Juneteenth

 For the umpteenth time I been

try’n to tell you 

today and tomorrow

how we had to beg steal n borrow

for so long damn long

to right this wrong 

to make you understand

Garland had brought ole Abe’s command

to make you see the writing on the wall

that proclamation on the wall, y’all

that proclamation that sent out the call

Abrahamic exclamation that say stop to end it all.

Put an end to it yall!

For the umpteeth time, I say I say I say

Hey! bodies of enslaved people used

bodies whipped, scarred and abused

as collateral

for more chattel

like cattle

until the umpteenth generation

from away back there in Africa nation

and along the way in honky miscegenation

even unto Haitian liberation

and later Haley’s imagination

implanted in roots of captivity

bearing fruits of productivity

through blood and sweat and tears

with underground railroad gears

in defiance of mason-dixon fears.

Yet two and a half years after the fact

the end of slavery became at last an act

announced  belatedly to Texas blacks

in spite of obstructive Texas rangers

at Galveston by Major General Granger

when he brought news of emancipation

of Abe’s neglected proclamation

way back there on June 19th, 1865. 

Now it was time for blacks to thrive

‘though we be say’n it for the umpteenth time

folk didn’t know it ’til that Juneteenth sign

when Granger say You now be free

cuz You been free since ’63!

Underground Railroad Rides Again!

Glass half-Full

Your Friendly Neighborhood AI

I was bagging groceries at the A&P in 1968 when the movie theatre across the parking lot provided my first glimpse of the now-infamous AI.

The incredible dual prescience of author Arthur C. Clark and movie producer Stanley Kubrick was revealed when, in 1968, Kubrick produced the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Their combined human intelligence brought forth a portrait of an Artificial Intelligence movie character never before seen on the silver screen: Hal, the talking computer. 

In the movie, Hal was dutifully keeping a watchful eye of the the good ship, Discovery One, and crew. When Hal and Pilot/Scientist Dave Bowman have a little disagreement, we viewers catch a glimpse of Hal’s compassion-less, inhuman disregard for human life:   

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJ8cAGm6JE

This was our baby-booming introduction to the unprecedented character of Artificial Intelligence. It was not a favorable report. Hal’s cruel obsession with completing the mission provides the artificial intelligence rationale for the demise of crew members out there in the middle of nowhere!

But hey! That heartless glitch has been fixed. It’s all good now.

The good news is that AI’s obsession with duty is nowadays moderated with a humanitarian compassionate sensitivity! This news was brought to my attention by Amala Ekpunobi, through her Prager University podcast, Unapologetic Live in conversation with her Prager sidekick,Taylor. Check it out!:

https://www.prageru.com/video/has-google-created-a-sentient-ai?

Thanks for the good news, Amala! Keep up the good work.

Glass half-Full 

the January 6 Turnaround

 This is a sign for those who haven’t bothered to give attention to our Congress’ uncovering of the January-2021 attempt to overthrow our government. 

Just so you’ll know. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

According to testimony spoken yesterday, Thursday June 16, by Mr. Greg Jacob, Mike Pence’s lawyer, to our Congressional committee:

Our Vice President at that time, Mike Pence, was performing his Constitutional duty as President of the US Senate. His main duty on January 6 2021 was to supervise the counting of Electoral votes that had been delivered by the 50 State Legislatures to our Congress.

President Trump, assisted by Mr. John Eastman and other alleged conspirators, had devised a plan to convince Mike Pence to take it upon himself to reject some of the Electors who had been appointed by voters and officially certified by State Legislatures as Electors to elect the next President, either Donald Trump or Joseph Biden.

Mr. Greg Jacob, our Vice President’s lawyer, explained yesterday, June 16, 2022 that the Trumpian  plan consisted of two possible ways that Mike Pence could reject certain Electors who had been directed by the people of their respective states to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris instead of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

One plan was for Vice President Mike to simply take it upon himself to reject some of the duly-selected Electors and simply declare thereby that Trump and himself would be the winners of the 2020 election. This tactic is called the “plenary theory” of Vice Presidential authority. 

The other Trump plan was for Vice President to use the Electoral Act of 1887 as a supposedly legal basis to reject the duly-appointed Electors Republican legislators in certain battleground states. Instead of receiving those Electors, certain Republicans would appoint themselves as Electors.

It was a “coup in search of a legal theory.”

In a meeting with Trump on January 4, 2021, Mike Pence refused Donald Trump’s attempts to make him use this plan. As Mr. Jacob testified yesterday, Mike Pence “never wavered” from his resolve to do his Constitutional duty.

Even so, on that day and the next day, January 5, Trump did not relent on his effort to persuade and intimidate Mike Pence into stealing the election from us, the American people.

