PROMISED LANDS

"the almighty has his own purposes"
a. lincoln, from his second inaugural address


They say ol' Moses didn’t get to go to the Promised Land. Whatever the reason for that I can’t imagine.

Dr. Martin Luther King gave his last sermon on April 2nd 1968. I say sermon, because Dr. king was a preacher. His part in the Civil Rights Movement is undeniable, but first and foremost he was a preacher.
He says in this sermon that “longevity has its place” but that he wouldn’t be concerned about that, because he had “Been to the Mountaintop” and he had "seen the Promised Land", and that he feared no man.
Prophetically, he states that he may not get to the Promised Land, but that we would get there as a people.
I see a real weariness and sadness in his face as he gives this last sermon.
The next day he was assassinated on a balcony at a Memphis Hotel.



There are some quite stunning coincidences and parallels in American History.
It was the 41st Anniversary of Kings death on April 3 last week and today is the 144th Anniversary of Abraham Lincolns death.
These two Americans are so incredibly and intricately connected it almost hurts.

Lincoln had spent 4 years in the midst of a great Civil War, where Americans made war on each other and killed each other in great numbers. (620,000)
Congress passed the Act of 1862 establishing an Income Tax in order to finance the War and preserve the Union
With the collapse of the south imminent, Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address on March 4th 1865 and closed with these famous words:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Lee surrendered his great Army of Northern Virginia on April 9th, 1865.
Lincoln had saved the Union, and freed the country of the scourge of slavery.
He described the previous four years by saying he felt he had "lived a long hard nightmare".
For five days he enjoyed his country at peace before John Wilkes Booth murdered him at Fords Theater.
In his billfold at the time of his death there were 6 newspaper clippings and a Confederate Five Dollar bill.

It seems to me that just like Moses and Dr. King, he never made it to the Promised land, and that sometimes we are only allowed to do so much.

Ah, Moses!
We are only allowed to do so much.
We are only allowed to do so much.

GOOD ANSWER

"GUERNICA'...CLICK FOR THE FULL SIZE IMAGE...

I have been watching a series on PBS called 'The Power of Art". It is very well hosted by a British fellow named Simon Schamas. He is very informative on the History of Art and Artists and each episode has been devoted to a single Artist. I have learned that to fully appreciate the Painting, it helps to know about the Artist and the circumstances surrounding its creation. At least it does foer me.

His very dry sense of humor has brought me to laugh aloud even while watching a show about Art.

I like that a lot.

One of the first ones that I saw was on Pablo Picasso. I have never cared for Picasso, but have a better appreciation for Pablo Picasso the Artist having watched the show.

What I want to tell you though is what I learned about Pablo Picasso the Man.

It seems his most famous Painting, called "Guernica" is a Mural depicting the 1937 Nazi bombing of a Bosque village in Spain. It is a Giant Mural done in Oil.

In 1941 the Gestapo raided Picasso's apartmernt in Paris. During the ransacking of the studio, a postcard size reproduction of the famous painting was found. A Nazi officer waved it threateningly under Pablo's nose demanding the Artist to tell him...

"Who did this?WHO...DID...THIS?"

I can imagine a certain Artistic serenity in the air as Picasso proudly, calmly answers....

"You did"

Good answer.

A man that eloquent deserves my admiration.

It makes my chest swell up and I find that I am sitting a little straighter as I type this.

From Mr. Schamas:

"This is not a series about things that hang on walls; it is not about decor or prettiness," Schama says. "It is a series about the force, the need, the passion of art -- the power of art."

Speaking of Art, allow me to direct you to Gewels and her well crafted post today.

RED DRESSES, RINGS and BLUE MOONS

"To find your strategy to peace is war"

If you click on any of the links below, you can learn more about Saturn and it rings than you would ever want to know...I think its fascinating that one of the gaps in the rings is carved out from one of Saturns many Moons, Pan.

"gravity is directly proportional to the product of two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between" DAVE MOWS GRASS

Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune also have faint rings around them, but Saturn hit the ring jackpot, doncha think?

Saturn was the Roman God of agriculture.

