I took this picture this past summer. The year before I sowed some marigold seeds in a raised bed and nothing happened. This past summer, I decided to let the weeds have their day in the sun. In the midst of the weeds, these marigolds brightened the green tangle.
I want to talk a bit about a civil rights icon whom everyone knows. Rosa Parks. Did you know she was featured on an episode of Dr. Who, the British science fiction show? Nothing new was in the show. I was surprised that the British would be interested in Rosa Parks. However, what I want to talk about is her courage. Did you know that her actions on that evening had been meticulously planned by, I believe, a coalition of civil rights groups that were active in Montgomery? So, Rosa Parks knew that her act of civil disobedience could lead to her being bloodied or murdered, yet she did it anyway. There was no guarantee that when Rosa Parks was arrested and placed in the police car that she would make it to the jail to be booked and charged. A lot of what we call courage is spontaneous reaction to a situation that was chanced upon or happened to occur in our presence. No forethought; just reaction.
That is a kind of courage, but true courage is when you know your actions can cause you harm and you do it anyway. That is what Rosa Parks did and a shout out to her for her “true courage” on that evening of December 1, 1955.
I rewatched some episodes of “Star Gate”. I always thought that Teal’c represented us Black folks, but he couldn’t be from Earth. You know, a character who looks Black, but who is not Black because he is an alien. I rationalized it as white people think of us as aliens, so to them it makes sense. But now I notice that all those worlds; all with white people in control. What a statement! Especially, knowing the population of this Earth, most people enslaved by the false gods would have been Brown or Black. But most of the Earthlings encountered are clearly white and in control. (Maybe the Black and Brown people fought against the false gods and won. False gods want those who will cause the least trouble. Maybe we were deemed too much trouble!)
What a powerful subliminal message to white people and all the “Others”. White dominance is inevitable no matter when or where. If you remember, “Star Wars” had to be shamed into adding a Black character–Lando Calrissian. I read and watch a lot of science fiction, but I have always maintained a jaundiced eye toward the inevitable subliminals that foster white supremacy.
And, in reality, logically, whites are the group less likely to survive in outer space and on alien planets because of their lack of melanin. But, we live in a world enamored with white supremacy and the media reflect that.
Seneca–Religion is considered by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the ruler as useful.
Mark Twain–Religion was invented when the first con met met the first fool.
Karl Marx–Religion is the opiate of the masses.
George Orwell–Sugarcandy Mountain–a heaven invented by a con man to soothe one into acceptance of one’s present oppression which cannot be changed or overthrown, but throws one the bone of a future edenic place waiting for one when one dies if one acquiesces to and/or promotes the oppression.
Me–Pulpit Pounders: society’s sanctioned drug dealers.
Let me make very clear–Tennessee is a racist state, always has been and it will, in all probability, not change in my lifetime. Something that I have always understood about Tennessee–the rural areas are a swamp, a miasma, a cesspool of no and mis-education, generational ignorance, white supremacy, klan activity, ill-health-mental and physical, self-righteous anger toward all the wrong targets, and a hatred of Black people (and really anyone who is not like them–in thought and physiology).
That the Tennessee legislature would honor a white Grammy winner and not a Black Grammy winner is par for the course. Before #45, there was a pretense, a veneer of bare toleration. Now, the pretense and the veneer are no more.
There is no where in Tennessee that is completely safe, however, the enclaves in the major metropolitan areas offer some respite. Memphis is majority Black. I lived there. The Black residents are divided by class and white machinations. (Whites control the money.) Also, the schools have failed and are failing the children. Somewhere, somehow, teaching reading and math has become too difficult. Solution? Pass them to the next grade! And writing? Let’s not talk about substance when, at some point, cursive writing was deleted from the curriculum.
When I lived in Memphis, there were entire census tracts in Memphis where the majority of residents received governmental assistance as their only source of income. It was not always that way. Before the manufacturing plants left, Memphis had a thriving Black middle class. And, then, in less than a decade, there were very few middle class paying jobs left. Part time jobs with no benefits, e.g., Fed Ex, the IRS, etc. replaced those manufacturing jobs with benefits.
Nashville has Fisk, Meharry, Tennessee State (the same legislature that refused to honor the Black Grammy award winner is trying to destroy Tennessee State), and the American Baptist College. Knoxville had the TVA and Knoxville College (I’m using the past tense because in the 1980’s? TVA laid off many of its employees and Knoxville College is struggling, if not already closed.). Jackson has Lane College. Blacks live in Chattanooga, but there are and were no major Black educational institutions in Chattanooga. However, there are two wealthy white majority suburbs of Chattanooga–Signal Mountain and Lookout Mountain. I don’t know this, but I would bet that many in the Black community were employed in those suburbs.
So, there are pockets of Black affluence, but most of us are just getting by…paycheck to paycheck or government assistance or the gig economy. Tennessee is mostly rural, so the caliber and character of Tennessee’s representatives leave much to be desired. On the state level, some years ago, some Tennesseans actually elected a state legislator who was incarcerated. Look up Tommy Burnett in Wikipedia or https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2009/sep/18/former-tenn-house-leader-once-elected-in-prison-dies//print Excerpt: Burnett was House majority leader when he pleaded guilty to a federal tax charge in 1982. Popular in his Cumberland Plateau district, he easily won re-election from his prison cell. That should tell you all you need to know about voters in rural Tennessee.
(https://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-state-president-maps-next-201828248.html–This article highlights some of the issues facing Tennessee State)
FYI for those who want to know more about President Biden’s accomplishments:
And the shootings continue–Super bowl celebration, high school in Georgia, and others. I read that the NRA has continuing internal troubles and its former CEO is on trial. But the harm it has done and continues to do in promoting gun ownership will be ongoing.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. Quote from the poet Rumi.
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