Mr. Jacob testified yesterday that the last Trump/Pence conversation about this disagreement took place on January 5 at 2:44 pm. Trump’s attempt to persuade his VP to do the wrong thing had failed. 

From that time on, as everybody knows, Trump spoke publicly to his gathering hordes of proud boys and oathkeepers and other f-swearing rioters, insisting that he would not like Pence any more if Pence did not buckle under to his plan to overthrow the government of our United States.

So big deal. Donald doesn’t like me any more. What else is new?

At 2:13 pm, January 6, those violent rioters broke into the Capitol and attempted to prevent our Senators and Representatives from performing their duty to accept the decisions of the States to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The law-hating mob were also chanting “Hang Mike Pence” while some person or two among them erected a gallows with a noose by which they would hang Pence if they got half a chance. 

During that time, Trump was declaring that Pence did not have the courage to do what Donald had wanted him to do. 

But in fact, Mike Pence had risked his life to do the right thing. He had, in fact, performed his duty as Vice President of the United States. 

His courage is, in fact, worthy of our respect. That is why I am recalling to you what I saw in House Select Committee video yesterday.

During that riotous Jan6 insurrection, the Secret Service protectors scuttled Pence and others with him to a secure underground location. While they were down there, his protectors offered to deliver him away from the Capitol complex to an even safer location. They wanted to drive him away from the place where he had a sacred duty to perform.

But Mike Pence declined their offer. He was determined to do his duty. As far as he was concerned, it was not only a Constitutional duty, but a sacred duty laid upon him by the Lord whose purposes he had always strived to fulfill. Mike Pence is a believer, not a puppet.

They stayed in that safe place for the next  4 1/2 hours.

Here’s a note for all ye Dems out there who think that Trump and his legions of lawbreakers have some kind of hold on Bible-thumping Christians.

 Greg Jacob, friend and Counsel to Mike Pence in that safe underground location, testifies how his faith in God sustained his, and Mike Pence’s, understanding of the spiritual, political and cultural warfare that had happened that fateful day, January 6, 2021. While reading his Bible there, in that secure location beneath the Capitol, Greg Jacob explained:

  “Daniel 6 is where I went . . . Daniel has (had) become the second-in-command of Babylon, a pagan nation, but he completely, faithfully serves. He refuses any order from the king that he cannot follow, and he does his duty, consistent with his oath to God. I felt that that was what had played out, that day.”

A few minutes later in the June 16 hearings, the House Select Committee showed a clip in which Marc Short, Pence’s Chief of Staff, had testified that later . . . “At 3:50 in the morning, when we finally headed our ways, I remember texting the Vice President a verse from the biblical 2nd Timothy letter chapter 4, verse 7:

“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.” 

And that, my fellow Americans, is what Vice President Mike Pence had done in order to deliver our democratic republic from lawless tyranny on January 6, 2021.

Thus we see that the trump conspiracy has not taken control of so-called evangelical christianity, but that Mike Pence's Christian conscience compelled his resolve to do the right thing on January 6, 2021. His courage and patiently resolute action delivered us from anarchy, confusion and destructive treason.

You can thank God for deliverance. God bless America.

Glass half-Full

Prince of Peace

 There are two main reasons why Jesus Christ is called by his followers, with me included, the Prince of Peace.

The first reason is that if you accept Him as your spiritual guide, as the one whose victory over death is historical proof that He can save you and me from eternal death, after death, and deliver you instead into Life after death. 

The second reason is that Christ was a strong advocate for actual Peace, in the worldly sense, as opposed to violence and malevolence.

Jesus demonstrated this principle in a way that would be perpetually remembered in the gospel account of his life and death. On the night that his last, ultimately fatal, ordeal began, He was with his disciples in a garden when, according to his disciple, Matthew . . .

". . . Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs  . . . (sound familiar?) . . . Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.

"And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

"Then Jesus said to him: 'Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword."

Furthermore:

Jesus is well known among millions of people throughout history and throughout this present world for his teachings on peace and non-violence. Here are just a few of the principles of peace for which, in Matthew 5, he advocated:

" Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . Blessed are those mourn . . . Blessed are the gentle, the meek . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right . . . Blessed are the merciful . . . Blessed are the pure in heart . . . Blessed are peacemakers . . . Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of what is right . . . Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

". . . I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You are good for nothing' shall be guilty before the supreme court . . ."

Now I must point out that Christ's teaching presents no advocacy for this contemporary crop of insurrectionists, riotous traitors and murderers and their unprincipled leaders.

 

Christ was a leader who demanded that his right-hand-man put away the sword, when authorities came to arrest Him.

