Too All The Fathers...Be Aware Of Who You Are And What You Are Doing!

Ode To My Father

My father retruned to the true essense of life a little more than two years ago.  I have thought about him often and actually recognize much of him in myself.  It's funny how you begin to notice llittle things about yourself that your father did without intentionally doing them.  I wrote the below piece a couple weeks after his transition in October 2008.

Earlier this month I lost my father.  It was no surprise, he had been ailing for about a year now and was slowly withering away.  I don’t write this post in sadness as my father had a great life and provided a great life for me and my siblings as well.  I’m sure he would probably say there were things he could have changed or done better, but from my point of view he was a great father and provider.  He lived on this Earth for almost eighty two years and had the opportunity to travel around the world on several occasions.  He could be very funny, always making you laugh.  On Friday eveningsIt was his time to cook and most often it was fried fish.  He would be sipping his “tea” while cooking and cracking jokes the whole time as the “tea” made him more and more tipsy, but the fish was always great, and of course it was late into the evening before we could taste his good cooking.  Daddy you will be missed, your humor, your determination, your stern ways and perseverance.  You taught us well.  And I thank you and salute you.  And I know our country salutes you for your service to the country in the U.S. Navy for 20 years!

I Did Not Die

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints in the snow

I am the sunlight on the ripened grain

I am a gentle autumn’s rain

When you awaken in the morning hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

I am the birds in circled flight

I am the soft stars that shine at night

So don’t stand on my grave and cry

I am not there…I did not die

…Author unknown

Roots Formed Your Image Of Slavery

Recently, I had the opportunity to buy the movie Mandingo that was originally released in 1975 starring Ken Norton playing the character Mede, a full blooded Mandingo. Apparently, a Mandingo was a prize melanin man to possess and own by slave masters in 1830 Louisiana.

The master of the Falcon Hurst Plantation appeared to literally drool when his son Hammond came from New Orleans with his prize buck, Mede. The old man immediately wanted to have Mede breed Big Pearl another full blooded Mandingo female. Hammond, quickly objected to Mede “getting it on” with Big Pearl since he was actually sexing Big Pearl. The owners of the slaves and the plantation were just having a hella orgy at their leisure. Old Massa even said Lucretia Borgia has had 24 babies. I’m quite sure most, if not all the 24 babies were his.

After watching the movie, it occurred to me that this movie Mandingo, and the television series Roots are the templates of how we, all of us think about slavery. Mandingo and Roots are the images we conjure in our minds when we think of the horrific chattel slavery that took place here in the Americas. We see white men having their way sexually and any other way with the women of the plantation. They were slaves. They were property, to be used like a mule and worse. This could and would often be forcible sex, more specifically rape of the enslaved women, without anyone to report such a violation. Essentially, there was of course an air of fear present since the slave could be, at a whim, sold to another plantation and torn away from their family.

As people, we by nature, adapt to situations or die. Even the most dire of situations. Those that did not die had to accept a harsh way of life, a form of life that forced them into the survival mode of living. Surely, there were instances where the enslaved women would willingly lay down with massa in hope of having a child that may have a chance of a better life by simply being the offspring of the plantation owner. Or, to find favor in the eyes of massa. Never the less the children of these liaisons would have to remain as slaves and property of the plantation owner since she herself was a slave. In turn I am sure there were men that played this same sexual hand

All too often when studying the history of chattel slavery we get the image of a massa sexually raping women they owned, as in massa Hammond’s case. An image of heterosexual white men having their way with black women. But, the Caucasian has not changed that much. The time period was not all that long ago. The Caucasian has a notorious history of homosexuality. We see it in the culture of the Roman and the Greek city states. Then, we should consider the homosexual rape of black men on the plantation. Surely, those coming from Europe, like the proverbial leopard, could not change his sexual spots so easily. And, yet like some women there were surely black men that willingly participated in homosexual sex with their white masters.

Films like Mandingo and Roots do a good job in distorting facts during the slavery period. Plantation life during slavery time was only one facet of the life black people endured. These films have been the template of our images of slavery. None, however, treat us to the images of enslaved people walking freely through cities and towns. Visiting local pubs or hiring themselves out as cheap labor competing against poor whites for skilled labor. None depicts free blacks (and those of mixed black and white parentage) affecting society and the economy. And, certainly neither of these films or any like them are willing to be smudge the white land owner, by portraying their homosexual and deviant, perverse sexual behavior as many of them still retain.

Eddie Long, Eddie Long, Eddie Long...For Real?

Today Eddie Long asked his congregation to help pay for his 15 million dollar settlement with the young men that accused him of sexual misconduct.  Oh, we know that's what he is really seeking even though he somehow slipped in verbiage about audits for 2009 and 2010 that he said they passed.  So, Eddie, for real?  You think by saying the word audit that we are to think this is somehow not related to settlement for taking sexual advantage of young boys?  No, it's to build new churches in Denver and Birmingham, yeah right!!!  You even had the cajones to mention that nothing foolish would be taking place with the money because the church just passed the last year's audit.  Eddie long asked his congregation to donate at least $500 to the church but, he would really like to see $1000.  For real?  Are you serious?

 Now, you know the people that still follow you (po' sheeple) will hurt themselves to help you.  Eddie Long you represent the worst kind of human being on this Earth.  You represent the same wickedness the bible speaks against.  You love and embrace wickedness.  If I were a Christian I would flee from calling myself that any longer.  Too many people that call themselves Christians work some of the most heinous works on this planet.  You should distance yourselves from these liars.  You should seek a new name for yourselves and depart from those like Eddie Long.  No need to tell me how he is not a real Christian, or he may not have a real relationship with the Lord or God, that's all hogwash.  If you go to church, love Jesus, and confess Christ, you better find a new name other than Christian because all the Catholic priest child molestors, Reverends that chop their wives into pieces and freeze them, and the jealous hearted mean spirited people that call themselves Christians will still up hold the Christian banner.  All the while you, a loving compassionate person living in the way Jesus taught will be seen in the same box as the Eddie Longs of the world.   Berniece King got the heck on.  Why don't you?

Black People Stop Hiding The Butters, Damn It!!!