STEM Fields remains a major lifeblood of modern day society. From driving vehicles to going out to studying the weather (which deals with radar systems, mathematics, and an understanding of science in an indepth way), you have to respect STEM subjects all of the time. By the year of 1600, there was the stocking frame. With the Industrial Revolution and the stem engine, more inventions grew rapidly in constructing building and having more transportation from trains to large factory machines. Around this time, there was the evil Maafa and the international slave trade that ruin millions of innocent human lives. In fact, the blood of black people helped to built America and much of the modern Western world as we know it. That is why reparations for black Americans is a necessity. Advances in math, science, engineering, and technology increased in the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century (with the modern airplane and car vehicles), and in the 21st century. The time after World War II (which was the most destructive war in human history) saw a tremendous amount of inventions in the modern world. In that era alone, we saw the computer chip, international air travel, the Internet, video games, and I Phones. It is also important to note that there is a digital gap where oppressed communities don't receive the same opportunities as more affluent communities in terms of access to STEM technologies. That should end completely. STEM if a lifelong reality. When we get older, we need medical devices to monitor our health, we need transportation to move around, and we have access to security systems to protect our homes. That is why people worldwide should live in a war filled with justice and liberation. Empowerment relates to eliminating structures of oppression and creating a system of justice in its place. STEM has great power, and we have to harness that power in constructive ways (from establishing clean energy to deal with climate change to expanding futuristic high speed rail systems).
James K. Polk (1795-1849) was the 11th President of the United States. He served one term from 1845 to 1849. He had many positions like the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Governor of Tennessee, and he was a protege of the bigot Andrew Jackson. That is why James Polk loved the Jacksonian democracy model being a member of the Democratic Party. Polk worked to expand the territory of the United States via the Mexican-American war during his Presidency. He was born in Pineville, North Carolina. Polk was the first of 10 children born to a family of farmers. His father was Samuel Polk, and James was named after James Knox. Samuel was a farmer, slaveholder, and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent. The Polks immigrated to America by the late 1600's. They lived in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Then, the moved into south central Pennsylvania and then to the Carolina hill country. His family were Presbyterians. Polk's mother was a Presbyterian, but his father including his grandfather Ezekiel Polk was a deist, rejecting dogmatic Presbyterianism. Nevertheless, James' mother "stamped her rigid orthodoxy on James, instilling lifelong Calvinistic traits of self-discipline, hard work, piety, individualism, and a belief in the imperfection of human nature", according to James A. Rawley's American National Biography article. James Polk had an illness as a child. He was enrolled at a Presbyterian academy in 1813, and he was a member of Zion Church near his home in 1813. He entered Bradley Academy in Murfreesboro, Tennesse where he was a promising student.
James Polk was admitted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a second semester sophomore on January 1816. He studied law after graduation under the renowned trial attorney Felix Grundy, who was his first mentor. He was a successful lawyer. He handled many cases that came from the Panic of 1819, which was a huge depression. Polk supported Andrew Jackson. As Andrew Jackson's disciple, James Polk opposed the progressive policies from the John Quincy Adams administration. Jackson and Polk didn't want investments in national infrastructure programs, because they believe in an extremist philosophy on the economy. Working on Jackson's behalf, Polk successfully opposed federally-funded "internal improvements" such as a proposed Buffalo-to-New Orleans road. He was pleased by Jackson's Maysville Road veto in May 1830, when Jackson blocked a bill to finance a road extension entirely within one state. That state was Kentucky, and Polk deemed it unconstitutional. Polk abhorred the Second Bank of the United States. Like many Southerners, Polk favored low tariffs on imported goods, and initially sympathized with John C. Calhoun's opposition to the Tariff of Abominations during the Nullification Crisis of 1832–1833, but came over to Jackson's side as Calhoun moved towards advocating secession. Thereafter, Polk remained loyal to Jackson as the President sought to assert federal authority. Polk condemned secession and supported the Force Bill against South Carolina, which had claimed the authority to nullify federal tariffs. The matter was settled by Congress passing a compromise tariff. He later was the Speaker of the House and Governor of Tennessee. James Polk defeated Clay in the 1844 Presidential election. People debated the future of Texas.
