From Wikipedia:
The three-fifths ratio was not a new concept. It originated with a 1783 amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation. The amendment was to have changed the basis for determining the wealth of each state, and hence its tax obligations, from real estate to population, as a measure of ability to produce wealth.
The proposed ratio was, however, a ready solution to the impasse that arose during the Constitutional Convention. In that situation, the alignment of the contending forces was the reverse of what had obtained under the Articles of Confederation. In amending the Articles, the North wanted slaves to count for more than the South did, because the objective was to determine taxes paid by the states to the federal government. In the Constitutional Convention, the more important issue was representation in Congress, so the South wanted slaves to count for more than the North did.
The three-fifths ratio, or "Federal ratio" had a major effect on pre-Civil War political affairs due to the disproportionate representation of slaveholding states. For example, in 1793 slave states would have been apportioned 33 seats in the House of Representatives had the seats been assigned based on the free population; instead they were apportioned 47. In 1812, slaveholding states had 76 instead of the 59 they would have had; in 1833, 98 instead of 73. As a result, southerners dominated the Presidency, the Speakership of the House, and the Supreme Court in the period prior to the Civil War.
Free and Slave Population of the Southern Confederacy
The first number is the year
then the white population
then the slave population
1790
1,240,454
654,121
1800
1,691,892
851,532
1810
2,118,144
1,103,700
1820
2,867,454
1,509,904
1830
3,614,600
1,983,860
1840
4,601,873
2,481,390
1850
6,184,477
3,200,364
1860
8,036,700
3,950,511
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Forces of Abolition and Feminism Unite to Redefine America
One of the interesting aspects of the abolition movement is how much information was shared between England and the United States, as well as the small, chummy cadre of leaders that all seemed to know/relate to/work with and coordinate their efforts with one another.
There was the great Quaker religion. The only religious body on American soil to institutionalize immediate abolition and equality of race as part of their doctrine. There was Anthony Benezet, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, Wendell Phillips, Calvin Stowe, Mary Birkett Card, Frederick Douglass, Susan & Angelina Grimke, Arthur & Lewis Tappan, Lane Seminary (lead by Calvin Stowe), Oberlin College, Charles Grandison Finney, Charles Stuart, Benjamin Lundy, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and numerous other societies, institutions and political supporters, not to forget the age of Enlightenment and enlightenment philosophers,and noted British Scientist such as Chalres Darwin and Adam Smith.
Angelina & Susan Grimke, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Maria Weston Chapman, Lidia Maria Child, Lucy Stone, Catherine Beecher & Susan B. Anthony all began initially as outspoken women, who were active in their community, who had fought for their own education, and had found in Abolitionism a calling, which evolved into their realization that women, needed to fight for the same rights as the enslaved class following on the heels of emancipation.
The major blow to slavery in England, was felled in the most major way through an ordinance clerk named Granville Sharp who took it upon himself to determine that slavery was illegal on British soil.
he studied the law and presented his case to Baron Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice. The case involved a slave by the name of James Somerset, who was a slave in Virginia brought to England by his master and who ran away rather than to be sold back into slavery in Jamaica. His master had caught him. The issue was, Since there was no slavery in Britain, could he be held as a slave and considered a slave? Sharpe felt the conclusion was unavoidably "no". with no statutes on the books, there could be no debate between the rights of personal property and the rights of individual freedom.
At this time there were 20,000 slaves worth a considerable amount of money (700 pounds sterling). As stated in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mid-Nineteenth Century United States'by Moira Davison Reynolds (p72), "Mansfield hesitated for months; as Abraham Lincoln would be later..."
he rendered his decision:
The second and final death knell for British Slavery was struck by William Wilberforce up until 1825 and continued by Thomas Fowell Buxon. In 1833 a law was passed to free all slaves in the British colonies after a five- to seven-year period of apprenticeship, with "compensation" to their masters. Wilberforce died 2 days before the vote.
Charles Darwin had written, "It makes one's blood boil ... that we Englishmen and our American descendants with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty."
Theodore Dwight Weld was founded by Charles Stuart and emboldened by Finney, and financed by the Tappans. The famous Lane Seminary debates took place while Calvin Stowe (Harriet's husband) was head of divinity and her father (Lynam Beecher) was the President. The Tappans financed Lane and later Oberlin. Theodore Weld married Susan Grimke. The Grimke sisters wrote for the Liberator with Garrison, and were trained by Weld. It was a small fraternity and leadership cadre of committed revolutionaries, -White revolutionaries.
