The Wisdom of a Few Words by a Founding Father, Can We Still Ignore Them?

“Grandpa, you posted a quote from Mr. Franklin but you never added any commentary to it. This seems like a strange way to make a post deserving of being read by our loyal visitors can you explain the reason why you did that?”

Grandpa just looked across the table at me and quietly responded,

“ Boy, that quote was the most significant find for me and in that short quote was so much to understand that I thought each of our visitors ought to have the opportunity to think about it on their own without any influence from us. Let’s take a close look at that quote and see if we can find out why it be so significant. I’ll repeat the quote here for clarification.

“Those, who desire to understand the state of government in America, would do well to read the constitutions of the several States, and the articles of confederation that bind the whole together for general purposes, under the direction of one assembly, called the Congress. These constitutions have been printed, by order of Congress, in America; two editions of them have also been printed in London; and a good translation of them into French has lately been published at Paris.”
Benjamin Franklin-1794

First of all it is the first time I have seen anything that looked like an instructional as to the mindset of the founding fathers as this. Ol’ Ben was telling everyone just how to go about understanding the government that the fathers had set up. And if you read closely no one follows that formula when discussing the purpose of the government they had set up. Nor do they follow that formula when trying to ascertain the intent of the founding fathers and they should. And if we look deeply at it it is meant to be a timeless instructional.

Look at when Ben Franklin expressed these words. It was 17 years after the Articles of Confederation was ratified by all thirteen States. It was also 6 years after the Articles of confederation were de-ratified and the new constitution was ratified. Doesn’t it seem strange that he would refer people to a document no longer in force instead of the one in force at the time he expressed this? This would imply to me that the state of government did not change with the new constitution but that they only changed it in a structural level by adding the executive branch as well as the judicial branch to the federal government. This had the effect of making the federal government stronger but not more powerful.

And what can be found in the Articles of Confederation that would not be apparent in the new federal constitution? Well, for one thing we can ascertain that once ratified all of the States agreed that this union would be a union of perpetuity. This would lead us to the conclusion that the principles that bound the States were meant to be perpetual also and not changed at the whim of a few people of a new generation as some would have us believe.

We can also learn from the Articles of Confederation that each State was intended to retain their sovereignty in perpetuity thus subordinating the federal government unto the State governments for the same period of time, a relationship that no longer exists.

In viewing the intent from this point of view we can better understand Lincoln’s mindset and the mindset of the people at the time leading up to the War between the States. For it was from the viewpoint of perpetuity of the union that was behind all of Lincoln’s thoughts at the time as well as Andrew Johnson’s. And it was from the viewpoint of the perpetuity of State sovereignty that led the thinking of those from the southern States thus their decision to secede from the union.

But most important is how this quote effects us today. This quote when given the understanding it must have can only result in one conclusion. It belies the whole ideology of the left and much of the ideology of the right as they are espoused now days.

My only question that would be is why would anyone want to take the Constitution out of its intended context so as to create a misleading ideology when taken in the context intended would lead us to a very simple understanding by just the reading of it? And in the reading of it bring us back to being a people united under one constitution instead of a people divided by two interpretations of that constitution. What is the goal of those who wish that the people be divided? If their goal is to form a new type of government then what form would necessitate that the federal government be the sovereign government and the State governments subordinate?”

What say you, my friends?

I Am Your Fellow Man but I Am Not Your Slave

I am a Man not a Slave

TO MY OLD MASTER.