Clay had an anti-annexation of Texas view, but Polk supported it. This caused some even Southern Whig leaders to support Polk. With a slender victory in the popular vote, but with a greater victory in the Electoral College (170–105), Polk proceeded to implement his campaign promises. He presided over a country whose population had doubled every twenty years since the American Revolution and which had reached demographic parity with Great Britain. Polk said that he wanted to deal with technology. He wanted to get the Oregon County, acquire California and its harbors from Mexico, reduce tariffs, and reestablish the Independent Treasury System. His cabinet included people from the North and the South. President Polk was 49 years old when he was inaugurated. The inaugural ceremony was the first one to be reported by telegraph and first to be shown in a newspaper illustration (in The Illustrated London News). Polk supported the annexation of Texas. James Buchanan was the Secretary of State and Robert J. Walker was the Secretary of the Treasury. Once, Britain controlled the Oregon Country. Lewis and Clark visited the area. This land was stolen from the indigenous peoples of the region. The United States and Britain negotiated to allow America to control much of the Oregon Country without going to war each other over it. Polk had refrained in his address from asserting a claim to the entire territory, which extended north to 54 degrees, 40 minutes north latitude, although the Democratic Party platform called for such a claim. Polk claimed the Rio Grande, but Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the border. This dispute lead into the Mexican American War. Polk signed a resolution annexing Texas to make it the 28th state of the Union. Mexico didn't have diplomatic relations with America by 1845.
Mexico didn't recognize Texas independence. War was coming, so Polk send Brigadier General Zachary Taylor to prepare for conflict. Polk wanted negotiations (via diplomat John Slidell and others) to prevent a war, but war came. General Taylor wanted to guard at the Rio Grande. This dispute caused the war. Polk signed the Congressional declaration of war calling for 50,000 volunteers in the military. Many in the Senate opposed the war claiming that it existed under questionable circumstances like Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln. The Senate approved the resolution 40-2. The war ended in an American victory. Mexican forces under General Mariano Arista fought gallantly, but it was too much fire power from the American side. Many Northern Whigs opposed the war. Army Captain John C. Fremont led settlers in California to overthrow the Mexican government there. A freshman Democratic Congressman, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, previously a firm supporter of Polk's administration, offered an amendment to the bill, the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso bill would ban slavery in any land acquired using the money. The appropriation bill, with the Wilmot Proviso attached, passed the House, but died in the Senate. Debates on the war caused Polk to have one term in office. General Santa Ana fled. America once captured Mexico City. War opponents were also active; Whig Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois introduced the "exact spot" resolutions, calling on Polk to state exactly where American blood had been shed on American soil to start the war, but the House refused to consider them. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and expanded American territory along with the Gadshen Purchase too. When Congress reconvened in December 1848, Polk asked it in his annual message to establish territorial governments in California and New Mexico, a task made especially urgent by the onset of the California Gold Rush. Debates on slavery continued. Polk dealt with trade in the Caribbean. Polk didn't want a national bank, and Polk supported lowering tariffs. One of Polk's last acts as president was to sign the bill creating the Department of the Interior (March 3, 1849). This was the first new cabinet position created since the early days of the Republic. Polk had misgivings about the federal government usurping power over public lands from the states. Nevertheless, the delivery of the legislation on his last full day in office gave him no time to find constitutional grounds for a veto, or to draft a sufficient veto message, so he signed the bill. Polk didn't seek one term.
