Ebenezer

Among the many tribes and people groups of world history, there is a tribe called “Israel”. They have a special place in history because their writers and prophets kept a lasting account, written in the Hebrew language, of events that had happened in ancient times. That long history includes a period of time in which they had found themselves in ancient Egypt, working as slaves for the Egyptians. But the Lord, the Creator, YWHW raised up a leader, Moses, to lead them out of Egypt and into a land that they would eventually establish as their own, and they had live according to the commandments that YWHW God was setting up for them.

But as it turned out, they had to fight for it. There were times when the fighting men of Israel were defeated in battle. Their enemies, the Philistines captured their Ark of their Covenant and held possession of the Ark for a while. But the blessing for Isreal that was connected with their Ark proved to be a tumorous curse upon the Philistines when they absconded it. It was too hot to handle, or something like that; they eventually figured out that the Ark was not meant for them, but for the people to whom it had been given. They were so freaked out that they returned the Ark, with additional gifts of gold, to the Israelites. The prophet Samuel erected a stone as a monument to commemorate the return of their sacred Ark of the Covenant. Samuel named it “Ebenezer”, a word that meant that the Lord had helped them in their hour of need. Meanwhile, back at the tranche of world history, about 3000 years went by. Along the way, African tribes were captured by enemies and sold as slaves to caucasian people who thought they were better than the black folk. This slavery holocaust went on for a few hundred years, most notably in the deep south of the United States. But some Americans discerned the injustice of slavery and mounted an abolitionist campaign to put a stop to it. Long story short; we Americans fought a civil war over it. During that war, President Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves. After a few years, the slavemasters lost the war and black folk were emancipated to enter into American society governance, everywhere from Maine to Texas, from Florida to Washington state and beyond. All along the way, Americans who had an understanding of the Lord’s commandments. . . the ten commandments, and Jesus’ commandment to “do unto others as you would have them do unto to you”. . . were establishing Christian churches everywhere in America. In the 20th century, Ebenezer Baptist Church was established as a prominent place of worship in Atlanta. Most of the congregation were black folk. Pastor Martin Luther King led the congregation in learning and fulfilling the Word of the Lord. In my lifetime, his son, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the pastor at Ebenezer.

In the present time, while reading Tavis Smiley’s book, “Death of a King”, I was wondering where that name “Ebenezer” came from. Looking into my Bible, I learned that the Hebrew prophet Samuel had erected a monumental stone and named it “Ebenezer” which means that the Lord, the Creator, had helped them in their time of need. In the history of the United States, the Lord helped black folk to break the chains of enslavement and establish themselves as citizens. About fifty years ago, I recorded a song about Moses and Martin going up to the mountaintop: Listen:

Real Republicans

We the people had hoped to form a nation in which political power rests with the people, not a king, nor an emperor, nor a fat cat. In the history of the world, about 160 sovereign states have identified themselves as a republic. The governance of an actual republic is fragile task; it has always been so. But history reveals that when fragility shatters republican governance, authoritarian rulers step into the halls of power and take charge. About 3000 years ago, a Greek philosopher introduced the idea of a Republic into the stream of human reason and public governance. About 2500 later, leaders in Rome identified their state as a republic. Magistrates were elected by the people. That arrangement lasted for about four centuries until Rome became an empire ruled by emperors. As European civilization metamorphicized over 17 or 18 centuries, The Roman republic was shattered by invasions from northern tribes that had very little comprehension of what a republic was. Europe itself became a hodgepodge of tribes, kingdoms, duchies and nations ruled by kings, queens, dukes, duchesses, earls and landholders whose wealth was sufficient to manifest their authority and prosperity without benefit of republican governance. All of that changed when Europeans discovered America. In the northern colonies, leaders put their heads together to establish a new republic, the United States of America. After they had fought a war to establish independence from the king of England and his soldiers, our founders declared themselves independent in 1776. At that time, the first American statesmen, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock et al. . . declared US independent of Great Britain. About five years later, they managed to write a constitution to identify, more clearly. what our nation would be and how we would govern ourselves. They were basing the project upon two similar, but different, ideas—a democracy and/or a republic. So they wisely constructed our government of the people, by the people in a tripartite arrangement of branches: legistlative, judicial, and executive. In our founders’ visionary construction of the legislative branch, they wisely established a House of Representatives and a Senate. The number of Representatives from any given state would be determined by the number of citizens of each respective state. The Senate, however, was composed of two senators from every state. Our government by the people is therefore a hybrid between a republic and a democracy, which is probably why our politics is divided into two main parties, Democrats and Republicans. But we did not have a Republican party until 1854, when Abraham Lincoln and some other wise leaders discerned. the need for a party to preserve the union of our states, during a time when the southern states were preparing to launch a rebellion so that the fat cat plantation owners could keep their slaves. (pic) Long story short, President Abraham Lincoln, the Republican party and the Union army launched a military rebuttal of the confederates’ attempt to withdraw from our United States of America. The rebels were scoring a few victories in battle until the battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That was the beginning of the end for the rebels.

