The Daddy says "Thanks for the love."

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.
--Nikki Giovanni, poet

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat...We must find each other.
--Mother Theresa

The daddy is feeling grateful to all those who visit his blog. He is overwhelmed by visitor's generosity in giving not only their time but their minds and hearts. You see, many do more than visit or lurk. They go down to the comment section and speak from their hearts.

As for those who come by, lurk for a while and move on, the daddy thanks you too. As for those who come by, read the post, make comments, even come back and dialogue with the daddy or another person who made comments, the daddy is especially appreciates you. As he has said many times before, this blog is not about him but about you: your experiences, your fam, your boos, your community, your state...our country.

A hearty thanks to those who went to the top of my sidebar to let others know that you publicly follow the daddy. For those who didn't, that's okay too.

For those who still may be inclined to let people know you're one of the daddy's followers, a member of his "crew," but hadn't got around to it, do the following:

1. Go to my sidebar;
2. Click on "Follow This Blog;"
3. Click in the space for "follow publicly;
4. Click "Follow" at the bottom. That's all there is to it.

Thanks for coming. Thanks in advance for showing the daddy some love. It will boomerang back to you. Blessings.

Malcolm X, a man the daddy can't forget

The daddy is keeping to his pledge not to write about the presidential election or the U.S. financial crisis. So he thought he would re-post this piece about Malcolm, the most courageous leader he ever heard or written about, a man he won't allow himself to forget.

Malcolm X, a man the daddy can't forget
by Mac Walton, aka, The Daddy

Listen up. The daddy's got a confession to make. Okay, two confessions, both related. First, the daddy is feeling lazy. He doesn't want to do anything in particular. Second, he only wants to sit on his living-room couch and think about Malcolm X, the great black leader of the Nation of Islam called Minister Malcolm back in the day, the man he still calls Minister Malcolm today.

No, the daddy never met him. Never got to see him, But, as a kid, the daddy belonged to the religious sect that he made into a powerful national force in the United States, The Nation of Islam. It was an institution with which to be reckoned n the 1960's.

No, the daddy was no leader in the group. In fact, the daddy was kicked out of the group for reading Minister Malcolm's book, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." You see, the daddy was a kid and didn't know about this war going on inside the Nation of Islam between the brothers and sisters who were loyal to late Honorable Elijah Muhammad and those who were loyal to Minister Malcolm, even though Minister Malcolm was dead by that time. But after finishing the book, after speaking to present and former members from both sides, the daddy lost faith in the leadership of The Nation of Islam, never asked to be reinstated, and left the organization for good.

Why? Because brothers and sisters told him something that he could not ignore or wish away: that Minister Malcolm was too honest, too committed to black people, and too disappointed in the immoral behavior of the late Honorable Elijah Muhammad, his mentor and substitute father, to keep his mouth shut about the corruption and immorality going on at the top levels of the Nation of Islam at that time-- that Minister Malcolm had to die, because he was too dedicated and knew too much. I left, because I believed them.

And that's why the daddy is being lazy this evening. He's sitting here thinking about Minister Malcolm: about the courage it takes to go against your own people, your own organization, your own disciples (whom you groomed to be leaders, whom you knew would order that you be killed) and, worst of all, your own mentor who, in effect, was your father. But, ultimately, the daddy is thinking about something even more important than political betrayal; he's thinking about the potency of legacy.

The daddy is thinking that to kill a great leader can be an oppressor's worst mistake and greatest nightmare. Why? Because then a great leader becomes a martyr and is elevated to even greater heights. The leader's spirit floats into the air and hovers directly above the heads of the oppressed and, when the time is right, shimmers down like golden sun rays on a clear, summer's day. That's when the martyr becomes more valuable in death than in life, when, ironically, the martyr takes on new life inside the hearts of future Minister Malcolms for generations.

That's why the daddy is sitting here thinking about some things that Minister Malcolm said in the 1960's that still resonates inside him today:

* That "education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it;"

* That "The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community;"

* That "The economic philosophy of black nationalism only means that our people need to be re-educated into the importance of controlling the economy of the community in which they live;"

* That "Our people have made the mistake of confusing methods with objectives...that, As long as we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods or tactics or strategy. We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as free human beings in this society;" and

* That "Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny and oppression."

It's cold in Minnesota in November. But the daddy thinks he'll take a walk outside. Who knows? Maybe he'll look up in the sky...and think about Minister Malcolm.

SHOW THE DADDY SOME LOVE!

"We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained."
--Nikki Giovanni, poet

Listen up. The daddy's been blogging only for a short time. But during that time, he has made over 198 posts, gotten 19,677 clicks on his counter. That doesn't mean 19,677 people came to my blog. But it does mean that quite a few few came; and the daddy thanks you from the bottom of his heart.

