I live in city where it can be raining on one side of the street and the other side is dryer than a desert. If I hadn’t experienced it, I would’ve said it was a tall tale. When it happens, one can only look at the sky and marvel at Mother Nature’s capriciousness.
I just found two tomato plants in my tiny berry patch. How they got there? Squirrels foraging in the compost? Birds? I wouldn’t have noticed the plants but it seems I’m pulling up the same weeds every couple of weeks. My tiny berry patch was weed free (a dry spell with no discernible rain for about ten days) and, suddenly, there was a full crop of weeds to clear out. (It’s been raining about every other day for the past week.) I try to weed after it rains and the berry patch was today’s project.
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I loved Goo Goo Clusters when I was a tween. And, as an adult, I would eat a carton of the Goo Goo Cluster ice cream at one sitting if I didn’t stop myself from just one more spoonful.. Don’t know who made it, but it was a treat. I never cared for the pecan version. Just like with Mounds–loved Almond Joy, but couldn’t stand Mounds.
I was going through some old papers and found a letter written about thirty years ago from a distant cousin. He wanted to know how we were kin. He said everyone said we were kin, but no one knew exactly how. I thought it odd that in less than two generations a connection was lost, but when people die young, their partners remarry, people move away, and memories are short. Turned out his grandfather was my great-great grandfather’s brother. He was so happy to know the names of his ancestors. And I was glad I could do the research.
And the reason he didn’t know about his grandfather–I think his grandfather left his grandmother, moved to another county, and started a new family. I don’t think his grandmother would have had too much positive to say about him. So, for future generations, the connection is lost.
I really liked the thrill of the hunt. Now, not so much. I hit the silencing wall of slavery. The eldest ancestor I could find was probably born in the late 1700s. I know that on my mother’s side, her people came from Virginia to Kentucky with the younger sons of wealthy Virginia plantation owners. In those days, there was primogeniture which meant the eldest son inherited the family property. Some fathers, in order to provide for their younger sons, would gift the younger sons with property and Slaves to start a life elsewhere.
My father’s people came from North Carolina to Texas. I can speculate that the whites were escaping the writing on the wall and/or they were looking for fertile land. I don’t know when my people were forced to Texas. I met some people with my last name and their Ancestors were from North Carolina. Might be a connection, but we will never know.
Anyway, now, I don’t do too much research. But, I remember, how excited my cousin was and, because of what I found, he remembered stories that his grandmother had told him and he gifted me with some of those stories. Most I passed on at family reunions. Maybe someone will remember…
Juneteenth has come and gone. As I’ve written before, August 8th is the day that Kentuckians and Some Tennesseans celebrate the end of Slavery. So, I didn’t really celebrate. In the past, I’ve put out a yard sign, but this year…the mood of the land was not conducive.
There was also a protest. I am protesting with my pocketbook. The pundits say only three percent of the population must protest in order to effect change. Does that include the ones, like me, who are protesting with our economic decisions or is this a numbers game that only includes the boots on the street?
14th Amendment Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
Article 1 Section 2 of the United States Constitution: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
I want you to read these two sections with some critical thinking. Now, on social media, the white supremacists have these black males talking, what I heard was word salad, about how the 14th amendment was never meant to include persons born in the U.S. if their parents were not citizens and that somehow, if they are citizens, that diminishes our citizenship. Also, that the 14th amendment was only meant to ensure citizenship for the former Slaves.
Does that make sense? What about the free Blacks? The Dred Scott decision applied to them. (The 14th Amendment nullified the Dred Scott decision that stated that Blacks were not citizens.) Were they not included in the “persons” named in the 14th Amendment. Note–“persons” did not specify gender or race or status. The word “person” does not specify gender/race/status. Person, as defined in the dictionary, is a term used to reference any individual, any human being.
As noted in the Constitution, the white supremacists understood how to specify. In the Constitution, by the process of elimination–whites, Indians, white indentured servants–who was left to be 3/5 of all other persons? There was no such specification in the 14th Amendment. The writers wrote “Person” with no qualification except that the “person” be born in the U.S. or naturalized. If there are to be exclusions attached to “persons”, wouldn’t there have to be an amendment to the 14th amendment and not a decision by the politicized ideologues who have tarnished the title and position of Justice? Ideologues that run roughshod over logic, reason, law, common sense, and morality. Note, the 18th Amendment dealing with Prohibition was overturned by the 21st Amendment.
In a recent decision, the Supreme Court denied the lower Courts an economical and effective remedy to slow the Executive Branch’s unconstitutional excesses. The convolutions set forth in the Order are worthy of the Taney Court. Maybe this court is vying for worst Supreme Court in the history of the United States. Presently, the lower courts are the only check and balance to an overreaching executive. The Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to the citizens of this country and now the Supreme Court is signaling the abdication of the courts. The Supreme Court seems to think it will be spared in a fascist dictatorship. However, courts do not survive in such a regime. There is no place for justice or the illusion of justice in such a regime.
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…A green worm, I call it a tomato worm, stripped this tomato plant in less than twenty-four hours. Yesterday morning, this tomato plant had a bloom and, this afternoon, (morning rain, so I didn’t go out) this is what was left of that blooming plant. Usually, I see the worm and flick it away before this much of the plant is eaten. Maybe it will come back. Only Mother Nature can help it now!
For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior for us, is one who sacrifices ()self for the good of others. (A warrior’s) task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity. Sitting Bull with my amendments
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