Tag: America

  • Peaceful Action: Joining the Movement with Smiling Infants

    Peaceful Action: Joining the Movement with Smiling Infants


    Thought it was time to take a break from the lies, the vendettas, alcohol, abuse, watching the US form into a Third World Country as it had been referred to by someone who behaves like a third grader….

    Summary

    In 2025 the darkness has increased with and government that has absolutely no qualms about lying, voting [that is up for debate] for a 34 time convicted felon, rapist, voter fraud, and insurrectionist. The US relationship with our allies have all been delibertaly severed – the animals out in the field and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at not behaving normally. The world is on fire [literally] the practicing dictator wanna-be has a truck filled with #sharpies and is determined to use them all and not waste one swipe. Unbiased media has been locked up, while simultaniously the WH news liason is staring to have toddler trantums with 3 line response to everything the media ask: (1) asked and and answered; (2) I answered this (on some other universe – she is clearly following her script) if you being asked again the media has received conflicting informatoin or you lied the first time; 3. in any flavor – tRump is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I have yet to hear – “….we fight not against flesh and blood…” and “… if my people who are called by my Name…” the anger and rage is too thick for this not to be a spritual war.

    Let’s get those babies and take a break, breath and let your heart smile and let a lil healing have it’s way.

    Update- 062626

    She said it …
    Who’s Having More Fun??

    Angles in His Sleep

    One Genius Coming Up…

    Update – 040126

    Just one kiss will do…but it was the second look of awareness..

    Update – 121625

    Below are some videos that made me smile…



    Updates 121025


    Two Of Them…he is smart

    It Has Got to Be God


    A Star is Born


    She’s Got Soul


    Man and Son – look at his little foot to the beat of the song – that’s peace right there…


    In 2024 this world is getting darker and colder. Republicans are led and controlled by tRump a whining, lying, racist, rapist, ex-president who still refuses to believe he lost against Biden. 

    Would you like to participate in the #SmilingInfant #CampaignForPeace?  Submit a photo of a smiling infant or smiling toddler that would make the viewer smile to support & encourage others to focus on what is important. 

    For every post or news story about a shooting let’s post a “SmilingInfant”, let’s take a stand to keep this campaign of peace going throughout your community and others. 

    Don’t just say we need to do “something” here something you can…

    Children Who Have Died by Gun Fire

    Federal data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that between 2007 and 2011, an average of 62 children aged 14 and under were accidentally shot and killed each year. However, our analysis of publicly reported gun deaths shows that the federal data substantially undercounts these deaths.  Mother Jones reported to following statistics in December of 2013

    • 127 of the children died from gunshots in their own homes, while dozens more died in the homes of friends, neighbors, and relatives.
    • 72 of the young victims either pulled the trigger themselves or were shot dead by another kid.
    • In those 72 cases, only 4 adults have been held criminally liable.
    • At least 52 deaths involved a child handling a gun left unsecured.

    Additional findings include:

    • 60 children died at the hands of their own parents, 50 of them in homicides.
    • The average age of the victims was 6 years old.
    • More than two-thirds of the victims were boys, as were more than three-quarters of the kids who pulled the trigger.
    • The problem was worst over the past year in the South, which saw at least 92 child gun deaths, followed by the Midwest (44), the West (38), and the East (20).

    Chicago

    60 Children Murdered in Chicago This Year

    A school bus filled with children enrolled at Our Lady Of Guadalupe Elementary School was shot at in the South Deering neighborhood on Friday. A young girl and her mother were shot inside their home while sleeping on the Far South Side on Calumet Avenue early Thursday. Another child is being treated at Christ Hospital. One-year-old Jayilah Allen has a gunshot wound to the head.

    20 U.S. Kids Hospitalized Each Day for Gun Injuries – Nearly a third of these shootings are accidental, study finds

    A review of hospital records found that firearms caused 7,391 hospitalizations among children younger than 20 during 2009, the most recent year for which records are available, said Dr. John Leventhal, lead study author. Of those shooting victims, 453 died while in the hospital. More than half of the gun injuries involved an attack on the child, but nearly one-third were unintentional, the investigators found. (Others were of undetermined causes or from suicide attempts.) Three of four hospitalizations of children younger than 10 resulted from accidental injuries.

    Book of Genesis

    Adam was charged to maintain the garden and its inhabitants, yet he failed when his wife (Who was under the bond of Satan) suggested they eat from the “tree”; Adam blamed Eve and said to God – The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

    Adam once again was unable to prevent the son of his wife, Cain from killing Abel in a jealous frenzy –  And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?

