SLAVE JURISPRUDENCE

SLAVE JURISPRUDENCE The notion of "slave jurisprudence," of which I have just read in KEY TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1853), brought to mind the spate of 20th century United States Supreme Court decisions that, conformably, "conservatively" , support police brutality and killings, of black people, if police merely fear for their lives, subjectively, regardless of the actual objective circumstances, and regardless of contrary supervisory or expert opinions; or any other cop's opinion who was not present at the scene during exact times of occurrence. Stowe wrote: "From a review of all the legal cases which have hitherto been presented, and of the principles established in the judicial decisions upon them, the following facts must be apparent to the reader: 'First,' That masters do, now and then, kill slaves by torture. 'Second,' That the fact that so killing a slave is not of itself held a presumption of murder , in slave jurisdictions. 'Third,' That the slave in the act of resistance to his master may always be killed. "From these things it will be seen to follow, that, if the facts of the death of Tom had been fully proved by two white witnesses, in open court, Legree could not have been held by any 'consistent ' interpreter of slave law to be a murderer; for Tom was in the act of resistance to the will of his master. His master had laid a command on him, in the presence of other slaves. Tom had deliberately refused to obey the command. The master commenced chastisement , to reduce him to obedience . And it is evident at the first glance, to everyone , that, if the law does not sustain him in enforcing obedience in such a case, there is an end to the whole slave power. No Southern court would dare to decide that Legree did wrong to continue the punishment, as long as Tom continued the insubordination. Legree stood by him every moment of the time, pressing him to yield, and offering to let him go, as soon as he did yield. Tom's resistance was 'insurrection '. It was an example which could not be allowed for a moment, on any Southern plantation...If Tom had been allowed to disobey his master in this case, for conscience's sake, the next day Sambo would have had a case of conscience, and Quimbo the next . Several of them might very justly have thought that it was a sin to work as they did . The mulatto woman would have remembered that the command of God forbade her to take another husband. Mothers might have considered that it was more their duty to stay at home and take care of their children, when they were young and feeble, than to work for Mr. Legree in the cotton-field. There would be no end to the havoc made upon cotton-growing operations, were the negro allowed the right of maintaining his own conscience on moral subjects." P. 103-104, "Principles Established--State v. Legree; A Case Not in the Books."

BLACK FAMILY MEN ARE SUPER!

Black family men are and were the true "supermen!" They stayed with their wives, raised their children, earned a living and set an example of manhood against incredible odds, oppression, opposition and temptations to not do! As a black family man, myself, I do no more than to state plainly obvious fact.

ACCOUNTANCY

DIVINE ACCOUNTANCY https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… Psalm 37:12-15 is an important pericope for our perilous times . It reads: "The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. "The Lord laughs at him for he sees that his day is coming. "The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, "To cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. "Their sword shall enter their own heart and their bows shall be broken." These prophetic words and truths are well to remember in the age of Donald Trump and of organized international criminal cartels. They and their predecessors have been extremely exploitative and mean, domineering and sneering; adjuring the very existence of God by deed! But we are on the eve of year 2019, when all books are balanced, when all tables are turned and returned in Jesus name, Amen! Amen! Amen!

FORFEIT, DEMIT, REMIT, EVERY BIT OF IT!

DEMIT REMIT EVERY BIT OF IT FORFEIT, DEMIT, REMIT, EVERY BIT OF IT Many times. Too many times. We blacks have subordinated our interests to the national interest, often rescuing it from its own suicidal morass, by faith and works.. Less godly folk would have long since required their due of this nation, with interest . But we are a godly people. We are descended of those of those noble people of the Nile River Valley of whom Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Diodorus Siculus sang in ancient verse, in ancient history, in philosophy and literature, We are the "sons and daughters of the gods." We are descended of those whom Tertullian, Origen, Augustine, and others sprang. We are descended of those who survived transshipment and expropriation to two continents: Asia and America by those "foreigners" whom we had succored, taught, to be enslaved ! Being a godly people , we could not have done other than as we have done., what we have done, over two thousand years. It is, it was our quintessential nature to do as we have done, what we have done , even being Christ-like, like the "Sermon on the Mount to transgression! If it had not been for our primordial blessedness, which we had "lost" actual knowledge of, during the massive migrations away from the Nile Valley civilizations, much would be different. God in infinite wisdom and mercy, foreordained that we would go forth in the holes of slave ships--east and west--to refurbish, to renew mankind. Our blessed forbears left thousands of images of themselves, of us, in divine images of godliness, so we would know, could know, from whence we sprang, and the method to regain what was lost, sacrificed, recirculated, upon the broader earthen venue. These images all nations treasure, marvel, steal, and study. Soon our gross darkness shall yield to the light of day. Soon that which was "lost" many centuries and as many deceitful treacheries ago, shall be found by we who seek. Soon to those who affected to be holy, but were not; those who pretended to be fair and just, but were not, will reap. Those who slew our priestly, Kemetic and Nubian, learned men and women, then who brazenly stole our treasures, our legacy, as solely their own, must forfeit, demit, remit, every last bit of it. Then, again, at last the circled will have been squared, cubed.

