"AS THE ETHIOPIANS UNTO ME..."

Terrible as the electoral times are in America, for blacks, and elsewhere, we do not live in a vacuum. All things affect us, as we affect all things, being one species on one planet, be it for ill or for good. Stay encouraged, Brothers and Sisters. The end is not yet. We have been on this earth over 2 million years. This current turbulence is but another passing season of many that we have known. Certainly now is no reason to despair of God's grace, for us, the first people!. "Are not you as the Ethiopians unto me, Oh Children of Israel?" Amos 9:7, as best I now recall, is the verse we need to reference in times like these!

C.S.A. VP, ALEXANDER STEPHEN'S "CORNERSTONE ADDRESS"

Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America Speech to the Virginia Secession Convention [Excerpt] April 23, 1861 . . .One good and wise feature in our new or revised Constitution is, that we have put to rest the vexed question of slavery forever, so far as the Confederate legislative halls are concerned. On this subject, from which sprung the immediate cause of our late troubles and threatened dangers, you will indulge me in a few remarks as not irrelevant to the occasion. The condition of the negro race amongst us presents a peculiar phase of republican civilization and constitutional liberty. To some, the problem seems hard to understand. The difficulty is in theory, not in practical demonstration; that works well enough theories in government, as in all things else, must yield to facts. No truth is clearer than that the best form or system of government for any people or society is that which secures the greatest amount of happiness, not to the greatest number, but to all the constituent elements of that society, community or State. If our system does not accomplish this; if it is not the best for the negro as well as for the white man; for the inferior as well as the superior race, it is wrong in principle. But if it does, or is capable of doing this, then it is right, and can never be successfully assailed by reason or logic. That the negroes with us, under masters who care for, provide for and protect them, are better off, and enjoy more of the blessings of good government than their race does in any other part of the world, statistics abundantly prove. As a race, the African is inferior to the white man. Subordination to the white man is his normal condition. He is not his equal by nature, and cannot be made so by human laws or human institutions. Our system, therefore, so far as regards this inferior race, rests upon this great immutable law of nature. It is founded not upon wrong or injustice, but upon the eternal fitness of things. Hence, its harmonious working for the benefit and advantage of both. Why one r ace was made inferior to another, is not for us to inquire. The statesman and the Christian, as well as the philosopher, must take things as they find them, and do the best he can with them as he finds them. The great truth, I repeat, upon which our system rests, is the inferiority of the African. The enemies of our institutions ignore this truth. They set out with the assumption that the races are equal; that the negro is equal to the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be legitimate. But their premises being false, their conclusions are false also. Most of that fanatical spirit at the North on this subject, which in its zeal without knowledge, would upturn our society and lay waste our fair country, springs from this false reasoning. Hence so much misapplied sympathy for fancied wrongs and sufferings. These wrongs and sufferings exist only in their heated imaginations. There can be no wrong where there is no violation of natures laws. We have heard much of the higher law. I believe myself in the higher law. We stand upon that higher law. I would defend and support no Constitution that is against the higher law. I mean by that the law of nature and of God. Human Constitutions and human laws that are made against the law of nature or of God, ought to be overturned; and if Seward was right the Constitution which he was sworn to support, and is now requiring others to swear to support, ought to have been overthrown long ago. It ought never to have been made. But in point of fact it is he and his associates in this crusade against us, who are warring against the higher law we stand upon the laws of the Creator, upon the highest of all laws. It is the fanatics of the North, who are warring against the decrees of God Almighty, in their attempts to make things equal which he made unequal. My assurance of ultimate success in this controversy is strong from the conviction, that we stand upon the right. Some years ago in the Hall of the House of Representatives, a very prominent gentleman from Ohio, announced with a great deal of effect, that we at the South would be obliged to yield upon this question of slavery, because we warred against a principle; and that it was as impossible to war successfully against principle in politics as it was in mechanics. The principle, said he, would ultimately prevail. He announced this with imposing effect, and endeavored to maintain that we were contending against the great principle of equality in holding our fellow men. in the unnatural condition of bondage. In reply, I stated to him, that I admitted his proposition as he announced it, that it was impossible to war successfully against a principle in mechanics and the same was true in politics the principle would certainly prevail and from that stand point I had come to the conclusion that we of the South would ultimately succeed, and the North would be compelled to yield their ideas upon this subject. For it was they who were contending against a principle and not we. It was they who were trying to make the black man a white man, or his equal, which was nearly the same thing. The controlling laws of nature regulate the difference between them as absolutely as the laws of gravitation control whatever comes within their action and until he could change the laws of gravitation, or any other law of nature, he could never make the negro a white man or his equal. No human efforts or human laws can change the leopards spots or the Ethiopians skin. These are the works of Providence in whose hands are the fortunes of men as well as the destiny of nations and the distinctions of races. . . . This text is taken from George H Reese, editor, Proceedings of the Virginia State Convention of 1861, February 13 - May 1; In LikeShow more reactionsCommentShare

