David Walker’s Re- Appeal

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David Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. His father was a slave and his mother was free. According to North Carolina law, children born to free mothers were also free. Though he was not a slave, having traveled throughout the South, Walker was familiar with the cruelty of slavery. As a man, Walker moved to Boston, although faced with discrimination, he was able to open a used clothing store. While in Boston, he became a member of the A.M.E church, met prominent Black activists and became involved in the anti-slavery movement. He was also active in the Underground Railroad, helped fugitive slaves with clothing, and wrote numerous articles for the New York City based African American newspaper, the Freedom's Journal. It was during this time in Walker’s life that he wrote a series of articles that would later become a pamphlet entitled, “David Walker ‘s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America.” David Walker's Appeal, was arguably the most radical of all anti-slavery documents, and caused a great stir among both Blacks and whites when it was published. Walker’s Appeal challenged the leaders of the world community to abolish slavery, called for slaves to revolt against their masters, and last but certainly not least, denounced the hypocrisy of America’s democracy.
When David Walker’s Appeal was published in1829, the very idea of freedom, equality, and justice for Blacks in America was unthinkable, especially to southern slaveholders. In David Walker’s Appeal, he boldly took the very principles upon which this country was founded, liberty, equality, and justice, and threw them back in the face of white America. Walker charged America with being hypocrites by his very basic call to recognize the humanity in all people when he wrote,

Now I appeal to heaven and to earth, and particularly to the American people themselves who
cease not to declare that our condition is not hard, and that we are comparatively satisfied to rest in wretchedness and misery, under them and their children. Not, indeed, to show me a colored President, a Governor, a Legislator, a Senator, a Mayor, or an Attorney at the Bar. —
But to show me a man of color, who holds the low office of a Constable, or one who sits in a Juror Box, even on a case of one of his wretched brethren, throughout this great Republic!!


The time to rise up and reclaim humanity, which had been stripped away by the white slaveholders, was, to Walker, clearly at hand.
One of the primary elements of Walker's Appeal was to draw upon the ways in which American violated their own professed ideals of Christianity, and he talked about how the cruelty of slavery was a sin against God, and white America would suffer, and be punished by God for the sin of slavery.

Can Christian Americans deny these barbarous cruelties?
Have you not Americans, having subjected us under you,
added to these miseries, by insulting us in telling us to our
face, because we are helpless that we are not of the human
family? I ask you, O! Americans, I ask you, in the name of
the Lord, can you deny these charges?
Walker, uncompromising, undaunted, using very radical language, condemned the institution of slavery wholeheartedly and condemned the complicity of the entire institutional slavery structure in the United States, and very eloquently called for immediate abolition. During this time in America’s history, those against slavery usually called for the gradual abolition of slavery or colonization. Neither was acceptable to Walker. According to Walker, as long as slavery existed, even free blacks were not free since their freedom was minimal.
Can a man of color buy a piece of land and keep it peaceably? Will not some white man try to get it from him even if it is in a mud hole? I need not comment any farther on a subject, which all, both black and white, will readily admit.

David Walker, who had no use whatsoever for American white Christianity, felt the sins of racism and slavery were so intrinsically American that it would be a contradiction for any Black person to be an American. Walker could express his sense of outrage and justice through the language, imagery, and values that he found in the Bible without fear of contradiction because those passages in the Bible emphasizing obedience, humility, pacifism, patience, had been presented to the slaves by white America as the essence of Christianity. On the other hand, those passages that emphasized equality, freedom, and happiness as attributes of this world as well as the next were eliminated from the official sermons reserved for the slave’s religion.