The daddy has a growing number of people who come to his blog and make comments, many of them quite insightful and passionate. What has happened was that the daddy developed an educational and respectful relationship with them, a relationship that continues to grow.

Yes, the daddy has his posse or--better yet--his crew. Hey, the daddy's got people. But most just come by, lurk for a minute, and move on. That's alright, but you know what? The daddy still wants to know you came. The new FOLLOWER widget will help with that.

In addition, the follower widget allows other people to get to know who you are, especially those of you with your own blogs. People will see your picture or logo and check out your blog. This is so cool, because many of the people who visit have wonderful blogs in their own right.

So:

1. Go to my sidebar;
2. Click on "Follow This Blog;"
3. Decide if you want to follow publicly or anonymously (hopefully public but anonymously would be okay too); and
4. Click "Follow" at the bottom. That's all there is to it.

Thanks for coming to see me. And thanks in advance for showing the daddy some love. It will boomerang back to you. Blessings.

Can you say, "I ain't gon study violence no mo?"

Two quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beauty as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

In keeping with some of my reader's wishes, who say they're suffering from "post-election fatigue," the daddy's not writing about the election or the sorry state of the American economy. But I'm writing about American society, especially about the unnecessary and painful violence in our communities. So the daddy is thinking...

Can you say "I ain't gon study violence no mo?"
by Mac Walton, aka, The Daddy

So the daddy is thinking... just thinking... about Malcolm x, who said," On this day, from this day forward, on this earth, we declare that we have a right to fight for our freedom "by any means necessary."

Minister Malcolm died from a hail of bullets from members of the Nation of Islam, the organization he helped create, leaving behind a wife and two children and the hopes of millions of African Americans.

The daddy is thinking...just thinking...about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died from a violent gunshot as he stood out on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King said we must meet the power of violence as an organized people of love, as a nonviolent people, as a non-violent nation. He said we must have "the strength to love." And though the corporate media won't acknowledge it, he spent the last year of his life not talking about little white girls and little black boys holding hands and singing we shall overcome. No, he but focused on the fight against war and poverty, reminding us that our government's preoccupation with war not only killed people abroad but diverted much-needed resources to end poverty at home.

Dr. King, an activist/intellectual, perhaps the most eloquent orator of any generation, a minister who could quote Shakespeare as easily as he could quote a passage from the bible, "made it plain" when he paraphrased an old religious hymn and said, "I don't know about you, but I ain't gon study war no mo."

The daddy is thinking...just thinking... about the millions of lesser-known Americans in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis and Atlanta who die every day from a hail of gunfire from gangbangers who are famous for missing their targets and killing innocent citizens, including children.

Okay, African Americans, the daddy wants to ask you something: As a people who were enslaved and brutalized for centuries by others, shouldn't you be peaceful toward each other? Whether inside the home or out on the street, shouldn't another brother or sister be the last person you raise a hand or squeeze a trigger finger to harm? And if you must raise a hand or pull a trigger, shouldn't the only possible justification for doing so be to defen yourself as an individual or to defend your country against attacks?

Okay, Americans of all ethnic, political or religious persuasions, the daddy wants to ask you something: As members of a nation that took this country by genocide against nations of Indians (the first Americans), as members of a nation that enslaved an entire group of people (Africans), as members of nation that spends much of its budget on either fighting wars or preparing for wars, as members of a nation with 47 million people without healthcare, with infrastructure so bad that you're afraid to drive across some bridges, shouldn't you be so angry, so... obsessed with forcing your elected officials to turn away from bloody wars and toward the righteous quest of supporting you that you're willing to organize other Americans to march on Washington D.C. this summer and camp out there until your elected officials-- yes, Barack Obama-- pass laws to bail out working people, to insure them, to employ them, to rebuild America?

The daddy is thinking...just thinking...about rising each morning with the sun, sipping a cup of java, paraphrasing an old spiritual and say, " I ain't gon study violence no mo."

Can you say, "I ain't gon study VIOLENCE no mo." Can you live it?

Nina Simone and the sweetest song the daddy ever heard

Today, the daddy is feeling my many friends who come to my blog regularly but refuse to leave a comment. Perhaps they believe that communicating with him on his blog will somehow adversely affect their relationship or make it less meaningful. So they phone or e-mail to let him know what they think (and to correct his grammar).

What they've been saying lately is that they have post-election fatigue and, therefore, don't want to read political post or posts about the terrible economy. No, they want to hear something different, something positive, something sweet. The daddy hears you. So, in the words of Roberta Flack, the daddy will kill you softly, but he promises to make it soulful and bittersweet.

Today, the daddy is re-posting a piece about an artist all my friends love--Nina Simone. Okay, guys, here you go. By the way, you can still comment on my blog. We'll still be close.