Explanation: What size particles compose Saturn's rings? To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn broadcast radio waves of three different wavelengths right through the rings to Earth earlier this month. The experiment was sensitive to ring particle sizes because ring particles much larger than a broadcast radio wavelength will reflect those radio waves away. Three different wavelengths were used: approximately 1 centimeter, 3.5 centimeters, and 13 centimeters. The results are coded into the above false-color digitally reconstructed image. In the above image, the color purple indicates regions populated predominantly by ring particles larger than 5 centimeters, while the color green indicates regions with a significant population of small ring particles less than even 1 centimeter. The white center of Saturn's B-ring indicates that the density of ring particles was too high to make a good determination. Other radio observations indicate that some ring particles can be as large as several meters across. The impressive nature and clarity of the above sharp image may help determine clues about the origin of Saturn's beautiful but enigmatic ring system.



I've been wanting to post a song and some lyrics by my buudy Chris Smither, but things keep getting in the way, like Red Scribbles post/picture yesterday of the most ringed of all the Planets...Saturn...and it took me back to Stevie Wonders "Songs in the Key of life" and a really nice cut from that exellent album that never got much airtime...
I give you...

"Saturn"

Packing my bags -- going away
To a place where the air is clean
On Saturn
There's no sense to sit and watch people die
We don't fight our wars the way you do
We put back all the things we use
On Saturn
There's no sense to keep on doing such crimes

There's no principles in what you say
No direction in the things you do
For your world is soon to come to a close
Through the ages all great men have taught
Truth and happiness just can't be bought - or sold
Tell me why are you people so cold

I'm....
Going back to Saturn
where the rings all glow
Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to Saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learned to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high

We have come here many times before
To find your strategy to peace is war
Killing helpless men, women and children
That don't even know what they're dying for
We can't trust you when you take a stand
With a gun and bible in your hand
And the cold expression on your face
Saying give us what we want or we'll destroy

I'm....
Going back to Saturn
where the rings all glow
Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow
On Saturn
People live to be two hundred and five
Going back to Saturn where the people smile
Don't need cars cause we've learned to fly
On Saturn
Just to live to us is our natural high

THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME

Something I learned from doing yesterdays post;
The author of the gospel Song 'Amazing Grace" had been the Captain of a Slave Boat..
And another thing:
California recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in 2000.
What I would love to hear:
Arnold Schartzenegger, the "Governator" of California, saying in his thick accent "Emancipation Proclamation". I would also like to hear him say 'Hydrogen Hum-Vee".

The question was raised as to why it took so long for the slaves in Texas to find out about the Proclamation. There are three theories:
There is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

I would bet they are all true.

And here is an observation:
The following line appears throughout the Internet regarding Juneteenth.
"Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States."
Can someone please tell me what would be another Holiday commemorating the ending of Slavery in the United States? Did I miss one?

It should be noted that Slavery was not really banned in the United States until December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution.
Mississippi did not Ratify this Amendment until 1995!

This is still not the post I wanted to do about the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a very interesting and controversial document and did much for the country without really having freed a single slave.

JUNETEENTH

This is not the Post I intended to write concerning Emancipation...but its a start!

In 1984, in the mid part of the month of June, the XMrsBulletholes and I were on our way to Toledo Bend Lake for a camping trip. We kept passing groups of Black folks on the side of the road. Their mood seemed quite festive and it was like a 100 mile long picnic on the side of the road.
She asked me :
'What are all these black folks doing all up and down this road? Is it some kind of party?"
I looked over to her and grinned and said
"I guess they are just being Black!"
It was about then that I realized that it was "Juneteenth"...the 19th of June and a holiday in Texas for many years. I believe it is now observed in 14 States as well.

After the battle of Antietam in September of 1862, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation which was to free the Slaves. It took effect on January 1st of 1863. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865.

On June 19, 1865, the Union General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce to the inhabitants of the Civil Wars end two months earlier, and the Emancipation Proclamation from 2 and a half years earlier. It was news to the slaves in Galveston and throughout the State.

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

"...Employer and free laborer." For a people that have been enslaved for 400 years, could there be any words more powerful than this?

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

A PATCH OF BLUE

Stephen King says that our souls are light years ahead of our minds. I think this is what I was trying to say about Glesnal, my parents, and racism yesterday. They knew down deep what was right and what was wrong, but our brains operate on software that lags behind.

Recently I am struck by the dichotomy of “tolerance/intolerance”. What is the world to do about these words? We have the whole right/left thing; we got Muslims and Christians and Jews; Pro life and Pro Choice; AFC vs. NFC and Sprint vs,. AT&T. Everybody seems lined up for the game of the Millennium; I have my son, 16, that wants to do everything that I did in my youth. Where do I draw the line and what should I tolerate?