Were I given the opportunity to ask David Walker one question, I would ask him if he recognizes the irony between the freedom of today’s African Americans and that of our “free ancestors”? Given the fact that one of Walker’s beliefs was that no Black person is free in this country until slavery was abolished and that the freedom of the free Negro was an indeed minimal freedom, I see very little difference. Theoretically, we now have civil rights; however, they are systematically being stripped from us through the same legislative branch of government that originally institutionalized slavery. I also think that Walker’s Appeal, is as relevant today as when it was published in 1829.
I think Walker recognized the dangers of his pen, and he predicted that his appeal might cost him his life. Walker understood that the Bible is a very powerful book and that we all must be called to judgment. I think it was important for Walker that the inhumane, brutal, and atrocious treatment of slaves in the name of “Christianity” be exposed, not only to the world but also to the judgment of God. Walker writes, “The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious, and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority”. Walker felt white America had invented for African Americans the most barbarous form of slavery ever known. Yet, he writes,
I have been for years troubling the pages of historians to find out what our fathers have done to the white Christians of America, to merit such condign punishment as they have inflicted on them, and do continue to inflict on us their children.
It was inward turmoil like this, which most likely influenced his passion for the abolition of slavery. Meanwhile, it remains apparent which Christians in America have forgotten “that God rules”...I’m just sayin’

BREATH OF MY ANCESTORS

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There's a truth that must be told
Its force can't be contained
about the history
and the mystery
in the rage of hurricanes

For you must know the reasons
why gale force winds do blow
and disburse their vicious vengeance
on southern States below

You see, the bodies of my people
through the Middle Passage came
as cargo in slave ships
so a beast could lay quit claim

And their limbs were battered and broken
by a heathen with no shame
who stole us from our homes
then promptly changed our names

But now the laws of cause and effect
so appropriately germane
come collecting unpaid taxes
in the form of hurricanes

You thought our spirits were beaten
you thought our spirits were tamed
but instead of us defeatin'
God's temper you inflamed

Now retribution comes to visit
on the winds of hurricanes
Storm clouds gather over Africa
full of slavery's suffering and pain

They marshal their momentum
full of vengeful hard black rain
dead-set upon America
as if possessed, insane

And since all those cries for mercy
fell on deaf ears in vain
you must feel the wrath
and the fury of hurricanes

For the girls you stole from Senegal
and the boys from the Ivory Coast
the spirit of those ancestors
haunt Louisianan's most

Cause of all the slave-ship harbors
in the many ports of call
yours were the most insidious
the evilest of them all

And for all you island dwellers
to whom this verse pertains
your shores made shelter for sellers
of human beings in chains

Thus, the Breath of My Ancestors
forge a spiritual weather vane
that plots a course of sorrow
via the gale of hurricanes

In cargo holes
you laid 20 million souls
like spoons in kitchen cabinets
But now the winds blow down
entire towns
leaving tents to pitch and maggots

and the law of just requital
extracting its just do
says you must pay
for the games you play
Florida and Mississippi too

So, if the next gale wind you hear
evokes real fear
and the terror seems inhumane
It's Just " It's Just
It's just the Breath of My Ancestors
in the spirit of the hurricane…I’m just sayin’
Peace & Blessings

MY BROTHER'S KEEPER...

While I have always considered myself to be an enlightened and sympathetic supporter of the plight of Jewish people, after all, we have in some ways identified with the Jewish experience. I understand that the conflict between Israel and Palestine or the sons of Isaac and Ishmael, is complicated and requires a team of analysts to define , but I don’t have a team of analysts what I do have is some common sense and so when the smoke clears what remains of the conflict comes down to the unadorned fact that it is territorial, it is about the land, and one group of people (on the father’s side) telling another group of people (on the mother’s side) that they not only have no right to the land, but they are not the legitimate heir of their father therefore, they have no right to exist!
Having said that, I was outraged when Israeli commandos attacked a flotilla carrying hundreds of activists in international waters. The issues that trouble me are twofold; has Israel become the enemy they claim to fear? It is no great mystery that Israel has been at war for decades, they specialize in war, they are good at it. They have 230 nuclear weapons and everyone in and around the region is willing to concede that fact even Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s President. This latest violent incident makes me question Israel’s true motives? Did Israel really suspect weapons were being imported to Gaza? If so, why not seize the flotilla and document their findings. I suspect this is a more testosterone-driven-“bring-it-on”-ala-george-bush-dangerous show of force that manifests itself as “commando paranoia”. If it is, Israel has become a rogue nation and is dangerously out of control. As Israel’s largest, most powerful, political and financial supporter what position does that now place this country in the international community? It appears to me that an olive branch was extended to the Middle East last year when President Obama went to Cairo and called for a “New beginning in American – Muslim relationships.” President Obama talked specifically about Israel and Palestine when he said in his speech:
“…[t]hat is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest… America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs. We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true.”
I remember walking a little taller knowing that as country we were finally being represented internationally by a President that was intelligent, articulate and globally minded. No longer did we have to hide shame faced in the “Bush-es”. Later I read how President Obama’s Cairo speech was well received by everyone… with the exception of Israel who was not then and apparently is not now willing to make any concessions to relinquish a strip of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Israel that is slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC.