MISSISSIPPI 90

MISSISSIPPI 90 In 1971, around this time of year , October-November election season, 90 students from Howard University had traveled by bus from Washington, DC, all the way down to northwestern Mississippi. We were traveling South , deeper South, shonuff South, in order to poll watch for Charles Evers. He was the brother of the late Medgar Evers, civil rights martyr, who was running for governor . We knew that Charles Evers had very little chance of winning. But the utter audacity of his having run was to us, and to me, most irresistible! Just the year before, in 1970, certain ones of us had made a similar bus trip to Birmingham, Alabama, to campaign for John Cashen, a black dentist and activist. Cashen was running for governor against George Wallace. We were the "Alabama 86." I was among those sojourners as well. Why did we do it? Why did we go? We went because we could go. We went because we were Howard University and that--helping--is who we were and what we did each year, ritualistically, as part of iconic heritage , homage, and struggle. In addition, I went because I was born in Mississippi in 1951. Thus, I was going home, "Deep Home" to see my people, who still lived there. I thought family reunion was a cute collateral benefit to my excursion , but as events turned out it was the central, if ventral, reason for going. There were several memorable experiences in Mississippi in which I was directly involved. The first time was in Itta Bena. While poll watching there, a black female from Howard, who was garbed in African clothing, head to toe, got into a verbal altercation with some white female poll workers. As they were away from me, across the room, I could not hear the dispute. Shortly thereafter, though , in walked the sheriff. He glanced in that black female's direction, and paused . Then he turned his head and saw me. Instead of going to where the dispute simmered, he came to my section, where all was calm, without any controversy! He walked up to me with two big pistols on his hips, sporting a big Stetson hat, dark sunglasses, while chomping down on a cigar . "Here we go!" I said to myself! He looked so much like that caricature on the old "Dodge" TV commercial that I almost laughed. Then he said "Boy ! You better leave these white women alone!" as he pushed me in my chest. How unjust! I stepped back into the face of that itty-bitty, Itta Bena sheriff and unleashed such a voluble string of curses and imprecations, that were mediated by references to Mississippi and federal law that it arrested him in his tracks! He looked at me for a moment more . Then, he looked around the room then left. That was experience number one. Later that evening me and my good friend, Bill Lightfoot, were sent to a place called Money , Mississippi , to poll watch. We later learned that it was where Emmett Till had been lynched in 1955, in the very cotton gin, whose office we occupied. For a time, there was hardly any activity at that location . Then, shortly before closing, we heard a truck pull up. Billy looked at me and I looked him, but did not speak. At this moment, a white guy with a shotgun broke down over his arm, walked in and stood on one side of the door. Then , another white guy armed with a switchblade knife, entered and stood on the other side of the door. Following him, a troupe (coffle) of brothers entered . They trudged toward the table on which the ballots lay on display (no voting booths and no privacy), voted and trudged back out. Not one word was spoken by anyone. When the last of these brothers had voted and exited, then the armed men left with the truck. Shorty thereafter me and Billy booked too! We got the heck away! That was the second experience . Next day, I went down to the bus station to get on a bus to go to "home," Canton, Madison County, Mississippi, where my maternal grandmother lived and I was born. I arrived safely. At the exit bus stop , I caught the only cab visible and gave the driver the address. He looked back at me and said "You must be Miss Ora Bell's relative. She ain't home now. She's at a funeral. But Mr. Frank is there." I was utterly blown away by his knack of knowing so much about my people ! But this was Canton! Events turned out as he said, and after greetings from grandma and dining on her inimitable delectable dinner, we talked and talked. Then came a knock on the door. In walked my Uncle Earl, who looked just like my daddy . He had gotten the word that I was in town from the cab driver. Uncle Earl stated he had come to take me out in the country to spend the night with my grandfather , Toney Mitchell Coleman . When we left, Uncle Earl made two or three stops at hidden juke-joints, where we'd spend two or three minutes, and swoosh, away we went flying in his truck. When we finally got home, Uncle Earl got out of the truck and said to Father Mitch, "Daddy, who is this that I've got with me?" It was dark, Mississippi dark! But he replied, "I believe that's Bro Larry!" I wept. The next day Father Mitchell carried me "into town," to a dry goods store. He said to the owner, "This is my grandson, Larry. He's a student up at Howard University in Washington, D.C. " then grandpa told me to get whatever I wanted. I selected a pair of jeans and sweat shirt and socks , and thanked grandfather profusely for his kindness. I had been taught not to be greedy nor overbearing coming up; so, I resisted the temptation to get me a solid blue or black suit, that I then lacked and would need later. Looking back that was my only regret; not getting me a suit. My grandpa died a week later, but at least I had spent time with him! Such precious memories are never forgotten. Amen 🙏