Thomas Auld,

Sir:

The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you will easily account for the great liberty which I now take in addressing you in this open and public manner. The same fact may possibly remove any disagreeable surprise which you may experience on again finding your name coupled with mine, in any other way than in an advertisement, accurately describing my person, and offering a large sum for my arrest. In thus dragging you again before the public, I am aware that I shall subject myself to no inconsiderable amount of censure. I shall probably be charged with an unwarrantable if not a wanton and reckless disregard of the rights and proprieties of private life. There are those North as well as South, who entertain a much higher respect for rights which are merely conventional, than they do for rights which are personal and essential. Not a few there are in our country who, while they have no scruples against robbing the laborer of the hard earned results of his patient industry, will be shocked by the extremely indelicate manner of bringing your name before the public. Believing this to be the case, and wishing to meet every reasonable or plausible objection to my conduct, I will frankly state the ground upon which I justify myself in this instance, as well as on former occasions when I have thought proper to mention your name in public. All will agree that a man guilty of theft, robbery, or murder, has forfeited the right to concealment and private life; that the community have a right to subject such persons to the most complete exposure. However much they may desire retirement, and aim to conceal themselves and their movements from the popular gaze, the public have a right to ferret them out, and bring their conduct before the proper tribunals of the country for investigation. Sir, you will undoubtedly make the proper application of these generally admitted principles, and will easily see the light in which you are regarded by me. I will not therefore manifest ill temper, by calling you hard names. I know you to be a man of some intelligence, and can readily determine the precise estimate which I entertain of your character. I may therefore indulge in language which may seem to others indirect and ambiguous, and yet be quite well understood by yourself.

I have selected this day on which to address you, because it is the anniversary of my emancipation; and knowing of no better way, I am led to this as the best mode of celebrating that truly important event. Just ten years ago this beautiful September morning, yon bright sun beheld me a slave—a poor degraded chattel—trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I was a man, and wishing myself a brute. The hopes which I had treasured up for weeks of a safe and successful escape from your grasp, were powerfully confronted at this last hour by dark clouds of doubt and fear, making my person shake and my bosom to heave with the heavy contest between hope and fear. I have no words to describe to you the deep agony of soul which I experienced on that never to be forgotten morning—(for I left by daylight). I was making a leap in the dark. The probabilities, so far as I could by reason determine them, were stoutly against the undertaking. The preliminaries and precautions I had adopted previously, all worked badly. I was like one going to war without weapons—ten chances of defeat to one of victory. One in whom I had confided, and one who had promised me assistance, appalled by fear at the trial hour, deserted me, thus leaving the responsibility of success or failure solely with myself. You, sir, can never know my feelings. As I look back to them, I can scarcely realize that I have passed through a scene so trying. Trying however as they were, and gloomy as was the prospect, thanks be to the Most High, who is ever the God of the oppressed, at the moment which was to determine my whole earthly career. His grace was sufficient, my mind was made up. I embraced the golden opportunity, took the morning tide at the flood, and a free man, young, active and strong, is the result.

I have often thought I should like to explain to you the grounds upon which I have justified myself in running away from you. I am almost ashamed to do so now, for by this time you may have discovered them yourself. I will, however, glance at them. When yet but a child about six years old, I imbibed the determination to run away. The very first mental effort that I now remember on my part, was an attempt to solve the mystery, Why am I a slave? and with this question my youthful mind was troubled for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times than others. When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave woman, cut the blood out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away into the corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery. I had, through some medium, I know not what, got some idea of God, the Creator of all mankind, the black and the white, and that he had made the blacks to serve the whites as slaves. How he could do this and be good, I could not tell. I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over it long and often. At one time, your first wife, Mrs. Lucretia, heard me singing and saw me shedding tears, and asked of me the matter, but I was afraid to tell her. I was puzzled with this question, till one night, while sitting in the kitchen, I heard some of the old slaves talking of their parents having been stolen from Africa by white men, and were sold here as slaves. The whole mystery was solved at once. Very soon after this my aunt Jinny and uncle Noah ran away, and the great noise made about it by your father-in-law, made me for the first time acquainted with the fact, that there were free States as well as slave States. From that time, I resolved that I would some day run away. The morality of the act, I dispose as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and made us separate beings. I am not by nature bound to you, or you to me. Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an honest living. Your faculties remained yours, and mine became useful to their rightful owner. I therefore see no wrong in any part of the transaction. It is true, I went off secretly, but that was more your fault than mine. Had I let you into the secret, you would have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should have been really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave.

