07/17/2023
We need to know our history of the First and Second Civil Rights Acts, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution in order to go forward. Without knowing this history, that must include those forces that tried to negate the 10th Amendment, under States Rights, whereby literacy tests and poll taxes were brought to bear against Blacks whom that Amendment was supposed to support, we can get nowhere. It is a humane necessity that we must take up if we are going to shift towards a Beloved Community in our time. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove are right, this Third Reconstruction, connected to the First and Second Civil Rights try, must be rooted out of the sacrifice for human freedom and equality, out of deep South.
I wake up this morning understanding that the way forward is to recognize the continued oppression that comes from certain segments of society and how in today's time, this Third Reconstruction as William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove named, has it's roots, must have its roots out of the deep South: this is where the ghosts an specters of the past continue to ring forth with trying to take rights away from people who interfere with their white Christian nationalistic claims that are being exploited by the money changers in the Temple whom they align themselves with.
Black Lives Matters and others who say NO to this continued oppression have been met with the Maga Republicans who cry foul, and it is the poorest of them who do the battle for the larger group as can be seen in what took place on January 6th and how Mr. Trump was able to get them frothing at the mouth even against the police authority whom they have always been able to expect support from in their racist nationalistic Christian aims, again, exploited by the money changers in the Temple.
When a man threw a brick at Dr. King he walked over and said 'I know you are smarter than to be throwing bricks at another man's head.' I mean, what would make a man throw a brick at another man's head, a peaceful man's head who was standing up for his own humanity? What would make white women rabid when following black women who were breaking the barrier to enter into a white school, standing up for their own humanity. Now we have laws 'stand your ground' that we have seen have been killing innocent children and young people in our nation - stand your ground if you are driving in a protest and kill someone - legalized murder and out of a rabid mindset versus a human sensibility, and again exploited by the money changers in the Temple.
So, the language of the oppression out of the Civil Rights that came with the First Reconstruction have continued, laws enacted by the States to hinder the right to vote, to work, purchase housing everywhere and their center point is the South. You'd have to understand Mr. Trump better when he said he would make it illegal to be born here and receive citizenship as it is exactly the 14th Amendment that was the outcome of the First Reconstruction after the Civil War. It's a dog whistle call to the rabid white nationalist Christians, a call to duty to continue to oppress any who are not white or not with them against Blacks, by the money changers in the Temple - we heard in 2019 Mr. Trump tell them to 'stand down and stand by'. We know who leads the working poor to continue this unconscionable, anti Christian fervor against other men, the money changers in the Temple.
In the First Reconstruction Abraham Lincoln went down, murdered, in the Second Reconstruction Dr. King, Malcom X, and the Kennedy boys. Killed for daring to lead others into standing for what this Constitution actually tries to lay out, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights (Amendments to the Constitution), Equality and Freedom. The BrotherSisterhood at the center of the call, still unable to be approached as the Economic realm is what is trying to be protected by those that have against those that have not - it is what led the South back then and the whole nation now - one can just read Beyond Vietnam by Dr. King, which was spoken one year earlier to the exact day of when he would be killed a year later on the balcony standing up for the rights of Sanitation Workers in Memphis, two who had just been crushed/killed in their work, the money changers in the Temple hiding behind the evil taking place with man against man.
So, it is the Economic exploitation that continues to fan the flames of where we are today - we can see this on Covd where one side could not trust that the other side cared about their health: Republicans saying 'get back to work' and the Democrats saying 'we need to protect the exploited communities'. It's the same question that we found in how slavery came about in the first place.
When in today's time it is ever more apparent, but not necessarily wealthy individuals, rather corporations who are able to buy more rights for themselves, these corporations funded by stakeholders looking for their own wealth on the back of others, and the politicians and judges up for hire, we know that it is a time once more for the fight between David and the Goliath of biblical times which is why it is Reverend's, spirit leaders of all flocks, who lead the way with others in today's time.
Nothing short of a systemic shift is called for: not more laws that can just be overturned or are one line cares versus whole body cares for our Nation. The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights (Amendments) are clear as to the rights of all human beings to experience a life worth living with the basic agreements of freedom, equality and brothersisterhood upheld.
Whose side are you on? Are you on the side that continues to exploit you and your families where it takes 3 jobs to be able to afford a 2 bedroom apartment, buying a house out of the question, or on the side of a more beautiful humanity where the Beloved Community will have to stand together against the economic forces that seek to turn us all into slaves - to be born to work ourselves to the bone for another man's comfort without our own being considered?
We need to throw the money changers out of the Temple of our humanity and find a way together. I know we can do this, of this I have no doubt: I have faith in my fellow man.
I wake up with this, again, this morning, Dottie
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/memphis-sanitation-workers-strike
The night before his assassination in April 1968, Martin Luther King told a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee: “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.....