Polk's Presidency was stressful and his health suffered. He died on June 15 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Polk's funeral was held at the McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville. Following his death, Sarah Polk lived at Polk Place for 42 years and died on August 14, 1891, at the age of 87. He owned human beings as a slaveowner whose names are Elias Polk, Mary Polk, and Mtailda Polk. Elias and Mary Polk both survived slavery. Matilda died in 1849 at the age of about 110 years old. James Polk expanded American territories. Many of the generals and military leaders of the Mexican American War would be future participants in the U.S. Civil War like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, George Meade, and Jefferson Davis. James Polk's house, Polk Place, was demolished in 1901, a decade after Sarah's death.
The 12th President of the United States of America was Zachary Taylor (1784-1850). He was a military leader of the U.S. Army who was a major general during the Mexican-American War. He was born in Barboursville, Virginia. His ancestors came from England. He was the third of five surviving sons in his family (a sixth died in infancy) and had three younger sisters. His mother was Sarah Dabney (Strother) Taylor. His father, Richard Taylor, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution. Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, a Pilgrim leader of the Plymouth Colony, a Mayflower immigrant, and a signer of the Mayflower Compact; and Isaac Allerton Jr., a colonial merchant, colonel, and son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster. Taylor's second cousin through that line was James Madison, the fourth president. He was also a member of the famous Lee family of Virginia, and a third cousin once removed of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. His family moved from Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River.
His mother taught him how to read and write. Zachary Taylor attended Middletown, Kentucky academy run by Kean O'Hara (who came from Ireland). In June 1810, Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith, whom he had met the previous autumn in Louisville. "Peggy" Smith came from a prominent family of Maryland planters—she was the daughter of Major Walter Smith, who had served in the Revolutionary War. They had 6 children together. Taylor served in the military for decades. He was involved in the War of 1812 and other conflicts. He was involved in the Black Hawk War and the Second Seminole War. Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma. Though greatly outnumbered, he defeated the Mexican "Army of the North" commanded by General Mariano Arista, and forced the troops back across the Rio Grande. He humanely treated Mexican soldiers prior to the prisoner exchange with General Arista.
Zachary Taylor was a nationalist, supported the Second Bank of the United States, and didn't want slavery to expand into the West (for economic not moral reasons). Taylor also opposed secessionism. He had Millard Filmore on his ticket as Vice President. As support for Taylor's candidacy grew, he continued to keep his distance from both parties, but made it clear that he would have voted for Whig Henry Clay in 1844 had he voted. In a widely publicized September 1847 letter, Taylor stated his positions on several issues. He did not favor chartering another national bank, favored a low tariff, and believed that the president should play no role in making laws. Taylor did believe that the president could veto laws, but only when they were clearly unconstitutional. Taylor was also a slave owner. Taylor supported the Wilmot Proviso too. Most abolitionists didn't support Taylor as he was a slave owner. Martin Van Buren ran for President in the anti-slavery Free Soil Party who didn't want an extension of slavery in more territories. That took votes from the Democratic nominee Lewis Cass, and Taylor won the 1848 election. Zachary Taylor was the last Whig to be elected President in America, and he was the last person elected President who wasn't a Democrat or Republican. He elected diverse people from America to be in his cabinet. For the position of Postmaster General, which also served as a center of patronage, Taylor chose Congressman Jacob Collamer of Vermont.
