs, the violence of temper is added to the rage of avarice ; and therefore, that which at our first setting out, proceeded from purity of principle and public interest , is now heightened by all the obligations of necessity; for it requires but little knowledge of human nature to discern what would be the consequence , were America reduced again to the subjection of Britain. Uncontrolled power in the hands of an incensed, imperious and rapacious conqueror, is an engine of dreadful execution; and woe be to the country over which it can be exercised." P.235, "The Crisis Extraordinary, October 4, 1780," THOMAS PAINE : COLLECTED WRITINGS (1955)

KC JAZZ INITIATIVE

"I am now on the board of a new initiative started by congressman cleaver to revitalize the jazz district in KC. It all happened from me walking in to a Black owned establishment and ordering a smoothie." Congrats!🎈🎉🎊🍾 Kemet Dumas Coleman! Go for the gusto, son!

GUN POWER

GUN POWER IS GUNPOWDER "No matter what we have got The Maxim gun and they have not ." This limerick from the South African Boer Wars celebrated their technological military superiority over the Zulu and other tribes, whose lands and mines they took. It was brought to mind as I read a section from EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI (1865) by David and Charles Livingstone where a similar, less poetic reference is made to same: "Here, as with the emigrant Boers of the interior of the Cape, the secret power is, the possession of gunpowder ; bowmen cannot stand the attack of muskets, and whoever possesses access to a seaport has the power of carrying on slaving to any extent; for on the East Coast there is no restriction on the introduction of arms and ammunition. The laws are quite stringent against these articles as at the Cape; but, like the 'laws' for the abolition of slavery, no one obeys them--they are only for quotation and self-glorification in Europe." P.374

AMERICANS NEED NOT CONCEDE

AMERICANS NEED NOT CONCEDE Each day a FACEBOOK friend decries, as "unAmerican," many of President Donald Trump's or his many supporters' misdeeds and/or misstatements in commenting on my multiple posts. When he began, I was severally disquieted by their substantially similar recurrence. For one, history shows that being racist is not only not unAmerican, it is nearly aboriginal; neither are hypocrisy, duplicity, complicity, nor fascism, "unAmerican." On the other hand, in the United States of America's original, fabled, founding-documents, Freedom of Speech and Religion, plus the various later Amendments, that are typically taught in certain schools, churches, and homes are most likely to be deemed as being more authentic, more representative, more credibly American, if one just views the documents, but ignores their history. There were at least 4 Americas to start. In 1787, the Constitutional compromise involving the "3/5s" clause in Article I, Section 2 makes this clear. There was the North, the South, and in the South, the blacks (slaves), and "all others not taxed," the Indians. After the Civil War, those "poor and huddled masses" from Western Europe, especially, and from China, and the islands of the sea, came into America as immigrants. They made up categories 5 and 6, respectively. Mexicans, who won independence and freedom from Spain in 1824, lost a later war to the United States in 1845-1846. With this military defeat, Mexico lost 20 years later all of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, California to Arizona, New Mexico. Mexicans or kindred folks have been crossing the border for centuries. They constitute # 7. All others from elsewhere make # 8. So, by my count, there are 8 groups, at a minimum, who are rightly "American." But, getting back to my FACEBOOK friend's daily "unAmerican" characterizations of "Donald Trump, the Ku Klu Klan, Neo-Nazis, and the GOP," I must concede to the point that he diligently daily presents, e.g. that We are the Americans! And that Trump and his storm troopers are the true "unAmericans." President Donald Trump is the "unAmerican!" Wrap your head around that! So too, then, as unAmerican as he, are his cadre of alt-right devotees, bigoted billionaires and fringe fanatics. America is our idea and our ideal, as exemplified in its founding documents and stirring verbal proclamations. The United States of America is also a well-armed, extremely wealthy, empire; a polyglot of diverse peoples, places, things. Our America has documentary support; theirs lacks such primal support being only venal subversion of our doctrinal documentary proof! Ours also has historical support in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I , World War II, Korean War, labor movements, women's rights, and of course, the Civil Rights and the Black Power Movements. Therefore, we need not concede our true American legacy of blood, sweat, tears, and toil to Donald Trump nor his storm-trooper tropes. So now, then, "Make America great again!" Mr. Trump ? Which of these 8 America's are you speaking of? Are you speaking to? All 8 of them, all of us, are true Americans! The true Americans are those who live-out our founding documents proclamations of "liberty and justice for all", not favors or privileges for the few, whatever may be their color, creed, national origin, or hue. Thanks FACEBOOK friend for teaching me!