These folks guided by their conscience and their religious understanding, fought against the system of slavery and the nation that backed it, eventually pushing the nation into an unavoidable war to settle the matter.
In the past, I had naively thought that these abolitionist, being White, had stuck their necks out "when they didn't have to". But after reading about them, their influences, their passions, their actions, I can see that their actions were as immediate, vital and essential to their persons as breathing, or loving their own children. for them, there certainly was no option to turn a blind eye to the system of slavery which brought so much fell doom to this nation.
What abolitionist did, as well as feminist was to no less than fundamentally redefine America, what an American was, and to redefine the role and status of women and the African American.
The civil war, despite the propaganda of the north to "preserve the union" was the union splitting in two. What if the south had won? They would have been allowed to become a separate and distinct nation. Slavery would have thrived for many more years, possibly decades. If and when emancipation occurred, imagine the impact of a southern confederacy upon the development and rights of the African-American? To this day, the voting rights act of 1964 is needed to ensure federal oversight of the African-American right to vote in several notorious southern states.
Would free blacks have been allowed to stay in the south? what would the jail and prison population of the south look like? Without the vast infusion of Northerner money to spur the development of southern historically black colleges and universities, what would the state of black education look like?
And had the south won the war, would any anti-slavery southerners have remained? or would they have fled north? once again, making the condition of black slaves and free blacks all the more bleak and dire.
The abolitionist played a key role in redefining America as well as playing a vital role in creating the moral grounds for the urgent need to not only fight the south, but to take it over and to transform it into a land of the free, while also purging the north from their remnants of racism and discrimination.
Another aspect of the abolitionist/feminist struggle concerned colonization. The vast majority of blacks were against the establishment of an African homeland for repatriated slaves. They believed, as did many whites that Blacks, having been born on American soil, were true Americans. Others articulated a moral and ethical responsibility to provide for the education and integration of Blacks as just and right. Harriet Beecher Stowe raises the issue of reparations in her, 'A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Some whites and blacks were in favor of a black homeland in the interest of independence,and the right to build a republic unfettered by the chains of slavery past and the encumbrances of being a minority within this nation.
The vast majority of abolitionist who favored colonization, soon changed their tune. The battle cry for "immediate" emancipation did not allow for a protracted resettlement. African-Americans were just that, African, and American.
The revolutionary spirit of abolitionist should not be diminished. their role in the struggle, can not be seen as peripheral. They molded and shaped the parameters of the conflict, and in their writings and speeches, articulated some of the most revolutionary and humanist ideas. The redefined freedom, equality, the labor movement. The civil rights movement of the 1865 has a direct line of lineage to women's suffrage, the civil rights movement of 1965, to finish unfinished business, and the movement for Asian, native American and gay rights.
Prior to the intercession of the abolitionist, the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal" only applied to 11 million of the 30 million people who were in America. for half were women, who were not included in the term, "All men" for they had limited rights to property (all of their posessions and inheritance would pass to their husbands if they were married, or upon marriage) and had no right to suffrage. 4 million were slaves, who, as slaves were not considered Americans, and barely considered human, and had no rights to property, suffrage, or to testify or bring suit in a court of law. Other free blacks in the south, were not allowed to vote. many blacks in the north were also not allowed to vote. Their property and persons subject to the rule of the mob.
The U.S. constitution allowed the international slave trade for 20 years past 1776, and allowed it to flourish within the borders of the United States ad infinitum. Slaves, although not allowed to vote, were allowed to be counted as 3/5th their total to determine congressional representation, forever giving the south an additional, inflated political power because they were slave holders. The 3/5th clause alone in 1850 free white population was 6,184,477. The Slave population was
3,200,364 or gave the south the power of an additional 25% of their population. As an example of the gained political strength of the south, in 1833, they had 98 representatives in Congress, vs. the 73 they would have had, if slaves were not counted.