Is it now time for the U.S to redefine our loyalty to Israel without fear of being labeled anti-Semitic? Dr. King told us during the civil rights struggle of the 1960’s that, “The segregationists and racists make no fine distictions between the Negroe and the Jew.” American History has taught us two very different lessons. In the Jewish experience in this country, education and hard work eventually pay off therefore the future is full of possibility. Blacks, however, face a legacy of three and a half centuries of racism on American soil and the irrefutable sense that something more than dedication is required. There is hope however; it is with the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians that no longer subscribe to the teachings of hate and divisiveness but seek a global existence with the world in which they live thanks in part to the internet. It will be the same generation that mobilized the social networks for the Obama campaign, the generation that mobilized the Jena 6 movement in Louisiana, the generation that volunteered to support the hurricane Katrina victims, the generation that fights to expose the genocide taking place in Darfur, the generation that protested the Iranian election and continue to fight for the civil rights of all Iranians, the generation that volunteered aid to the victims of the earthquake that devastated Haiti , it’s the generation that protest the immigration FLAW, I mean law in Arizona, and it will be the generation of activists that were on the flotilla that Israel attacked. If we collectively do nothing should we all just put color coded stickers on our license plates? I’m just sayin’…

Peace & Blessings

Juneteenth Festival

Juneteenth, a worldwide celebration, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It dates back to June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official. That’s when Union soldiers landed in Galveston, Texas, with word the Civil War had ended and that slaves were freed.
The telling of Sarah Johnson’s, they all called her Aunt Sarah, life story will one of the highlights of Olean New York’s first Juneteenth Festival this weekend. The only “colored” female in the community when she arrived in Olean in 1833 as a runaway slave, she married James Johnson, a local barber and she became the towns only midwife. The couple became the first African- American homeowners in Olean. Their home still stands today. The house is said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. The streets and roadways that were once canals led slaves to the house. Mrs. Johnson’s exact age was not known, about a year and a half before her death this fugitive slave from a Maryland plantation was considered the oldest person in Olean, according to her obituary in the local newspaper.
Last year, a Black owned company, Neighbor-Works Home Resources, purchased the current location to start the cultural center. The three-day event will also include dramatic readings, children’s activities, art workshops, food vendors, distribution of flats of vegetables for neighbors to plant at home, demonstrations and audience participation in cooking and drumming and a photo exhibit. Some of the programs to be offered at the center beyond Juneteenth festivities include after-school programs for children, coffee houses and “vinyl jazz nights. Now that is motivation for a jubilant Juneteenth celebration if I ever heard one, rest in peace Mrs. Johnson for you are free indeed and your living was certainly not in vain! I’m Just Sayin…