THE GLOBAL BERRY GORDY, ,JR. IMPRINT

GLOBAL GORDY Berry Gordy, Jr.'s algorithm and imprint have given to us the sound track of the '50s, '60s, '70s, at a minimum, along with stylish presentations too. By "us" is meant African Americans, next some hip white American folks, and lastly the whole world: Japan, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Jamaica, and the Jural Alps. TO BE LOVED is Berry Gordy, Jr.'s incredible autobiography that I was blessed to read some years ago. If you have not read it, please bless yourself by doing so, immediately! His harvest includes that vast catalog of who's who in the black American musical sound world. I need not name names. You know! His algorithm (methodology)and imprint include his crucial, initial, Detroit-based family's financing and stewardship, Detroit based talent, together with his own rigorously creative austerity, and musical genius. He worked from the ground up in the booming era of black radio, disc jockeys, road shows, and record players. Motown, Tamla, Gordy, and other labels, were as natural to us as breath. Berry Gordy, Jr.'s American, indeed global, imprint, life-changing spiritual impact, is as great as that of any nation's or creed's.

COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION, 3/5S CAUSE

Ironically, it was the oft-decried 3/5s clause of the United States Constitution, Article I, Sec. 2, which was the indispensable clasp that held the nation together, half-slave, half-free. Far from being a snide comment on the natural inferiority of slaves, that 3/5s fraction gave the South a superiority, as the cost of Southern coalescence, as the price of its American allegiance. That fated fraction mathematically gave the South a disproportionate numerical majority in Congress , while, at the same time, reducing by that same 3/5s ratio the South's tax obligations to the new nation. These facts are set forth in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION: SHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA'S PROMISE by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss (2010). Coleman writes: "The 3:5 ratio gave slave States fourteen extra seats in the House in 1793, twenty-seven additional seats in 1812, and twenty -five additional seats in 1833...Thus, 'when Southern guns fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, a grandson of former President John Adams wrote in his diary, "We the children of the third and fourth generation are doomed to pay the penalties of the compromises, made by the first."'...David Stewart's wonderful book fully explains how the three-fifths compromise was reached. The larger Southern states wanted to encourage ratification by the smaller states, and the North wanted to limit the number of southern representatives in the House. The three-fifths clause also limited tax contributions by the southern states. According to Stewart, John Rutledge of South Carolina and his Committee of Detail 'reconceived the powers of the national government, redefined the powers of the states, and adopted fresh concessions on that most explosive issue, slavery. It not too much to say that Rutledge and his Committee hijacked the Constitution. Then remade it.' Stewart, 'The Men Who Invented the Constitution,' p.165. As a result of the 3:5 ratio provided in Article I of the U. S. Constitution , the Commonwealth of Virginia in the 1790s had six more representatives than did Pennsylvania, even though both states had roughly the same number of free inhabitants ." P. 406-407. Note 12.

STATE-SANCTIONED KILLINGS

STATE SANCTIONED KILLINGS It is entirely likely that far more people have been killed or injured by persons whom they do not know, than by persons that are known to them. War is one example of this phenomenon in which none of the opposing combatants knows any of the others. Rather war's mass killings are impersonal, unemotional, methodical, and legal. Neither are such killings ever sinful. Killing therefore has very little to do with emotions or personal grudges. Most killings, historically, are for hire, like paid soldiers or sailors or assassins. Or for spoils and profits, occasionally for sport by privileged persons over those whom they are advantaged and protected against. Most mass killings, therefore, are sanctioned by law, religion, custom. Non-sanctioned killings are crimes. Those who refuse to engage in any sanctioned killings are imprisoned, themselves as was heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who said, famously, "Ain't no Viet Cong ever called me nigger!" when refusing induction into the United States' Armed Forces in the 1960s.

WE CONGO, ME CONGO.