[In 1860, South Carolina 57% of the population was slave; Mississippi 55%; Louisiana 47%; Alabama 45%; Florida & Georgia 43%; North Carolina 33%; Texas & Virginia 30%, with nearly a half-million slaves in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina]
It is particularly disturbing, that despite the fact that the south lost the war, that in American History classes, children are routinely taught about the United States Constitution and the Declaration of independence, in all it's glorious hypocrisy, without ever mentioning the fact that slavery, torture, sale and murder of human beings were all encompassed and allowed under these wonderful documents of confederation.
Black history, is American history. American history, without the nexus of Black history, is fiction, and as such, the forgotten, and overlooked chapter of Abolitionism, is one of the most important stories and movements in the history of the United States. It redefined a nation, broke it apart and put it back together again.
There was the great Quaker religion. The only religious body on American soil to institutionalize immediate abolition and equality of race as part of their doctrine. There was Anthony Benezet, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, Wendell Phillips, Calvin Stowe, Mary Birkett Card, Frederick Douglass, Susan & Angelina Grimke, Arthur & Lewis Tappan, Lane Seminary (lead by Calvin Stowe), Oberlin College, Charles Grandison Finney, Charles Stuart, Benjamin Lundy, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and numerous other societies, institutions and political supporters, not to forget the age of Enlightenment and enlightenment philosophers,and noted British Scientist such as Chalres Darwin and Adam Smith.
Angelina & Susan Grimke, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Maria Weston Chapman, Lidia Maria Child, Lucy Stone, Catherine Beecher & Susan B. Anthony all began initially as outspoken women, who were active in their community, who had fought for their own education, and had found in Abolitionism a calling, which evolved into their realization that women, needed to fight for the same rights as the enslaved class following on the heels of emancipation.
The major blow to slavery in England, was felled in the most major way through an ordinance clerk named Granville Sharp who took it upon himself to determine that slavery was illegal on British soil.
he studied the law and presented his case to Baron Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice. The case involved a slave by the name of James Somerset, who was a slave in Virginia brought to England by his master and who ran away rather than to be sold back into slavery in Jamaica. His master had caught him. The issue was, Since there was no slavery in Britain, could he be held as a slave and considered a slave? Sharpe felt the conclusion was unavoidably "no". with no statutes on the books, there could be no debate between the rights of personal property and the rights of individual freedom.
At this time there were 20,000 slaves worth a considerable amount of money (700 pounds sterling). As stated in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mid-Nineteenth Century United States'by Moira Davison Reynolds (p72), "Mansfield hesitated for months; as Abraham Lincoln would be later..."
he rendered his decision:
Is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from this decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by he law of England. And therefore the black must be discharged.
The second and final death knell for British Slavery was struck by William Wilberforce up until 1825 and continued by Thomas Fowell Buxon. In 1833 a law was passed to free all slaves in the British colonies after a five- to seven-year period of apprenticeship, with "compensation" to their masters. Wilberforce died 2 days before the vote.
Charles Darwin had written, "It makes one's blood boil ... that we Englishmen and our American descendants with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty."
Theodore Dwight Weld was founded by Charles Stuart and emboldened by Finney, and financed by the Tappans. The famous Lane Seminary debates took place while Calvin Stowe (Harriet's husband) was head of divinity and her father (Lynam Beecher) was the President. The Tappans financed Lane and later Oberlin. Theodore Weld married Susan Grimke. The Grimke sisters wrote for the Liberator with Garrison, and were trained by Weld. It was a small fraternity and leadership cadre of committed revolutionaries, -White revolutionaries.
These folks guided by their conscience and their religious understanding, fought against the system of slavery and the nation that backed it, eventually pushing the nation into an unavoidable war to settle the matter.
In the past, I had naively thought that these abolitionist, being White, had stuck their necks out "when they didn't have to". But after reading about them, their influences, their passions, their actions, I can see that their actions were as immediate, vital and essential to their persons as breathing, or loving their own children. for them, there certainly was no option to turn a blind eye to the system of slavery which brought so much fell doom to this nation.
What abolitionist did, as well as feminist was to no less than fundamentally redefine America, what an American was, and to redefine the role and status of women and the African American.
The civil war, despite the propaganda of the north to "preserve the union" was the union splitting in two. What if the south had won? They would have been allowed to become a separate and distinct nation. Slavery would have thrived for many more years, possibly decades. If and when emancipation occurred, imagine the impact of a southern confederacy upon the development and rights of the African-American? To this day, the voting rights act of 1964 is needed to ensure federal oversight of the African-American right to vote in several notorious southern states.