THE CONSTITUTIONAL RUSE

THE CONSTITUTIONAL RUSE The U.S. Constitution has been a ruse , an excuse, to concentrate political and economic power in an elitist, oligarchic "white" cabal. Its shibboleths about "we the people," did not mean all of the people, nor even most of the people--black or white or other--but it meant "WHITES" of property, and means, who satisfied other criteria. "The Summer of 1787" by David O. Steward makes this plain. Alleged "founding father," Thomas Paine, was useful as rhetorical rabblerouser, prior to the Constitution's drafting, but he had no value, after the former colony won freedom from Britain. So he was sent back to England, whence he came then to France! Founding Father, Patrick Henry of Virginia--"Give me liberty of give me death"--said "I smell a rat," in declining two invitations to attend the disguised convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787.

DELANY

Today I received THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF MARTIN R. DELANY by Frank A. Rollin (1868). I find it hard to put down. I learned of this book while reading another book, PRIDE OF FAMILY by Carole Ione (2001). Ione's great -grandmother is the author of the first book on Delany, for whom she had worked. She adopted the nom de plume of "Frank," then a custom among women writers and poets to lend credibility , given white male biases. I was pleased to learn that Delany had confirmed during his famous exploration of Africa the descent of his own ancestral family from the Niger region. This was doubtless one of his motivations for his making the journey, in addition to scholarly interests . His maternal grandmother, who lived with his family as a child, had told him stories of his heritage before she died at 107 years old. Delany's Mandingo-Golah mother had reinforced those told to him by his Mandingo grandmother. So, when Delany met up with "Agi," Rev. Samuel Crowther, D. D., Church of England's Bishop of Niger, he received satisfactory proof of his genealogical descent from African royalty who had been captured in war and sold abroad into America. For this reason perhaps Frank A. Rollin writes: "The isolated and degraded position assigned the colored precluding the possibility of gaining distinction, whenever one of their number lifts himself by the strength of his own character beyond the prescribed limits , ethnologists apologize for this violation of their prescribed rules, charging it to some few drops of Saxon blood commingling with the African . But in the case of the individual of whom we write, he stands proudly before the country the blackest of the black , presenting in himself a giant's powers wrapped in chains , and evidencing in his splendid career the fallacy of the old partisan theory of negro inferiority and degradation ." "Introduction, Charleston, S.C. October 19th, 1868."

AFRICAN AMERICAN HABERDASHERY

OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN GOSPEL HABERDASHERY The Bible already tells anyone of color, who may be interested, how to free themselves from "white" American oppression: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. It also says that "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ." Hosea 4:6. I cite but two examples from this great book of universal human panorama: spanning before and after times . Our African American people are on the very precipice of our freedom, as the 400 years of Genesis 15:12-14 enter 2019. Events around us so demonstrate. There is no need to elaborate nor obfuscate nor remonstrate. We are witnessing. Truth is a two edged flaming sword, however . Turning in all directions to dissuade any unworthy reentry into its garden. Genesis 3:24. Men are gods who have learned good from evil. Knowledge is what has made mankind like unto gods . Thus, knowledge's lack diminishes mankind's godliness . One must know the truth . The truth is that "God" is first, last, in between, and eternally foremost . We have god's mind and earthly form, divinity encapsulated in earth, water, oxygen. The next truth is that we too are gods Gen. 3:22; Psa 82:6. Therefore, we must be fortified with truth! We must be fully equipped with understanding, When we are armed about the girth with the belt of truth; when we wear the breastplate of righteousness; when we carry the shield of faith, are adorned with the helmet of salvation, while wielding the sword of the spirit, with our feet securely shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace, we are we holy; become integrally clean. Ephesians 6 is our gospel, spiritual haberdashery ,armory, our secret closet. Our forebears made optimal use of this hidden haberdashery, armory, closet's various implements, in order to bring us here. By "forbears" I mean our mama and our daddy; my and you mama and my and your daddy; all of our grandparents, all of our great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters and brothers. Each one has made full, frequent resort to that closet, armory, haberdashery !