AS CONGO GO, WE GO GO GO Earth is connected as never before, by cellphone, internet, computers, coltan. Therefore, disorder can no longer hide its derelictions from scrutiny. Neither can order remain forever aloof from its duty to rectify, to alleviate, that grave dereliction caused by these disorders. An idea has a very broad scope. It can multiply itself, by itself, to the uttermost dimensions conceivable. Conversely, ideas can reduce themselves by self-dividing into infinitesimal flashes. Execution of an idea in the Earth's material plane to redress disorder is in fact very problematic, difficult, being dependent upon necessary means: persons, places, things, environmental factors, all of which affect, qualify, quantify, an idea's redress process. Perhaps the current connections between persons, places, things, and nations, by the internet may hasten progress to an end in which disorder, such as Congo's woeful 500+ years of abscesses, can be cauterized, cleaned out; revived, and with its the people! Why Congo? It was from the "Congo" in 1441 at its southern Algarve port, "Lagos," that the Portuguese, the first European global explorers, had exported certain Congolese human exemplars (slaves), that they had extracted, for their King John I's royal retinue. This inaugurated the African slave trade in Europe, matching the Muslims' eastern African slave trade, which antedated Europe's by 600 years. Rounding the Cape Bojador in 1434, thought impassable, by Gil Eanes, its navigator opened it . To this very day in 2017, the exploitation of the Congo continues, unabated for the enrichment of Europe and now the world, as well, through its militias' murderous rampage for coltan, the rare metal that enables cellphones. Remarkably, "Congo," is again at the epicenter of global exploitation! Thus, it would seem that for African redemption , at least, resolution of the Congo abscesses by expeditious and efficacious means is a primary goal ! Those means, clearly include, rare metal coltan's cellphones, internet, computers, all of Congo extractions. As it was in the beginning, so it is once again, that the Congo enables the world to grow prosperous. Would that its own people may learn to grow so! As Congo go, we go! As Congo go, we go go go!

IN PRAISE OF TASTEBUDS

IN PRAISE OF TASTEBUDS Among our senses, the sense of taste is the one most decried as overbearing, fatuous, shameful, when it is the most pleasurable ! How strange! No one in any culture disparages sight, scent, hearing, touch, nor intuition. But taste gets a bum rap. Taste is abused. Yet taste tells us what is good to eat and what is not. Persons who don't eat die whether they starve to death voluntarily or not. Sick people refuse food, when they are really, really sick. The very scent of food is revolting to them. They have acquired an aftertaste, for real! They taste their hereafter! Appetite is a gift from God. It tells us when to eat, what to eat, to live. In our diet-happy era, when size is so enormously determinative of our love lives , career ambitions, and self-concepts, don't despise taste. Don't sacrifice taste for something else, unless one must eat blandly, just to stay alive! For eating is one of life's greatest pleasures. That is why we praise God and give thanks for our many blessings before any eating. Who's prayed before sex ? I have never prayed before sex! After many times! Before never!

AFRICAN AMERICAN ENERGY

AFRICAN AMERICAN ENERGY  The ancient expression "out of Africa always something new," speaks more to the creativity of Africa 's people, than to the vast variety of Africa's animals or plants or seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. "There is more in the man, than there is in the land." answers life. This Roman idiom is "out of Africa always something new," is amply reinforced by histories of science, mathematics, architecture, arts, crafts, philosophy, of the Africans of Kemet (Egypt), "the black land," and elsewhere there, on which its Roman conquerors fed, and others even now feed, eons, many renown centuries after Africa's glory epoch ended in fall from its apex of power. "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi" (something new always out of Africa) is the Latin phrase for this adoring idiom that is the subject of this discussion. http://aliquidnovi.org/about/ In due course of time, not merely its people's creations, but also the "creators" themselves, the African people, were expropriated, to other places: Europe, Asia, the islands of the seas; then to the Americas, the so-called "New World;" particularly that of "United States of America." Historian Joel Augustus Rogers, of Jamaica, in his great book, "Africa's Gift to America," brilliantly summarized in his title, what he sets forth in his book; to wit: that the melting pot of American culture blended discrete enslaved tribes of different tongues, cultures, families into a new gifted African American society, family of people, who were an amalgam of old and new; black, red, brown, yellow and white, into an inferior caste, where the "one-drop rule" was rigorously applied in society. They intended for evil lucre what God meant for man's renewal. Africans gave its riches to America from their basalt of basic humanity. That blessed African-based human renewal manifested in a plethora of this new creature's creativity in the American national arts and crafts, heavy labor and construction, in inventions, in military service, in the sciences, in mathematics, in religion, in business, in agriculture, in government , sports , law, music. In short in everything that is known as "American," African influence is! Thus what had begun as "fission," the separation of Africans from Africa, became "fusion" in America. Those same culturally stripped and reconstituted Africans were melded mystically into "new creatures." They became a new force of nature. They became a new power, who amazingly had not only survived white-hot race-based hell, to love them who had vainly sought to destroy them; to bless them who have cursed them, even those who had lied, had said all manner of evil things against them; that scornfully abused and persecuted them; for even those they gave their lives! What is this? What manner of man is this? What form of energy is this? It is African American energy!

