Open Our Eyes

Since the year of our Lord 1619, when people from Africa were first dragged onto American shores; African Americans have been chastised, criticized, punished, beaten, robbed, and murdered. All while the culprits have enjoyed wealth and prosperity as a result of our never ending allegiance and patriotism, often blindly. Even today when we have ascended to the White House there are those who castigate much vial abuse upon this uniquely qualified man of African heritage.

We are a unique people, a forgiving people, a steadfast people, and a brave people unlike any known to the world. It was our labor that built this country and is responsible for the great wealth America enjoys to this very today. When you look upon America’s enormous wealth and the power derived from its tremendous control of resources, think about the sacrifices our families made to make all of this possible. We have looked out for this country for hundreds of years and still doing today, which is simply amazing.

Upon our backs, laden with the stripes of punishment for what they believed was for discipline and in spite of our loyalty, diligence and tenacity – we loved America. Even when America refused to allow us to even walk in the shadows, we followed, believing that someday we would come to be accepted and treated like men and women. Our strength in the face of adversity is vastly understated.

Our history is one of unbelievable struggle. We’ve been brave on the battlefield, despite being classified as three-fifths of a man. This was, and is, outstanding and frankly beyond the call of duty considering that we have lived through slavery and under an Apartheid like system. We have raised America’s children, attended to its sick, and prepared their meals while those forefathers were occupied with the trappings of the good life.

In today’s business environment, we do not support each other and just keep doing business with the larger community or in fact any other community. Some say we, as a people, were very successful after slavery ended and even as recently as 1960, but you know what happens when you began to build your own communities and do business with one another – you’re pitted against one another to destroy ourselves.

This includes our acquiescence to political agendas, abdicating our own economic self-sufficiency, and working so diligently for the economic well-being of other people. Even though the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were written and many died for the rights described therein. We did not even resist when they changed Black Rights to Civil Rights and allowed virtually every other group to take advantage of them for their progress.

We resisted the messages of trouble-making Blacks like Washington, Delaney, Garvey, Bethune, Tubman, and Truth for fighting and dying on the battlefield for us all. Yet, Mr. Lynch’s message reigns supreme. But with two generations of children going through this education system, we can look forward to at least another 50 years of despair. We can change that come by simply understanding that education is the single most important ingredient necessary to neutralize those forces that breed poverty and despair. When you continue to do what you’ve always done; you will get what you always got and that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

A Necessary Voice For Justice

We all know, and I for one appreciate, the flamboyant activist of the National Action Network; the Reverend, Brother, Pastor Al Sharpton who has been on the front lines fighting for equality and justice within our communities for a long time. I want to say thank you to the Good Reverend for his dedication and socially conscience efforts to seek justice for the voices that would otherwise go unheard. His show on MSNBC has made sense out of the senseless.

I read a column today written by one Dana Milbank where he said, “The Rev. Al Sharpton is lord of all he surveys.” I found that comment very interesting because that does not appear, to me, to be the Rev’s persona! Now, some may call him a leader or our leader – I beg to differ. I call him an advocate for right who is very necessary in this climate where racism still exist and bigotry has raised its ugly head in ways not seen in generations.

With regard to the article; I continued to read it while I enjoyed my first cup of coffee wondering if this writer or many people, particularly African American, understood the context used in the piece – “power player”. I could have appreciated what may have been intended as a compliment, if he had said it in a different way or from a different perspective – like “speaks to power”. This would imply that the Rev challenges the wrongs of society.

For example, the Trayvon Martin trial coverage for instance was far more appropriate than any of the other networks. The main stream media paid no attention to this hideous crime for weeks. It was black media, and Reverend Al in particular, that caused the story to be brought to light for the nation, then the world to see. Other than the NRA, any person with children should have felt compassion and want justice because next time it could be your child or you.

The article went on to say, “Sharpton has pulled off one of the rarest second acts in American public life: from pariah to power player.” I suppose he was referring to the Rev’s effective use of the media in the Martin case to rally so many people for justice that was needed and I say thank you Rev!