MATURITY

MATURITY Sometimes you grow into scripture like you grow into shoes , clothes, hats, or understanding anecdotes. Maturity affects taste or scent as much as it does our conceptions.

THE NILE COMPANY

In 1984, I brought A SOLDIERS PLAY by the Negro Ensemble Company to Kansas City, Missouri, to perform at the Folly Theater. In those days, I was actively engaged in attempting to enrich KC's black culture by seeding it with books, art, film, speakers, fairs , and teaching black history/culture under the repertoire of The Nile Company, which published THE NILE REVIEW newsletters from 1981-1986. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/repertory

MORE SPITE OR SPIKE THAN RESPITE?

MORE SPITE OR SPIKE THAN RESPITE? After the 2014 elections, I was castigated and berated by some people for saying that if 100% of the blacks had voted in certain districts, it would not have altered the outcomes. My statement was based upon demographics. My critics ' angry comments were not. I did not quarrel with their irate criticisms. I felt their pain. Often our people feel pain. They take it out on those they can reach, rather than on those who are responsible for it. Such displaced thinking and sentimentality may assert itself yet again in this 2016 election, where certain similar racial demographic stratification dynamics manifest in, predominate in electoral districts. It is exceedingly difficult to get 100% of any people to do anything voluntarily, whatever the reward , much less to vote in elections that and by reason of which they have been traditionally and historically cheated, discriminated against, ostracized from, even lynched; or, consequent to which, they have been underserved or betrayed by those whom we did elect to office! My point is this: as demographic, racially stigmatized minorities, in the United States of America, we have done great things. And we will do many more great things. But, in the realm electoral politics, the deck has been stacked against us purposely. Thus, it is well that we not be seduced, nor deceived, by the Barack Obama aberration into conceiving the existence of a new political plateau from what may in fact be more spite or spike than respite ! Vote your economic interests first, whatever your demographic may be! Elected politicians certainly will!

PITHINESS PERFECTS

PITHINESS PERFECTS US Joe Louis was famous for his short hard punches. Muhammad Ali was too, as Sonny Liston could attest! Pithiness also punctuates the holy scriptures. Short powerful verses do pack a whallop! Poetry they are. Pithy, pungent, rhythmical verses. These thoughts came to me after reading Plotinus ' book's chapter on "Beauty," in THE ENNEADS. Although eloquent and inspired , Plotinus took 10 fine-print pages to reiterate what Jesus had earlier said in 1 bold-print line: "Be you therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect ." Matt. 5:48. Plotinus lived in the 3rd century of the current era. Jesus' life begins our calendrical era, being CE or current era, before Christ is BC. I am not being critical of Plotinus, whose teachings are profound, whose learning is vast, whose rhetoric rich! No one is like Jesus! My point is the power of pithiness. Thus, whether Joe Louis, Ali, Jesus is the guide, pithiness perfects us!

INALIENABLE RIGHTS?

in·al·ien·a·ble inˈālēənəb(ə)l/ adjective unable to be taken away from or given away by the possessor. "freedom of religion, the most inalienable of all human rights" synonyms: inviolable, absolute, sacrosanct; As life itself is not "inalienable," being a gift of divine grace, then nothing inside of life is "inalienable", either, be they rights, affections, possessions, etc