On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln spoke his Gettysburg Address. He explained to the citizens there that the war was testing whether our nation, or any nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. . . can long endure.

In this day and time, as we witness the demise of the Republican party, let us hope and pray that the American people will find “a new birth of freedom”, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from our United States of America. This writer was born in 1951 in the deep south, where Medgar Evers was shot dead in his own front yard, where brother Martin led a parade of Americans from Selma to Montgomery and was put in jail. . . But now my testimony—and my hope— is that our nation of people who are equal in the eyes of our Creator and in the eyes of our democratic leaders shall not perish from the earth. Where are the real Republicans when we need them? Carey Rowland, citizen of the United States of America since 1951.

Those -isms

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.God created the heavens and the earth by his Word. He created men and women and He set within them the ability to speak. And speak, they did. But the homo sapiens were not as wise as their Creator. So when men began to collaborate in their earthly expeditions and constructions, they had trouble seeing eye to eye; they had difficulty in communications and often they would just end up babbling at one another. In the millennia of time since those early days, we’ve made som progress, but we still have some trouble seeing eye to eye; we still have trouble communicating. For instance, along the paths of human development, we see there are sparks of progress, but we also understand there are obviously some disagreements and glitches and issues that separate some groups of people from other groups of people. In the long development of the English language, we have certain phonemes that refer to similarities of meaning. One such phoneme is “-ism”. Consider, for instance, one of the earliest isms, “atheism”, which is the belief that there is a Creator God. Along with the emergence of atheism in human history, there was also the opposite: “theism”, which is the belief that there is a Creator God, and that God (YWHW) has created the world and all creatures and plants within it. . . and that, in the affairs of human history, the beliefs and doctrines that men and women have formed in order to explain their faith in God have taken different paths of belief and explanation and collaboration in the formation of different religions and different explanations about why we are here and what we are supposed to do.

In the 19th century, two new “isms” came to the forefront of human history. The first was Capitalism, which is the free exercise of power in human institutions to accumulate wealth, productivity and profitability. Capitalism was tooling along at a pretty good speed, when a wise guy, Karl Marx, came along and noticed that the benefits and advantages, and of course the profits, that the system had generated were mostly being taken up by the guys who were running the show, and not so much was going to the proletariat folks who were doing all the work. So Marx came up with the idea of Capitalism to explain the lopsided profitability of the Capitalist owner class, as compared to the working class. So the new idea that emerged was Socialism, wherein working folks should have a greater—a more appropriate— share of the profits and the benefits of capitalist industries and business. In the early 20th century, the extremists of socialist leadership moved into a higher theory, Communism, which the Russians utilized after they threw the Tsar out and enforced the dictates of Karl Marx theories of communism. In the 20th-century the communist nations of the world— mostly the Russians— were attempting to enforce a worldwide contention that communism should be the definitive standard for future progress. But that did not work out for them, because people in communist regimes were not going along with the program; so they rebelled and insisted on going back to, at least, some progresseive capitalist game plan. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, in the USA, capitalism was having a great run. Capitalists were king of the hill. . . J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, et al. The nation and the economy was running on pieces-of-eight cylinders. . . until October, 1929, when the all hell broke loose. In the Great Depression that followed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt injected a little bit of socialism into the capitalist juggernaut when he implemented his New Deal program. The New Deal worked well for the purposes that FDR and the Americans intended. In this writer’s lifetime, presidents of the USA have utilized both capitalist and socialist governmental programs to make sure that every American has a chance to at least get on the prosperity ladder, if not climb to the top of it. In our present whirlwind of political extremity, magamaniac fake conservatives vs. democratic moderates. . . the democrats want to enact programs whereby all Americans have at least a decent living, a place to live and a job to do. . . while fat cat “conservatives” produce ads on youtube or whatever ostensibly warning that “socialism” is like some big bad wolf that will eat up our nation’s gullible young people. Those fat cats who are freaking out do not understand the USA is united in our resolve to make the best of both capitalism and socialism, as Roosevelt and LBJ did, with the Great Society. All this brings us to the most practical, the most useful,”ism” of all: Realism! It takes all kinds of people to run a great nation, and all kinds of beliefs, faiths, strategies, tactics and politics to make the United States of America run on all cylinders.

