FATHERS' DAY REMEMBRANCES

REMEMBERING DADDY AND FRISKY FOR FATHERS' DAY I was four years old when Daddy took me down Electric Street to view a litter of puppies at Tamp's house, a few doors east of our home. I saw the mother with her brood of puppies, but could hardly decide which one to pick. Daddy said get this one! He's more frisky than the others . So I did select him and "Frisky" became his name. We grew up together , Frisky faster than me. Dogs' years equal seven man-years, I was told. Any way, at age eight we moved from Electric Street to Big Bend Boulevard in Kirkwood, near Crestwood, across from Oak Hill Cemetery, next door to Burton's Flower Shop. We lived in a house surrounded by woods, a stream, fields . A great place for kids to play and explore and for a dog to romp unfettered by fences. One day we noticed that Frisky had not returned home as usual from his daily runabouts. One day grew into two and two into three. On the fourth day, I happened to see Daddy coming from the south across the fallow fields carrying Frisky in his arms. My heart leaped! Was Frisky dead? I rushed into the backyard to see him. Daddy had found him laying in the field, very badly beaten up, his flopping ears torn off in places; his throat mauled and his white breast blood-stained, and his jet black coat was rent as well. He was barely alive. Daddy took him to a veterinarian. A little while later Frisky was frisky again. We never knew what in the world had happened to Frisky; whether he had been whipped by a pack of dogs or by a single dog. We went along with the dog park theory as Frisky had been in enough one-on-one dogfights for us to know that he knew how to deport himself in battle. Nor did we ever learn how he had been so badly pummeled. A little bit later at age twelve, we bought our family home in Rockhill, Missouri , near Steger Junior High School, an area that was black middle class, and distinguished by fenced single family home yards . Here our attempts to confine Frisky, who was accustomed to unabated freedom proved futile . The mailman would not deliver the mail, because of his fear of being bitten by our family dog, Frisky. Daddy turned to me and said "Well son. We can have him put down; or we can take him far away and let him loose in the woods . He can eat squirrels and rabbits." I opted for the woods, given the other option. Next day, me, Daddy and Frisky drove far west of Kirkwood about seventy miles into the woods. We put Frisky out and left him there to do for self. About a week later, Mr. Burton, our former lessor, called to say that Frisky had returned. He asked that we come and get him. I was happy, sad, and amazed that Frisky could find his way all the way back home from all the woods and traffic! Daddy said dogs had strong homing instincts. Evidently! We fed him. Played with him. Then tried to find a secure way to tie him up, lest he again escape to frighten the mailman. Long story short, it didn't work out. So once again me, Daddy and Frisky piled into the car and headed for the humane society in Maplewood. As Frisky departed the car for a final time, beside Daddy on a leash, he looked back at me crying, stoically. Then soldiered on.

Brush arbpr benevolence

The valuable free space afforded to us by FACEBOOK is comparable to a brush arbor-based spiritual motivational meetings of our sainted forebears in the slavery era. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak, to reason, to expound for free with hundreds, if not thousands of people each day. But the great run seems to be ending for me, at least, as I am an "influencer" who has been identified, curtailed and maybe soon censored. Truth is too revolutionary for liars to tolerate indefinitely. So "goodbye !" in case, I am cut off by FB's disablers abruptly! I thank them for the privilege of suffrage and I thank you for listening , dear friends. It is all grace, anyway. So, I also must thank God for allowing me tthe privilege to be here! Our forebears formerly frequented "brush arbors" like this free FB space, in woods, swamps, private places to revive, inform, comfort, strengthen, lift up, one another before 1865 (and after by some), so we have serendipidously continued their hallowed holy tradition! https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brush%20arbor?fbclid=IwAR0Bs_M_wPu3xpwQJObdydgtex53i0iOJhWGoStSlKSM4DY3p6ItJGQpCz8