TEACHINGS OF PTAHHOTEP

"41. A son that hearkeneth is as a Follower of Horus*. He is good after he hesrkeneth: he groweth old, he reacheth honor and reverence . He repeateth in like manner to his sons and daughters, so renewing the instruction of the father. Each man instructeth as did his begetter, repeating it unto his children. Let them [in turn ] speak with their sons and daughters, that they may be famous in their deeds. Let which that thou speaketh implant true things and just in the life of thy children. Then the highest authority shall arrive, and sins depart [from them]. And such men as see these things shall say, 'Surely that man has spoken to good purpose,' and they shall do likewise; or 'But surely that man was experienced.' And all people shall declare , 'It is they that shall direct the multitude; dignities are not complete without them.'" *[The 'Followers of Horus' was a legendary dynasty of demigods, believed by the Egyptians to have ruled for about 13,400 years after the reign of Horus, and before that of Menes. There is also an order of spirits of this name.] P. 59, "One Generation to Another," THE TEACHINGS OF PTAHHOTEP, THE OLDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD (1909, 2016) [translated by Battiscombe G. Gunn]

RATTLED BY REBUFFS?

RATTLED BY REBUFFS ? GO ON! Rebuffs, rejections, failures, can serve grander designs, which are temporarily masked by an illusion. Just now, I was thinking of a law firm at which I had interviewed in 1975 in Washington , D. C. I had worn my sartorial best: platform shoes, a colorful sports coat, and broad necktie to Dow Lohnes and Albertson , a communications law firm. I had met one of its principals at the Federal Communications Commission, where I had been a law clerk to Commissioner Benjamin L. Hooks in summer 1975. Hooks was, of course, the first black FCC Commissioner. He had been appointed by Nixon to serve. I met a lawyer from Shrewsbury, Missouri, which abutted Webster Groves , my home school district. He had invited me to his firm for a look-see, as I was entering my last year of Howard University School of Law . When I showed up , he took me around. One of the first persons that I encountered on my tour was an older white female secretary who literally blanched in fear, it seemed, when she saw me! He hurried me through one or two more brief intros and showed me to the door. I don't remember his name nor anything else but that one scared white secretary who freaked out. I will never forget that. But in fairness to the white law firm , I was also rejected by a black one, Hudson, Leftwich, Davenport . Not just the law firms but the real estate brokers examination had a particular math problem that did me in. I also dropped a securities course I had been taking while I was still in law school to become a stockbroker ; and there were one or two more dabbles and failures that convinced me that I had to leave D.C. to work the work for which I was sent to this time, in this place. I feel better for having written this. It may help someone else who is or who was rattled by rebuffs as I have been, but who get back up to go. One never knows what life may bring. Acceptance can be one's doom or boom, as can rejection be either doom or boom. One never knows, nor can anyone ever know, what might have been either way.

TRUMP: AMERICAN PARADIGM

President Donald Trump is a trope, a figure of speech, like metaphors, similes, hyperboles. He is a paradigm, an apostrophe , of American racism, cupidity , duplicity, hypocrisy, and stupidity , foisted up as our historical epiphany aflesh, in time for Halloween !

TRUMP IS THE TRIUMPH OF 'ORIGINAL INTENT'

The 2016 election cycle that was decided by the electoral college, despite now-President Trump losing the popular vote by over 3,000,000, shows that the "original intent" of the framers of the 1789 Constitution was not democracy nor republic but oligarchy. We are ruled by a small wealthy cabal. Trump is the triumphal fruit of that deceitful constitutional era.

EXCLUDING WOMEN IS UNNATURAL

EXCLUDING WOMEN IS UNNATURAL, BIZARRE Wednesday, October 24, 2018 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Excluding women is unnatural and bizarre. Women, after all, incubated us all. Most women have also extruded us all. All of my most successful undertakings have involved women, I now perceive. Those that were least successful have deliberately excluded women. As an African American man, I am heir to triple streams of historic female exclusion: Christian, Jewish, Muslim. These cultural apertures have also insinuated government, education, business, law, science. But being pragmatic and practical, and speaking only for myself, I have found women to be much more tractable, much more perceptible, more motivated, than most men, when it comes to doing the work. As for me and my house, if success is sought, I must include the women. Excluding them is foolishness. Searching the annals of civilization, women and men were peers, were pairs, gods and goddesses. They comprised the “Ennead”, primordial African religion. Their sundering has been our sundering. If we are to revive and revisit, those hallowed glory days, rhapsodized by renown poets, historians, hieroglyphics, we would do well to recognize that “a house that is divided against itself cannot stand”; but must fall. Sirius A has Sirius B. The Nile has the Blue Nile and White Nile and once had a Yellow Nile from Sahara. Excluding women is unnatural and bizarre. Amen.