You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I am, however, by no means prejudiced against the State as such. Its geography, climate, fertility and products, are such as to make it a very desirable abode for any man; and but for the existence of slavery there, it is not impossible that I might again take up my abode in that State. It is not that I love Maryland less, but freedom more. You will be surprised to learn that people at the North labor under the strange delusion that if the slaves were emancipated at the South, they would flock to the North. So far from this being the case, in that event, you would see many old and familiar faces back again to the South. The fact is, there are few here who would not return to the South in the event of emancipation. We want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay our bones by the side of our fathers’; and nothing short of an intense love of personal freedom keeps us from the South. For the sake of this, most of us would live on a crust of bread and a cup of cold water.
Since I left you, I have had a rich experience. I have occupied stations which I never dreamed of when a slave. Three out of the ten years since I left you, I spent as a common laborer on the wharves of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was there I earned my first free dollar. It was mine. I could spend it as I pleased. I could buy hams or herring with it, without asking any odds of any body. That was a precious dollar to me. You remember when I used to make seven or eight, or even nine dollars a week in Baltimore, you would take every cent of it from me every Saturday night, saying that I belonged to you, and my earnings also. I never liked this conduct on your part—to say the best, I thought it a little mean. I would not have served you so. But let that pass. I was a little awkward about counting money in New England fashion when I first landed in New Bedford. I like to have betrayed myself several times. I caught myself saying phip, for fourpence; and at one time a man actually charged me with being a runaway, whereupon I was silly enough to become one by running away from him, for I was greatly afraid he might adopt measures to get me again into slavery, a condition I then dreaded more than death.

I soon, however, learned to count money, as well as to make it, and got on swimmingly. I married soon after leaving you: in fact, I was engaged to be married before I left you; and instead of finding my companion a burden, she was truly a helpmeet. She went to live at service, and I to work on the wharf, and though we toiled hard the first winter, we never lived more happily. After remaining in New Bedford for three years, I met with Wm. Lloyd Garrison, a person of whom you have possibly heard, as he is pretty generally known among slaveholders. He put it into my head that I might make myself serviceable to the cause of the slave by devoting a portion of my time to telling my own sorrows, and those of other slaves which had come under my observation. This was the commencement of a higher state of existence than any to which I had ever aspired. I was thrown into society the most pure, enlightened and benevolent that the country affords. Among these I have never forgotten you, but have invariably made you the topic of conversation—thus giving you all the notoriety I could do. I need not tell you that the opinion formed of you in these circles, is far from being favorable. They have little respect for your honesty, and less for your religion.

But I was going on to relate to you something of my interesting experience. I had not long enjoyed the excellent society to which I have referred, before the light of its excellence exerted a beneficial influence on my mind and heart. Much of my early dislike of white persons was removed, and their manners, habits and customs, so entirely unlike what I had been used to in the kitchen-quarters on the plantations of the South, fairly charmed me, and gave me a strong disrelish for the coarse and degrading customs of my former condition. I therefore made an effort so to improve my mind and deportment, as to be somewhat fitted to the station to which I seemed almost providentially called. The transition from degradation to respectability was indeed great, and to get from one to the other without carrying some marks of one’s former condition, is truly a difficult matter. I would not have you think that I am now entirely clear of all plantation peculiarities, but my friends here, while they entertain the strongest dislike to them, regard me with that charity to which my past life somewhat entitles me, so that my condition in this respect is exceedingly pleasant. So far as my domestic affairs are concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your own. I have an industrious and neat companion, and four dear children—the oldest a girl of nine years, and three fine boys, the oldest eight, the next six, and the youngest four years old. The three oldest are now going regularly to school—two can read and write, and the other can spell with tolerable correctness words of two syllables: Dear fellows! they are all in comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, perfectly secure under my own roof. There are no slaveholders here to rend my heart by snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother’s dearest hopes by tearing them from her bosom. These dear children are ours—not to work up into rice, sugar and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the gospel—to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far as we can to make them useful to the world and to themselves. Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my feelings rise above my control. I meant to have said more with respect to my own prosperity and happiness, but thoughts and feelings which this recital has quickened unfits me to proceed further in that direction. The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror before me, the wails of millions pierce my heart, and chill my blood. I remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip, the deathlike gloom overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman, the appalling liability of his being torn away from wife and children, and sold like a beast in the market. Say not that this is a picture of fancy. You well know that I wear stripes on my back inflicted by your direction; and that you, while we were brothers in the same church, caused this right hand, with which I am now penning this letter, to be closely tied to my left, and my person dragged at the pistol’s mouth, fifteen miles, from the Bay side to Easton to be sold like a beast in the market, for the alleged crime of intending to escape from your possession. All this and more you remember, and know to be perfectly true, not only of yourself, but of nearly all of the slaveholders around you.