    It takes 2 people to create a child, yet in many homes, the child is raised by one parent.  Raising children is not a difficult task when two parents understand the precious value of a child’s life –

    Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

    What Can We Do? – So glad you asked

    We can continue to post all the shootings and despair across social media – will that protect our loved ones, I think not.  The march in Selma was used to generate media attention to the refusal to let Black folk vote.  Equally whenever there is (what we as viewers believe) is an unnecessary use of force, it has now become standard for the media to overfeed us with snippets of the scene and later the media covers the locals who create a one-night vigil that may include additional law-breaking activities.  We can march from now till the cows come home, but ask yourself, “What change am expecting to see or what can change as a result of my march?”  Will the police ask more questions before shooting, will our young men stop shooting each other? Will the school system change its delivery methods?  If I march on Monday, will that create a stimulus for prison reform?  If not, then it may be time to find our purpose, and our values, and identify what is important to us individually and collectively. 

    I propose we start with the beginning – our infant babies.  Have you been in the presence of a baby and made that “baby noise” to induce a smile?  Or have you ever turned your head at the right moment and seen a precious baby in a stroller and at that exact moment the baby smiles at you?

    Would you like to participate in the #SmilingInfant #CampaignForPeace?  Submit a photo of a smiling infant or smiling toddler that would make the viewer smile to support & encourage others to focus on what is important. 

    For every post or news story about a shooting let’s post a “SmilingInfant”, let’s take a stand to keep this campaign of peace going throughout your community and others. 

     

    Sharyn's Grandson
    Sharon Grant’s Grandson

    Man of Immanuel Baptist – New Haven

    This little fella stole the hearts of all the women at church.  His grandmother would bring him and I would watch him “float” around the church from one cooing woman to the next.  One day I thought to myself as I walked around, I’m going to just ‘take’ him.  To my surprise, he didn’t bat an eye, the lashes on this baby.

    Dying, our babies are dying in the street, and upon arrival of the ER – Police are investigating the shooting deaths of two men Tuesday night. One of the men has been identified as Tyree McCrea, 36, of New Haven, Officer David B. Hartman said early Wednesday. The second man’s name had not been confirmed; he is believed to have been in his 20s., twenty years old! What were your doing at 20 years old, now that you know would you change anything?

    Michele Wind’s Daughter

    This photo was submitted by one of my best friends in high school. I had no idea about the meaning or definition of the phrase “Best Friend” back then. A friend was a person who hung out with me, we called each other on the phone – morning, noon, and night. A friend would wait for me after every class as would I also, and we would meet up in the morning before school, after school, and all day during school. We would share secrets and gossip about other friends. We would  honor and protect each other through the bad, the good, and the ugly times. I must say not much has changed in my definition/understanding of “Best Friends” I still expect the same level of commitment from a friend that I offer. I must say that if you find that you are not on my “Best Friend” list today it was not because I ejected you from the list. With that said, Michelle and I had some great times together, and for a long time we were disconnected – she moved away, I went into the Armed Forces, and after a decade or so our paths crossed one night and we spent hours on the phone – as if time had gently stopped ticking in our absence from one another. This is a reason for me to #smile and for a few seconds I will not think about the violence in this world, the insane presidential election, or any nonsense. This is a reason for me to stay on the #roadlesstraveled – so I will be ready when the next “Best Friend” travels through and remember what made us #friends. Submit a picture of a smiling baby today to participate in #msconcerneds #campaignforpeace #smilinginfant It must be a “real” photo with parental permission!!! We must do something to counteract the daily violence posted by the media. Are you willing to help? Send your photo today, what better way to think about peaceful things than looking at an infant smiling – surely their lives are worthy of us helping each other…

    2 Scoops of Smiles Please

    According Carol Austin vice president of marketing, “July is winding down, and while we’re hopeful that August brings some slightly more pleasant weather, we’re a tad wistful that National Ice Cream Month is coming to an end. As a way to celebrate just one more time, was offering a sweet deal on all your favorite flavors. Here’s a sweet deal that will last a life time, 2 scoops in this photo will provide endless days of smiles. The photo was submitted by a long time family friend who has seen his share of alleged murderers, rapists, thieves and con-artist. A lover of the #DallasCowboys and a concerned member of his community, family and the elderly. There are many sweet scoops of life in this man and his two grandchildren. What will you do in your community to help foster peace and growth among the residents?