Nina Simone and the sweetest song the daddy ever heard?
by the daddy

Listen up. The daddy's got a question for you: what’s the loveliest, sweetest song you ever heard? The daddy’s got a few nominees for you.

In a CD called “Aretha Franklin’s Gospel Greats,” recorded in a black church in Cleveland, with the famous Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern Community Choir, Aretha sang “Amazing Grace” with such passion and with such power that she left no doubt who the greatest soul singer is ever, man or woman. The sister moaned to the floor, preached to the congregation, and, with head up and hands outstretched, testified to the lawd above, saying, "Yes, I once/ was lost. But now/ now I'm found/ My savior/I know he leads/ leads me on."

On the CD "Pain in my heart,", the late Otis Redding sang “You send me,” a Sam Cooke hit. And, yes, Cooke had the smoother voice, but Otis had a more powerful, more soulful voice. And Otis had something else: a tighter band of southern studio musicians who played with such soul that it made you feel guilty for not attending church as much as you should. Duck Dunn on bass, Booker T from Booker T and the MGS, Steve Cropper on guitar, and the Memphis Horns, the baadest group of horn players around at the time. With this tight group, Otis gospel voice, and the song's sweet, honest lyrics, “You send me” couldn’t miss. Though overlooked by critics, it is one of the sweetest ballads ever recorded.

But the daddy heard his sweetest song ever at a house party. You know this type of party: The party where a couple of your male friends invite you because they want you to get married, have children and live in the suburbs like they do;where one of your male friend's girlfriend wants you to date her sister or cousin so you'll settle down and stop taking her boyfriend around clubs where single, attractive, and available sisters are in abundance; the kind of party where you walk in the door with very dim lights and five or so couples dancing so close you’re sure that at least one of the women is going to get pregnant right on that dance floor (if she isn’t already); the kind of party where singer Marvin Gay welcomes you by saying “Let’s Get it on” and makes it plain as a country black preacher that he wants him some "Sexual healing."

This is the kind of party where Junior Walker of Junior Walker and the All Stars rap hard and long and, getting a little frustrated, ask:

“What does it take/
to win your love for me/
How can I make/
this dream come true for me/
I just got to know/
Ooh, baby cause I love you so/
I’m gonna blow for you/"

It's the kind of party where the Isley Brothers ask, “Who’s that lady” and, after a few moments of conversation and two glasses of wine, is whispering into her ear, confessing, “I want to groove with you... between the sheets."

It's the kind of party where two females show up unaccompanied, where even Ray Charles on heroin could see that this is a set-up by your friends and that they have an agenda of their own. Yes, eyes may be closed while moving slow on the dance floor, but, otherwise, eyes are open and every thing comes at a price.

This is why the daddy never stays at these parties longer than to say hello, have a drink, and eat up the appetizers (Note: the daddy has been known to stuff cheese and grapes in his pockets on the way out); and this is why the daddy was heading toward the door when he heard this song that made him stop in his tracks, the one song that wasn't about making out so much as making time; that wasn't about manipulating a woman into bed but consciously hearing her gentle plea to be rescued from an abusive relationship.

The daddy knew this voice. It was Nina: The Nina who played piano as a child to support her family, yes, Nina the woman-child genius who, after finishing Juliard, was denied entrance into another music school solely because she was black, the Nina who got so fed with American racism that she left the country and moved to France; the Nina who told us we were "young, gifted and black;" the Nina who, from distant shores, decried American racism, shouting "Mississippi Goddamn;" the Nina who, through concerts in America and around the world, supported Dr. King so his organization, the Southern Christian Conference (SCLC), would have the funds to get peaceful protesters out of jail, pay staff and travel; the Nina who--wherever she went-- never left us. That’s why, even at a make out house party, everyone stopped to hear her melancholy plea to Porgy:

I loves you, Porgy,
Don' let him take me,
Don' let him handle me an' drive me mad.
If you kin keep me,
I wants to stay here wid you forever,
An' I'd be glad.

I loves you, Porgy,
Don' let him take me
Don' let him handle me
With his hot han'
If you kin keep me
I wants to stay here wid you forever.
I got my man.

That's why you could hear a pin drop when she soloed on the piano, her long, dark fingers gently sliding across white ivories, transferring voice to fingers and moving us in a way no amount of Absolute vodka or the soft, inviting hips of an "available" companion ever could.

That's why the daddy whispered to the host to put the song on repeat and promptly grabbed a woman's hand and began dancing.

Shortly afterwards, the daddy left the party. But he wasn’t alone. Nina was still with him.

What's the sweetest song you ever heard?

