Secret Societies (Finale)
Involving the mysteries of life, there should always be inspiration. This series has been going on for a long time, and it is now time for closure in terms of many reflections. I remember when I first got into this mode of research. Ever since I was a child, I studied the mysteries of life. In 1998, I learned about Atlantis stories. By 2001, I took the research to the next level by knowing about symbolism, secret histories, and how the world really works. From that time to the present, it has been a glorious adventure to realize more of the truth. The corporate media in many cases lost their credibility by promoting deceptions like some of them once believed that the Vietnam War was a righteous endeavor. Some in the corporate media even demonized the mass demonstrations of civil rights protesters in Chicago back in 1966. Mike Wallace told Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. if mass demonstrations were a detriment to progress. Of course, Wallace is wrong. The reason is that massive demonstrations caused many social changes in the world from civil rights to the rights of women including labor workers. Now, we have some in the corporate media who exploit the blatantly false misinformation found in some sections of the Internet as an excuse to promote censorship or intimidate people who desire the exposure of corporate corruption. Social media should be regulated without draconian policies. Another problem is that non-profane commentaries has been censored all over the Internet for years without the corporate media mentioning this fact at all.
The reality is that we don't have naivete. We just know that we have record economic inequality in the world, and neo-liberal wealthy elites desire policies that want oligarchy instead of fair distribution of the wealth in the world. The poor, the working class, and the middle class are the major engines of the economies of the world. Our actions caused the Statue of Liberty to exist, the construction of farmlands and urban metropolises, the defeat of the Nazis during WWII, and some of the greatest movements of humanity in world history. Their sacrifice, work ethic, strength, and resiliency must be honored if solutions are to be made. Draconian austerity is not embraced by most people. That is why huge protests now are all over France against pension reform plans. Censorship has been going on for a long time on the Internet and in other places. Whether people agree with me or not, people have the right to show their voices. Far too often, some want to use methods in trying to suppress dissent. During this generation, I am not backing down from my core belief system. I still believe in anti-imperialism and I believe in religious freedom including opposition to bigotry. I still have hope, because our ancestors suffered a great deal more than us, and they survived unspeakable injustices. I have hope subsequently because I believe in the human capacity for self-improvement and the God-given rights that we will earnestly protect and defend.
Heroes
Our heroes from the past and the present always fought back. One of the most disrespectful sayings in the world is how some say that "this isn't our grandfather's movement" or "we aren't our ancestors." Those phrases disrespect the legacy of our people who fought for justice. There are tons of heroes that we should honor, and many of them are unsung human beings. David Walker was an anti-slavery activist. He was an abolitionist too. His father was ensalved and his mother was free. He lived in Boston, Massachusetts a lot. He called for black unity against slavery in his work of "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World." He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He used political and religious principles to fight for black justice in the world. His son, Edward G. Walker, was an attorney. By 1866, Edward G. Walker was one of the first two black men elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. David Walker loved his wife, Eliza Butler. John Brown helped to get the volume of Henry Highland Garnet printed.
Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the most unsung civil rights leaders of all time. Not only was she was born in the Deep South of Mississippi. She inspired courage among our people to stand up against Jim Crow apartheid tyranny. No one can fully comprehend the breadth of the American Civil Rights Movement without studying Mississippi and the civil rights heroes of Mississippi who existed back in the day. Jim Crow was tyranny as it restricts where people can live, eat, be educated at, and even go showing at. Some (who are Hoteps, white racists, and black self-hating people) believe in the myth that Jim Crow segregation is equivalent to black independence. That is not true. Black independence is about black people having self-determination to live where we want, set up our own institutions that we control, and having total justice in eliminating racial oppression once and for all. Jim Crow apartheid is about tyranny set up to restrict the fundamental human rights of black Americans in America via the law. That is why civil rights activists fought to eliminate unjust laws. When any law is unjust, we have the right to petition the government, protest, and other legitimate methods in getting that unjust law abolished forever and ever. Fannie Lou Hamer worked with Freedom Summer, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and she was the co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus (to help recruit, train, and support women of every color to seek governmental office). Fannie Lou Hamer helped to register black voters and formed programs like the Freedom Farm cooperative to grow agriculture power. She used church hymns to inspire people to fight for justice. She confronted the Democratic Party establishment over restricting seats in 1964. Fannie Lou Hamer fought for housing rights for people as well.