Would free blacks have been allowed to stay in the south? what would the jail and prison population of the south look like? Without the vast infusion of Northerner money to spur the development of southern historically black colleges and universities, what would the state of black education look like?
And had the south won the war, would any anti-slavery southerners have remained? or would they have fled north? once again, making the condition of black slaves and free blacks all the more bleak and dire.
The abolitionist played a key role in redefining America as well as playing a vital role in creating the moral grounds for the urgent need to not only fight the south, but to take it over and to transform it into a land of the free, while also purging the north from their remnants of racism and discrimination.
Another aspect of the abolitionist/feminist struggle concerned colonization. The vast majority of blacks were against the establishment of an African homeland for repatriated slaves. They believed, as did many whites that Blacks, having been born on American soil, were true Americans. Others articulated a moral and ethical responsibility to provide for the education and integration of Blacks as just and right. Harriet Beecher Stowe raises the issue of reparations in her, 'A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Some whites and blacks were in favor of a black homeland in the interest of independence,and the right to build a republic unfettered by the chains of slavery past and the encumbrances of being a minority within this nation.
The vast majority of abolitionist who favored colonization, soon changed their tune. The battle cry for "immediate" emancipation did not allow for a protracted resettlement. African-Americans were just that, African, and American.
The revolutionary spirit of abolitionist should not be diminished. their role in the struggle, can not be seen as peripheral. They molded and shaped the parameters of the conflict, and in their writings and speeches, articulated some of the most revolutionary and humanist ideas. The redefined freedom, equality, the labor movement. The civil rights movement of the 1865 has a direct line of lineage to women's suffrage, the civil rights movement of 1965, to finish unfinished business, and the movement for Asian, native American and gay rights.
Prior to the intercession of the abolitionist, the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal" only applied to 11 million of the 30 million people who were in America. for half were women, who were not included in the term, "All men" for they had limited rights to property (all of their posessions and inheritance would pass to their husbands if they were married, or upon marriage) and had no right to suffrage. 4 million were slaves, who, as slaves were not considered Americans, and barely considered human, and had no rights to property, suffrage, or to testify or bring suit in a court of law. Other free blacks in the south, were not allowed to vote. many blacks in the north were also not allowed to vote. Their property and persons subject to the rule of the mob.
The U.S. constitution allowed the international slave trade for 20 years past 1776, and allowed it to flourish within the borders of the United States ad infinitum. Slaves, although not allowed to vote, were allowed to be counted as 3/5th their total to determine congressional representation, forever giving the south an additional, inflated political power because they were slave holders. The 3/5th clause alone in 1850 free white population was 6,184,477. The Slave population was
3,200,364 or gave the south the power of an additional 25% of their population. As an example of the gained political strength of the south, in 1833, they had 98 representatives in Congress, vs. the 73 they would have had, if slaves were not counted.
[In 1860, South Carolina 57% of the population was slave; Mississippi 55%; Louisiana 47%; Alabama 45%; Florida & Georgia 43%; North Carolina 33%; Texas & Virginia 30%, with nearly a half-million slaves in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina]
It is particularly disturbing, that despite the fact that the south lost the war, that in American History classes, children are routinely taught about the United States Constitution and the Declaration of independence, in all it's glorious hypocrisy, without ever mentioning the fact that slavery, torture, sale and murder of human beings were all encompassed and allowed under these wonderful documents of confederation.
Black history, is American history. American history, without the nexus of Black history, is fiction, and as such, the forgotten, and overlooked chapter of Abolitionism, is one of the most important stories and movements in the history of the United States. It redefined a nation, broke it apart and put it back together again.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Melville J. Herskovits
Melville Jean Herskovits
Honestly, I don't know anything about this guy, but I read a few things and thought his life was notable, and his work, laudable, so I'm going to take the opportunity to draw some broad strokes, which may be completely off base in his praise. It may be the case that he was an accidental racist. he may have damaged the cause of Blacks. He may have harbored horrible opinions, but I don't think so. From what I have gathered in my cursory summary and investigation, the net effect of Herkovits was positive.