    Eldorado

    DaddyBackwards

    The parents of this little girl has allowed us to share in the personal viewing of her life since birth. Each photo gave me and hundreds of others a reason to smile and immediately remove my care and concern for “this” world and the hatred and violence that is rapidly increasing – if only for a minute. I would like to thank her parents for allowing me start my #CampaignForPeace with their daughter’s photo. My hope is that for every violent story posted someone will forward a picture of a smiling infant to counteract the despair some may feel as this world turns upside down.

    It Was The Instant Smile For Me

    This little girl was in the  North Lake Mall in Charlotte North Carolina, as I was walking back in to the mall shopping area, I was so intrigued by her face and her smile which was so sudden and quick – not be a professional photographer I could not catch it. Nonetheless, I will always remember how quickly she smiled and the warm willingness of her parents to give me (a stranger) to use her photo for my #CampaignForPeace.

    montrell_jackson
    Montrell and his son

    Montrell Jackson

    Montrell Jackson wrote this message on July 8, 2016 and was murdered on July 17, 2016. “I’m working in these streets, so any protesters, officers, friends, family, or whoever,” the 32-year-old officer he wrote on his Facebook page, “if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer, I got you.

    The story of Mary – the mother of Jesus is remarkable.

    The Lord chose her a woman of no great notoriety or significance; that is until she found herself a virgin and with child. Had it not been for the Angel who spoke to Joseph and told him about the birth she could have been an outcast and divorced from her family and friends. However, a woman who can produce two babies falls under the category of miraculous. Imagine two, two of everything, two hearts, two heads, two smiles – double the fun of watching them grow. I implore you to please put your anger under submission and think about these precious little people.

    Ashley

    This little girl grew up into a woman that has self-defined herself and in that she owns her definition of peach. Demonstrated by inaction and forgiveness when others hurt her, she never desires to retaliate in like manner to others. Much like her daddy, she disapproves of any type of bullying. She doesn’t understand any way to be but herself. She believes the best she can be is – to do for others.

    Allisons Daughter Once I was 7 Years Old
    “Once I Was Seven Years Old”

    She made it to age 13 and counting, some have not   been so blessed.  I met her mother and aunt Allison and Leslie in Connecticut.  I thought they were 2 interesting young ladies, never had I seen someone decorate their work cube with pillows!  Their mother is a walking reference manual, she provided me with enough material to write an entire paper on the progression of Yale University School of Medicine – IT from a medical facility’s growth factor and yes I received an outstanding A grade.  It was not until I went to the baby shower that I saw the farm yes a FARM in the back of their home. The father was raising chickens – are you kidding me, right down the street from daily gunfire activity in New Haven, CT.  That’s when I  came to see the full picture of Love.  Love was just dripping from their hearts, windows, kitchen, front porch, and throughout that farm!!!

    ______________________________

    #SmilingInfant

    Proverbs 15:13-14 – A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

    Sources

    Two Men Die In New Haven Shooting, Police Say – http://www.courant.com/breaking-news/hc-new-haven-shooting-20160831-story.html

    Columbia Organization. (n.d.). Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and the Selma March [Civil Rights Era].

    HOME. (2016, July 8). Retrieved July 8, 2016, from http://www.wfsb.com/

    Follman, M. (2013, December 1). At Least 194 Children Have Been Shot to Death Since Newtown | Mother Jones.

    Greenfield, D. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/170857/60-children-murdered-chicago-year-daniel-greenfield

    Thompson, D. (2014). 20 U.S. Kids Hospitalized Each Day for Gun Injuries.

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  • Protected: Homeless Veterans

    Protected: Homeless Veterans

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  • What is Trump Charged With in Georgia

    What is Trump Charged With in Georgia

    Donald Trump has been criminally charged to overturn the election.  Prosecutors brought charges, including forgery and racketeering, and soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office, among other charges.  Prosecutors charged 18 other people, including Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and the lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. The charges mark the second time Trump has been indicted in connection to his push to overturn the will of American voters after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.

     

    Unlike the federal charges filed by Jack Smith, the special counsel for the justice department, the Fulton County case will proceed in state court. That means that Trump would have less capacity to interfere with the case if he is elected president next year, and he could not pardon himself. Trump is essentially accused of leading an organized crime racket in Georgia via the varied efforts of a web of people collectively to achieve the overturning of his election loss there.

    In the indictment by the state of Georgia, the state wrote: “Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained a common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity.”

    The group, the state charges, “constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, and perjury”.