Carey Rowland

The Party of Lincoln

Surf’s up!

As the spirit of US the People was moving over the surface of the electoral waters, a sea change took place; in Congress, blue majority now replaces red authority. In the cities and in the towns, through plains and mountains, up and down. . . good news on the doorstep. America can take a forward step. As in the earlier era, when prophet Bob sent out the message, with a little help from Peter, Paul and Mary, a new wind of fresh leadership brought forth a paradigm shift; the winds of change were strong and they were swift, as they are again, now. “Come senators, congressman, please heed the call; don’t stand in the doorway; don’t block out the hall, ‘cause the times they are a-changing” But be careful, all ye democratic leaders; don’t go power-hungry like the republican oligarch-feeders . Remember that We the People put you there in Congress, and We the People remain the strongest. Remember that the first Republican president was Abe Lincoln, a backwoods lawyer who spoke Emancipation, and Eisenhower had been a general who helped defeat the nazimania nation. The party of Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Eisenhower and Reagan must not be turned over to a make-believe pagan; the donald may be occupying the oval now, but the Presidency is an office that has proven to be beyond his decency grade. He’s just taking pot shots at Muslims, while the oligarchs are guzzlin’. His classified documents are hidden in a closet, while his fat cat cronies drink from our nation’s faucet. The words of the prophets are written on the peoples’ halls: come senators, congressmen, please heed the call; don’t stand in the doorway; don’t block out the hall. . .cuz the times they are changing, and this nation definitely needs some rearranging. With magamaniac republicans being flushed down the Congressional bowl, this may be the time to wipe the Republican rear guard clean . . . and restore to health and good will the Grand Old Party of Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and Eisenhower. Yeah, I say unto thee, we do need two parties in our United States America. I submit this opinion in the land of the free and the home of the brave, written by this registered Republican who did—truth be told—vote for a straight Democratic ticket. Listen and hear about Moses and Martin Luther King: Carey Rowland

Truth

Is it true that we live in the year 2026? Yes. If you are an American, we are living in the two thousand and twenty-sixth year after the birth of Jesus Christ. Why is our calendar begun at the supposed birthday of one man? Could it be that His birth was an event of such importance because He changed, for all time, the way men and women live and conduct their lives? There was a moment in time, probably in the year 33 A.D. when Jesus was hauled before a Roman emperor to be judged for causing a disturbance among the people in the Roman province of Judea. The encounter went something like this: “Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me; what have you done?” Jesus answered: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to my accusers; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this of this realm.” Pilate said: “So. . . you are a king?” Jesus replied: “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truthhears my voice.” Pilate said to Jesus: “What is truth?” Well that’s a good question. Is the sky blue? Well, no, not at night. Do hardwood trees have leaves? Yes, they have leaves, beginning in the spring; but in the fall the leaves fall, and eventually they crumble and deteriorate into the soil; then they provide a basis for other trees to grow and extend roots into earth that is millions of years old. It’s a little bit like the humans. We live and move and have our being for awhile, maybe 70 years. . . 80, 100, whatever. But then each life expires and goes down into the ground. Is it true that a Christian will arise to eternal life in heaven? So a man comes along and picks up a leaf; he finds it to be interesting; he takes a He sets it down on the floor in his living room.

