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Volume 7 Issue 48…Dedicated to the
Dialogue on Race…December 3, 2004
Where Air of Freedom Is
By Walter Everett Hawkins
Where air of freedom is,
I will not yield to men,-
To narrow caste of men
Whose hearts are steeped in sin.
I'd rather sell the king
And let his goods be stole,
Than yield to base control
Of vile and godless men.
Where air of freedom is,
I will not yield to men.
I'd rather choose to die
Than be a living lie,-
A lie in all I teach,
A lie in all I preach,
While truth within my heart
Its burning fires dart
To burn my mask of sin.
I'd rather victory win
Thru martyr's death than grin
At wrongs of godless men.
Where air of freedom is,
I will not yield to men.
I spurn the alms of men,
The livery of kings,
I own far nobler things.
I'd rather choose to own
The pauper's garb and bone,
The eagle's eye of truth,
The lion's strength of youth,
The liberty of thought,
A free man's right, unbought,
A conscience and a soul
Beyond the king's control
Than be the lord of slaves
Of quaking, aching slaves,
Of senseless, soulless knaves,
Or seek to revel in
His ill-got wealth and fame,
His world-wide name of shame,
His liberty to sin,-
I will not yield to men!
Birthday Quandary
I am the grandmother of six.
Several years ago my daughter gave birth by Caesarean section. The baby was healthy as was my
daughter. When she became pregnant
several years later, it was assumed the second birth would also be by
C-section. No one suggested, nor did my
daughter consider, natural childbirth.
My grandchildren are intelligent, healthy and happy. At least, they have not been diagnosed with any
ailments and do not take drugs to control abnormal behaviors, like so many
children today.
While one does not like to compare, there are noticeable
differences between my grandchildren born naturally and those brought into the
world through Caesarean section.
Perhaps, the best way to explain my quandary is to recount a lesson
learned on the farm.
Warned not to interfere with eggs hatching and brooding hens, we
nonetheless managed to crack a few eggs "to assist baby chicks into the
world." The birds were weak. Unable to flap their wings or walk, the poor
creatures weakly chirped and quickly croaked.
Could children not allowed to force their way into the world
through the birth canal be similarly weak for not having experienced this
struggle? Maybe, not necessarily as
physically weak as those baby chicks, but lacking the will to exert themselves
to get the things they want. By bypassing
the essential struggle of birth, could our children be denied something
necessary to survive and thrive outside the womb?
David Wark Griffith (1875-1948)
Producer and director of USA silent films, David Wark Griffith was
born in La Grange, Kentucky on January 22, 1875, ten years after the Civil
War. Like many southerners, his family's
fortunes declined with the demise of the Confederacy. Around age 16, Griffith decided to become an actor and obtained
bit roles in traveling troupes and stock companies.
Griffith later turned to acting in the silent film industry. He performed in The Eagle's Nest, an Edison
studio production, before signing with the old Biograph Company. Griffith
appeared in a number of one-reel films, including When Knighthood Was in
Flower. In June 1908, Griffith was
promoted to assistant director and produced his first film, The Adventures of
Dollie.
Griffith revolutionized the cinema industry. The long shot, the vista, the vignette, the
eye-opener effect, the cameo-profile, the fade-in, the fade-out, soft focus,
back lighting, tinting, rapid cutting, parallel action, and the moving camera
are Griffith innovations. He was the
first director to depart from the standard 1,000-foot film; he made the first
four-reel, Judith of Bethulia, which was an immediate success in both the US
and Europe.
Using film to espouse political views, Griffith turned a critical
lens on social abuses in urban settings and factories in The Musketeers of Pig
Alley (1912) and The Mother and the Law (1914). His most famous pictures include Intolerance (1916), Broken
Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920) and America (1924). Griffith produced and directed nearly 500
films at a cost of roughly $23 million.
He grossed $80 million at the box office. His magnum opus, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was based on
two novels and a play that hailed the KKK as heroic and blacks as villainous, grossed
more than $48 million before his death.
Griffith discovered and developed the talents of well-known silent
films artists, including Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Mary Pickford and Lillian and
Dorothy Gish. With Fairbanks, Pickford and
Charles Chaplin, Griffith founded United Artists Corporation (1919). In 1933, he sold his interest in the motion
picture company.
Griffith received a special award from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences for his achievements as producer and director in
1935. He died in Hollywood, California
on July 23, 1948. (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana and www.gmu.edu)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
A cinematic landmark, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is a
study in US racism. Based on the novels
The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) and The Leopard's
Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden, 1865-1900 (1902) and The Clansman (1906),
a play written by Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr., the film recounts the Civil War and Reconstruction
from a Southern white point of view.