PRIDE OF FAMILY

This afternoon , October 23, 2018, I finished reading PRIDE OF FAMILY : FOUR GENERATIONS OF AMERICAN WOMEN OF COLOR by Carole Ione (2001). It is a swimmingly great book, sweeping through history , autobiography, poetry, and multiple female diaries, as smoothly as a hot knife flows through butter. Carole Ione is a gifted writer, as the following passage reflects: "Spirits are the feelings that survive us, and for a long time the spirits of all the women in my family past and present came to reside with me in my Saratoga room, not happily. I felt only their loss there. As the only daughter of an only daughter of an only daughter , I have all my life felt the pure lineage of my mother 's childhood sorrow as my own. I was never able to separate it from myself and could do nothing to assuage it." P.212

HELIOPOLIS

"What was the Benben and what became of it? It was clearly at the center of an important royal cult which later built pyramids . As we have said, the holy city of Heliopolis was in the hands of a priesthood which wielded considerable power in the pyramid age, and there can be little doubt that the design of the pyramids was under their direction. The word priest as we understand today it is somewhat misleading, for the Heliopolitan sages were most likely highly trained initiates conversant not only with religious ideologies but with the study of celestial bodies and, probably, the art of symbolic architecture and hieroglyphics, the sacred form of writing invented by the Egyptians . Clearly, then, the Heliopolitan priesthood would have known about the mysterious stellar religion alluded to in the 'Sirius Mystery .' "Egyptologists consider that Heliopolis provided the nearest thing to a cult state, for while every local district had its own local gods, the Heliopolitan religion, whose pantheon was the Great Ennead of gods , was recognized everywhere. This great pantheon, composed of nine deities, formed the family ruled by Atum-Ra. Originally un-manifest , Atum or Atum-Ra, masturbated and thus created Shu, the air god , and Tefnut, the moisture goddess. This couple created Geb, the earth god, and Nut, the sky goddess. Geb and Nut mated, though their copulation was interrupted by their father Shu, who, as the air, came between them and lifted the canopy sky away from the earth, thereby parting the divine lovers. In spite of their 'coitus interruptus', Nut, the sky goddess , gave birth to four anthropomorphic gods who lived on earth . These were Osiris and Seth, two male gods , and their sisters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris and Isis were united and became the subject of ancient Egypt's greatest myth as the first divine couple who ruled Egypt . Isis gave birth to an only son, Horus , from the seed of Osiris . Since Osiris or his 'soul ' was often identified with the phoenix, it is probable that the Benben Stone, symbolizing , among other things, his seed, and thus the generative power that created Horus from the womb of Isis. "It is with these last five anthropomorphic or human form gods that we shall be mostly involved, and especially with Osiris, for he was not only seen as the first divine king of Egypt, but his tragic death and miraculous resurrection provided the basis of the ancient Egyptian mysteries and the origin of their rebirth cult." P.18-19. THE ORION MYSTERY by Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert (1994)

RECONNECTING LAW'S SOURCES

RECONNECTING LAW'S SOURCES "The students who remained were receiving an education that was as philosophical as it was practical. By now they understood that their collective ambition was to become social engineers --to use the law to change the law. Edward P. Lovett, an unassuming but gifted student recalled: 'In our classes , whether it was equity or contracts or pleadings, stress was placed on what was right under the Constitution and statutes--our rights as worded and regardless of how they had been interpreted to that time. Charlie's [Charles Hamilton Houston] worldview was that we had to get the courts to change--and that we could and should no longer depend upon high powered white lawyers to represent us in that effort .' Perhaps more than any other, Lovett's description asserts the radicalism of Houston's mission at Howard. To this day, American law schools teach the law; indeed the essence of attending law school is that one learns what the law is and studies how to apply it to a multitude of hypothetical fact patterns. By doing this , students learn what it means, as every first year hears ad nauseum , to 'think like a lawyer '. "Learning the law and learning to think like a lawyer were but the elementary steps in becoming a social engineer. The third step , described by Lovett in his recollection was most critical: In order to give meaning to steps one and two --if they were to be anything but parasites on their society--African American lawyers were obligated to know what the law 'should be.' They had to know the Constitution better than the Supreme Court had allowed it to be known and trust its precepts more than the framers had themselves. Despite what settled case law mandated, the Constitution did not allow for a nation divided separately and equally by race . As surely as it forbade slavery itself, the post-Civil War Constitution forbade the discrimination that ultimately dehumanized both races. For all of his Ivy League education and conservative mien, Dean Houston's teaching law in this manner was as audacious as the arguments he and his former students soon would be presenting to courts across the country." P. 52-53, "Social Engineers," ROOT AND BRANCH: CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON, THURGOOD MARSHALL, AND THE STRUGGLE TO END SEGREGATION (2010) by Rawn James, Jr. In order to know what the practical law "should be," as stated above it is of course prudent, expedient, to know the source of "law" itself, its primal forerunners , its forebears . Certainly ancient Nubian-Egyptian philosophy, religion, geometry are among law's proofs and methods. Yet even these are subordinate to that animating divinity back of all that is, that was, that can ever be. This original knowledge of God, encapsulated in "Maat"-law, order, balance , harmony, beauty, as embodied in the "breath of life" has come down to us, but piecemeal, but haltingly, from Greece, through Rome, Islam, then Italian Renaissance-Western Europe, through North America. Back of all of these ideals of law is the ideal God, the real, as proven in nature, mathematics, in human existence. This then is the fourth (4) step of the Houstonian legal pedagogy: knowledge of the source of law, in spirit, truth, taught, lived, applied. Thereby, when the knowledge of the human law reconnects with its vivifying, rigorous, antecedents of divine law and love, not merely will, not merely must, all courts change, but the hearts, minds, practices of mankind too must change as well! Amen 🙏. 