Is that a wooden floor?” Well, no, it just looks like one. That floor is a synthetic plastic that is manufactured to look like wood. All that to say, we live in a real world where some things are truly what they appear to be. But there are other things that appear to be something that they are not. Consider the person who was occupying the oval office on January 6, 2021, trying to convince his Christian vice-president to go along with the plan to take over the government of the United States, illegally, by force. Vice President Pence did not go along with the magamaniac plan. He was a Christian whose deepest allegiance had been given to the One who stood before a Roman official and said, “My kingdom is not of this realm.” All that to say: If you call yourself a Christian, will you go with the One who chose the cross, rather than the crown? Will you go with the One who said that His kingdom is not of this world? Will you go with the One who made best use of that crucifixion to demonstrate that life does indeed go on after death? If you believe that, we’ve got some real estate in heaven that we will share. And that’s the Truth. I’m not kidding. To believe in the One who survived death itself is the most important choice you will ever make. And that’s the Truth! I’m not making this up. Travelers’ Rest Yours truly, Carey Rowland

Union

In 1972, I served as chairman of the LSU Student Union Speakers Committee.

I introduced the comedian Dick Gregory to an audience of 1400 people in the theatre. He spoke very convincingly to his listeners, making skilfull use of his humorous world view to explain and justify the plight of black folk to obtain justice and dignity in 20th-century America. Soon thereafter, I was approached by Mike Connelly, president of the local chapter of the Young Americans for freedom. He complained that our guest speakers were too liberal. It was a point well-taken, as we had brought in, not only Dick Gregory, but previously Dr. Spock, author of Baby and Child Care and Paul Goodwin, author of Growing Up Absurd. Conservatives of that mid-20th-century era had complained that the baby boomers, one of whom is this writer, were being spoiled, and that these two authors, Dr. Spock and Paul Goodwin, were largely responsible for our generation's turning out to be so contrary. . . preferring to identify with rock’n’rollers, hippies and protesters against the war in Vietnam. I understood Mike Connelly’s complaint; so I asked him to get William F. Buckley to come and speak to us at LSU.  Mr. Buckley was the founder of the National Review, a magazine that advocated for American conservatism in a way that was intellectually more appropriate and effective than the John Birch Society. William Buckley’s message to us college kids was appropriate and profound. I was glad that we had succeeded in recruiting him. The American deep South of that era was a culture very different from what it is today. We have come a long way in conducting a society that assures freedom and justice for all people.     President Abraham Lincoln’s leadership in the 1860’s was a decisive factor in our great American hope to establish freedom and justice for all. He was the author of the Emancipation Proclamation. His insistence  that we preserve our American freedom and justice for all citizens changed the course of history. As history unfolded, thousands of American soldiers fought to preserve the human rights of all Americans. Many of those soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice of life, demonstrating their last full measure of devotion. The Union of our people here has caused US  to remain, for wherever citizens gather to assure the American name, their is justice and favor for all those who are willing to act according to the all-American game, politics. Politics is better than insurrection. Like the ancient prophet Zechariah, we have two staffs in American politics: Favor and Union. Any citizen who does not find a favorable path to accomplish political goals can at least—it is their duty— cherish and respect the rights and privileges of all the rest of us to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And we can dream, as Paul Simon did. . . “and I dreamed I was flying; high up above. . . my eyes could clearly see the stature of Liberty. . .”

Liberty and Justice for All, the American dream: that’s what the Union of our citizens here has caused America to retain:  one nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all. Glass half-Full

The Circle Cycle

Will the cycle be unbroken, by and by, y’all, by and by? Is there a better destiny for our people in the times ahead, by ’n by? I was standing by my window on a November day, when I heard the news reported. . . the Democrats had taken the day

So magamania has been broken, yesterday, y’all, yesterday! Have our better angels prevailed to actually fulfill our audacity of hope? Has the nation gotten tired of watching fools glorify themselves trying to manipulate magamania? . . . as Jefferson was turning over in his grave? Maybe its curtains for the non-believers and men-stealers who been talking in the name of religion. Maybe it’s time the elephant party get back to the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto.

Will the cycle be unbroken, by and by, y’all, by and by? Undertaker, please drive slowly; undertaker please drive slow. That elephant party, you’re a carrying, I hate to see it go. I recalled the days long gone, when Honest Abe ran the show. He sent the soldiers into battle to free the slaves, to stop the desecration on rebelmania row. Yes magamania has been broken, yesterday. We say ‘byebye, bye ’n bye. Ya’all don’t come back now, y’hear? Underground Railroad Rides Again !