MRS. NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nannie_Helen_Burroughs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms I FIRST READ OF FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT'S "FOUR FREEDOMS:"-- 1.FREEDOM OF WORSHIP 2. FREEDOM OF SPEECH; 3.FREEDOM FROM WANT, 4. FREEDOM FROM FEAR--WHEN BLACK WOMAN'S LEADER, NANNIE HELEN BURROUGHS, APPLIED THEM TO BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA IN HER NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION IN AMERICA SPEECH, PROPHETICALLY. HER REMARKS WERE IN A POWERFUL BIOGRAPHY OF REV. C. L. FRANKLIN, WHO WITNESSED, MRS. BURROUGH'S PRESCIENT 1940'S ADDRESS.

VITRUVIUS

VITRUVIUS One word can unlock a torrent of mysteries. Or seal them securely . The word "Vitruvius ," is one such word. A nude Ethiopian man on the cover of Plotinus ' THE ENNEADS, (1991) published by Penguin Books, a classic 3rd Century philosophy book, was called "Vitruvius," by a Facebook friend. She was happily harkening back to college courses, where she had learned it. I heard it, when she said it, both times; but I did not bother to pursue its origin. Then, yesterday, October 21, 2017, I finally saw the word "Vitruvius' in print, viz: "We have seen in the Introduction that the technique for which, in a complex plan or design, the proportions are linked so as to get the right correlation (or commodulation) between the whole and its parts was called by the Greek architects and Vitruvius 'Symmetry'; and the result obtained where this technique was correctly applied was the 'eurhythmy' of the design and of the building." P. 5, "Proportions in Time and Space," THE GEOMETRY OF ART AND LIFE by Matila Ghyka (1946, 1977). When I looked up Vitruvius in Wikipedia, it said that his origins were obscure and that there were no images of him; that he was known only by his classic work of architecture, "De Architectura" a work in ten volumes. Hints about the man himself, a Roman military engineer from North Africa, evoked Euclid, another African identified as Greek, as Vitruvius was as Roman. Being blunt: Vitruvius and Euclid, are men of African descent, if single men, or, if not, are a guild or group of people, whose respective cognomen are representative of the cognoscenti of learned men whose works were appropriated by others, over 1,000 years after they were first written. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_architectura

RANDOM CHANCE

For "random chance" to be real, as some among us, seem to contend, in certain sectors of science, philosophy, other fields, there are an amazing number of repetitions. This thought came to mind when I was reading about the annual Orionid meteor shower yesterday and learned the Haley's Comet returns to earth every 75 years. Cicadas, of course , come back above ground every 17 years. "Years" themselves recur ; as do days, months, hours, seconds; heartbeats, speculations. Come to think of it, very few things are certifiably random; thus they are exceptional; unless life itself is also exceptional, in which case, we find ourselves right back at the beginning, where we began with random chance, and its antipodal adherents' views of determinism. I am constrained to accept both, random and determinism as valid. Their covalent validity is reified, is verified, in quantum physics, in quantum mechanics. In these, form remains in one place but that unique form's particular substance is instantly teleported across the cosmos of spacetime to its dyadic partner by condign divine design .

NEVER CAUGHT, excerpt

I had always wondered how, why, this peculiarly American political compromise between slave states and free states that was framed in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, had become undone, had became tilted toward the proslavery forces, not towards the "liberty and justice for all" democracy, so falsely and so generally historically claimed. Perhaps, in "a political compromise brokered by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson," that "the capital was moving to Philadelphia," I may find a semblance of answers. The above quote is from NEVER CAUGHT, THE WASHINGTON'S RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF THEIR RUNAWAY SLAVE "ONA JUDGE" by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (2017), p. 50. "New Yorkers bid farewell to their President and to their claim on the nation's capital. Following the American Revolution, the location of the seat of government was a point of great debate, with thirty or more cities competing for the right to house the new center of power... "Yet behind closed doors, some members of Congress were holding quiet conversations and private dinners, where they developed plans to create a 'Federal City' that was separate and apart from any other city or state government. Southerners like James Madison led the charge in what would become a decade-long drama around the location of the new seat of power. Virginians, in particular George Washington, were insistent that the permanent location of the nation's capital reside within a Southern orbit.... "It was Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson who brokered the famed compromise between Southern and Northern coalitions in which the federal government assumed all state debt related to the American Revolution in exchange for landing a permanent nation's capital along the Potomac River. The construction of the capital would take close to a decade, and Philadelphia's consolation prize was the temporary relocation of the capital for ten years starting in 1790." P. 51-52.