The fact that he was a White man and he was the first professor to head an African Studies department, could be viewed with skepticism and deridement. However, this may not be the most prudent course. it seems to me that he was earnestly and responsibly interested in African as well as African-American culture as well as fascinated by the African Diaspora. It is based upon these threads and beliefs that i will engage in some discussion, and speculation about the contributions and ideas of Melville Herskovits.
A truly great and pioneering individual. He achieved a great amount of work in his life and helped to humanize all peoples through the recognition of their common humanity, which further defined and refined one another through their shared understanding.
In reading about him, I found that several years back, I'd reached the same conclusion that he'd reached concerning the American 'Negro', which is, The American Negro need not look to Africa for direction, or definition of self. For in America, their culture had become amazingly relevant and specific to their needs. In their shaping, in what was kept, in what persisted, in what had been lost, they had formed a culture uniquely American, and appropriate to their situation. The "Myth of the Negro Past" as explored by Herskovits, whose thesis is that the negro does have a past, illustrates that the past can inform, and provide vital clues to the current state of Black culture. This may sound contradictory, yet the difference between what Herskovits and Dubois and Carter G. Woodson believed, was that Dubois and Woodson held a much more romantic view towards black history. they were concerned with the uplift of the Black population. They believed that the Black American could achieve and learn from European Culture, but ultimately, that the Negro was wholly separate.
The subtlety once again as eludicated by Herkovits, is that he saw the interchange and and adoption of Eurocentric values, as a natural process of cultural assimilation... a process which had been going on throughout the world and throughout cultures.
Herskovits believed that cultures are defined by the stress and strain through a process of change, or huge culturally impacting event, such as the African Diaspora. And finally, Herskovits believed that Cultures are as much influenced and fluid in how they change, as much as how they remain the same, and that all areas of culture, from music, religion, economics, family structure, langage, traditions.. are important in the overall as well as specific analysis.
As Herkovits delved into Black culture, he gradually began to look more like Dubois and Woodson in his beliefs. He also believed that the uplift of the people and culture, vs. academic understanding, was a major influence and motivation in his studies.
In any event, the addition of Herkovits, a trained anthropologist into the discussion of black culture, was a welcome counterpoint to the prevailing opinions of the day. As is often the case, W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, John Hope Franklin Herkovits and others helped to refine and define one another through their dialogue and debate.
If these ideas seem obvious and shared today, it is only due to the pioneering work and preaching of the anthropological gospel of Dubois, Woodson, Frazier and Herskovits.
I hope to read more about him, and thoroughly review his works in further blogs in the future.
what follows is a compilation of several online sources, a biography, 'Melville J. Herkovits and the racial politics of knowledge' and the following sources:
1. 'A Biographical Memoir' by Joseph C. Greenberg
2. Encyclopedia Brittanica online
3. Wikipedia - Melville J. Herskovits
born Sept. 10, 1895, Bellefontaine, Ohio, U.S.
died Feb. 25, 1963, Evanston, Ill.
American anthropologist noted for having opened up the study of the “New World Negro” as a new field of research. Herskovits was also known for his humanistic and relativistic writings on culture.
Herskovits took his Ph.B. at the University of Chicago (1920) and his M.A. (1921) and Ph.D. (1923) at Columbia University, where he came under the influence of Franz Boas. Herskovits was a lecturer in anthropology at Columbia and Howard University before moving in 1927 to Northwestern University, where he remained until his death. In 1951 he was named there to the first professorial chair of African studies in the United States.
From his initial studies of the African American as a physical type, Herskovits was led to an interest in their social problems and to their cultural roots in Africa. He systematically attacked some widely held myths in The Myth of the Negro Past (1941) and also opposed the assumption that Africa must follow the Western model and remain under the continuous direction of Europeans.
In 1948, he founded the first major interdisciplinary American program in African studies at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois with a three-year, $30,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation, followed by a five-year, $100,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 1951. The Program of African Studies was the first of its kind at an American academic institution. [1] The goals of the program were to “produce scholars of competence in their respective subjects, who will focus the resources of their special fields on the study of aspects of African life relevant to their disciplines.”
The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University, established in 1954, is the largest separate Africana collection in the world. To date, it contains more than 260,000 bound volumes, including 5,000 rare books, more than 3,000 periodicals, journals and newspapers, archival and manuscript collections, 15,000 books in 300 different African languages, extensive collections of maps, posters, videos and photographs, as well as electronic resources. [3] In 1957, Herskovits founded the African Studies Association and was the organization's first president.
