People of Importance

I have spoken about Reparations before.  My free time is dedicated to the study of history, most recently slave history.  Learning about history and it's connection to the present empowers us to take pride in our possibilities, and work to improve our future.  There cannot be a more important time than now.  The people who were involved with the Underground Railroad took great risk to do what they knew in their hearts to be right and just.  Great risk.  

There are many historians studying and publishing great things in scholarship, now more than ever, it seems.  I would like to help do my part recognizing historians who should be known more like Rockstars, than obscure geeks.  I didn't find out, until recently, of the death of James Oliver Horton, who died this past February.  His contribution to the field was enormous, respect for him amongst his peers and his students at George Washington University show a love and admiration we should all strive to obtain.  His writing and publications are extensive, so I will leave you with his words at the end of a documentary from 2002.

"There have been times in American history when we have been able to form alliances across racial lines.  The fact is, we don't hear as much about that as we ought to, and it's important that we do.  Because it's awfully hard to imagine that we can form racial alliances in the 21st century unless we understand that there's a strong tradition we can draw upon.  And although there has always been hostilities, there have always been difficulties across racial lines, there have also always been some people who were able and willing to put their fortunes and lives on the line for other people.  That's a tradition we need to draw on. The tradition of the Underground Railroad."  James Oliver Horton in the documentary "Whispers of Angels:  A Story of the Underground Railroad"https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/memoriam-james-oliver-horton

Lincoln is not your Republican

In February of 1866 the Senate enlarged the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau.  “Naturally lazy, the Southern negro would at once avail himself of this offer of Government care and support,” snarled the Democrat’s paper in Franklin County, Virginia¹. “to maintain an army of greedy office-holders, and a million or more of lazy negroes in idleness”²

Shall we discuss what party these sentiments represent today?  Truth is being railroaded by people that believe any crap that will align with their views.  Feeling a bit guilty that your party represents racism, hate, oppression? Just look back in history and try to co-op a fabricated connection to a party name and wah…lah…you are now the party of Republican Lincoln and can claim how much your party did to fight slavery and injustice.  History be damned!

I dare you to read the quotes above and claim you are the party of Lincoln.  What am I saying?  You already have your fingers in your ears…la,la,la,la,la….

¹The Thin Light of Freedom, p.383.  The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by the Lincoln administration prior to the end of the Civil War to assist the transition of the oppressed former slaves to a better footing.  Of course, the conservative (former DEMOCRAT) party which splintered and later became the Republican party of George Wallace, Nixon, Reagan, etc. resisted this at great lengths.  I would argue they have mastered a way to continue with the same quote above to continue this legacy.

²Ibid.

The Conservative Mind

The Conservative Mind

The frustration of life discussions with conservative minds has always been a struggle for me.  One that I have categorized as being rooted in my very conservative parental upbringing.  I always felt alien in my own home for more reasons than I have time to delve into here, but I’ll stick to my recent discovery.

Never have I been able to consciously put into words my clash with the philosophies of conservatism.  That is until now.  While generalizing is used often to condemn or suppress, this is not my intent, yet I find it hard for it not to be such.  For me it just “is”, and it is time for it to go and be replaced with a new philosophy of thought.  One more mature and desperately needed for us to survive.  I will explain as best I can.

We are living in a volatile world right now.  I believe this is because of a faction of thought that is trying desperately to remain relevant.  The reason this is having such a profound effect on the world has more to do with the past than the future.  We are at a crossroad of thought that must change.  It is frightening for the conservative mind to have to change this aspect of thought as it has been in the forefront of how our country was developed.  “The perfect human” has been feed to us throughout history and yet has been most practiced in the United States of America’s belief’s, Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.  It is an admirable ambition, naïve, and not practical, but has stuck to a historical world past that is rife with sugarcoating of truth to fit the narrative.

“…. there can be no love of life without despair of life and thus largely re-asserts the essentially tragic, ancient Greek view that the very beauty of human existence is largely contingent upon its brevity and fragility. “¹

My view of what a “perfect human” example would be clashes with the conservative view.  Yet, for me, I cannot understand why.  In the Encyclopedia of Philosophy bio of Albert Camus, you find my definition of “the perfect human”.

