I like museums. I’m writing this after returning from visiting a museum in Mobile, Alabama that memorialized the Clotilda, the last ship to bring African captives to the U.S. Our route was not interstate, but along a state route(s) that meandered through fields, forests, houses–mansions, shacks, and in-between, small- and medium-sized towns, and lots of road construction. Google assured us that we were on the fastest route. However, I’ve found that Google sometimes has a mind of its own. More than once Google has led us astray and Google is very insistent that it is correct in its guidance.
On the way to Mobile, we drove past trees that were cousin to the Ents in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. The pictured tree had leaves, but look at its branches. Some of the more striking examples of kinship had no leaves, but branches twisted in all manner of supplication to the whims of their environment. These old growth trees were magnificent and, I fear, most were dead or dying. We were driving too fast for me to get a picture of these Ent-like leafless trees and, if you haven’t read The Lord of the Rings or seen the movies, you would probably say I was being fantastical about some dying trees.
The first Tuesday of November was election day in many states. I was pleased that Kentuckians re-elected their governor. His Republican opponent, remember all skin folk are not kinfolk, a Black male in phenotype only, a traitor to the people he was elected to serve, a MAGA at heart and in deed, was defeated and I applaud Kentuckians for seeing him for what and who he truly is–a biscuit eater who had sold his soul for personal gain and fame.
We must recognize that Blacks can be and are MAGAs. (See, Black phenotype male Republican candidates for President or any office.) They want white acceptance for themselves at any cost. Even though, at a MAGA rally, when a Black MAGA tried to enter, tried to be close to his idol, he was unceremoniously removed. His idol never acknowledged this pathetic person’s humiliation or any need for adoration from such. The Black MAGAs have to see this constant humiliation from their idol, but each of them think they are different and they will be blessed with a biscuit from their idol.
Some of the ones who are against abortion are also against a social safety net for the living. No food for the hungry, child or adult. No free lunches in school. No housing vouchers for the homeless. No medical care for the sick. Of course, whatever they need, the government should provide it at no cost to them. And corporate welfare is a given. But no tax dollars should be used to make life better for any individual…that’s socialism. For some reason, socialism is a dirty word, and the handouts to them are not called socialism, even though a rose is a rose by any other name… applies to that dirty word. They are hypocrites and always will be.
The President of Colombia had a great question for the United States…(https://youtu.be/bRWH5-k5Ilc?si=eR6rNtzo8yDJSvtQ) Why so much money for war and none for programs that would better the lives of the people of the U.S. and other countries? Especially when the United States has some culpability for the present state of many countries whose people are fleeing to the U.S.? Have you read The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein? The book details how the United States destroyed the economies of countries in Central and South America for the benefit of U.S. corporations. The U.S. used the same tactics world-wide. The peoples in those countries did not benefit. The countries’ wealth left and nothing has ever been returned to those countries. There is an old saying about the chickens coming home to roost. The rape and pillaging of those countries by the U.S. corporations, with the willing assistance of the government, is, in all probability, the root cause of their instability and the fleeing of their people to this country. For every action, there is a reaction…
A question–why do the Jews have a right to a country and the Palestinians do not? I haven’t heard a logical answer to that question. What I hear is the white propensity to win no matter the cost. Zero-sum, winner takes all is the mind-set of the Israelis. The Israelis do not appear to comprehend any circumstance or condition where both Israelis and Palestinians win.
In Mobile, even with Google, we made some wrong turns. We went through the Bankhead Tunnel which was somewhat claustrophobic and before that we went over the Cochraine-Africatown Bridge which seemed to go on forever. The Cochraine-Africatown Bridge is a suspension bridge and I’ve never been a fan of suspension bridges.
The museum’s landscaping, even at this time of the year, was a point of interest. There was a sign explaining the term “bioswale”. Bioswale is a low lying area that collects stormwater which will infiltrate back into the ground. This area is planted with trees and plants that will assist in detoxifying the water and provide habitat for wildlife. There was also an area planted with some of the indigenous trees and herbs that would have grown in the area in 1860 when the captured Africans landed in the Mobile area.
The Clotilda has been found (it was scuttled and burned) and it is being researched by archaeologists and some wood and iron pegs from the ship are preserved in the museum. Some of the captives who were sold in the Mobile area told their stories to the WPA in the 1930s and their stories have been preserved. That to me was the highlight of the tour, reading their stories. (I only listened to Cudjoe tell some of his story because the sound on my device was very faint.) https://www.npr.org/2021/12/22/1067078342/wreckage-of-last-slave-ship-clotilda-alabama
An aside…we don’t realize how few manufacturers there are of certain goods until the shelves in the grocery store are empty. Take the lack of bleach… A Clorox plant was cyber-hacked and not only was there no Clorox on the shelves, but no store or off brands. Because guess what, it’s all the same product in jugs with different labels. The label determines the price. I found out that fact about appliances and generic over the counter drugs, etc. years ago. Really brings it home when the shelves are empty because one production facility is off-line. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/18/business/clorox-cyberattack-production-disruption
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/army-corrects-records-of-110-black-soldiers-arrested-over-houston-riots/ar-AA1jSrf4?ocid=socialshare Story of Buffalo soldiers in Houston, Texas who were attacked by white barbarians and defended themselves. The soldiers were unjustly court-marshaled and some were even sentenced to death. It is always good to hear that an injustice has been corrected. However, lives cruelly shortened because of the injustice can never be given back. That injustice can never be rectified.
We would have to tell those soldiers unjustly court marshaled and murdered that things have not changed that much. Even now, if we defend ourselves from white barbarism, we are the ones charged with a crime. See, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/montgomery-riverboat-co-captain-charged-with-assault-months-after-brawl/ar-AA1jCT07?ocid=socialshare, where the co-captain who was assaulted by a gang of white barbarians is being charged with third degree assault on the word of one of the white barbarians who attacked him. 1917 to 2023 and little has changed.
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