On this Veteran's Day, a prayer for peace

"But fame is theirs - and future days
On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead -
"These for their country fought and bled."
~Philip Freneau

Today, this Veteran's day, the daddy is praying for the end of war in Iraq, for closer monitoring and enforcement of laws against those who assault our women in uniform, and for greater funding and less red tape to help soldiers who come home from war injured mentally, physically, and spiritually.

A Veteran's Day Prayer
by Rev. Scott Elliott

Good and loving God we are gathered here today on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It is the traditional day for Veteran’s Day and our thoughts are of the women and men who have served our nation in times of war and truce. We stand before you grateful for the dedication of these heros who have lived and died, suffered and cried and stood with pride on ship, battlefield and parade ground.

We ask that these women and men experience your healing and comforting presence for the wounds they have known and still know, for the losses they have endured and always will endure. We also ask that your healing and comforting presence be experienced by the families and loved ones who have suffered with them and who have had to endure living without them.

We especially ask that your presence be experienced by the veterans of tomorrow, those soldiers and sailors who are in harm’s way today. Please, gracious God, guide them to safety, guide them to justice and righteousness in even the toughest of conditions. Bring them home to their families and loved ones. Comfort those families and loved ones, and teach us how we might help them with their troubles and be your compassionate presence to them as they experience anxiousness, anguish and the loneliness and pain that comes with the knowns and unknowns of war.

Finally, God, for veterans, for all who are in the service, for America, for the world, we pray for peace. Lead the leaders of the world to the day when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; [to a day when] nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa 2:4).

We long for your peace, for your shalom.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Nat Turner's confession, our long, bloody strugle for liberation

“I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.”
--Nat Turner

Today, November 10th, is the date Nat Turner confessed to a lawyer that he lead a slave rebellion. It resulted in the death of 55 people. On this date, only a few days after Barack Obama has been elected the first African American president of the United States, the daddy is reflecting on Turner's confession and the rebellion he lead as just one pivotal moment in our long, bloody struggle for liberation: to be treated equally as American citizens, to be respected as human beings.

In the confession, Turner said he talked to God, that God compelled him to strike out against slavery.

The daddy is feeling this poem by iampunha. It's taken from an online blog called Progressive Historians for Our Future.
--------------
Nat Turner Talked to God

death is what awaited
him
and he knew it

but death
was preferable
to not living
only

brea
thing

for someone else's bottom line
and someone else's family

but
today
no more
for Nat Turner

177 years ago
a few hours ago
Nat Turner's soul said
"My body is bought, but my soul is no man's"
and struck out…

in a way
as a slave change
that
they hurt you to make you decide
if the pain is worth it
you're dead from the time you're born
and if you try to
and if you escape
once you kill
you've burned your only bridge
so by any means necessary

i don't blame him one bit

Nat Turner talked to God
and then met him
(our president talks to god
and lies to the rest of us)

someday
my father promises me
(without saying 'promise' but meaning it all the same)
he and i
will meet Nat Turner

i'd like to meet that man
------------------------

Born: 2 October 1800

Died: 11 November 1831 (execution by hanging)

Birthplace: Southampton County, Virginia

Best known as: Leader of the 1831 slave rebellion

Two good books about Nat Turner and Black slave rebellions:
1. Black Rebellion: Five Slave Revolts by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Product Description: Black Rebellion, a fascinating account of five slave insurrections, among them the story of the Maroons, escaped slaves in the West Indies and South America who successfully resisted larger British armies while living an independent existence for generations in the mountains and jungles of Jamaica and Surinam; of Gabriel Prosser, who recruited about 1,000 fellow slaves in 1800 to launch a rebellion throughout Virginia; of Denmark Vesey, an ex-slave, seaman, and artisan, fluent in several languages, who conspired in 1822 to kill the white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, and take over the city; and of the revolutionary mystic Nat Turner, who in 1831 organized and led the most successful and dramatic slave revolt in North America. The author also describes how whites responded with panic, sweeping arrests, mass executions, and more repressive laws in a futile effort to crush the slaves’ insatiable desire to be free.

2. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion by Stephen Oates

From audio file:
"Nat Turner is an American enigma. Was he a saint? A visionary? Were those visions authentic? How could he have come from the mild Virginia Tidewater society of 1831? Oates answers these questions and more in his vivid portrait of Turner, the slave society that nurtured him and the changes wrought in that society because of him. Reader John McDonough adopts a scholarly, but highly engaged, tone that is patient, thorough and deliberate. At the same time, his voice is resonant with the mystery he's exploring. Its burry roughness holds the listener and creates an intimacy that matches the author's own familiar tone and takes all the difficulty out of doing history." P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

New York Times
"A penetrating reconstruction of the most disturbing and crucial slave uprising in America's history.... A vivid and excellent narrative account."