Herskovits's controversial classic The Myth of the Negro Past is about African cultural influences on American blacks. He rejected the notion that African Americans lost all traces of their past when they were taken from Africa and enslaved in America. Herskovits emphasized race as a sociological concept, not a biological one. He also helped forge the concept of cultural relativism, particularly in his book Man and His Works.
Melville Herskovits's position formed one half of the debate with Franklin Frazier on the nature of cultural contact in the Western Hemisphere, specifically with reference to Africans, Europeans, and their descendants.
After World War II, Herskovits publicly advocated African independence and also attacked American politicians for viewing Africa as an object of Cold War strategy.
Herskovits also had interests in economics (especially in relation to anthropology) and African folk art and music. His major works include The Economic Life of Primitive Peoples (1940; 2nd ed. published as Economic Anthropology, 1952); Man and His Works (1948; rev. and abridged as Cultural Anthropology, 1955); Franz (1953); and The Human Factor in Changing Africa (1962).
Friday, January 1, 2010
The Warrior & The Baby
two settlers in the west, in indian territory.
one is a true explorer, he speaks the lakota sioux language.
the other is a former cavalryman, who also speaks the language.
they don't speak to one another, nor do their families interact, but their wives get along well the occasions that they meet.
in the dead of winter, one man finds a baby, half submerged in snow by a river, silent, alive, abandoned. blood on the blanket. he leaves it, but then, picks it up and brings it home to his wife, who is nearly about to deliver, so they have preparations for a baby. they have another child, about the same age as this child.
the other man, along his travels, finds a brave, near death, cut a thousand times, apparently dropped from a high cliff, but tumbling down the snow. alive, close to death, crawling in the snow. he leaves him, but thinks better of it and brings him to his home, figuring he hasn't long to live, but he can die warm with decency.
as he's bringing him home on horseback, he runs across a group of braves. the native he has on his horse, they are unable to make out, because he is covered. they look, but do not attack. they know him. he speaks their language.
the wives speak, communicating about their finds. unable to share their ideas with their husbands.
the brave somehow grows stronger. until one day he's gone in the night.
the baby is adopted into the family. he learns from other natives chasing them, one who trades with the family, takes a shining to him and teaches him to be a brave. he is of course remarkable in his strength, sufferability, skill, bravery, and physical abilities. he runs away from home for increasing periods of time, he is smitten with a female from the village..
he grows to become a scout.
apparently betraying his race, until one day he leads the enemy into a huge ambush lead by the brave who was saved, who is a chief, and is his father. his family killed by his enemy, his baby left to die, and him, tossed off a cliff, somehow they both survive.
after the ambush, they move north and west.
one is a true explorer, he speaks the lakota sioux language.
the other is a former cavalryman, who also speaks the language.
they don't speak to one another, nor do their families interact, but their wives get along well the occasions that they meet.
in the dead of winter, one man finds a baby, half submerged in snow by a river, silent, alive, abandoned. blood on the blanket. he leaves it, but then, picks it up and brings it home to his wife, who is nearly about to deliver, so they have preparations for a baby. they have another child, about the same age as this child.
the other man, along his travels, finds a brave, near death, cut a thousand times, apparently dropped from a high cliff, but tumbling down the snow. alive, close to death, crawling in the snow. he leaves him, but thinks better of it and brings him to his home, figuring he hasn't long to live, but he can die warm with decency.
as he's bringing him home on horseback, he runs across a group of braves. the native he has on his horse, they are unable to make out, because he is covered. they look, but do not attack. they know him. he speaks their language.
the wives speak, communicating about their finds. unable to share their ideas with their husbands.
the brave somehow grows stronger. until one day he's gone in the night.
the baby is adopted into the family. he learns from other natives chasing them, one who trades with the family, takes a shining to him and teaches him to be a brave. he is of course remarkable in his strength, sufferability, skill, bravery, and physical abilities. he runs away from home for increasing periods of time, he is smitten with a female from the village..
he grows to become a scout.
apparently betraying his race, until one day he leads the enemy into a huge ambush lead by the brave who was saved, who is a chief, and is his father. his family killed by his enemy, his baby left to die, and him, tossed off a cliff, somehow they both survive.
after the ambush, they move north and west.