“Obviously, Camus’s writings remain the primary reason for his continuing importance and the chief source of his cultural legacy, but his fame is also due to his exemplary life. He truly lived his philosophy; thus, it is in his personal political stands and public statements as well as in his books that his views are clearly articulated. In short, he bequeathed not just his words but also his actions. Taken together, those words and actions embody a core set of liberal democratic values—including tolerance, justice, liberty, open-mindedness, respect for personhood, condemnation of violence, and resistance to tyranny—that can be fully approved and acted upon by the modern intellectual engagé.”²

This is not to say the man was perfect, but he strove for a less than perfect human experience that can be authentic, relevant, and most importantly in service, as best as humanly possible, to the collective, not the “me”.  We are at a crossroads because the conservative thought process is over, in my opinion. The conservative mind cannot and will not accept that idea of “Absurdity”.  There are no perfect humans.  I know, because I have spent my entire life trying to be perfect.  It’s not practical, it’s not feasible, and it’s not as admirable as we think, because it requires lies.

“What then is meant by the notion of the Absurd? Contrary to the view conveyed by popular culture, the Absurd, (at least in Camus’s terms) does not simply refer to some vague perception that modern life is fraught with paradoxes, incongruities, and intellectual confusion. (Although that perception is certainly consistent with his formula.) Instead, as he emphasizes and tries to make clear, the Absurd expresses a fundamental disharmony, a tragic incompatibility, in our existence. In effect, he argues that the Absurd is the product of a collision or confrontation between our human desire for order, meaning, and purpose in life and the blank, indifferent “silence of the universe”: “The absurd is not in man nor in the world,” Camus explains, “but in their presence together…it is the only bond uniting them.

So here we are: poor creatures desperately seeking hope and meaning in a hopeless, meaningless world. Sartre, in his essay-review of The Stranger provides an additional gloss on the idea: “The absurd, to be sure, resides neither in man nor in the world, if you consider each separately. But since man’s dominant characteristic is ‘being in the world,’ the absurd is, in the end, an inseparable part of the human condition.” The Absurd, then, presents itself in the form of an existential opposition. It arises from the human demand for clarity and transcendence on the one hand and a cosmos that offers nothing of the kind on the other. Such is our fate: we inhabit a world that is indifferent to our sufferings and deaf to our protests.”³

  

I get it now!  A conservative mind cannot understand anyone getting an abortion because “the perfect human” would do the right thing regardless, right?  A conservative mind cannot understand why we would regulate a company’s decisions in any way.  It’s up to them to do the right thing, i.e. “the perfect human”.  No matter how many instances before them that companies don’t do the right thing, it doesn’t compute with the mindset of “the perfect human”.  It doesn’t matter that a person in leadership who has time and time again done “the wrong thing” over and over, yet swears allegiance to the believe in “the perfect human” will not be questioned.  That’s why you hear the talking points that make no sense to most of us from our current President.  He is not stupid and understands and has perfected the art of manipulation of this conservative thought “the perfect human”.  He can pledge allegiance to this thought, yet in action do the opposite because the conservative mind is so instanched in this belief it cannot let go of the dogma at any cost.  After all, he “speaks, looks and acts” the part, so he must be.

“The rightest task is not to turn away from trying to solve difficult questions.  Whatever our personal weaknesses, the nobility of this career will always be rooted in two undertakings, which are difficult to carry out.  The refusal to lie about what one knows, and resistance to oppression.”  Albert Camus’s own words in the documentary “The Madness of Sincerity” BBC.

I will leave you with one of the many admirable quotes of which there are countless:

“Be suspicious of those who speak the loudest in defense of democratic ideas and absolutes whose goal is to instill fear in opponents and to silence dissent.”  Albert Camus

We need to grapple with all of this as I stated in my last post on the subject: Integrity, Honor, and Morality.  We do have the minds and the means to make the world a better place, not perfect, flawed but evolving forward with hope and dignity.  The other option is despair and destruction.

¹Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Biography of Albert Camus, David Simpson, DePaul University, http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/#H3.

²Ibid.

³Ibid.

Integrity, Honor, and Morality My strong opinion piece

I know...huge words with huge responsibilities!  Hear me out....If liberal and progressive minds are to succeed against the growing tyranny of the republican and alt right progression, we must call for Al Franken's resignation.  We MUST take the high road.  Something we have lost in this last election. Why?  This is going to piss a lot of liberals off, but I really believe the Clinton's, Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and some others have torn the integrity, honor, and morality of the liberal party apart.  It does suck that liberals are constantly held to a higher level than the right.  It sucks that black men are held to a higher level of scrutiny than his white counterpart.  But, I will argue that this is the time to rise above.  It is NOT fair and it is NOT just, but we must try.