Hallie Quinn Brown was a trailblazing teacher, writer, and women's activist. She was one of the founders of the Colored Women's League of Washington, D.C. By 1894 the organization merged with the National Association of Colored Women. She was born on March 10, 1850, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of former slaves who migrated to Ontario, Canada. She wanted to do public speaking, and she graduated from Wilberforce College in 1873. Later, she taught schools for free black Americans in Mississippi. She moved to Columbia, South Carolina to be an instructor in the city's public school. She was educated at Allen University. She taught in Dayton, Ohio public schools too. She supported the rights of black people constantly. She lived to be almost 100 years old as she passed away on September 16, 1949.
Madison Washington was an American enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in America on November 7, 1841. He was on board the brig of Creole. It was transporting 134 other slaves from Virginia for sale in New Orleans, as part of the coastwide slave trade. Washington led 18 of his fellow slaves into rebellion. John R. Hewell was killed. The members of Washington's team ruled the ship. They sailed to Nassau, a British colony back then. The United Kingdom already banned slavery in 1833 in the British Empire. Despite the protests from the American government, the British declared the slaves to be free persons under their law and refused American demands for their return. Washington and his team were on trial and were found innocent of mutiny. They were freed by April 1842. As 128 slaves gained freedom resulting from this revolt, it is considered the most successful in United States history. Authors like Lydia Maria Child, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglas, and Henry Highland Garnet wrote about Madison Washington's contribution to the black freedom struggle. Rudy Doris Robinson Smith is one of the most underrated people in black history (as a member of SNCC).
Our Victories
Far too often, you always have pessimists who think that no victories have existed for our people and our community. The fact that you are seeing my words on the Internet without being enslaved like our ancestors were during the 19th century (and before) is a huge, important victory. The fact that I can go to whatever location in my state and city without seeing Jim Crow apartheid signs is a significant victory. My state of Virginia was a major hub of Jim Crow oppression. My parents lived under Jim Crow and my 2nd and 3rd great-grandparents were slaves in the United States of America, so I know about this subject matter firsthand. So, I decided to write the following victories among the human family (including those victories in relation to the history of black humanity too). Many people like Governor Ron DeSantis and his far-right allies want to sugarcoat how black history is taught in schools in Florida. Therefore, the following commentaries will set the record straight. Now, we have a long way to go in seeing human justice for all obviously, but here are some of the important victories of human history:
1. The Haitian Revolution was a success in 1804. Haiti is the first black Republic in the Western Hemisphere. It was brought about by black men and black women who defeated the French Empire's brutal, monarchial pro-slavery regime multiple times. Dutty Boukman, Georges Biassou, Toussaint Louverture, Henri Christophe, Suzanne Belair, Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, and other black heroes were involved in the Haitian Revolution to free human beings from bondage and injustice.
2. The Union forces defeated the Confederacy at the end of the American Civil War which lasted from April 12, 1861, to May 26, 1865. Some of my ancestors were Union Civil War veterans too. This war was the bloodiest war in American history when almost one million human beings died. I'm from Virginia, and we Virginians know firsthand about the legacy of the Civil War (when many racist monuments were rightfully taken from public lands. Our taxpayer dollars shouldn't pay for monuments of traitors to exist on public lands in America). Black American soldiers were key heroes in making sure that the war ended soon, and that the Confederacy (whose own documents said that they existed to have slavery and promote anti-black racism explicitly) would be permanently defeated. Harriet Tubman led a battle in South Carolina during the Civil War called the Combahee raid.
3. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution banned legalized slavery, expanded civil rights, and expanded voting rights. It would be a century after the Civil War when more legislation would be passed to fight Jim Crow apartheid and other anti-voting rights measures against African Americans.
4. Allied forces defeated the Nazis after the end of World War II. Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo illegally used military forces to steal millions of square miles of land, inflict torture on dissidents, and cause other mayhem that ought to be stopped. The Holocaust (or the Shoah) was caused by the Nazi fascists resulting in the murder of 6 million Jewish people and millions of non-Jewish people too. It was evil and barbaric. Allied people of every color united to end the fascism of the Axis powers. Today, we are still fighting fascism today in America, Brazil, Europe, and other places of the world.
5. The expansion of black people involved in the arts, athletics, education, theology, social activism, agriculture, business, architecture, STEM fields, films, and other films for the past few decades has been phenomenal. Since 1865 when slavery was over, in less than 200 years, the growth of black culture in the world is miraculous by any metric. Our ancestors were in chains and made outstanding contributions to the world.