At this moment, you are probably the guilty holder of at least three of my own dear sisters, and my only brother in bondage. These you regard as your property. They are recorded on your ledger, or perhaps have been sold to human flesh mongers, with a view to filling your own ever-hungry purse. Sir, I desire to know how and where these dear sisters are. Have you sold them? or are they still in your possession? What has become of them? are they living or dead? And my dear old grandmother, whom you turned out like an old horse, to die in the woods—is she still alive? Write and let me know all about them. If my grandmother be still alive, she is of no service to you, for by this time she must be nearly eighty years old—too old to be cared for by one to whom she has ceased to be of service, send her to me at Rochester, or bring her to Philadelphia, and it shall be the crowning happiness of my life to take care of her in her old age. Oh! she was to me a mother, and a father, so far as hard toil for my comfort could make her such. Send me my grandmother! that I may watch over and take care of her in her old age. And my sisters, let me know all about them. I would write to them, and learn all I want to know of them, without disturbing you in any way, but that, through your unrighteous conduct, they have been entirely deprived of the power to read and write. You have kept them in utter ignorance, and have therefore robbed them of the sweet enjoyments of writing or receiving letters from absent friends and relatives. Your wickedness and cruelty committed in this respect on your fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my back, or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul—a war upon the immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of our common Father and Creator.

The responsibility which you have assumed in this regard is truly awful—and how you could stagger under it these many years is marvellous. Your mind must have become darkened, your heart hardened, your conscience seared and petrified, or you would have long since thrown off the accursed load and sought relief at the hands of a sin-forgiving God. How, let me ask, would you look upon me, were I some dark night in company with a band of hardened villains, to enter the precincts of your elegant dwelling and seize the person of your own lovely daughter Amanda, and carry her off from your family, friends and all the loved ones of her youth—make her my slave—compel her to work, and I take her wages—place her name on my ledger as property—disregard her personal rights—fetter the powers of her immortal soul by denying her the right and privilege of learning to read and write—feed her coarsely—clothe her scantily, and whip her on the naked back occasionally; more and still more horrible, leave her unprotected—a degraded victim to the brutal lust of fiendish overseers, who would pollute, blight, and blast her fair soul—rob her of all dignity—destroy her virtue, and annihilate all in her person the graces that adorn the character of virtuous womanhood? I ask how would you regard me, if such were my conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned would not afford a word sufficiently infernal, to express your idea of my God-provoking wickedness. Yet sir, your treatment of my beloved sisters is in all essential points, precisely like the case I have now supposed. Damning as would be such a deed on my part, it would be no more so than that which you have committed against me and my sisters.

I will now bring this letter to a close, you shall hear from me again unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a weapon with which to assail the system of slavery—as a means of concentrating public attention on the system, and deepening their horror of trafficking in the souls and bodies of men. I shall make use of you as a means of exposing the character of the American church and clergy—and as a means of bringing this guilty nation with yourself to repentance. In doing this I entertain no malice towards you personally. There is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege, to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other.

