Robert Duvall vs Wal-Mart: One more battle at Wilderness battlefield

Just a bit of news that most might have missed. Robert Duvall is currently fighting with Wal-Mart over a new proposed location in Virginia. Now before all the left-wing, anti-Wal-Mart nuts start tripping over themselves in joy this is not about the company.

It seems that Duvall is a descendant of Robert E Lee. This may well be a factor because the new Wal-Mart location in Virginia is also the next to the site where Lee first fought General Ulysses S. Grant - Wilderness Battlefield. So for Duvall, Congressmen Peter Welch of Vermont and Ted Poe of Texas, this is a matter of historical preservation.

I am known for my desire to preserve - in fact highlight - the causes, repercussions, and reality of the Civil War. So to an extent I see the reason these men are fighting Wal-Mart on this location. But, the fact is that there are hundreds of battlefields that crisscross the nation from that war. And several are far more famous and significant than Wilderness.

For me, it is the pivitol and the last battles that matter. Not the first nor the minor. To preserve such sites seems in a way to be holding on to a romanticized dream of what happened, why and how. Of course had I ancestors that died in the battle I might feel different. Then again, my ancestors died before, during and after the Civil War on a regular basis - en masse at times - without so much as a gravestone.

But I will say this. In my conversation with Robert Duvall some years ago in Moscow. I came to find him to be a driven and purposive man. He is a deep thinker, and rarely acts without reason or forethought. He is committed to the actions he takes. So I am left to believe that this battlefield is perhaps more significant than I am aware. Still I notice that the Virginia representatives of Congress are not mentioned in reports about this.

I have readers in the South. I am sure at least a few are Civil War buffs. How important was Wilderness battlefield? Do the people of Virginia care about this site? Is this site worthy of being kept preserved, or is it just the quasi-political tether of family that drives this cause?

What if they took away Black History Month? - 2.29.2008.1

What if Black History Month was removed? Would anyone have noticed? Would anyone complain?

It seems not.

Why would I say this? Because I just learned that the school system in Endicott New York has removed all Black studies in the curriculum. There was nothing discussed in this past month about Black History, not even Dr. Martin Luther King, because the entire subject was deemed unimportant.

Hello, stop and read that again. Unimportant and having no place in the minds of any of the children, including those that are African American. And this was all done without a single word to the parents, a single complaint from ANY of the students. It was just wiped out without a concern as if it was no more than a piece of errant string found on a piece of clothing.

Why am I upset? What if the school decided not to discuss the Holocaust, or Native American history? What if all the history about England was removed, or France, or Ancient Rome? What if history in schools forgot about President George Washington, just not ever mentioning what he did, or the Constitution?

People would be up in arms. Parents would be inflamed. Jewish communities would claim its anti-Semitic, Native American Indians would say it’s a slap in the face. Whole communities would demand a reason why their rich pasts were being denied their children. Cries that the fundamental based of what is America was being corrupted.

And I ask, in what way is this different? How are the lives and blood of the African Americans that helped build and shape this nation any less important than anyone else? I am not just talking about the Slaves that literally built the foundations of the nation, but the inventors that created thousands of items we use every day, like the stoplight, or save millions of lives, like blood transfusions. How can we value the lives of soldiers like the Tuskegee Airmen, or those that fought in the Civil War, or the American Revolution with any less honor than every other American.

I don’t know how we can equate those lives and contributions as less, but obviously this town in Upstate New York has. I’m willing to bet that they aren’t the only ones. What are the odds that kids in Montana, or Florida, or Ohio, or any other State have no idea about these inventions or people? How many believe that being a slave, less than a dog or piece of furniture, was no different than having trouble getting a job? I know there are more than a few as I’ve read comments that insist that the trouble the Irish had in getting a job was the same as working 20 hours a day for your entire life, with no days off or concern for your health, without pay, and with the reality that at any moment your entire family may be sold away from you and that you can be killed for no more than amusement or the crime of looking at the wrong person.