6. Since the end of World War II, the many European Empires showing imperialism and colonialism has declined and, in some cases, ended. Afterward, many nations of Africa and Asia have developed their own independent nations like Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Indonesia, India, etc. This independence movement in the world has inspired freedom movements globally too.
7. The Fair Housing Act of April 1968 was passed as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It came after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was the last great legislative achievement of the civil rights era of the 1960's. Originally intended to extend federal protection to civil rights workers, it was later expanded to address racial discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing units. After the bill passed the Senate by an exceedingly narrow margin in early April, it was thought that the increasingly conservative House of Representatives, wary of the growing strength and militancy of the Black Power movement, would weaken it considerably. On the day of the Senate vote, however, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Pressure to pass the bill increased amid the wave of national remorse that followed, and after a strictly limited debate, the House passed the Fair Housing Act on April 10. President Johnson signed it into law the following day. We have a long way to go in to fight for housing rights. I want to make that point clear.
8. Another unsung victory is how many places in America have torn down racist Confederate statues and monuments from public lands. Confederates are traitors. No taxpayer dollars should fund the maintenance of Confederate statues on public lands. The increase in the removal of such repugnant statues existed since 2020 (when global protests happened after the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor). These 2020 global protests are the largest, most multiracial protests against police brutality and against racial injustice in human history. These victories are real.
God's Grace
Many people want to know what God's grace means. This concept is found in many faiths, including Christianity. God's grace is God's favor and compassion to fellow human beings. In the Old Testament in Exodus 34:6, it mentioned that God is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. In the OT and NT, God is shown as a gracious being filled with grace. Therefore, God's grace is about kindness and favor shown to someone. Every human is not perfect, and every human has sinned at least once in our life. Therefore, God's grace is about compassion sent to human beings in saving souls. This doesn't mean that we do what we want and whenever we want. We must do the right thing, treat people rightly, and follow moral principles. It does mean that we follow righteousness despite our imperfections as human beings. God's grace does deal with love and mercy. Ephesians 2:4-5 mentioned that humans are saved by God's grace. The paradox of life is that while we should show love and mercy in the world, we also must show justice to those who do evil in the world. The world is not perfect obviously. Therefore, there should be systems of accountability to make sure that those who commit conscious evil are punished, and those who do good in the world are rewarded. In the final analysis, we want any human being alive now to wake up.
Inspirational Words
We all need inspiration from time to time in the world. Once upon a time, we didn't know about the mysteries of life, governmental corruption, corporate corruption, and other intrigue harming human lives. Now, we do. Therefore, we should be considerate when we explain to people how the world really works. One of the mistakes that some have is to show arrogance in attempting to change minds. That doesn't work. To change minds in promoting justice, we have to be honest, filled with compassion, and uncompromising in our perspective. We don't have to demoralize someone in attempting to wake human beings up. One inspirational quality of life is that we are created by a miracle period. Long ago, our ancestors were in chains brought to America from Africa. Our ancestors suffered the worse form of slavery in human history. Yet, we live today as a product of the courage and resiliency of our ancestors. We are not descendants of weak people. We are from a very strong people indeed. From atoms, molecules, cells, organs, and organ systems to human life, we are not mistakes caused by random chance. We have complex intelligence as a product of biological processes, and; in my view, we have a soul. From the elements to DNA, we have a great intellect and power to achieve great things. I believe that the origin of these complex forms of life and everything else in the Universe came ultimately from God (who is the highest form of intelligence in the Universe). That is why I am inspired to continue this journey to discover information, to love truth, and to embrace the principle of the Golden Rule forever and ever. Here are inspirational quotes from legends who love truth:
"Don't follow in any footprints, make your own prints. Because, you are the future of tomorrow."
-Jackie Joyner-Kersee
“The most important lesson that I have learned is to trust God in every circumstance. Lots of times we go through different trials, and following God’s plan seems like it doesn’t make any sense at all. God is always in control, and he will never leave us.”
― Allyson Felix
“We stand against systems and policies rooted in systemic classism and racism.”
― William J. Barber II, Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation
"The gifts of God should be enjoyed by all citizens in Mississippi."
-Medgar Evers
"Christianity is being concerned about [others], not building a million-dollar church while people are starving right around the corner. Christ was a revolutionary person, out there where it was happening. That's what God is all about, and that's where I get my strength."