DISCERNING SPIRITS' RADAR/SONAR

DISCERNING SPIRITS ' RADAR/SONAR Having discerning spirits to be able to discern reprobate minds is and was especially true for the whole history of African Americans. It is still true today. Not all white folks are, or were, uselessly wicked. Not all black folks are or were unambiguously useful or good. We had to test their spirit by our spirits, so as to be able to know which way to go; whom to trust with what. Discernment is a great good to have, to use in all things, social, legal, whatever ! Notwithstanding, a discerning spirit is an endogenous spirit from our insides, from God our Creator, for use on our outsides, to protect us from those people of reprobate minds, who bring friction, strife , confusion with them. Discerning spirits are our radar and our sonar detectors, energy fields. Keep them in good working order, in tune with your interests and your goals.

OBAMA LEGACY

ENTERTAINMENT PROPAGANDA

Entertainment is as propagandist as politics; artists are politicians . Recall that the outrageously racist movie "Birth of A Nation" was shown in the White House in 1915 to President Woodrow Wilson. He is reputed to have exclaimed in adoration that it was like lightening! Look at the proliferation of police and/or SWAT television programs or movies. Their legal irregularities are astounding and anesthetizing. They deaden public expectations of propriety, while preparing them for manipulation by media, sellers, prosecutors, politicians, or worse: convictions or acquittals based on race, class, religion or other status. Therefore when viewing movies and television be sensitive to, be aware of, the propaganda purpose behind their financing, production, and distribution; be cognizant of the fact that your money, time, are the means to effect your behavioral modification by malevolent design .

KID CAMELOT

OUR KIDDIE CAMELOT Our family moved to 148 Electric Street in Meacham Park, Missouri, in 1955. Our father had found this house and work "up north," while we remained in Canton, Mississippi. We consisted of Mama, me, age 4, Schleria , age 3, and Harold, age 1. We rode up to St. Louis on a train in a Jim Crow car that was crammed to the hilt with many colored folks. One of my fondest memories of our train-trip North was eating a simply delicious meal that was prepared for us by Mother, Mama's mother. It had consisted of fried chicken and chocolate cake, that was carefully wrapped in waxed paper, packed in a shoe box, tied shut with a cord. I can yet still taste, smell, see that delectable repast. I can also still remember the other passengers who were on the train, pulling out their shoe boxes of goodies. The whole car assumed a character of a church picnic: joy, love, and eating! Daddy met us at the train station, Union Station, sharp as a tack, and clean as the board of health! I was overwhelmed to see my/our Daddy again! I ran up to him and was lifted up. Shaving lotion aromas lingered. We all went home to Electric street. My first friend in Missouri was a white boy, Junior Walker, who lived across the street. He was 4, too and his sister, Wee-Wee, was 3. We had big fun together getting into all kinds of devilment, and enjoyment . Next door to them lived Vivian and Herb, also white, who were later friends of Mama and Daddy. Next door to us on one side was a white McCoy family. On the other side of us was "Aunt" Roberta and "Uncle" Bob Watkins , colored people, who were not really kin by blood but by love. Next to them lived Mattie, her daughter Eva Dell, Ben, and others, who later joined St. Matthews CME Church, that we had earlier joined, where Aunt Roberta was the pianist and Rev. J.L. Tabor was the pastor. Although we lived together, "cheek and jowl," on Electric Street in 1955, the climate changed in 1956, when a big yellow school bus took Junior Walker away from Meacham Park to a white grade school, while I walked two blocks over to James Milton Turner Elementary School in Meacham Park. Externalities of an alien society disrupted our Kiddie Camelot on Electric Street years ago . But life went on, yet goes on.

BARGAINED-FOR EXCHANGES AND CONSIDERATION

The United States' Constitution's 13th-14th-15th Amendments after our "Freedom War," victories in the 1860s ; and citizenship rights, in the 1960s, means that no more magisterial "master-slave" demands may be made upon us . Bargained-for exchanges supported by ample consideration is now required in every context, venue!