President Taylor didn't want entangling alliances as George Washington condemned too. He dealt with the issue of slavery. Southern racists didn't like Northerners giving aid to slaves who ran from the South. As the threat of Southern secession grew, he sided increasingly with antislavery Northerners such as Senator William H. Seward of New York, even suggesting that he would sign the Wilmot Proviso to ban slavery in federal territories should such a bill reach his desk. Taylor wanted California to be a state. California would later be a free state. While this was going on, the Latter Day Saint settlers came into Utah to form the provisional State of Deseret. These were the Mormons. This land evolved into Utah Territory. Taylor promised the Mormons to have religious freedom, even being a federal territory. Taylor dealt with New Mexico wanting to be a new state too. On foreign policy matters, many in Taylor's cabinet supported the Revolutions of 1848 in opposition to autocrats. Taylor stopped Narciso Lopez to conquer Cuba. The Missouri Compromise existed, and a strict Fugitive Slave Law was created that harmed human lives. Taylor threatened to use troops to stop secession. He ate a large amount of raw fruit and ice milk during a fund raising event at the Washington Monument (that was under construction on July 4, 1850). His digestive system was sick. It is said that he died of cholera morbus because of the open sewers in D.C. back then. His food might have been contaminated. President Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850 at the age of 64 years old. After his death, Vice President Fillmore assumed the presidency and completed Taylor's term, which ended on March 4, 1853. Soon after taking office, Fillmore signed into law the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the issues faced by the Taylor administration.
A Joint Special Committee was appointed by the Common Council of the city of New York, to make the necessary arrangements for the funeral in honor of the late Taylor, which took place in New York City, on Tuesday July 23, 1850. A procession moved from the Park and proceeded down Broadway, to Chatham Street to the Bowery; down to Union Square; and then in front of the City Hall. The procession included the firing of three volleys by the 7th National Guard Regiment. There were thirty pallbearers, which was the number of states in the Union at that time. Taylor was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., from July 13, 1850, to October 25, 1850 (which was built in 1835 to hold remains of notables until either the grave site could be prepared or transportation arranged to another city). His body was transported to the Taylor family plot where his parents were buried on the old Taylor homestead plantation known as "Springfield" in Louisville, Kentucky. President Taylor saw an evolution of the tensions of the North and the South grow into the U.S. Civil War. He was the last President to own slaves while he was in office. He had deals with many foreign powers, and the antebellum period would end in war.
The War on Drugs have existed more than 50 years. Billie Holiday was a victim of the evil War on Drugs back in the 1950's. This is about the modern day War on Drugs that was born on June 18, 1971 by President Nixon. From the days of the Opium Wars to the modern age of 2021, the War on Drugs has been filled with controversy. One positive news is that a huge majority of Americans in recent years now oppose the War on Drugs. Back in the day, it was taboo to talk about solutions to drug addiction that are in opposition to the War on Drugs. Now, we have a new day when new laws in various states invest in drug treatment programs, education, community development, and other progressive means to improve the confines of society. As recently as 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance has called for an end to the War on Drugs costing $51 billion annually in the States plus costing cumulative in ca. $1 trillion. The War on Drugs is interrelated to the prison industrial complex, gentrification, racism, and other unjust laws. Sentencing disparities based on race and class are real. You can't claim to be for justice and take a blind eye to the corruption found in the racist prison industrial complex. Drug addiction doesn't discriminate either. It's found among people of every color from Los Angeles, NYC, and to rural places with meth plus oxycotin addiction. Scholars and political leaders have spoken about this issue like John L. Potash, Gary Webb, Mike Ruppert, Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, etc. Nothing is new under the sun. Today, we have books, the Internet, and other sources documenting the viciousness of government corruption and the destructive nature of the War on Drugs in general. That is why progressive alternatives to the War on Drugs remains a necessity.