-Fannie Lou Hamer
"Whether you have a Ph.D., or no D, we're in this bag together. And whether you're from Morehouse or Nohouse, we're still in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men - this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves - but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings in our sick society."
-Fannie Lou Hamer
"I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."
-Harriet Tubman
Never Stop Learning
In life, never stop learning is true advice. Now, more people know the truth. It is a historical fact that many super rich people in Davos talking about neoliberalism and other economic issues. We know about the U.S. made foods being banned in Europe but making many American sick. In our generation, more overt promotion of witchcraft, New Age doctrines, and Satanism is real. The corporate media is controlled by corporate interests. They may show the truth on some issues, but some in the corporate media won't cross that line to show other truths like the influences of Secret Societies, the neoliberal influence in the world, and the corporate corruption that involves oil, media, and other spheres of influence in the world. According to journalist and author of Propaganda in the Information Age, Alan MacLeod, Google started as a CIA project. MacLeod has researched the ties between the national security state and Big Tech for a long time. He found out that dozens of ex-CIA agents are on Google's staff. It is no secret that U.S. intelligence agencies have links to social media platforms like Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. We live in new times when a British lab created a soulless "synthetic embryo" complete with a brain and beating heart. World One was a David Rockefeller-sponsored computer program from 1973 to make it appear that 2020 was the beginning of the end. That is interesting as David Rockefeller wrote his memoirs saying that he is proud of his desire to establish a "one world" agenda.
Since 2020, we have seen an increase of hate crimes, more earthquakes, the spread of the pandemic, promotion of authoritarian population control efforts, new wars, massive earthquakes (like the earthquakes killing thousands of innocent human beings in Tukey and Syria), and other events like food shortages (some GOP extremists want to cruelly cut SNAP benefits to vulnerable populations in America). Some are promoting plans to censor more words on the Internet (under the guise of "combating disinformation") in violation of the First Amendment. The elites exploit crises for generations for control and profit. For example, back in the 1960's, leaders of the American government knew of climate change issues. You can Google how oil companies knew of climate change issues back over 50 years ago. Yet, corporate leaders did little to nothing back in the 1960's to fight climate change, and now things hit the fan by the 1990's and the 21st century. The same corporations who lecture us on how they care about the Earth are the same ones polluting the Earth and advancing poisons in the world (i.e. environmental racism is very real). The corporate elite lectured us on tolerance, but they were involved in Operation Paperclip (which is how the American government took in ca. 1,600 Nazi scientists, many of these scientists were involved in deadly Nazi human experiments) to promote NASA and rocket technology. We already know that Donald Trump is a neo-fascist racist (as we know that Trump said racist comments about COVID and Mitch McConnell's wife. Neo Nazi flags were outside of a Turning Point USA Summitt that was attended by Trump), sexist, and narcissistic. So, we shouldn't worship political parties as infallible. We have to use common sense and think independently. Many people in the World Economic Forum are growing their power.
The biggest irony in the world is that some in the corporate media tells us to reject any conspiracy, but some of them want people to agree with them 100 percent unconditionally. Lies promoted by militarists in dealing with the Iraq and Vietnam Wars should make us aware that we have to trust genuine research. There is misinformation like the Qanon nonsense. Yet, we know that we should be knowledgeable about the mysteries of the world, protect our health (we know that General Electric and Monsanto/Bayer are the same American and European corporations that funded Hitler's rise in the 1930's and had issues with pesticides), and defend our human rights. Today, propaganda that promotes Ancient Aliens and pro-Gnosticism including other New Age doctrines seek to bash those who believe that one God created the Universe. Secret Societies from the Cathars, the Bavarians Illuminati, the Rosicrucians, the Thule Society, the Bohemian Grove, Freemasonry, etc. have many differences. Yet, they existed to promote occult doctrines, some teach the doctrine of human divinity. Freemasonry came from medieval masons who mixed architecture research and philosophical views. An early Freemason like astrologer Elias Ashmole and astrologer William Lilly worked together on many projects.