If we can allow these schools to just toss away a piece of American History, a history of an essential people that helped found and defend this nation, what will go next? Dr. Martin Luther King’s Holiday? A holiday that over half the nation fought from coming into existence, and many still ignore? Maybe the laws dealing with segregation could be next. And if we get that far, why not restate Jim Crow? Hell, just bring slavery back and make it national.

It’s not that crazy. Slavery was just 5 lifetimes ago for some families. Jim Crow was just 2 or 3. Segregation was just 1. And a people without a history aren’t really a people are they?

And this was so important an issue, that not one child mentioned it. Not one parent noticed. Not one meeting was held. It was just understood that it was ok. As long as no one spoke about it, and no one asked why.

So as long as no one asks you if you are Black, or Hispanic, or whatever color, religion, or background you claim, you are nothing. And you can’t hurt nothing. You can’t defend, offend, steal from, brutalize, rape, murder or anything to nothing. And in Upstate New York, that’s what they are equating being African American with. Perhaps the Jews will be next?

Are you nothing? Is your history, your family nothing? Are you sure?

“Don’t learn Black History because of what you know, learn it because of what you don’t know” – C. Miller

I don’t have children. I’m not a teacher or involved in the school system. Maybe that’s a cop out, maybe not. But I am now aware, and so are you. Part of my responsibility is to let you know, and ask for your comments. What will you do?

NJ considers apology for slavery Part 3 - 1.3.2008.3

Continued from NJ considers apology for slavery Part 2 ...

Or

“Mr. Frank Hargrove, a delegate, thinks that Black Americans should just “get over” 246 years of slavery and consideration as property. That the subsequent 100 years of Jim Crow laws and segregation and de facto third-class status should have been more than enough to adjust.”

Or

“I feel insulted, and Michael Medved is the reason for it… Thus I will just have to accept that he is stupid. [Stupid is defined as wanting in understanding or as I like to say ‘ignorance does not know, stupid is knowing and not caring.’] Given that, I think it’s time that a better answer to his “Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery” is addressed with some logic.”

In each case these elected officials and media pundits seek to belittle the ancestors of African Americans, and in such belittle us today. In each case the argument ignores various points of fact. In each case denial is rampant as the only defense. And in each case the American government has failed to act.

Yet millions defend the right to display the Confederate flag. Millions insist that the South be remembered and glorified in momuments to the confederates and in movies. Hollywood and television see no reason why multiple symbols of the hyper-racist and small-minded nature of America in that time should not emblazened on screens both big and small.

As long as no one opens the closet and sees the lynched Black hanging there. And how dare anyone even mention that the closet exists.

And President Lincoln is offered as the equalizing symbol. That his actions corrected everything done in the past and during the years of Jim Crow and segregation after his 13th Amendment. To bad that is a romanticized lie.

Because history, as it is written and not proffered to us in the shortest month of the year, states that President Lincoln would have allowed slavery if it would have benefitted the nation. That freeing the slaves was less than a tertiary issue in the Civil War. That the 13th Amendment was a means to an end, and no more. And I have never seen a flag celebrating the freedom of the slave adorning a single American governmental building. Because the American government has never felt it is worthy of such celebration. But the Confederate flag is.

Continued in Part 4...

NJ considers apology for slavery - 1.3.2008.1

When you see this image what do you think?


To many this is a symbol of pride, the South, and a glorious and romanticized time in America.

To me and other African Americans, it is a reminder that America explicitly endorsed the belief that we were less valued and important than furniture at one time. It is a subtly and implicit reminder that we are second-class citizens, that we are separate, and that many still feel we are not American. It says America is proud of the days when picking cotton, torture, mental and sexual abuse were the only obligations available to Blacks. That every wrong done to African Americans was justified.

Obviously there is a big difference in what Blacks and Whites see in the Confederate Flag. The flag waves besides the American flag in courthouses and official government buildings across the South. It’s been highlighted in movies and television. And few Whites grasp the impact it makes, the statement it represents.