I am your fellow man, but not your slave,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

P. S. I send a copy of the paper containing this letter, to save postage. F. D.

I wish to thank “Letters of Note” for the reprint of this letter

A Way to Understand Your Government

“Those, who desire to understand the state of government in America, would do well to read the constitutions of the several States, and the articles of confederation that bind the whole together for general purposes, under the direction of one assembly, called the Congress. These constitutions have been printed, by order of Congress, in America; two editions of them have also been printed in London; and a good translation of them into French has lately been published at Paris.”
Benjamin Franklin-1794

Politics and Their Extremes

Foolish Thoughts?

“Grandpa, when a person listens to your political ideas I have often heard whispers accusing you of being an extremist. Do you really expect people to take positions at their most extreme point?”

“Boy, what person says can often indicate the political viewpoints he adheres to, I agree but that is not the case in every situation. Extreme viewpoints can be used to create a far clearer understanding of what his viewpoints are than his actual viewpoints. Besides, when speaking of political philosophy the extreme position is usually presented in its ideal condition for the purpose and intent of convincing others. And it is only by the knowing of the shortcomings of the extremes that we can ascertain the shortcomings of those viewpoints of lesser degrees of extremes.

Another thing about using extremes is to follow a person line of thinking to its most logical conclusion and that will always lead a person done the path to the extreme and one should always be prepared to meet the consequences that is an inevitable result of those extremes. The ones who are not prepared will be the ones who will not survive it. This is true regardless of which extreme will be the one that a person will experience.

In politics the two extremes can be summed up as being a society with an all powerful government or a society without a government then asking what the consequences are to the individual of that society. I say this because the path of politics leads a person towards that end, each to his own end. And since we do not exist in a perfect world we cannot create a perfect political system thus it is the imperfection of any system that will results in consequences. This is true in spite of all the promises that is used to promote either one of the extreme positions.

We can also view society from one of two viewpoints, the viewpoint of the individual or the viewpoint of the collective. Now, in order to understand the viewpoint of a person one must first ascertain if a person has a mindset of collectivism or a mindset of individualism. Once that is determined we can then determine the extreme positions as understood by that person.

A person with a collective mindset will view the extremes as being the choice between Communism and Fascism. With this in mind the left would lead society down the path to communism and promote the idea that the right will lead society down the path to Fascism. Thus, they will promote their path as being beneficial to all with no exceptions and do so in increments so as to take a person’s mind off of the ultimate end, communism.

And this is done by demonizing every institution of a free society funded by private enterprise and promoting government as being the savior of society. And for those institutions that they cannot demonize they will declare them as incapable of performing up to the absolute standards they have set for them. And the right can do nothing but agree. Its an absolutist viewpoint and they will accept nothing but absolute results.

A person with an individualistic mindset will view the extremes as a choice between anarchy and a dictatorship. A dictatorship is out of the question for every right winger thus they will take society down the path of an anarchical society. It is the recognition that we do not live in a perfect existence thus need a governing body that they see as a check against the fulfillment of the dream of the anarchist. To the right winger they are limited to a viewpoint of probability thus the only political absolute is opportunity and that is all that they seek from a society.

In closing, one can surmise that the left seeks to fulfill the physical needs of each and every individual at the expense of no one. And they believe that that goal is within the realm of possibility. What they fail to grasp is that the attempt to do so will inevitably fail and come at the expense of the spiritual needs of a person. It will ultimately fail because the only way to implement such a society is through the use of force whether it be active or passive. And force is the ultimate killer of the spirit of a man. The history of the enslavement of men is the proof of this.

Thus, the right winger only promises the opportunity to fulfill the needs of each and every man and seeks to allow every man the freedom to fulfill his own needs, both physical and spiritual. What they recognize and admit to is that not all will take advantage of their opportunities and in this failure must accept the consequences of that failure.

And that, boy, is the benefit of looking at politics from the view of extremes. And in seeing which direction society is heading, plans can be made to deal with the consequences when it cones to the point of dealing with promises that cannot be kept. And those who would advocate for a communistic form of society cannot keep their promises no more than can the Anarchist And you cannot depend upon someone else to deal with the consequences for you as so many may believe. Here is an example of the extreme position which could be used by both extremes courtesy of Professor Jacobson over at the Legal InSurRecTion;”

I just nodded as the ideas raced through my mind.