PROVIDENCE

Global capitalism is not new. It founded America; imported Africans; it conquered the globe in the guise of trade, national sovereignty and religion : back of it all was the "the pursuit of something outside itself for its own fulfillment , and so it becomes the enemy to what it needs." THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991), p. 137 "The Intellectual Realm was not of a nature to be the ultimate of existents. It was the first and it held great power, all there is of power; this means that it is productive without seeking to produce; for if effort and search were incumbent upon it, the Act would not be its own, would not spring from its essential nature; it would be, like a craftsman, producing by a power not inherent but acquired, mastered by dint of study. "The Intellectual Principle, then, in its unperturbed serenity has brought the universe into being, by communicating from its own sphere to Matter; and this gift is the Reason-Form flowing from it. For the Emanation of the Intellectual Principle is Reason, an emanation unfailing as long as the Intellectual Principle continues to have a place among beings.... "The Intellectual Sphere (the Divine) alone is Reason, and there can never be another Sphere that is Reason and nothing else; so that, given some other system, it cannot be as noble as the first; it cannot be Reason: yet since such a system cannot be merely Matter, which is utterly unordered, it must be a mixed thing. Its two extremes are Matter and Divine Reason; its governing principle is Soul, presiding over the conjunction of the two, and to be thought of not as laboring in the task but as administering serenely by little more than an act of presence." P.137-138, "Providence : First Tractate," THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)

GEOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE CHANGE ON EARTH Between astronomy, anthropology, or any history sits geology, botany, biology, their precursors to human life or any civilizational intersection. Coming in no particular order now fathomable they include the study of nature, heavenly, earthly; then also coming in no known orders: philosophy, mathematics, fishing, arts, crafts, foraging, hunting, cooking, preserving, teaching, writing, governing, herding, breeding, agriculture, weaving, distilling, mining, building, sailing, fighting, worshiping, educating. I was really just trying to say that geology and geological time is too often disregarded in discussions of climate change; which if studied properly would make debate moot. Earth-Climate has always changed.

NAZI LAWYERS ADOPTED AMERICAN LAW AS MODEL

I have long known, said this to be true, not merely with Nazis, but even earlier with the apartheid of the South Africans and Rhodesians, (now Zimbabwe) too! American common law, American culture is the primary, the proven, legal source and racist resource of global white supremacy! https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nazis-used-jim-crow-laws-model-race-laws/

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! From my point of view as a child, Halloween was a lot of great fun! Candy made it even sweeter. The more candies, the more sweeter! especially those tiny candy bars, and chocolate kisses , all better! It was also adventurous! We went out at night in groups, families and/or friends, variously costumed: "trick or treating" over entire blocks of homes, in St. Louis County, Missouri, in the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In the period of which I speak, there were no poisoning, no criminal acts, no kidnaps, in our area. These things were not near us; but in the newspapers or on tv. All we had was fun . Just fun ! HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

BOXED-IN AND LOVING IT!

BOXED-IN AND LOVING IT! Ironically, I find myself reading two books and their corroborating kin . One is the classic novel, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, plus the KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1853), wherein she remits reams of citations and quotes from other sources and works confirming her assertions in her world-famous novel, whose accuracy had been questioned by proslavery critics. The second book involved in this dyad is : JIM BECKWOURTH by Elinor Wilson (1972). In it she audaciously disproves the beliefs, and the historical lies that this "black mountain man, explorer, guide, war chief of the crows, trader, frontiersman, interpreter, trapper and adventurer," was the "gaudy liar," that alleged scholars had later claimed him to be , based on his absolutely riveting autobiography: THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES P. BECKWOURTH, MOUNTAINEER, SCOUT, PIONEER AND CHIEF OF THE CROW NATION, written from his own dictation by T. D. Bonner (1856); which I am also reading. Funny it is how I found myself to be boxed-in as described. It is not worth telling; but I am thoroughly enjoying myself reading and comparing all.

BLACK POLITICAL SYMBOLISM

BLACK POLITICAL SYMBOLISM LIKE JUSTICE THURGOOD MARSHALL'S U.S. SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENT IN 1967, AND PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S ELECTION IN 2008, HAVE INDEED DONE MUCH TO INSPIRE US, AFRICAN AMERICANS, COLORED'S, NEGROES, TO REASSURE US, THAT THERE IS A PLACE FOR US, IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY THAT EXCLUDES SO MANY OF US, DESPITE THESE RINGING SYMBOLS; EMBOLDENING US TO CARRY-ON, TO KEEP ON KEEPING ON!