New Years Meditation: 1-1-10
i woke up this morning and started cleaning up again.
it took the form of taking things down from a back room that had a lot of things up.
i was thinking about what my home would look like once i had gotten rid of all the clutter.
i realized it would look like the home of someone that "had their shit together"
and then i realized that to have my home in such a condition would be fitting, seeing as i did have my shit together.
which made me have to think about how my home looked now, and how it has looked in the past.
quite simply, it was a huge clue as to the person i was was, but more succinctly, the person i used to be.
by holding onto the idea that "i don't know how to have a clean, neat, organized, ordered....home"
i was giving into a laziness and a psychological remnant of having been a person that had come from a home where i really didn't have control over how the space was. there were three other individuals responsible for it's condition, which in many psychological circles would be recognized as a situation where diminished capacity would lead to the possibility that no one would be responsible for it's condition.
however, as the leader of my home, i am quite unquestionably responsible for it's condition.
and so i realized that.
wandering around my own home looking at things i want, or don't want, all mixed together, feeling like they can not be separated, or that there is no way to overcome the puzzle of sorting it out, or even conceeding the fact that it's more "it's space" than "my space" so, there's really not much i can do about it... for even if i were to try, i would hit some kind of wall soon into the proposition, which would end the entire matter... for in truth, i had never in my life, ever found the wisdom, will, inspiration, drive and and skill to make my space ordered... the proof was within my personal history. no such event had ever occured... or had it?
i had achieved an "ordered" space, but not by ordering it, rather, by flushing the entire contents of my space away where only myself and a few essentials remained.
famously, one such occurence had me down to a pot, a fork, 2-3 pairs of pants, underwear, shirts and a coat.... of course a blanket... and it was a major triumph to get rid of the pillow.
but uh, on this day, at this time. i wanted something a bit more reasonable.
realizing that by ordering my space, the last clue would be eliminated that i didn't have my shit together was a major realization.
and in a real way, it represented "fulfilling the promise"
one of the things i had taken down, was an american flag.
i thought, "one person may say, one day, that damon had a very austere home, and there was only one thing on the wall. do you know what it was? it was an american flag."
i believe in that flag, and the promise it holds out.
through all the hypocrisy, the power struggles, the fears, the mongering (on may subjects... undoubtedly), the wording of (most) of the articles of confederation, from the declaration, to the constitution (including bill of rights and amendments), it's as if it were written when the old testament god had had his own "come to jesus" moment with his own creation, and decided to expound on just what the real reason was, that we were here.
in true freirian spirit, the subjects of his creation, in this space called america, articuated these principles for themselves.
i believe in the buddhist/american traditions and *principles of inner and outward freedom and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, equality, as well as the right to reorganize to throw off usurpations of the principles above...
and these principles extend to all levels and ordinations of mankind.
from mother to child, government to citizen, and even from self to self.
Once we achieve "freedom" from something, we must achieve freedom within ourselves.
to be free, we must be free to choose our life, our position, our dreams, how we want to act, look, live, relate, work...
and if we are unable to meet our goals due to some fault or deficiency, real or imagined within ourselves, then we must also have the freedom to reorganize ourselves in such a way to throw off such limitations in the service of our true freedom and liberation including even our spiritual salvation.
and so, it must be the case, that our lives are in a very real sense, in every one of our actions and thoughts, about "fulfilling the promise"
first the promise we make to ourselves, that allows us to make promises to others.
promises to be the person we want to be, to do the things we need to do to become that person.
to honor, love and protect.
to enlighten, to perceive clearly, to act justly.
and even, to arrange our environments in a way which is in accord with who/what/how we want to be, or better yet, who we actually are, or have the potential to become.
cleaning my house is fulfilling the promise i've made to myself to make the most of this life, to honor this life, to make the most of the moment, to be mindful... and also, it's fulfilling the promise i made to myself when i realized i could be anyone i wanted to be, because no one, including myself, knew that i wasn't that person.... and better yet, if i decided to become that person, and acted as that person acted and did what that person would do, then there would be no difference between that person, and me. it would be imperceptible to the point of actually being that person.
cleaning my space, would remove the last, most outward clue of the deception, which in fact, was not a deception, rather, a promise unfulfilled.
it was really nice to awaken with this thought. on a day, which signals a beginning, a very real and understood way.