DISTINCTIONS

I was surprised to read that Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN was a colonization enthusiast , but not an equal rights advocate . Few, very few , white abolitionists also were equal rights for blacks advocates . William Lloyd Garrison, a leading white abolitionist in America, like Stowe supported abolition but not equal rights. Abraham Lincoln actually unsuccessfully attempted to resettle a colony of black people in "Ile de Vache," Haiti. Such was the near universal policy of white abolitionists nationally. Rarer were the Gerritt Smith's and the John Brown's , white abolitionists who, as assiduously, also supported the abolition of slavery and equal rights for freed slaves and free blacks. While our people made the best use as was possible of these half-hearted friends' labors and efforts , albeit limited; their own agency to advance our cause of abolition and equal rights, through Civil War, our "Freedom War," until too-brief ten-year "Reconstruction" morphed back to white power Restoration we descendants too often are unaware of the critical distinctions between those who are true and those not! https://www.albany.edu/history/digital/KrakatJohnBrown/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gerrit-Smith 

OLD MAN AND THE SEA, excerpt

I was surprised to discover that the protagonist in Ernest Hemingway's 1952, classic, novel, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, is probably African. I am still reading the short work . I had seen an old black and white movie decades ago featuring some heavily suntanned white man who played the part of the principal character. I remember very little about the movie, except an arm-wrestling contest between he and some "Negro" as they drank rum. It involved a deep-sea fisherman who waged a daily, epic, poetic, organic struggle with the Caribbean Sea from Cuba to earn a living, for personal dignity, for self-validation, and for raw natural joy of release . I do not know now how the movie ended . Nor how the book ends. But, I had been called back to the story over the years , perhaps , as the fisherman was recalled to sea. Only now that I too am an old man have I found opportunity to read it. I willingly share a piece of my catch from Hemingway's masterpiece, here with you, the part that suggests our hero's African ethnicity: "'Sleep well old man.' "The boy went out . They had eaten with no light on the table and the old man took off his trousers and went to bed in the dark . He rolled his trousers up to make a pillow, putting the newspaper inside them. He rolled himself in a blanket and slept on the other old newspapers that covered the springs of the bed. "He was asleep in a short while and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt his eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through it. He smelled the tar and oakum on the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning." P. 24-25

HUMAN BEINGS ARE PROOF

HUMAN BEINGS ARE PROOF Thought, ideas, are energy. Can energy produce matter, things? We humans create matter from energy all of the time, even ancient times : inventions, agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, art, writing, numbers, compositions, music, pregnancy, navigation , etc. A facility, gift of God, that is so integrated, so integral to human existence that we are hardly aware of its presence, is our innate God-given ability to make matter from energy, from thought, from ideas. In musing about this, other issues arose, which are discussed outside of the human context , generally. The first general issue is: "Does matter come from energy or does energy come from matter? Or is it both?" Differently stated is the second idea . It is same query that Plato queried in his book "Timaeus," a classic. He had asked "does form come from substance or does substance come from form or both," essentially, in his epic work. Plato had studied at "Father Nile," taught by Egyptian priests in the 300s BC, amid the detritus of fallen Egypt, which was invaded 650 BC, by Assyrians, and has been subjected to foreign rule since the fall of the 25th Dynasty ever since! I do not "know" the answer, to either question, my own or Plato's; or, for that matter, even if there is an answer that is "knowable." This is only my surmise . The questions occurred at my awakening from sleep on October 19, 2018. So , I began to search, to google, seek. The Holy Spirit advised me that: "Energy comes from matter." This principle was proven by the development of the atomic bomb, in which special uranium atoms (matter) were split in half, in order to release horrendous (energy). It was demonstrated over Japan in 1945 in Hiroshima , in Nagasaki . Now a team of scientists have also suggested that matter can come from energy in a linked, 2018, "Forbes" article they develop the idea. They make use of Einstein's famous 1905 formula "E=MC^2", energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, as proof. Their hypothesis uses photonics, light-atom pairs, components of light energy, as their energy source from which to create matter. They hypothecate that splitting photons in half yields electrons and their antimatter, positrons, forms of matter. Demonstrative proof of this precept requires a laboratory and experimentation equivalent to the Hadron particle collider that found the Higgs Boson particle in 2013. Their article is below: https://www.google.com/…/einstein-was-right-you-can-tu…/amp/ Conclusion: Having first shown that we humans are "matter" who were divinely produced by "God," the infinite repository of matter, energy, thought, ideas, methods ; having further shown that matter produces enormous energy when splitting special uranium atoms, to produce atomic bombs; having shown further that modern science corroborates these premises by use of Einstein's "E=MC^2" it seems that energy is matter and that matter is energy, divinely. We humans are proof of these coeval facts. For humans are both matter and energy at once. We were created by matter and energy, God , and we are producers of matter and energy upon the earth. That is no surmise. That is a fact !