What say you, my friends? Has grandpa portrayed the two sides in an accurate manner as you perceive them?

A President’s Day Car For the Founding Fathers

This is President’s day weekend and I thought it would be amusing to bring our founding fathers up to this day and ascertain what type of car that they would own. The author of this series tried to match each one to a car based upon his perception of their personality. Below is an example along with his reasoning. Click on the picture to take you to the slide show and see for yourself what each of the founding fathers would be driving if they were alive today. 🙂

Dodge Charger

“Geo. Washington, The man buried under all the elementary-school gossip — the cherry tree, the Delaware crossing, those wooden chompers — was a bright and battle-hardened tactician, who won a war against what was then the world’s greatest military power by becoming a grand and terrible nuisance. As the inaugural president, Washington tried desperately to tamp down all conflicts, refusing to side with warring European powers and avoiding the conditions that might spawn a party system within American politics. To Washington, who initially refused an annual presidential salary, appearances mattered. Then again, he was also wealthy, and probably the toughest guy you’d ever meet in your life. Washington would drive a 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392. It has street-tough looks, is American-made and is powered by a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 engine. Also, it would be matte black.”

Motherhood, A Detriment to Women’s Careers, So Says Science

Marie Curie

As you have probably heard science has been studying why there are so few women in the hard science careers that involve the use of mathematics. Well, it seems as if they have come to an answer to this puzzle and it isn’t because women are not math literate. Nor is it the result of gender bias.

One of the studies should interest Rush’s feminazi groups. The reason being is that study came to the conclusion that motherhood was a detriment to their career. I thought that this conclusion was rather humorous. It had always been my understanding that careers got into the way of good parenthood not the other way around Which is it?

Now with that study in mind another study found that women preferred other types of careers. They were still in the field of science but preferred careers in the soft sciences. I guess one can conclude that women put the study and care of people above of the study of the stars and the universe when it comes to careers. So, should there be a study on why this is now?

A third study seems to back this up by coming to the conclusion that it was just a matter of choice not lack of ability in careers.

The bottom line that links each of these studies is that they found nothing that forced women to take careers that they are in. nor did any of the studies show that there was something that prevented women from having these careers. In each case it was a matter of preference and choice.

Wonder why that is such a surprising conclusion since we brag of being citizens of a nation that offers these very freedoms even to the point of saying that they are guaranteed by our constitutions.

You know, the funny thing is, how many times have we heard men being being put down as a result of their focusing on her careers and neglecting their families? This has always been a gripe about them then science turns around and, in essense, says just the opposite of women by declaring that their choices are a detriment to careers. These gripes are even in songs just as these.

btw, a h/t to the mother of my great grand nephew for steering me to these songs. ty, Tori.

Coffee With The Hermit

Since
“The Hermit” is always inviting his guests for coffee each day I thought it might be nice to repay his kindness with the following tribute. Hope it puts a smile on everyone’s face this day:

TWO COFFEES IN HEAVEN!!!
————————-
A stranger walks quietly into the Hermit’s place and with a gentleness in his voice he
declares that he was a Muslim and that Mohamed was the holy servant of God.

The hermit, being the kindly host that he be just smiled and nodded.
Then he asks the stranger if he could prove what he had just got done saying.

The stranger smiled back and replied, ‘if you are willing to follow me, yes I can.’
Then a golden ladder mysteriously appears leading heavenward and the stranger began to climb,
The hermit following right behind him.

Having climbed to the Gates of Heaven,
the stranger meets a man with a beard.

‘Are you Mohamed?’ he asks.
‘No my son, I am St. Peter; Mohamed is higher up.’ Peter then points to a ladder that rises into the clouds.

Delighted that Mohamed should be higher than St. Peter, the stranger and the hermit continues to climb the ladder in great strides, climbs up through the clouds and comes into a room where he meets another bearded man.

He asks again, ‘Are you Mohamed?’
‘Why no,’ he answers, ‘I am Moses; Mohamed is higher still.’