I will agree with the Good Reverend as he put it regarding justice for Trayvon:

“It was a huge moment, because it was the coming together of everything,” Sharpton said, with his trademark vainglory. “We had the attorney general here and one of the biggest civil rights cases of the 21st century, and having to do TV and radio shows at the same time, it was all combined for everybody to see.” Frankly, if not for Reverend Al the Martin case would be hidden and justice denied.

I will close by saying; “the the Good Reverend puts his life on the line for the voiceless and stands up for the powerless.” Let us pray that justice is served or even the Good Reverend may be powerless to control the emotions of a people who will see that we are still a nation of people living in a nation without a nationality.

Let us remember Trayvon, not just for the moment, nor forget the many others in situations where justice has been deferred –keep up the fight for right Rev. Yes and that is a good thing and necessary! And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com

The End Is Near

The George Zimmerman murder trial has put race front and center in the American conversation. The opinions of guilt or innocence are split right down the middle alone racial lines. Those of the other hue feel the assassin, in my view, is innocent and had every right to shot the young black man – dare I say, just because he was black; even though the young man was doing nothing wrong. On the other hand African Americans and parents or should I say sane people see it as crime as an outrageous act of a monster.

The question, if you believe in the justice system to be fair and just, will be answered in a few days as the case nears a close. This case reminds me of the attitudes of many during the OJ Simpson trial, the Rodney King atrocity, or I could compare this to the immoral actions of the monsters that killed Emmitt Till.

In Till’s day, a black person’s “place” was in the field or in the back of the bus. If a black man was found “out of his place,” he could be jailed or lynched. In Martin’s day — in our day — a black person’s “place” is in the ghetto. If he is found “out of his place,” he may be treated with suspicion, frisked, arrested — or worse.

When you look at the killing Trayvon Martin and all the lies that has been exposed I am fearful of what may happen next. After the Emmitt Till murder the Civil Rights Movement was launched. The OJ case showed us in many ways how justice can be served with enough money. Then we saw Rodney King on video beaten nearly to death by the so-called authorities and the thugs were found innocent, which by the way often happens to blacks at the hands of the law.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the scales of justice is unbalanced. African American’s know when it comes to justice – “it’s just us”. Because we are most often not the recipients of anything fair or just. In fact, it has been that way since people of African descent were called colored and Negros, whereas this is no secret as it is recorded even in His-story.

I remember the results of each of the mentioned situations. I can particularly remember Simi Valley’s outcome and the horror that followed. I hope, if the murderer, who bragged that killing an innocent black child was God’s will, gets the verdict he deserves. If not, we could well see a devastating outcome that America may not be prepared for, in that the violence would be unprecedented.

I, for one, pray for peace and ask that the outcome also be God’s will. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

Sojourner Truth: “Ain’t I a Woman?”

Throughout our existence in this place the slaves called “merica”. Where have had many dynamic heroines, dare I say, none were more profound that Sojourner Truth. A woman who’s exact date of birth was not recorded. What we do know is in the year 1797, among Dutch immigrants in the region now known as Ulster County, New York, an African child was born on the estate of Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh.

One of 13 children born to Elizabeth and James Baumfree, she was given the name Isabella Baumfree. As the story goes, this name gave her no hint of her mission; years later she renamed herself Sojourner Truth. Her life was a testament to this mission as a truth-teller. In 1851, Sojourner Truth gave her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech before the Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio. Several ministers were in attendance. Truth rose from her seat and spoke the following words before the audience:

“Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the White men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?

Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.”

She underwent a number of transfers between slave-owners and suffered what she described as cruelties that one dare not imagine against a young African girl child enslaved in America. It is said that while living in the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenens, Truth had a life-changing religious experience. She started to speak in public assemblies. She became known as a gifted preacher. She joined the Progressive Friends, an organization established by the Quakers, which pressed forward the cause of abolishing slavery throughout America.