FAITH

Faith is energy. Faith is activity. Faith is Love's complement and support system . Amen.

MIGRATIONS

The immigrants from Latin America are comparable to blacks ' Mass Migration from South to North, after the 1870s. Treaties and economic interests were the catalysts for brutal subjugation in Latin America; the same in the South.

NO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION?

There should and could have been a constitutional convention at the end of the Civil War, in 1865-1866. The new one would have corrected the grave errors in the first one, like the 3/5s clause provision favoring Southern representation and the Electoral College, which repeals the popular vote. Instead. They merely amended the old 1789 constitution, adding 3 post-war provisions (13-15th Amendments) to deal with the reality of slavery's abolition (except in prison); Africans ' involuntary citizenship in American society; and later the right to vote in federal elections in 1870. But there was no new constitutional convention (that would have excluded rebels, traitors, Confederates). Instead. The halo of whiteness was restored in the land; whatever "rights" blacks were given by law, were violated in court and in the country at large. We yet abide in the shade, shadows of governmental failures to obey its own laws, repeatedly.

PRIMAL PRIVILEGES

COIN PURSE OF PRIMAL PRIVILEGE Is "right" the correct word to use when referring to our personal privileges like speech, defense, association, work, play , worship, family? By this I mean that these natural "rights" are privileges of existence, not political allotments that are prescribed by the laws of nations, articles of religions, men. Personal privileges are incidents of life , of living . These are derived from God, who confers and revokes as all suits God , who is infinite and infinitesimal , innate and inert in all. The implications of this realization are liberating; its ramifications are too. One is no more an American citizen than one is Rwandan citizen. Labels of politics and conquest do not define our personal privileges. If those States or nations all fall, we remain as mankind, like before they came to be hegemonically to exist. Self-organization is a privilege too. History is a quilted tapestry sewn with together with the threads of conceived values, of perceived visions, of military victories, of economic defeats, of social equity. This latter category "social equity" is the coin purse of primal privilege.

DUCK!

DUCK! "Duck! Indeed duck!" I cried . Our river canoe's slow meandering float down that Ozarks stream had quietly encountered "turbulence." Safety-vested, and accompanying another Missouri lawyer, on our annual Bar's float trip, I felt secure. I was ready for spates of choppy water. But not for threatening low-lying tree limbs was I prepared. So. Ever one to be prudent I cried again loudly cried: "Duck! Indeed duck!" My fellow passenger and our boat's pilot burst out with laughter. I even laughed at myself, somewhat. But I recognize peril when I see it, and I give it wide berth, whenever I do! I ducked! They did too! We made it!

BEGINNING AND END

BEGINNING AND END I did not ask to come here. Didn't know that I was up in here, until later on. Didn't know my name; nor much of else but what I felt, tasted, smelt, heard, saw; all that vaguely. But in time, in season, I came to know a bit about that and this; and about this and that; or to think that I knew! For knowing is comforting. Even if what we think that we know is really not true, we later learn, its passing evanescence was blessed. This too is true for God, whom I like to think that I know. This is the God whom I think knows me in spirit and in truth, in matter-energy: Creator! So, in conclusion, as long as I am known by God--for who is not?--it does not at all matter if , what, how much I know about ether or matter. God has my beginning and my end. Amen.

JOHN MILTON

"But say I could repent, and could obtain, by act of grace , my former state; how soon could highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay what feigned submission swore ? Ease would recant vows made in pain, as violent and void. For never can true reconcilement grow, where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep : which would but lead me to a worse relapse and heavier fall: so should I purchase dear short intermission bought with double smart. This knows my Punisher; therefore as far from granting he, as I from begging , peace; all hope excluded thus, behold, instead of us outcast, his new delight, mankind created , and for him, the world. So farewell , hope; and with hope , farewell, fear; Farewell remorse! All good to me is lost; evil, be thou my good; by thee at least divided kingdom by Heaven 's King, I hold by thee , and more perhaps than half will reign ; as man ere long and this new world shall know." P. 36, PARADISE LOST by John Milton (1667, 2015)

BELIEF

"Belief" has nothing to do with facts or evidence. It subsists on the imagination.

