"The Tragically Ironic Truth About America..."

"A Thought To Ponder..."

"The Truth About Black History Month..."

On Feb. 8, 1968, three black students were killed and 28 wounded as state troopers opened fire on student demonstrators on the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg in the wake of protests over a whites-only bowling alley. The event would become known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Above, the contorted body of 17 year old high school student, Delano Middleton, a peaceful protester, lies mortally wounded and literally under the heel of his "lawful oppressors." This is the truth about black history in America.

Why am I remembering this today...

Some have questioned why black people have been relatively quiet about what's going on with ICE... I can't speak for everyone, but as for myself, we might be visibly absent, but we're not being quiet -- we're being careful. We're resisting and we're supporting our immigrant brothers and sisters when and how we can... But we also know this is particularly different than anything we've seen before.

Maybe other's won't say it, but we saw Renee Good's and Alex Pretti's white privilege completely ignored and it was frankly shocking to us. We're all too accustomed to black and brown civil rights being ignored and our lives being taken without any repercussions, but what we are witnessing now is something frighteningly new. 

 

As we've always been, black people are allied to the cause of freedom and justice for all, but we know what world we're living in right now, for us this is Déjà vu. Trump's ape video was merely the latest poignant reminder of exactly what he thinks of us. We know that his assault on DEI was just the beginning of what he has in store for us.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Irony Of Truth..."

"The Truth Is Always Stranger Than Fiction..."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"In Memoriam..."

Those of us who may survive this should never forget those who gave the most to resist for us all...

"Fear Eats the Soul'

"The Truth Today..."

Lest anyone think I'm oblivious to what's happening in our nation, I am not... I simply understand how little ability I have to affect it.

It all reminds me of the title of the longest book I ever read more than 40 years ago...

Poor Fellow My Country

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Dreams Of Men Still Young..."

In 2012, this was just a dream...

Don't ever forget how hard fought this battle was...

Those who would steal from us our rights and freedoms didn't succeed in 2025, but that hateful generation hasn't given up on turning back the hands of time... We must be ready to fight again in 2026 and until the last of the haters is gone from the Earth

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Truth Is That True Love Lasts..."

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"The Color Of Love..."

"I Am Always Remembering..."

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Daryl Cagle, November 23, 2003

"June 30th, 2025..."

"We're Living In The Age Of The Machines..."

Did you know that the first pride was actually a riot...?

Here the AI imagines the struggle of our elders will soon be revisited on this new generation

All Images AI Generated

"The Truth About Juneteenth..."

What a strange holiday this is... Today we celebrated the anniversary of the last slaves of the confederacy in Galveston, Texas finding out that they'd been lied to by their masters and had been "free" for some weeks before they were finally informed of the fact on June 19th, 1865.

I have very mixed emotions about this holiday... As a blackish* man, throughout my life despite being born nearly 100 years after the "end of slavery" I am constantly reminded that I am not "fully free" and not "fully equal" in the country of my birth simply because of the color of my skin. From the beginnings of slavery and right up until today, America has constantly failed to live up to the ideals of her founding principles. To listen to our "president," you'd think he and those who elected and empower him never heard the lessons I was taught to believe in:

 "We hold 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."

Fact: When those famously eloquent ideals were put to parchment as the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, there were more than 450,000 slaves in the colonies. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration, himself owned near 600 slaves during his lifetime. Those 450,000 slaves and generations of their progeny created the foundational wealth of what would become the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known. It all started from their stolen lives and labor. 

Although I live a comfortable life and I have managed to navigate and negotiate a world that's been hostile to people like me, realizing I'm part of the exception for my people and not the rule made it very hard to say, "Happy Juneteenth" and "Happy Emancipation Day" to folks I came across today. I'm not free, and maybe no one is, but I know I'm far less free than my white neighbors next door.

Instead, about today I feel like the central character of Solomon Tauber in the book and film, The Odessa Files, "I bear no hatred nor bitterness... People are not evil. Only individuals are evil." 

I love my country, even if some of my fellow countrymen don't love me.

*Blackish: Black people in America don't look like Africans. We look "Blackish." We are almost all of us a mixture of African blood and the blood of our one time masters. This is why we come in every shade of the brown spectrum. Our women were frequently taken as enslaved mistresses, but far more commonly they were intentionally raped to create more slaves; slaves with a bond of blood to their masters. 

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Views To Love..."

"The Truth Today..."

A Friendly Reminder:

Everything you've seen here is at risk

RESIST!

Because when it's allowed to happen, history really does repeat itself.

"A Thought To Ponder..."

The Constitution Of The United States of America

Read it (while you can) and understand what it says (while there's still time)

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"We Were Always There..."

Members of the Gay Activists Alliance holding a sit-in at 

New York State Republican headquarters in 

New York City in 1970

I fear there will need to be days like this again...

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"I Am Always Remembering..."

Make no mistake, this too is at risk...

Remember when they said, "Roe v. Wade" is the law of the land?

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"A Little Sane Advice..."

A wise man is always prepared.