    Trump waived his right to appear in court for a formal arraignment on the charges, pleading not guilty on 31 August.

    What is this case about?

    Donald Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election. After the election, Trump and his allies made an aggressive but unsuccessful push to invalidate the election results in Georgia as part of an effort to overturn his defeat nationally.

     

    On 2 January 2021, Trump called Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who serves as Georgia’s top election official, and asked him to overturn the election. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state,” Trump said to Raffensperger on the call. Raffensperger refused.

     

    The call came as Trump and his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, were spreading outlandish lies about the election in Georgia in order to seed doubt about the results. Most notably, Giuliani and others amplified misleading surveillance video from State Farm Arena they claimed showed election workers taking ballots out from under a table and counting them after observers left for the evening. The claim was false – counting had not stopped for the evening when the ballots were tallied.

     

    Just as he did in other swing states, Trump convened a slate of fake electors in Georgia. The group of 16 people met discreetly in the Georgia capitol in December 2020 and signed a certificate affirming Trump’s purported victory that was sent to the National Archives. Some involved in the scheme have said they merely believed they were preserving Trump’s options amid pending litigation. The alternate slate of electors, both in Georgia and elsewhere, would later become a linchpin of Trump’s effort to overturn the election.

     

    One of those fake electors, Cathy Latham, also was involved in a separate incident in which Trump allies obtained unauthorized access to Dominion voting equipment. On 7 January 2021, Latham helped a firm hired by the Trump campaign get access to voting equipment in Coffee County, a rural county 200 miles south-east of Atlanta. The data was uploaded to a password-protected site, where other election deniers could download it as they sought to prove the baseless allegation that Dominion voting machines had been rigged and cost Trump the election.

    Why is this case taking place in Fulton County?

    Nearly all of the key events connected to Trump’s effort to overturn Georgia’s election results took place in Atlanta, the state capital, which is in Fulton County.

    Raffensperger was in Atlanta when he received the phone call from Trump urging him to overturn the election results. Trump and Giuliani targeted election workers in Atlanta and the fake electors convened at the state capitol in the city in December 2020.

    What is the Georgia Rico Act?

    Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act essentially allows prosecutors to link together different crimes committed by different people and bring criminal charges against a larger criminal enterprise. The law requires prosecutors to show the existence of a criminal enterprise that has committed at least two underlying crimes.

    Prosecutors have long used the federal Rico Act to go after the mafia. But Georgia’s version is even more expansive than the federal statute. It allows prosecutors in the state to bring racketeering charges if a defendant attempts or solicits a crime, even if they don’t bring charges for those crimes themselves.

    How is this case different from other criminal cases pending against Trump?

    This is the second case that has sought any kind of criminal accountability for Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. It is the fourth time the former president has been charged with a crime this year.

    Earlier in August, Smith filed four federal charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges, and Smith has moved to set a trial date for 2 January. If Trump were elected president while the case was still pending, he would almost certainly move to fire Smith and get rid of the charges. He could also theoretically pardon himself if he has been convicted. The Georgia case is different because Trump cannot interfere in it, even if he is president, and cannot issue a pardon.

    In June, Smith charged Trump with illegally retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act and obstructing the government’s attempt to retrieve the documents. Trump pleaded not guilty.

    In March, Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan. Those charges are connected to a $130,000 payment he made to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, with whom he is alleged to have had an extramarital affair. Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney at the time, paid the money to Daniels through a shell company and Trump reimbursed him, cataloguing it as a legal expense. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said that amounted to falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

    Can Trump still run for president?

    Yes. The US Constitution does not prohibit anyone charged with a crime, nor anyone convicted of one, from holding office.

    The 14th Amendment, however, does bar anyone who has taken an oath to protect the United States and engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office. Relying on that provision, a slew of separate civil lawsuits in state courts are expected in the near future to try to bar Trump from holding office.

    Who is Fani Willis, the prosecutor bringing the charges in Fulton County?

    Willis, a Democrat, was elected Fulton County District Attorney in 2020. She is the first Black woman to hold the office.

    She worked as the prosecutor in the Fulton County district attorney’s office from 2001 to 2018 and is no stranger to high-profile cases. In 2014, she led the prosecution against a dozen Atlanta educators who conspired to cheat on test scores in order to win funding. She is also prosecuting the rapper Young Thug as part of a broader indictment of the YSL gang. Willis relied on the Georgia Rico Act in both cases.

    How did the charges come about?