Because slavery is a taboo subject in this nation. As unspoken as the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII and the virtual extinction of Native American Indians.

When you see this image what do you think?


Most every American will say either the Civil War or freeing the slaves first, but both will be the likely answer. It is this image that sums up, and is the only, form of apology ever made by the American government about slavery.

I have said all this because slavery, and reparations, is finally being spoken about in this nation. Potentially we will hear about them in this election if the trend continues. That is if it continues and the major news media picks it up and tells anyone about it.

Today it has been reported that New Jersey is considering making an apology about slavery. This follows Missouri thinking about the same thing in December. I’m willing to bet most Americans never heard a word about this.

Mind you, they are only talking about an apology. Reparations are something every state fears, and none are willing to even discuss the issue. I kind of see that like the saying

“If everyone is saying your idea is wrong, you probably are on the right track to do something never done before.”

Continued in part 2...

Ishmael Beah, Muslim mathematics - 2.23.2007.1

So my latest development is almost ready, and thus I will soon be back to my regular schedule of posts. I think everyone will enjoy my latest project, and I am eagerly looking forward to comments on it.

But in the meantime I have noticed that Black History Month has been rather quiet on the news about African Americans. For the entire year this tends to be the time where the most positive news reports and historical facts are presented to the public. Yet, this month seemed to be void of virtually any news.

Perhaps the fact that Mr. James Brown has not been buried for 2 months was not the most positive story, but I think it is news worthy. [If the 2 weeks that Ms. Anna Nicole Smith has not been buried is any example] But there has been little else in the news, not even the usual fluff news items. If the general media can’t find anything positive to say, what will the rest of the year look like, I wonder. Perhaps I have been working to hard though and missed some items. Am I wrong? Have you seem any positive, and hopefully substantive, news out there?

But I did notice somethings that caught my attention. While neither is directly about Black Americans, they do deal with our history and roots. The first deals directly with our past. Though it is well understood that the whole of mathematics as it exists today is a direct result of the introduction of the number 0 by Egyptians to the less civilized peoples in the north Mediterranean (as I recall, correct me if I am wrong). It has been reported that it was this advanced understanding of mathematics that helped create the Pyramids. But Western Society takes many of the claims for further advances in the sciences and mathematics after that time.

Of course this is wrong. And now there is so further vindication. Besides the fact that some of the medical advances that helped reign in the Plague came from the Middle East, there is now evidence that some of designs in Mosques dating back as far as the 1100’s reveal advanced mathematics that were so advanced they weren’t recognized until the 1970’s and only now being fully understood. Only now is it seen how the designs made while Europe was in the Dark Ages, were growing in complexity and reflected advanced knowledge. Nice to see some respect, even if it took a millennium to get it.

On a somber and sobering note is a book that I think may be worth reading. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier seems to be a reminder, to me at least, that for all the problems in America life is not that bad. This is a true story of the life of a man, that as a child lived and fought in a civil war in Sierra Leone. This is the worst kind of life any child could live through. The fact that the civil strife in Africa is often overlooked by American media makes this even more important.

But there is also the fact that Mr. Ishmael Beah has been able to overcome these horrors, to some degree, and has graduated Oberlin College and written this book is a testament to America. I must note that even rap music has had the unforeseen benefit of saving lives of children during the brutal violence, which amazes me.

Starbuck is promoting this book, and more should be said of this story. Not only during Black History Month, but throughout the year. I find it inspirational that Mr. Beah has overcome so much. I find it a wake-up call that he could come to America and achieve so much after living through horrors that do not afflict African Americans. I also find it sad that this had to happen to any child, and that so little about this strife was ever mentioned here.

Drugs, racism, poverty (as Americans consider it), and other ills do exist but they can all be overcome. Life could be so much worse. We could do more. I feel this book could help many understand that. As I said, it’s on my list of books I want to read.

This is what I think, what do you think?