“In 1864, she worked among freed slaves at a government refugee camp on an island in Virginia and was employed by the National Freedman’s Relief Association in Washington, D.C.,” according to Women in History: Living vignettes of notable women from U.S. history. “In 1863, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s article “The Libyan Sibyl” appeared in the Atlantic Monthly; a romanticized description of Sojourner.”

At the end of the Civil War, Truth worked on behalf of the Freedman’s Hospital in Washington through the Freedman’s Relief Association. In 1867, she moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. While unsuccessful in her efforts, for several years she lobbied the U.S. federal government for land in the Western states for former enslaved Africans. Illness began to reduce her speaking tours. In 1879, she spent a year in Kansas City to help settling African migrants she called “Exodusters”. In addition to racial and gender equality issues, Truth campaigned against capital punishment and called for temperance.

On November 26, 1883, Sojourner Truth was surrounded by her family at her death bed. She was 86 years old when she died surrounded by her family in Battle Creek, Michigan. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, next to her grandson’s gravesite. More than 200 years later, her legacy as a truth-keeper continues to ignite the imagination of the new nation for which she found herself in service. Sojourner Truth lived during times of great change.

First Lady Michelle Obama said of her at the April 28, 2009 commemorative ceremony unveiling the Sojourner Truth bronze bust. “I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America. Now many young boys and girls, like my own daughters, will come to Emancipation Hall and see the face of a woman who looks like them.”

This is a shoot-out to the ghost and spirit of one of the greatest women to live. And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com

Legacy – A New Season 

AMAZON

Just a Season

A Necessary Voice

We all know, and I for one appreciate, the flamboyant activist of the National Action Network; the Reverend, Brother, Pastor Al Sharpton who has been on the front lines fighting for equality and justice within our communities for a long time. For what I think is an outstanding commitment, I want to say thank you to the Good Reverend for his dedication and socially conscience efforts to seek justice for the voices that would otherwise go unheard.

I read a column today written by one Dana Milbank where he said, “The Rev. Al Sharpton is lord of all he surveys.” I found that comment very interesting because that does not appear, to me, to be the Rev’s persona! Now, some may call him a leader or our leader – I beg to differ. I call him an advocate for right who is very necessary in this climate where racism still exist and bigotry has raised its ugly head in ways not seen in generations.

With regard to the article; I continued to read it while I enjoyed my first cup of coffee wondering if this writer or many people, particularly African American, understood the context of a term used in the piece – “power player”. I could have appreciated what may have been intended as a compliment, if he had said it in a different way or from a different perspective – like “speaks to power”. This would imply that the Rev challenges the wrongs of society.

For example, the Trayvon Martin assassination for instance. The main stream media paid no attention to this hideous crime for weeks. It was black media, and Reverend Al in particular, that caused the story to be brought to light for the nation then the world to see. Other than the NRA, any person with children should have felt compassion and want justice because next time it could be your child or you.

Nonetheless, this guy, who I enjoy, reading his work, went on to say that “everybody wants to be on Sharpton’s good side these days. Adding that …No fewer than five Cabinet officers and a senior White House official went to this year’s convention to kiss his ring.” I this think this is a bit cynical.

The article went on to say, “Sharpton has pulled off one of the rarest second acts in American public life: from pariah to power player.” I suppose he was referring to the Rev’s effective use of the media in the Martin case to rally so many people for justice – which was needed.

I will agree with the Good Reverend as he put it regarding justice for Trayvon:

“It was a huge moment, because it was the coming together of everything,” Sharpton said, with his trademark vainglory. “We had the attorney general here and one of the biggest civil rights cases of the 21st century, and having to do TV and radio shows at the same time, it was all combined for everybody to see.”

Mr. Milbank closed his piece by saying; “And this reborn pariah feels good.” I will close by saying; “the the Good Reverend puts his life on the line for the voiceless and stands up for the powerless.” Yes, that is a good thing and necessary!

Let us remember Trayvon, not just for the moment, nor forget the many others in situations where justice has been deferred –keep up the fight for right. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective.

http://johntwills.com