'CHURLISH' MAN, ARISTOTLE "NICOMACHEAN ETHICS"

"Churlish and contentious...is the man who quarrels with everything " says Aristotle in "Nicomachean Ethics." That perfectly summarizes the obnoxious character of our current President who is disputing with almost every one: Democrat or Republican, domestic or foreign, friend or foe, seemingly; including his wife and family! Aristotle goes on: "...let us now describe those who pursue truth or falsehood alike in words and deeds and in the claims put forward. The boastful man, then, is thought to be apt to claim the things that bring glory, when he has not got them, or to claim more of them than he has or belittle it...[E]ach man speaks and acts and lives in accordance with his character, if he is 'not' acting for some ulterior object. And falsehood is 'in itself ' mean and culpable, and truth noble and praiseworthy." P. 998-999, THE BASIC WORKS OF ARISTOTLE (1941, 2001)

FIND DEFINE REFINE

FIND DEFINE REFINE YOURSELF Finding oneself is the first step to self-actualization, toward understanding who one is in your place and time. "Finding" oneself is more easily said than done, since the inner and outer quests for self is a dynamic process, like life itself. We relocate. We grow. We change. Environment changes. New coordinates obtain internally, externally; geophysically, mentally, spiritually, sensually, socially. It is not ever easy to "find" oneself from among the ever-changing clutter, clamor, claims of accumulated custom. Some people find it to be easier to just conform to prevailing norms, than to readjust seasonally; than ever to seek. Once one finds oneself, one must then "define" oneself. Here again, the same dynamics obtain here, as with finding oneself to begin with. You need, we need, an anchor. The ancients used the stars above to survey, to measure, count, locate, estimate, speculate. "Man, know thyself!" Adorned the mantles above temple doors as a reminder to master first-knowledge! One's knowledge of, belief in and faith in, God is a profound, worthy, infallible, continually-constant base upon which to might build one's self-concept and one might define oneself relationally. After one's self-definition, comes the "refinement" of oneself, the perfection of oneself, which, like other parts: finding and defining oneself are concomitant, continually-constant, divine, duties imposed upon us by reason of our having fortunate and fortuitous existences in place/time. Jesus said: "Be you therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect ." Matthew 5:48 "Perfection" presumes that one has found, defined, refined, oneself to the same extent decreed by God, always. Amen 🙏 V

BLIND ETHIOPIAN WOMAN

A BLIND ETHIOPIAN WOMAN When I was 11 years old, me and my year-younger sister, Schleria, caught a bus from Kirkwood to St. Louis, alone, to attend a church conference, when the adult who had accompanied us on the first day, did not show up on the next, nor on any other day that week! We had to get transfers on two occasions and ask questions, but we reached our destination safely, there and back home, about 15 miles distance as the crow flies; but much longer as the bus rolls. This memory came to mind, as I reflected on a blind woman in Ethiopia, who walked miles each day , every day, to the water well. People have far greater capacities than we typically appreciate , be they children or disabled or both. I gained greater self -confidence and personal pride from our own bus-riding adventure, which gave me courage to undertake the next, whatever it may have been. No doubt, the Ethiopian blind woman who walked daily to the well for water acquired much more! She acquired life and health itself and now my admiration and respect! What a mighty God we serve!

ORGANIZATIONAL ORIGAMI

ORGANIZATIONAL ORIGAMI All organization need not conform to the typical format of : President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary. A configuration that now prevails . A broader view as to its ends and means may better assimilate its talent and resources more ratably, proportionately, even effectively. Form is as important as substance. This idea is based on personal life experiences, observations, study. Just today, I learned that a single photon of light had experimental entangled sixteen million atoms inside of one square centimeter; heavy-duty origami atomic, human. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2017/…/171013091023.htm

ATTRIBUTION

Crediting others when it is due, never weakens; it strengthens you!

BISON KNEEL

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/sports/ncaafootball/anthem-protests-howard-.html BISON: BEAUTY, BONDING, BRAVERY.