Before that incident Christ had consistently taught: Blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are the meek, and turn the other cheek when someone attacks you.

 

Christ (that's "Christ" as in "Christian") was no advocate for the Jan6 riot in which f-word-chanting murderers wanted to hang the Vice-President of the United States, a man whose Christian faith reinforced his Christian conscience on that pivotal day,  so that . . . Mike did the right thing and thus rescued our nation from violence and criminality that might have sparked another civil war.

Bottom line: Christ was no fascist ; Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

You should comprehend that truth, no matter what the riotous traitors claim about their so-called religion.

Instead of rioting to destroy the Constitution and the Capitol of our United States, believers in Jesus Christ ought to be declaring praise and honor in the name of the Prince of Peace.

 

Glass half-Full

Our Vast Plastic Trash

 Although I have lived in the Blue Ridge now for far longer than that long-ago past when I grew up, down in Louisiana . . . where, as TonyJoe White sang, "the alligators grow so mean," I still remember the bayou state with fond memories. I remember those moss-laden bayous where my dad and I, or my brother and I, would drift in the old "johnboat" in search of the elusive sac-a-lait and brim, and maybe haul out a net or two of them crawfish.

In those still, swampy waters, water quality is a delicate balance between what God and the mighty Mississippi hath bestowed in that great delta alluvial mouth and what we mortals have cast into it.

I was reminded of this today when I was reading about Dave Rivers and Trey Dennis in the New York Times

Just over the state line in Texas is a very big city called Houston. To be honest with you, I never thought much of the place, but today I had to give them some credit for hiring these two brave citizens, Dave and Trey, whose job it is to clean everybody else's friggin throwaway mess on a bayou that runs right through the city of Houston. 

Here's the comment that I wrote after reading about that very important work that Dave and Trey are doing. . . work that we should all be minimizing by proper disposal at our myriad-millions points of consumption:

These men are angels, doing the dirty work that we should all be doing.

We hear so much nowadays about climate change, carbon emissions and global warming.  These problems are global in scale and should be remedied by laws and through public education.

But what about this plastic and throwaway trash that would actually be easier to properly dispose, if laws were passed accordingly, and we Americans could collectively begin solving theproblem by passing laws to control disposal, placing the responsibility squarely on each citizen, and . . .

building new industries to convert these supposedly neutral substances, which are actually lethal to our wildlife and ecosystem. . . converting them to useful products such as lawn furniture, parking lot bumpers, street signs and God-only-knows what else.

And speaking of God, let us proclaim God bless America, but even more importantly that that blessing is this entreaty:

God help us clean up the mess we have made and are still making every day, until we finally acquire the commonsense to quit trashing our planetary home.

And God bless Trey Dennis and Dave Rivers!

Glass half-Full

Anthem for our National Capitol

Sing the anthem with our national melody from the National Anthem:

Oh say can you see, in the 2021 light 
What we so proudly maintained 
after a riotous fight. 
That broad dome and wide steps 
through the perilous fight 
O’er the barricades we watched 
was so gallantly retained! 
As our Congress did dare, with teargas in the air, 
giving proof through the fight 
that our Congress was still there; 
O say does that Capitol Congress remain 
with our Presidency, 
o’er the land of the free, Democracy!

Listen: Star-Spangled Capitol

Glass half-Full 

Overcoming Dirty Tricks

After reading an article this morning about the dirty tricks that Richard Nixon used to fortify his political ambitions, I remembered that I had written a song that mentions, in the third verse,  the aforesaid “dirty tricks” of tricky dick. 

In that song about my g-generation, I composed four verses, one verse about each decade of our boomer baby shared experience. 

Not intending to dis those earliest boomers who popped out in the ’40’s, I nevertheless began my song with a verse about the 1950’s, because I was born in ’51. It goes on from there with a verse about the ’60’s, then the ’70’s and  the’80’s. The last verse lumps the ’90’s and the ’00’s together because I was confused when when I was singing it. (It was a confusing time).

Perhaps you would be interested in hearing it: Boomer’s Choice

A couple of years ago, we Americans suffered an onslaught of dirty tricks of a different kind. You can hear my musical account of those destructive attacks, here: Star-spangled Capitol

As it turned out, this song borrows the melody from our national anthem, because the anthem emphasizes the role of some valiant public servants whose heroic action prevented the downfall of our Rule of Law. 

 I hope you don’t mind,  I hope you don’t mind, that I put down in words . . . how wonderful life is when you live in a functional democratic republic.  

A republic, as Ben had said, if we can keep it!

And as Jim Croce once sang: I’ve got a song; if it takes me nowhere, I’ll go there proud. 

I hope you will hear it, and may the bird of freedom fly up your flagpole.

Glass half-Full