Peace & Blessings

For Morality’s Sake

As parents, it is our responsibility to instill in our children the types of morals and values that we hope will create in them the kind of well-adjusted, productive members of society that we can all be proud of. I recently engaged in a thought-provoking discussion about the morality issues facing our children, and the mixed messages being given to them by society. An acquaintance believes that rewarding children monetarily for doing the right thing is the only way to ensure the moral wellbeing of her children, I suggested that doing so may teach them to value the money rather than the behavior itself; however, a reward can be manifested in lasting ways, such as the positive examples set by parents, controlling the moral environment of children, and by practicing good character. These are just some of the ways parents can change money for morality to morality for morality’s sake.
For any given behavior, parents may potentially respond in a fashion that rewards children. One of the ways this can be achieved is through example. Examples are routinely set by parents in the ways we treat each other, family members and those outside of the family. The simple virtues of honesty, kindness and integrity suffer from an image problem and are in desperate need of a makeover. Because families are more stressed than ever, and because there are many more negative forces in our children’s lives, parents need to be more intentional than in past generations about creating a family life and more vigilant about raising a moral child. Even then there are no guarantees. However, if a child sees his/her parents reading, he/she will be encouraged to read. Because of the toxic media, society in general and other parents who may be more permissive, the opportunity for parents to teach children moral lessons present themselves often. When children see their parents treating others with respect, they too will learn that is the behavior expected of them. Whenever a parent has an opportunity to teach a child politeness, courtesy and respect, he/she should do so. The most important example a parent can set may be in the stands he/she takes.
Good character will not be absorbed from our current moral environment. Parenting is inherently hard work. Like many other professions, we, as parents, receive our training while on the job; however, the job is harder than ever because the family has fewer allies, e.g., the extended family, cohesive neighborhoods and an economy that doesn’t pay a living wage. We can and must control the moral environment of our children. We can do so in subtle, yet very effective ways that develop good character in our children and have the added benefit of forming ethical behavior that will serve them later. Do we ask our children to be deceitful on the phone when we don’t want to talk to a telemarketer by saying, “She’s not home?” What do we prohibit? Violent video games, TV shows and movies that contain sex, violence, or foul language? All forms of pornography, music with lyrics that denigrate women, immodest dress? Parties where there’s drinking? Prom overnights? Respect for life, war and peace, threats to the environment, the plight of the poor? If we’ve ever taken a stand in the workplace or public arena or even in a conversation with one other person, have we shared that with our children? Stands like these define our values our ethics. They let our children know what we care deeply about. That’s essential if we hope to pass on our values and the importance of integrity in a life of character. If our children never see us standing up for what we believe, never “fighting the power,” how can we expect them to have the courage to stand up to the pressure from their peers? Increasingly, young people seek their self-esteem and identity in clothes or other material objects. At the same time we’re working hard to protect our children from dangers, we should make an equal effort to expose them to what is uplifting, decent, and elevating. Somewhere in the evening paper there’s at least one example of integrity, courage, or compassion share it with our children.
We need to practice what we preach, but we also need to preach what we practice. Teach our children common the courtesies that were expected of us like; “Say please and thank you.” “Don’t interrupt.” “Look at the person who’s speaking to you.” “Pick up your toys and clothes.” “Cover your mouth when you cough.” “Remove your dishes from the table.” “Remember your telephone manners.” “Write or call to say thank you when you receive a gift.” Literally hundreds of teachings like these communicate to children, “This is how we behave,” and “This is how we live.” All of these virtues develop through practice. We don’t develop integrity in children simply by talking about it. Another of our children’s important responsibilities is to do their best work in school and make the most of their education. Homework is not only should not only be viewed as a means of getting good grades but as an opportunity to develop habits of good character such as self-discipline and respect for the teacher. Spiritual development should be nurtured, whatever the religious denomination in our so-called “upwardly mobile” world we are on a downward spiral toward moral bankruptcy. For young people who do not have faith in God, there is, I believe, a greater temptation especially in today’s culture to make a god of something else: money, clothes, or sexual pleasure.
In conclusion, as parents it is our job to make the most of the many opportunities we have to help our children grow to be well- adjusted and moral members of society. When we do not set high standards, we abandon our children to their own immature desires and the pressures of the peer group and society. If we draw a line, and then we cross that, soon we’ll draw another line, and then we cross that. Pretty soon we’ve compromised our standards to the point of disappearing. Without pretending to have all the answers, parenting is a complex art and every child unique, therefore, his/her character must be a parent’s top priority. The process of developing character begins, like everything else, in the home. The morality issues that face our children can be abated if we as parents lead by example control our children’s’ moral environment and practice what we preach…for morality’s sake…I’m just sayin…
Peace & Blessings