ETHIOPIAN ROCK IN BASILE

CONGRESSMAN ELIJAH CUMMINGS

Cong. Elijah Cummings : William T. Martin, Esq., our bright undergraduate classmate, asked me to bring 18 U.S.C. 227 to your attention , about a week ago. I have delayed doing so until now, being confident that a constituent or staff member had probably already done so. But, to clear my conscience, in light of my word to him, I now remit the criminal statute outlawing such public officials as President Trump from impairing the exercise of established constitutional rights, as kneeling by NFL athletes clearly is! https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/227

SIN

CONSIDERING "SIN" AGAIN Sin requires prior knowledge. Without prior knowledge, there can be no sin. Stated differently, mankind is not inherently sinful, any more than a baby without prior knowledge--indeed, without any knowledge-- is sinful. I am aware of the rubric "that man was born in sin," that is touted by certain sects, creeds, denominations, as true. If that is true, then God is sin, since God made man, and all else. God is all in all, is all of all. God is! Thus, life and death are in divine parity, relative to God; neither is greater nor lesser; since God does not exist in time or space yet does! If God is oxymoronic, paradoxically enigmatic, just stop ! imagine what mankind might be: i.e. here yet not here; alive but dead; deep, shallow. The lion's lust for flesh, blood, gore is not more wicked than the lamb's for grass, herbs, whey; nor a kite's or buzzard's for carrion, like a fly's. In short sin and righteousness are glosses, patinas, spins imposed on man to maintain order, peace, love. These were also imposed by man, for less nobler purposes or ends! In Genesis 1:31 says: "And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning and it was the sixth day." It says "All that God made by was very good!" Sin is not very good. So, wherever sin came from, it was not of God's doing, nor any natural creation, but something far lower. Similarly and to like effect is Genesis 1:1-- "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Note that "hell" the alleged ultimate eternal venue for earthly sinners is not listed therein. That absence may be because "hell" like "sin" are concepts: a man-made venue for mankind's made-up sins. Such sins restrain, hamper, burden the souls, consciences of good men or good women who are all in all; all of all, from God eternally, co-terminally. The sum of it all is this: "Isaiah 45:7King James Version (KJV) 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

2ND TERM?

It appears to be unlikely that, given his chaotic leadership acts, President Donald Trump will have a second term, if he survives a first, as U.S. President.

THE COTTON GIN

REVISITING THE OLD COTTON GIN It is probably more accurate to say that Eli Whitney, while a Yale student, 'patented' the cotton gin, than to say that he had invented the cotton gin, which he learned of while visiting Georgia, during summer break, since slaves, its most probable 'inventors,' were unable to receive patents in 1793. These thoughts come afresh to me as I read footnote 21 in the classic, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852, 1987): "'Whitney's cotton-gin.' In 1793, Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin which mechanically separated cotton from its seeds. Stowe's note that a young colored man was really the inventor, or first had the idea is probably true; the patent law, of course, did not apply to slaves." A "Wikipedia" article linked below says that the wife of the man on whose plantation the cotton gin was invented made "significant" improvements to "design flaws," in the device after it was patented, although she was given no credit for having done so by Eli Whitney. This disclosure reinforces the notion that Eli Whitney was an opportunist, rather than an inventor, since wealthy plantation mistresses did not have to work with their hands, to invent or to improve anything . Slaves did. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney P. 419

TRIPLE AMERICAN IRONIES

TRIPLE AMERICAN IRONIES! How ironic! Colin Kaepernick's "take a knee" protest, that recently inspired black athletes' protest, against judicially-legal, lethal police terrorism against their fellow, unarmed African American people; are all being most vehemently opposed in their exercise and expression of this sacred First Amendment right, by the administration of "dotard" Republican President Donald Trump, who is now himself, under several Congressional and criminal investigations for having allegedly collaborated with the Russians to steal our 2016 national elections, which elected him, by voter fraud! Treason is permitted; protest is not! This irony is further compounded by the mystery of why millionaire Stephen Paddock's plainly terrorist "bump stock"--aided, automatic weapons fired massacre of dozens of country music festival attendees from his suite's busted out window in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mandalay Hotel's 32nd floor and wounding of well over 500 others, is still not yet deemed to be an act of terrorism in accord with FBI approved criteria ! One further irony is the so-called "black identity extremist" label that the FBI itself, post-firing of James Comey, also by Donald Trump, has tagged any black protesters with, evocative of the FBI's COINTELPRO clandestine disruptions that were fatal to the Black Panther Party, and other self-help movements in the 1960s-'70s, while the FBI has neither been condemning nor even seemingly moving to disrupt true "white identity extremists" like the KKK and white supremacy killers! Triple signal ironies in the United States of America in October 2017!