Exhausted, but with a heart full of joy he along with the hermit climbs the ladder yet again.

He discovers a larger room where he meets an angelic looking man
with a beard. Full of hope, he asks again, ‘Are you Mohamed?’

‘No, I am Jesus, the Christ; you will find Mohamed higher up.’

Mohamed higher than Jesus!
Man, oh man! the stranger can hardly contain his delight and he and the hermit climbs and climbs ever higher.

As they were climbing the stranger looked down at the hermit and with a grin said, ‘Now do you see why I am a follower of Mohamed and not Jesus?’
The hermit just smiled up at him but said nothing.

Once again, he reaches an even larger room where he meets this truly magnificent looking man with a silver white beard and once again repeats his question:

‘Are you Mohamed?’ he gasps as he is by now, totally out of breath from all his climbing.

‘No, my son, I am Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega, but you look exhausted. Would you and your friend like a cup of coffee?’

the stranger says, ‘Yes please!’
As God looks behind him, he claps his hands and yells out: ‘Hey, Mohamed, two coffees!’

The African-American is Being Rejected

An American soldier

There are many people shying away from being labeled as African-American these days. They prefer the term Black though in their heart they see themselves as strictly Americans. In fact there is a site on Facebook that reflects this attitude, “Don’t call me African-American.” If we all looked at ourselves as being just Americans there could be no accusation of racial prejudice. For how could there be an accusation of racial prejudice when in doing so would be an accusation against every American including the accuser regardless of color of skin or nationality? And how could I make a claim of racial prejudice when in claiming it I’d be making a claim for every other American regardless of the color of skin or nationality.

I will go even farther by labeling myself as a individual person first. As an individual I see myself as an unique person without equal. The color of my skin is just an attribute that helps define my individuality and only one means to distinguish myself from other human beings. As an individual I cannot claim anything that does not belong to me nor can I can demand something for others without recognizing I am demanding it for myself first.

As an advocate of the individual I cannot recognize the concept of collective rights as some would promote. One reason for this belief is the fact that before a collective can declare they enjoy a right each individual of that collective must possess it first. Another reason is that in order for one collective to be denied a right it must be acknowledged that each and every individual of another collective already possesses that right and that is an impossibility.

As an advocate of individualism I cannot recognize the concept of being entitled to the same things as anyone else. The only things I am entitled to are the things I can claim as being my own. As an individual I can only seek the opportunity of possessing what others already possess. In other words, I must earn what I am entitled to and cannot demand that others provide it for me. The mere fact of my existence entitles me to nothing.

UPDATE;
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Samuel Jackson admits to using race as the sole criteria of probably the most important political decision in an interview. The question I must ask now is how many other persons made this the sole criteria? Whatever happened to Martin Luther King’s dream that a man should be judged by his ability and not by the color of his skin?
Racial Attitude

UPDATE:
Deborah, a very good friend of ours, over at From my Browneyed View had this to say on the subject along with some good advice for those of us unfamiliar with the debate within the Black community.

“The term AA is one that has never been totally accepted by many of us. It is a politically correct term but it honestly does not define who we are as a people. I really do not like being called AA because I am Black. I accept the term AA because it just helps to keep the process moving along. But I will also urge you to do some research on this particular topic because there is a historical and cultural reason for this debate. BTW this has been going on since the Black Power Movement.”

Can one ask for more? What say you, my friends?

Enough of the Negatives of the World, Let’s See Some Beauty

Here are but a few of the photographs of spectacular scenery of this Earth. Take a gander at the rest of this gallery of photographs at Landscape Gallery . And while there go thru the rest of the galleries of photographs. I can only say that they all are breathtaking and an amazing view of this world.

Do You Know Your Family Health History?

How many times have you been asked about your family health history? Seems like every time a person sees a doctor for the first time a family health history is asked for. Can you be certain that the information you give is correct?

Well here is a government site that might be of help to any family. Any personal experience with this application would be appreciated.

My Family Health Portrait