$1,2 TRILLION WASTED

$1.2 TRILLION WASTED ANNUALLY Cigarettes , chewing gum, soda pop, candy , potato chips , cigars , are all consumables that confer no healthy benefits--indeed are quite unhealthy --and take away billions of dollars each month from black people's collective pockets due to the lack of conscious consumer spending discipline. Saving is reverse spending. Spending is reverse saving. The lack of conscious consumer spending discipline by black people is further impoverishing them, us. That is because we don't own the means of ordinary production, promotion, distribution, retail of the unhealthy consumables listed above, and unnamed others, which take a triple toll on us, unwittingly and daily: our pockets, health, and community enrichment. The marketing professionals peg the black consumer market at $1.2 trillion dollars annually. Want some reparations? There you have them! Save don't spend. Freedom comes! They write for the end of 2017: "Black consumers account for a disproportionate amount of product sales in a number of fast-moving consumer goods categories. Again, with $1.2 trillion in spending power, African-American consumers are an important population for smart brands that want to grow market share and brand preference. More importantly, the data suggests that Black consumer spending already significantly affects the bottom line in many categories and industries, and brands can't afford to lose favor or traction with this segment without potential negative impact. "The enormous buying potential of Black consumers has put a spotlight on many popular brands' ability to navigate the nuances of culturally relevant and socially conscious marketing. African Americans are more likely than non-Hispanic white peers to interact with brands on social media or to use social networks to support companies and brands (44% more likely). As the almost nuclear power of social media collides with an increasingly educated, affluent, tech-savvy black consumer base, there's never been a more critical time for companies to build and sustain deeper, more meaningful connections with black consumers—not only to grow their relationships, but to protect them. “When it comes to African-American consumer spend, there are millions, sometimes billions of dollars in revenue at stake,” said Andrew McCaskill, Senior Vice President, Global Communications and Multicultural Marketing, Nielsen. “With 43% of the 75 million Millennials in the U.S. identifyinTRILLIONg as African American, Hispanic or Asian, if a brand doesn’t have a multicultural strategy, it doesn’t have a growth strategy. The business case for multicultural outreach is clear. African-American consumers, and all diverse consumers, want to see themselves authentically represented in marketing, and they want brands to recognize their value to the bottomline.” https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2018/black-impact-consumer-categories-where-african-americans-move-markets.print.html Our black liberation power is in our very hands! We spend it, we waste it, on junk, then beg from others for what we have thoughtlessly imprudently wasted on unhealthy consumption. Woe is me! Woe are we! Woefully!

DEFAULT

DEFEATING PERSONAL DEFAULT The war is spiritual. For we war not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places. There words, these precepts, from Ephesians 6:12 more fully declare: Ephesians 6:12 King James Version (KJV) 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. King James Version (KJV) Public Domain Most wars are physical, involving clash of arms, death , destruction. More recently, Mahatma Gandhi, Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., Nelson Mandela have all shown that physical death need not ensue massively in order to secure a victory for the oppressed ; to win, to triumph. These recent lessons from history should encourage us. But unless and until additional lessons are learned and applied from the Bible in individual daily lives respecting the duty of every person to acquire knowledge , to evince self-disciplined perfection, to love self, to love family, to love community, love of God and nature, there is likely to be a stultifying, a falling away, a backsliding default! We live in the default. In the midst of the great falling away! But there is hope! One need but to turn from their wicked ways @ 2 Chr. 7:14: 2 Chronicles 7:14 King James Version (KJV) 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. These simple ethical lessons are olden, golden, lessons which are intended for those who are the called by God ; called by the still quiet voice of the Creator of all. For your life is not your own, however much it may appear to be so! Be you ever so guilty of "sin", you are still here, now, for a divine reason, rather than elsewhere in time and space, already dead or yet unborn. So get to work on yourself, perfect yourself by acquiring knowledge, by applying love to yourself, family, community; by obeying commands from the Heavenly Father; never fearing what you cannot control like death or incapacity or not winning! Emerge from the default state, your personal default state of inertia, of self-doubt, of uncertainty, of self-hatred! Pick up your bed and walk! These precepts may appear to be directed at you. They are not. They are aimed solely at me. If, even so, there is strengthening, if there is a valued encouragement for you too, give God the glory for connection! Amen.