Modern gospel music has existed from 1997 to the present in 2021. For over 24 years, we have witnessed gospel music change in many ways. We live in a new time from the days of the Jubliee Singers. Gospel now is filled with tons of younger artists. Many of these gospel musicians consist of influences from hip hop and R&B music. Also, there are many older gospel legends making songs and albums too. The Stellar Awards presents the reality of the diversity of new school artists of this generation fully. In our time, Jekayln Carr has many tons of music involving gospel. Tye Tribbett is known for dancing and having massive energy with his spiritual music. We know about the Clark Sisters and going strong after decades of being in the gospel music industry. Kierra Sheard-Kelly has sung gospel music for a while. A younger singer named Jonathan McReynolds gave shown many conscious messages in his gospel songs too. At the 2021 Stellar Awards, the Clark Sisters accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Tramaine Hawkins accepted the Aretha Franklin icon award during the 2021 Stellar Awards too. Aretha Franklin was a huge artist involving gospel music. Other artists who continue to inspire human beings in 2021 are: Jason Clayborn, Hezekiah Walker, Pastor Mike Jr., Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Terrian, Mali Music, J.J. Hairston, Tamela Mann, Jokia, Maverick City Music, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, Kirk Franklin, Anthony Brown, Nia Allen, Capria McClearn, and other human beings. The group Mary Mary have made albums, and each woman have created solo projects too during the 21st century. Also, this era has been filled with debate. One extreme group of people want gospel music to compromise their principles entirely, and the other group of extremists want a totally rigid form of music that makes no effort to guide the young. We have to promote a balance where integrity is promoted in gospel music and creativity is advanced too. Therefore, music is universal, and there is nothing wrong with diverse sounds in praising God legitimately.
There is this New York City connection to my genealogy. Many of my distant cousins live in New York City. One person born in New York City is my 4th cousin named Sean E. McGee. He was born on December 23, 1964. He is a descendant of Zilphy Claud via Frank Claud. His parents are the military veteran John McGee (b. 1927) and Sallie Hobbs Claud (1931-2009). Sallie Claud's parents are Willie Lloyd Claud (1907-1974. Willie Lloyd Claud's parents are Frank Thomas Claud (1861-1948) and Elizabeth Whitehead (b. 1868). Sean E. McGee had many children like Tiffany McGee (b. 1992) and Jiselle McGee. My late 2nd cousin Ida Sexton Brown (1920-2000) is related to me by both of us sharing the same ancestor of Morefield Hurst Turner and Milly Bozeman. Ida Brown's parents are Robert Goodman (1888-1948) and Mahala Lue Sykes (1895-1994). Ida Brown's siblings are: Linwood Brown (1916-1930), Ledora B. Ellis (1918-1986), McKinley Brown (1919-1958), Cleveland Brown (1922-2005), Herbert Isom Brown (1923-1987), Mary Lue Brown (b. 1924), Robert Lee Brown (1926-2005), and Kenneth Harold Brown (1934-1990). Ida Sexton Brown married Melvin R. Overby on June 13, 1942 at Surry, Virginia. Their children are Mrs. Kathryn Green Overby Blamoville (b. 1949) and Melvin R. Overby Jr. These 2 children are my 3rd cousins. Ida Brown lived in Jamaica Queens, NYC. Mrs. Blamoville lives in New York state.
The Hurricane of Ida has harmed many areas all over America in Louisiana, New York, Philadelphia, etc. In Louisiana, many homes have been devastated. Some parts of Louisiana will take long weeks fro electricity to come to various locations. People are recovering in Lafource, Plaquemines, St. Charles, Terrebonne, and other locations. Entegry Louisiana provides electric services to more than 1 million customers. Flood waters are slowly receding in the region. Many victims of Ida are living in northern Louisiana and Texas. That is why we need federal infrastructure legislation to help fellow human beings in America. This isn't time for tokenism or ban aids. It's time for real, comprehensive solutions. Gas was in short supply in many places. Ida's record rainfall in New York City and in the Northeast showed the disaster of world capitalism. Capitalism is built on human exploitation. Massive floods have hit Penn Station. New York City ironically is the wealthiest city on Earth with the world's highest concentration of billionaires in the world. Much of the infrastructure in the Northeast have been decades behind from storm protection assets, transportation system drainage system, and power supply. A housing complex was destroyed in Elizabeth, New Jersey by floodwaters killing 4 residents (and left 600 people homeless). Many people were drowned in NYC basement apartments. For decades, the elites refused to provide funding for critical infrastructure, buildings, and other entities to deal with climate change. So, change must come to save human lives literally and to improve our environment in general.
By Timothy
No comments:
Post a Comment