"SPUTNIK" AND A BLACK MAN DISCOVERER

LLOYD RIDDICK, "SPUTNICK" DISCOVERER. BLACK MAN. "Among the wall-to-wall patients in Hackensack was Lloyd Riddick of Teaneck, who turns 75 on Friday. A retired IBM salesman and a former radio intercept operator who was the first person outside the Iron Curtain to capture Sputnik's signal, Riddick takes things seriously. So yesterday he came for the News PSA test, the third such exam he took this year." RUSSIA'S SPUTNIK SATELLITE WAS LAUNCHED IN 1957, THE FIRST MAN-MADE OBJECT TO ORBIT THE EARTH. http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/free-prostate-tests-great-start-article-1.378436?fbclid=IwAR0vML6_kO1Cym38bAW7WkMOvQfayd1BWXEVctSSn3PZKJE_BaFHT1-gbP8

AFRICAN AMERICAN LANGUAGE

"There is a certain noticeable communicative style which is transmitted in the tone, rhythm, or pitch of a voice in these cases. In fact, the so-called black voice can be recognized by other Ebonics speakers by pitch and tone. Thus, the more prevalent African rhythm, tone, and pitch are in the vocalization, the more distinctly African is the voice. One is tempted here to suggest that whites in some southern United States communities , having learned the peculiar intonations and sounds of their African nurses, speak with African tone and pitch. On the other hand , some blacks speak with an almost precise European intonation pattern with no trace of African vocal color. This behavior indicates that language interference has affected the speech of blacks and whites alike in the United States. One cannot be sure even how long the communicative styles of Africans will remain . The time may come when we will only be able to observe rare instances of the pitch, rhythm and tone of Africa. In one sense, the linguists' early ecstasy over African lexical retentions, e.g. , 'ok', 'okra', 'go-go,' etc., was the beginning of a general merger of African lexical items into the general American vocabulary ." P. 241, "African American Language," AFRICAN CULTURE :THE RHYTHMS OF UNITY by Molefe Kete Asante and Miriam Welsh Asante (1990)

ANCIENT EGYPT LIGHT OF THE WORLD, EXCERPT

Reading "Egyptian Wisdom and Hebrew Genesis," in ANCIENT EGYPT LIGHT OF THE WORLD, vol. 1, I can now more fully understand why the Bible has such power and prescience: its foundation is sound. Gerald Massey writes in his 1907 classic: "The Egyptian system of uranographic [mapping of fixed stars] representation has been outlined and many of its details have been identified in the chapters on the astronomical mythology. It has now to be shown that the so-called 'legends of creation' chiefly known as Semitic are the detritus of the Egyptian wisdom. These legends did not wait for their beginning until the Mosaic Pentateuch had been carried around the wide circumference of his world either by the scattered Jewish people or the Christian missionaries. As we have seen , the Semitic theologians did not know enough of the ancient sign-language to distinguish the evil serpent from the good , the great Earth-mother from the chimerical dragon of the deep, or the beneficent spirits of elemental nature from the Sebau, the Sami or fiendish forces of external phenomena. The Semitic versions of the legends , Babylonian, Assyrian , or Hebrew, mainly reproduce the debris of the astronomical mythology, which has so often been reduced to the status of the nursery tale. It is their fatal defect that they are not the original documents, and have no firsthand authority . In these the primitive wisdom of Egypt has been perverted, and the mythical beginnings, which had their own meanings, have been transmogrified into what is herein termed a cosmological creation.... In the Babylonian legends of creation the seven associate gods , who are the creators in the Egyptian mythos, have been converted into seven evil spirits of a later theology. And on one of the tablets...it is said of the seven evil spirits, 'The woman from the loins of the man they bring forth.' Thus, the creation of the woman is made to be the work of seven evil spirits, who, as the Kamite wisdom witnesses, 'did not originate' as wicked spirits or as powers of evil... Egypt's knowledge of beginnings was laboriously derived by the long, unceasing verification of scientific naturalists . Their ancient wisdom did not fall from heaven ready made nor had it any claim to a miraculous birth. It was dug for and quarried out of the rock of reality. It was smelted, shaped, stamped, and warranted for current coin as perpetual symbol of the truth, however primitive. It was and is today and forever , a coinage genuinely golden , though the figures on it may be sometimes difficult to decipher. The ancient wisdom of the Hebrew books has been converted into a spurious specie and passed off to the ignorant and unsuspecting as a brand new issue from the mint of God. According to Egyptian thought, 'creation ' was mainly limited to the bringing forth of life--the life of water , fish and fowl, animal, reptile and other forms from the meskhen or creatory of earth , when this is represented by the womb of Apt the pregnant water cow. This idea of birth from the womb is portrayed in Apt the first Great Mother... Next the idea of birth from the womb is repeated in the making of Amenta with the Tuat as the creatory or the place of rebirth for the manes. And thirdly in the astronomical mythology of the meskhen, womb, or place of birth, was constellated in the 'thigh' as the sign of rebirth in the celestial rebirthplace. We now have to formulate the Egyptian origins of the creation legends that have come to us in Semitic guise or disguise." P.287