it is january 1, 2010.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
it took the form of taking things down from a back room that had a lot of things up.
i was thinking about what my home would look like once i had gotten rid of all the clutter.
i realized it would look like the home of someone that "had their shit together"
and then i realized that to have my home in such a condition would be fitting, seeing as i did have my shit together.
which made me have to think about how my home looked now, and how it has looked in the past.
quite simply, it was a huge clue as to the person i was was, but more succinctly, the person i used to be.
by holding onto the idea that "i don't know how to have a clean, neat, organized, ordered....home"
i was giving into a laziness and a psychological remnant of having been a person that had come from a home where i really didn't have control over how the space was. there were three other individuals responsible for it's condition, which in many psychological circles would be recognized as a situation where diminished capacity would lead to the possibility that no one would be responsible for it's condition.
however, as the leader of my home, i am quite unquestionably responsible for it's condition.
and so i realized that.
wandering around my own home looking at things i want, or don't want, all mixed together, feeling like they can not be separated, or that there is no way to overcome the puzzle of sorting it out, or even conceeding the fact that it's more "it's space" than "my space" so, there's really not much i can do about it... for even if i were to try, i would hit some kind of wall soon into the proposition, which would end the entire matter... for in truth, i had never in my life, ever found the wisdom, will, inspiration, drive and and skill to make my space ordered... the proof was within my personal history. no such event had ever occured... or had it?
i had achieved an "ordered" space, but not by ordering it, rather, by flushing the entire contents of my space away where only myself and a few essentials remained.
famously, one such occurence had me down to a pot, a fork, 2-3 pairs of pants, underwear, shirts and a coat.... of course a blanket... and it was a major triumph to get rid of the pillow.
but uh, on this day, at this time. i wanted something a bit more reasonable.
realizing that by ordering my space, the last clue would be eliminated that i didn't have my shit together was a major realization.
and in a real way, it represented "fulfilling the promise"
one of the things i had taken down, was an american flag.
i thought, "one person may say, one day, that damon had a very austere home, and there was only one thing on the wall. do you know what it was? it was an american flag."
i believe in that flag, and the promise it holds out.
through all the hypocrisy, the power struggles, the fears, the mongering (on may subjects... undoubtedly), the wording of (most) of the articles of confederation, from the declaration, to the constitution (including bill of rights and amendments), it's as if it were written when the old testament god had had his own "come to jesus" moment with his own creation, and decided to expound on just what the real reason was, that we were here.
in true freirian spirit, the subjects of his creation, in this space called america, articuated these principles for themselves.
i believe in the buddhist/american traditions and *principles of inner and outward freedom and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, equality, as well as the right to reorganize to throw off usurpations of the principles above...
and these principles extend to all levels and ordinations of mankind.
from mother to child, government to citizen, and even from self to self.
Once we achieve "freedom" from something, we must achieve freedom within ourselves.
to be free, we must be free to choose our life, our position, our dreams, how we want to act, look, live, relate, work...
and if we are unable to meet our goals due to some fault or deficiency, real or imagined within ourselves, then we must also have the freedom to reorganize ourselves in such a way to throw off such limitations in the service of our true freedom and liberation including even our spiritual salvation.
and so, it must be the case, that our lives are in a very real sense, in every one of our actions and thoughts, about "fulfilling the promise"
first the promise we make to ourselves, that allows us to make promises to others.
promises to be the person we want to be, to do the things we need to do to become that person.
to honor, love and protect.
to enlighten, to perceive clearly, to act justly.
and even, to arrange our environments in a way which is in accord with who/what/how we want to be, or better yet, who we actually are, or have the potential to become.
cleaning my house is fulfilling the promise i've made to myself to make the most of this life, to honor this life, to make the most of the moment, to be mindful... and also, it's fulfilling the promise i made to myself when i realized i could be anyone i wanted to be, because no one, including myself, knew that i wasn't that person.... and better yet, if i decided to become that person, and acted as that person acted and did what that person would do, then there would be no difference between that person, and me. it would be imperceptible to the point of actually being that person.
cleaning my space, would remove the last, most outward clue of the deception, which in fact, was not a deception, rather, a promise unfulfilled.
it was really nice to awaken with this thought. on a day, which signals a beginning, a very real and understood way.
it is january 1, 2010.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
*We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
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