    In January of 2022, Willis requested that a Fulton County judge approve a special purpose grand jury to assist her investigation into Trump. A special purpose grand jury can issue subpoenas, hear testimony and ultimately issue a report recommending whether or not to charge someone. It cannot issue an indictment.

    A regular grand jury was convened in late July and ultimately voted to file criminal charges against Trump.

    Cast of characters

    In addition to Trump, Fani Willis has filed charges of violating the Georgia Rico Act and a variety of other laws against 18 co-defendants:

    1. Mark Meadows, former chief of staff heavily involved in efforts to keep Trump in office;
    2. Rudy Giuliani, an attorney to Trump who played a key role in national efforts to overturn the 2020 election results;
    3. John Eastman, an attorney to Trump and key to efforts to overturn the 2020 election result;
    4. Kenneth Chesebro, a legal adviser to the 2020 election campaign involved in the Georgia fake electors scheme;
    5. Jeffrey Clark, former justice department lawyer who became involved in efforts to overturn the Georgia result;
    6. Sidney Powell, a lawyer for Trump heavily involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 result;
    7. Jenna Ellis, an election campaign lawyer;
    8. Ray Smith, a Georgia lawyer implicated in the fake electors scheme;
    9. Robert Cheeley, a Georgia lawyer implicated in efforts to falsely show election fraud;
    10. Michael Roman, a former aide in the Trump White House implicated in the fake electors scheme;
    11. David Shafer, former chairman of the Georgia Republican party who signed the fake official certificate to send to Congress declaring Trump won the state;
    12. Shawn Still, a senior Georgia Republican and state senator who also signed the fake certificate;
    13. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor accused of bullying election workers over fake fraud claims;
    14. Harrison William Prescott Floyd, director of Black Voices for Trump, accused of influencing witnesses;
    15. Trevian Kutti, a publicist accused of pressuring election workers;
    16. Cathy Latham, who as chair of Georgia’s Coffee County Republican party signed the false certificate claiming Trump won the state;
    17. Scott Hall, a bondsman accused with others of breaching voting machines in Georgia;
    18. Misty Hampton, was accused of involvement in breaching voting machines while serving as Coffee County elections director.
  • #VeteransDay – The Other Side

    #VeteransDay – The Other Side

    The side we don’t want to look at on Veterans Day…

  • Who Benefits From the New #TAXBILL ?

    As they pushed their sweeping tax bill through Congress, Republicans made two central promises. First, that the bill would simplify the U.S. tax code, allowing citizens to file their taxes “on the back of a postcard.” And second, that the overhaul would primarily benefit working Americans and the middle class. The first claim proved false.…

    via The GOP Tax Bill Isn’t for the Middle Class. And It Was Never Meant to Be — TIME

  • Black History – What You May Not Know About the Women

    avant-nicoleNicole Avant served a two-year term as U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011. President Barack Obama nominated her for the position in 2009 and after U.S. Senate confirmation, Hilary Clinton, then Secretary of State, swore her into office on September 9, 2009.  Avant arrived in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, and presented her credentials on October 22, 2009.

    Avant, born on March 6, 1968, is the daughter of Clarence Avant and Jacqueline Avant, both veterans of the music recording industry.  She graduated from California State University Northridge with a B.A. in communications in 1984.  Soon afterwards she joined A&M Records in Los Angeles and worked in its promotions division until 1998 when she was named Vice President of Interior Music Publishing. Avant was also an actress who had appeared in television shows such as JAG, Moesha and the Bernie Mac Show.

     Source: Black Past
    ________________________________________________________________

    As I began to think about Black History for 2017 I started my search in usual fashion – entering “Black History” into the search box and clicking and pointing and deleting those unnecessary automatic downloads. It occurred to me as it has a hundred times before, I want something a little more than the same ol’ Bus Story, the Underground Train, The Book Writer, and the Little Rock Story… you know the “Safe” Black Women that educators in elementary and unfortunately secondary school don’t mind the over abundance of retelling those great stories about some incredible Black Women.

     

    angela-davis

    This time around I’m hungry for something more, something a lot more shocking and mind opening to idea of really gauging how far we have not come in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

    Ride with me on my quest to find those little unknown stories about Black African-American Women and the stories they died to tell…

    During the 1820’s Susan Jackson of Savannah, Georgia, ran a popular pastry shop in Reynolds Ward, the leading business section of the city, and during the next decade Eliza Seymour Lee owned a popular hotel in Charleston, South Carolina.