Portrayed by white actors with black shoe polish on their faces,
newly freed blacks were depicted in the film as loyal and loving servants that
stayed with their former masters or vicious, idiotic simians lusting after
white women. The film glorifies the Ku
Klux Klan (KKK) for redeeming the "Lost Cause" and restoring white
supremacy, a "traditional American family value."
Closely allied, Griffith obviously relied heavily on the writing
of Rev. Dixon, whose play was produced "to teach the North, the young
North, what it has never known-the awful suffering of the white man during the
dreadful Reconstruction period. I believe that Almighty God anointed the white
men of the South by their suffering during that time . . . to demonstrate to
the world that the white man must and shall be supreme." It also used text from A History of the
American People (1902) by Woodrow Wilson in which the future US president
praised the KKK for saving the South.
While greeted with black protests, the film enjoyed tremendous
success. At the urging of his graduate
school friend, Rev. Dixon, Woodrow Wilson screened it in the White House. Its opening at the Liberty Theater near
Times Square was preceded by advanced publicity, which included giant KKK billboards,
special trains to transport white moviegoers, horsemen dressed as Klansmen
riding through city streets and unprecedented media coverage. Thousands were attracted to the theaters and
into the KKK.
The Birth of a Nation remained the number one box office
attraction until replaced by Gone with the Wind, another Civil War and
Reconstruction tale told from a romanticized southern point of view.
According to some historians, The Birth of a Nation accomplished
two competing tasks. It spurred a rebirth
of the KKK and gave birth to the modern civil rights movement. (Sources: www.chnm.gmu.edu, www.organicanews.com and www.scc.rutgers.edu.
C-Section Facts
The Caesarean or C-section is major abdominal surgery for
delivering a child through an incision in the abdominal walls and the
uterus. This procedure was first
performed on a dead or dying woman. Possibly from the Latin verb caedere,
to cut, the etymology of the Caesarean is unclear, but it is often attributed
to Julius Caesar, who reportedly was born by this method.
Dating back to ancient times, the first recorded operation of this
kind occurred in 1500; a Swiss butcher operated on his wife. While it was often resorted to, the mortality
rate was high for mothers. Modern
surgery has significantly decreased mortality.
In general, when normal birth is impossible, the C-section can be
a life saving technique for infant and mother.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), no region in the world
is justified in having a cesarean rate greater than 10 to 15%. Yet, c-sections account for 25% of the
children born in North America.
This rate is alarming because cesareans pose medical risks to the
mother's health, including injury to other organs, transfusions, anesthesia
complications, infections, hemorrhage, psychological complications and maternal
mortality. An elective c-section
increases the risk to the infant of respiratory distress. Even in mature babies, the absence of labor
increases the risk of breathing problems and other complications. C-sections
can delay the early mother-newborn interaction, breast-feeding and the
establishment of family bonds. And,
c-sections cost twice as much and require longer hospitalizations than vaginal
births
Over a third of c-sections in North America are repeats. Yet, the American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that women have vaginal births after a cesarean. Although the "once a cesarean, always a
cesarean" rule is medically outdated, many hospitals that offer maternity
care do not allow or encourage a vaginal birth after a c-section.
Common medical reasons for c-sections in North America are:
routine repeat cesareans, dystocia (non-progressive labor), breech presentation
and fetal distress. Non-medical factors include mother's age, medical
insurance, education and socioeconomic status.
Too often, c-sections are performed to avoid patient pain, patient or
provider convenience, legal concerns or financial reasons. For
more, visit www.childbirth.org.
Disgruntled feels: Perplexed! The sag style, which features baggy attire,
has gone from slightly sloppy to constantly dropping below the pelvis. The style renders physical activity, such as
running, out of the question. Too
often, the oversized outer shirts sag afficionados wear are the only things
keeping the world from seeing their derrieres.
Slaves to style, these mostly young men assume a wide-legged gait to
accommodate their sagging attire.
Having asked numerous people to explain this over-sag obsession, without
satisfaction, I remain perplexed that anyone would wear pants so big they must
be clutched at the waistband to keep them up.
Disgruntled wants to know: With the 1915 release of
The Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan, which advocated white supremacy,
terrorized the black community, lynching a black weekly.
Klansmen were law enforcement officials, members of Congress,
judges that sat on the federal bench and even US presidents that espoused
racial inequality rather than democracy.
In 1926, the KKK openly marched in Washington, DC down Pennsylvania
Avenue. Proudly waving the star-spangled,
red, white and blue banner, the terrorists were welcomed in the nation's
capitol. DC is majority black; one
wonders where did they go to avoid being lynched when the nation's leaders held
the KKK state dinner?