Why is this so important now?  We must rebuild.  We must re-establish trust in our leaders which we have so few.  The few we have are not being supported enough, and that must change.  We must get our asses out of fear and make bold stances.  We have no choice or the people will not listen and be in despair.  Hopefully, this will be temporary, but who knows.  It is the right thing to do and now is the time.

In my opinion, we have gotten ourselves into this mess because we have co-oped our dignity as a movement to money, greed, and low moral behavior.  I know....so has the conservative side, and I would argue they have been doing this for a VERY long time and getting away with it.  When any of their behavior is pointed out, they respond with "both sides are corrupt".  It's time to make that statement entirely false.

The evangelical movement (and it is a movement with a long history) has and continues to embrace immoral behavior.  Today, Roy Moore, in the past, Jim Baker, Newt Gingrich, etc...shall I go on?  I will...today Jerry Falwell, Jr., Franklin Graham, Richard Land, James Dobson, Eric Metaxas, and on and on have put their morality and evangelical beliefs aside to support Donald Trump who has pushed every envelope of moral and honorable (we won't even mention lack of integrity because that evidence is overwhelming, yet ignored by evangelicals) actions.  Yet, they are stridently in line with the devil.  Yes, it's time for strong words.  All of the people mentioned above are smart manipulators of truth including the Clinton's, etc..on the liberal side.  They have compromised our country and sovereignty making all of the citizens of the United States vulnerable and in need of strong guidance.

Next, we desperately need the media to stop with the sensationalizing of our democracy.  STOP interviewing crazy people and arguing with them on air.  Ignore them and focus on intelligent difficult discussions.  IF you are going to give crazy people air time, be prepared to land blast them with indisputable facts.  They are not worth interviewing and giving air time if they have no evidence to back up their views.  You're going for ratings instead of integrity and it's destroying our country!

There is no greater time than now for a change of guard.  Call it Social Democrat, Socialist, Democrat, Progressive, whatever, we need each other now more than ever.  Many know my followings of Bernie Sanders.  He is not perfect, who is, but he represented great hope for the future and still does.  He is ruthless and admired by a large majority of US citizens.  To ignore this is futile.  To capitalize on this movement is a "duh" moment for me.  Bernie is old, yes, but he has supported and encouraged others that need our support.  I would argue he desperately wants a change of guard so he can enjoy the rest of his life.  He's ready to step up if no one else will, which is why I admire him so.

We need more with guts like Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), Sonia Gandhi (India), Yoani Sanchez (Cuba), more with larger political names. We currently have a huge array of left leaning public speakers in the journalist realm, yay, but we need more.  But, we desperately need a Martin Luther King, a Malcolm X, a Septima Clark, a Dorothy Height, an Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a Frederick Douglas, an Abraham Lincoln, etc...you get my point.  There are some great minds out there that need support and encouragement from the citizens, especially in the US right now!

To quote a book (The Scorpion's Sting:  Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War) I'm reading now from the wonderful historian James Oakes, "...slavery's opponents most often put their faith in an entirely different program designed to bring about the "ultimate extinction" of slavery.  They would withdraw all federal support for slavery, surround the South with a "cordon of freedom," pressuring the states to abolish the institution on their own.  "Like a scorpion girt of fire," antislavery activists argued, slavery would eventually sting itself to death."

We know that this method never saw complete fruition, yet I believe we may have to use similar tactics today with evangelical and alt right movements.  Ultimately, no Christian, in my view, has any right to judge another's lifestyle or life choices.  They have no right to decide what a woman can choose for their own body.  They cannot demand all children be born with no sense of responsibility as a whole for the care of that individual.  Those judgments, in the Bible, are the job of God and or Jesus Christ.  Their opinions don't matter.  This is their scorpion sting, or at least one big one.  They are cherry picking their beloved (version) of the Bible and need to be called out.

It is my opinion, that we are seeing a huge fightback from this conservative evangelical movement that is joining forces with manipulative male domineering, business and political greedy, self absorbed babies.  If we don't face them head on with integrity, honor, and morality we will loose the most important battle for our nations sovereignty.

There will be a lashing for my post.  Fine.  I've stepped into the fray.  How about you?