3/5s

3/5s of THE UNITED STATES IS OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN SHARE Three fifths of the whole number of free persons, including those bound for a period of years, can never be more than the whole number, nor less. Our race quota was installed in the very first Article of the United States Constitution as "all other persons." The math is providential evidence of our value. 3/5's is more than half; is no less than half. If 3/5's was converted to goods, services, lands, positions, power , cash, privileges, we 60% African American descendants would be doing very well, socially, economically, politically, legally. But after the Civil War, those who wrote the Constitution ignored the literal language of Article I Sec.2. It was treated as though it were not. Later in the "quota debate" where certain black leaders--allegedly --sold out black peoples' 3/5's to feminists, whose civil rights spoils, recoveries, have been greater than African Americans', but who are not mentioned in the Constitution; and sold to Jews, who may have funded certain organizations, but who are not mentioned in the Constitution, either! Remarkably, we 3/5s beneficiaries seemed to have acquiesced in our own African American judicial, constitutional, divestment of our 3/5's quota by certain leaders', (post-1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination) blasé blithe remedial capitulation to salacious solicitations and blandishments of others: feminists (who are superior to blacks as "whites"), and Jews (who disdain quotas ). But now all manners of other solicitors: LBGTQ, immigrants, Muslims are soliciting for what is ours by right: largesse, privileges, participation. Now we are less well off constitutionally, scribally, than we were previously, when 3/5s was our quota. Now there is none! Restore our 3/5's quota standards, a constitutional cup that accurately measured our value to the country in 1789 and since! Moreover, the fraction 3/5's is a great reparations measuring cup! Well we now have a number! 3/5s of the United States! 

CHRISTIAN LOVE

There is also a significant segment of black church folks who were the leaders of the anti slavery movement, who are the base of African American power , history, civilization , from the spirituals on up . I was once bitterly critical of Christianity, until I realized that they were the ones doing the heavy-lifting: Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Richard Allen, my mother, father , grandparents, uncles , aunts, cousins. So, I kept reading and studying! Lo and behold! Africans "invented" Christianity too, just as they had reading, writing, and the "idea of God," to quote Frederick Douglass, another Christian icon of black history. So it is in the spirit of love, I commend all of you black Christian skeptics to do further prolonged study . Then, you may find the truth. Bless you all !

COUNSEL

"Justice Brandeis described his legal practice before ascending to the Supreme Court as 'counsel to the situation' . In his view, the lawyer was more than an adversarial advocate. The lawyer was a counselor , a negotiator, a problem solver who sought to advance the client's objectives while maintaining the highest standards of ethics and serving the public interest. "At the Senate confirmation hearing on his Supreme Court nomination, Brandeis was berated for serving as 'counsel to the situation ' instead of counsel to the client. Did he not have a duty, he was asked, to represent vigorously his client's interest, even if the interests of other parties and the public suffered? In some specific instances. Brandeis may have taken the concept too far (compromising his obligation first and foremost to serve the client), but I fully agreed with his broader conception: first, in representing clients, a member of the bar has an obligation to uphold the standards of integrity and inform the client of the public interest considerations at stake, and, second, a truly outstanding lawyer is able to represent a client on a broad range of issues, calling in specialists, as needed, but also capable of mastering a set of complex interrelated issues and moving nimbly among legal disciplines. The kind of legal practice defined by Brandeis has been my aspiration as a lawyer. My informal advice to Bill Levitt while I was at the Dilworth firm, that his early policy of racial exclusion from the Levittown projects was unwise and in conflict with emerging national policy against racial discrimination in housing, illustrates the point. To distinguish my nuanced interpretation of the Brandeis philosophy, I have coined the term 'counsel for the situation.' I would be counsel to the client but willing and able to discuss any situation. P.367, "Counsel for the Situation," COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION, RESHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA 'S PROMISE (2010) by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss As I approach the end of his simply masterful personal historical legal autobiography of the remarkable Philadelphia lawyer, William T. Coleman, which I urge all lawyers to read, his substitution of the prepositions 'to' for 'for' displayed his knowledge, not only the power of nuance, but the quiet impact of precision upon public perceptions.