Disgruntled says: During slavery, blacks were bred for stamina
much like farm animals. Strong bucks -
black field hands, and fillies - young black women, were mated to produce
offspring that could endure hard labor.
Heart disease, obesity and diabetes are banes of our contemporary existence. To counter them, blacks must reduce their
fat intake, eat more fruits and vegetables and get plenty of exercise. To buy into the notion that pills will cure
these ills is to embrace suicide.
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is a slave to these
commercial holidays. Indoctrinated by
mass media and the public school system to crave video games, action figures and
sundry accessories, he is working on an extensive list for Santa or anyone else
willing to take on those prescribed duties.
Given this, he has cut short his self-imposed hiatus. When asked for comments this week, the Dark
One/Ninja/Zorro cheerfully inquired, "What would you like me to say?"
By John Burl Smith
In nature, birth is the result of pain and struggle. The entity that issues forth that new life
must endure the stretching and tearing of tissues or structures in order to
make way for that which comes. Birth
requires of the new life, an undeniable will to break free from whatever
confines it. Thwarting or facilitating
this process can have a devastating impact on the new life.
Classic examples are insects or other creatures that are assisted
rather than emerge unaided from their chrysalis or eggs. If assistance is given a grub or chick to
help them break free of their shell, they enter life severely weaken. Their wings and limbs do not reach full
development, as when they must struggle for life. In other words, such assistance cheats them out of a full birth and
a chance at a successful future.
Democracy, freedom, justice and equality suffered a similar fate
in the United States when involuntary servitude was made a condition of skin
color. Those with black skin were
wrapped and bound in an invisible legal blanket, known as the "Great or
3/5 Compromise." This skin color
interdiction aborted the struggle to birth a nation that believed 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." Black skin became synonymous with slavery and inequality blacks'
lot.
Years of discord, political wrangling and outright hostility
followed the aborted birth of the people's desire to throw off forever the yoke
of tyranny and privileged class domination.
Then came the Civil War, another great upheaval within a society
pregnant with an unquenchable desire and undeniable will to be free of the
scourge of slavery and domination by the class that derived its wealth from
buying, selling and exploiting humans.
At that war's conclusion, Abraham Lincoln's hope for "a new
nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal" reaffirmed the national attempt at rebirth.
Tantamount to a partial birth, the Civil War was perverted into an
abortion by whites that saw racism as their only means of maintaining
power. White supremacy by racists, like
Presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes and Woodrow Wilson, created an
atmosphere of acceptance of prejudice, bigotry and discrimination as the
national policy. Black skin became the target
of a total denial of rights through laws that denied humanity to those of
color. The film "Birth of A
Nation" swept over the US like the current "evangelical Christian
wave," as Christians led lynch mobs in the name of Jesus Christ and God
Almighty.
White intellectuals and red necks alike joined the Ku Klux Klan
and lynch mobs. The national policy of
racism and lynching blacks was the top form of entertainment, on par with
evangelical spiritual/rock concerts today. Evangelical values were called
nativism back in the 1900s, when lynch law was preached from pulpits and the
KKK grand wizard was welcomed at the White House like Ariel Sharon of Israel.
Without the KKK regalia of hoods and sheets, George W. Bush's
inaugural parade will resemble the 1926 photograph of a KKK march down
Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capitol building visible in the background. There is no need to wear sheets and hoods
when elections can be openly stolen.
Next, lynching blacks again will be photo opportunities for aspiring
Republicans seeking election in 2006.
Bon Voyage!
In just a few days, armed with well wishes, hugs and kisses from
their Atlanta base, Aqyil Thomas and Yohannes Sharriff will embark on their
European adventure. The pair can barely
contain their excitement.
Two more dates have been added to the tour, one in Vienna and
another in Munich. Their first feature
will be in Amsterdam on December 9th at The Open Stanza hosted by Prue Duggan. Afterwards, the pair will head to London for
a couple of days to visit with friends and a feature on December 17th, before
returning to Amsterdam for shows on December 19th and 20th. Then, it is back to London for a feature on
the 26th, with dates in Vienna and Munich to follow.
Timely suggestions and expressions of support from the poetry and
online communities have been wonderful. Without you, this endeavor would have
been impossible. So, we would like to take
this opportunity to again thank everyone that has expressed an interest in and
provided assistance to our young artists.
While some performance dates have been confirmed, their itinerary
remains a work in progress. For specifics,
please email yohasha@yahoo.com or aqiyl@aol.com.
Bon Voyage!
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