    Source: Made available courtesy of The Journal of Women’s Studies , Inc.:

    Did You Know

    March 3, 1820 – Missouri Compromise was accepted by Congress. Missouri is admitted as a slave state in exchange for Maine’s admittance as a free state on condition that slavery be abolished in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase.

     

    butStay Tuned…

  • No refuge could save the hireling and slave

    No refuge could save the hireling and slave

     

     

    National Anthem

    Just a month after the British had burned the White House during the height of the War of 1812, Key was aboard a British vessel negotiating the release of a friend who was being held prisoner. During Key’s time aboard the vessel, the British commenced an attack on Fort McHenry, and the pair was not allowed to leave. So Key and his friend watched from the ship as the British bombarded Fort McHenry.

    There are historians (notably Robin Blackburn, author of The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848, and Alan Taylor, author of “American Blacks in the War of 1812”), who have indeed read the stanza as glorying in the Americans’ defeat of the Corps of Colonial Marines, one of two units of black slaves recruited between 1808 and 1816 to fight for the British on the promise of gaining their freedom. Like so many of his compatriots, Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.” It goes without saying that Key did not have the enslaved black population of America in mind when he penned the words “land of the free.” It would be logical to assume, as well, that he might have harbored a special resentment toward African Americans who fought against the United States on behalf of the King.

     

    lyrics-defined_001

     

    Lyrics Definitions
    And where is that band who so vauntingly swore where is that flag who boasted and praised
    That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion The widespread destruction of war and confusion
    A home and a country should leave us no more Not sure about this one whose home (Britain) should leave us no more or the (New Britain)
    Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution The British army stunk up the place with their foul footsteps, but we used their blood to wash the place out. Kinda militaristic and barbaric,
    No refuge could save the hireling and slave Let’s break this down by definition:

    Refuge – A condition of being safe or sheltered;

    Hireling – A person employed to undertake menial work

    Slave – A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them

    A slave by definition is very different from a Hireling

    Claudette Colvin

    Rosa Parks is well-known for her refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Ala., in December 1955.

    Claudette Colvin was just 15 when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It was nine months before Rosa Parks’ act of defiance in 1955.  But Parks’ civil rights protest did have a precedent: Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, a student at a black high school in Montgomery, had refused to move from her bus seat nine months earlier. However, Colvin is not nearly as well-known, and certainly not as celebrated, as Parks.

    “[The bus driver said], ‘Give me those seats,’” Colvin recalled. “Three of the girls got up and moved. But I remained seated.”

    Colvin said she drew her strength from African-American abolitionists she had just learned about in school.

    Who are the Americans

    Let’s be clear; folks came to this place called New Britain raped, plundered and killed the inhabitant (Native Individuals) and claimed property.  Then the grandfathers of the new land now known as America came and tried kill some of the people who left Britain, they lost and went back home but not without maintaining a great deal of authority and huge percentage tax of the dollars made here in this new land. For example – the Boston Tea Party happened as a result of “taxation without representation”, yet the cause is more complex than that. The American colonists believed Britain was unfairly taxing them to pay for expenses incurred during the French and Indian War. Additionally, colonists believed Parliament did not have the right to tax them because the American colonies were not represented in Parliament.

    With a that said it still amazes me that black folk think this is their land and they have any rights to anything other than what is not needed by the folks who own “…this land is NOT your land.”  We still perpetuate the Rosa Parks story as if Claudette never existed. Which brings me to another point, the same way we dismiss Claudette who was too black, too pregnant and not married enough – we embrace this behavior today in 2016 as the commenter asked Cornell, “why don’t you use 2016” – well there is it.  We still look down of folks who have not come out of the projects; we shun folks who are not part of our cults, and we even shut our family members out when folks of another seem to embrace us.

    Last note:  If your new found friendship with an elitist group embraces you if they are “true”,  they will embrace all of you, your illegitimate brother and sisters, jail-bound nephews, drug addicted aunts and uncles, holier than thou religious freaks, and the “plano” simple family member who could care less about degrees and dollars! But you see that won’t happen especially when  #office and #wealth become the gods of a people, and the most unworthy and unfit most aspire to the former, and fraud becomes the highway to the latter, the land will reek with falsehood and sweat #lies and chicane. (Albert Pike)

    WAKE UP!

    Sources:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/before-rosa-parks-another-woman-defied-segregation/

    http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/389563788/before-rosa-parks-a-teenager-defied-segregation-on-an-alabama-bus

    http://www.snopes.com

    http://thewhitedsepulchre.blogspot.com

     

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