Sidney Portier stars in three of my favorite movies from the Sixties. There is "To Sir with Love" and "Lillies of the Field" which has a great gospel song that my friends and I used to sing as we came home from school and I would love to see again. I had the recent pleasure of seeing 'A Patch of Blue " again.
In the Movie, Portier befriends a blind white girl in the park. They become fast friends, and he is the only soul in the Movie that shows her any kindness. Portier talks to her and teaches her and helps her to string her beads that she sells, and generally becomes the best, and possibly only friend she has ever had. Her mother, played by Shelley Winters, is abusive. Of course, being blind, she does not know Portier is black.
As she and Portier walk through the park one day, two older white women give them the "hairy eyeball", muttering to themselves with an air of disdain.
The girl is saying that she thinks “friend” must be the best word in the world and asks Portier what his favorite word is.
He glances back to the two old ladies and says “Tolerance”.
The girl asks what it means and he tells her that it means you don’t think badly of those who think differently from yourself.
The girl says “Oh, you must be very tolerant”.
Portier is such a great actor and his next line almost gets lost.
He says “ME? No, I am not tolerant at all” as he glances to the ladies again.

This has been on my mind. Griz, do you remeber this ?
This is better software than what Glesnal had available.
Lets take a closer look at todays software,shall we?

My humorous anecdote for the day;
I was born in Texas and moved to Detroit when I was 6 years old. after my first week in the first Grade, the school Principal called my mother on the phone and asked if there was "Anything that could be done to keep Steve from talking like a little black boy".

EYES ON THE PRIZE

My mother was one of four sisters. Glesnal was the eldest of the four and when I was young she was certainly the one to be given the widest berth. She would go and "cut herself a switch" at the drop of a hat and she would drop it herself. Any hint of misconduct in her presence was dealt with in a fast and firm fashion.
I can scarcely pass by a Crepe Myrtle tree or a Chinaberry without thinking of Glesnal.
It was precisely this quality that endeared Glesnal to me later in life.

When I was 5 or 6 years old I remember visiting Glesnal in Little Rock Arkansas. The year was 1962 or 1963 and tha topic of discussion was "nigras" causing a lot of trouble in Mississippi. The strange thing was that Glesnal, while seeming to be sympathetic to the "nigras" cause, and seemed to maintain that the whites were in the wrong, and had been in the wrong for sometime, was not ready to go cut herself a switch.
This was an attitude I was not accustomed to from her, and over the next ten years I would see this attitude displayed by most of my family and my race. And it would be longer than that before I really heard it defined.

Today we celebrate the birth of a truly great American, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
I do believe that any understanding of our country must be based on the fact that we fought a Great Civil War over civil rights, in which 600,000 Americans died, and that that war was still being fought 100 years later when I was just a boy. The case is easily made that it is still being fought. There are switches still to cut.

My parents and Glesnal were "Moderates"; that is to say that they were more concerned with keeping order than with Social change. I was too young to understand that then. But I was old enough to think that somewhere, someone ought to be cuttin' themself a switch.

Dr. king wrote a letter in a Birmingham jail that said this: "I have been gravely disappointed in the White moderate. I have almost reached the conclusion that the Negro's greatest stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council, or the Ku Klux klan, but the white moderate more devoted to "order" than justice.
I was in Detroit during the 67 & 68 riots; it was the first time I can recall hearing my parents say things that disturbed me... down deep. I guess they were scared. Dad Came home one day in August and said we were going back to Texas. We stopped in Chicago and I watched hippies turning cars over outside the Democratic National Convention.
They had cut themselves some switches.

As the years went by I saw more and more people who were willing to lay it down for a cause.There were some, like at Kent State, that laid it all the way down.
So did Dr. King.
It seems lately however that there are fewer and fewer of these people. We seem to be better informed about the issues; and the comedians these days can make a pretty good joke of the most serious of issues; but what has happened to the lost arts of getting upwind of tear gas and how to assume a fetal position when the billy-clubs come out?
Who wants to go cut themselves a switch?

Anyway, we know that I am better at telling you what happened to me than trying to write an Editorial...
Mainly I just want you to know how much I admired Dr. King and his dream. I used to have a copy of his "Dream" speech set to music... his voice and delivery is so lyrical; if you ever come across it it is worth a listen. Beautiful.
A very good series begins tonight on PBS called "Eyes on the Prize" chronicling the Civil Rights movement.