Freemason leaders like Manly P. Hall and Albert Pike admit that modern day Freemasonry take influences from the Ancient Mysteries from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, etc. The deal is that during the ancient times, pagans believed that man was more than valuable in the Universe, but he or she can be Gods via rituals. Monotheists disagree with that view because of obvious reasons. Therefore, there has been tensions among some members of both factions for centuries and thousands of years. Many pagans were wrong to persecute Jewish people and Christians in various ancient Empires (in Babylon, in Assyria, in ancient Rome, etc.). Some people who claim to believe in God were wrong to persecute many pagans in Europe via the Inquisition, etc. It wasn't just pagans being persecuted during the Middle Ages. Many Christians were persecuted by Vatican leaders too from the Waldensians to other independent believers in God. I don't subscribe to Freemasonry for it claims to have the light that humans desire, I don't agree with calling a grown man Worshipful Master (when God is the only being worthy of worship), I don't agree with their bizarre, obscene oaths, and its doctrines subscribe to an occult version of Theism. In the rituals of Wicca and Freemasonry, they are similar. Both swear oaths from one degree to another, both have new members strip their clothes and have a sharp metal object placed on their chest, both mention the phrase "so mote it be," both blindfold a new member with ropes around him, both walk around the temple, and both have oaths of secrecy.
The 1° oath of an Entered Apprentice Mason, which is too long to quote in its entirety, but which ends like this:
"...All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast resolution to keep and perform the same…binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea, at low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly violate this my Entered Apprentice obligation, so help me God and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same..." This is offensive even if the oath isn't to be taken seriously. Therefore, folks have to be careful on what they get themselves into. I have issues with the occult, because occultists want to restrict the wisdom from the people, except for the select few typically. I believe that all people should have access to the truth and wisdom. There are many ex-Freemasons who repented and live blessed lives, so anyone alive today can change and live a blessed life after the storm. We want people to wake up.
*I want to mention this new tactic of the New Age movement. Because so many people know the value of humanity, DNA, and the different forces of the Universe, most people know that the Universe wasn't designed by nothingness. It was established after the Big Bang with massive creative power. So, the New Age people increasingly are promoting the Anunnaki myth. This theory is that human beings were created by an advanced alien species called the Anunnaki (who came from a distant planet or star system) with using hominids species via genetic engineering to form modern-day Homo Sapiens Sapiens in ca. 200,000 years ago. The reality is very similar to the New Age view that relates to Gnosticism though (as Gnostics like many New Agers and Anunnaki advocates believes that Yahweh was wicked, and Lucifer was good. This is an inverted hermeneutic where concepts get twisted in promoting a slick deception). New Agers readily teach that humans must have a spiritual evolution to reach the "Christ Consciousness" in being beyond the Matrix of various dimensions. The reality is that the Anunnaki are a group of fictional deities of ancient Sumeria, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylon. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are deities in the pantheon, descendants of An and Ki, the god of the heavens and the goddess of earth, and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity. They should not be confused with the Apkallu. The ancient astronaut theory with the Anunnaki was modernized by the author Erich von Daniken with his 1968 book of Chariots of the Gods?
Many scientists and historians have rejected his ideas, claiming that the book's conclusions were based on faulty, pseudoscientific evidence, some of which was later demonstrated to be fraudulent or fabricated, and under illogical premises. Much of the views of this theory have been promoted by ancient Sumerian texts and information from literature relating to Thoth and other pagan stories. An internationally bestselling book by Clifford Wilson, Crash Go the Chariots, was published in 1972. Ronald Story's 1976 book rebutting von Däniken's ideas was titled The Space Gods Revealed. Another negative criticism of von Däniken's book came from archeologist Kenneth Feder in his book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries in 2018. Referring to von Däniken's support of the ancient astronauts hypothesis, Feder explains how his evidence is used and presented in a misleading manner in order to convince the reader that extraterrestrial life was involved in the development of ancient civilizations. von Daniken has been accused of stealing ideas from the French author Robert Charroux. Many scientists and historians have rejected his ideas, claiming that the book's conclusions were based on faulty, pseudoscientific evidence, some of which was later demonstrated to be fraudulent or fabricated, and under illogical premises.
The truth is that the Universe, humanity, the Earth, and animal species, in general, have great creative power made up of atoms, various energies, etc. We are part of the Universe, and we are made with the same elements and atoms from the Universe originally. DNA has great mathematical precision with advanced molecules and chemical relations. Yet, there is no conclusive evidence that aliens or the Anunnaki created modern humans using hominids as a genetic experiment to be mining slaves to the Anunnaki. Many people who believe in the Anunnaki creation of human beings want to deny the existence of God or view God as a power source from the beginning of time. God is more than an Energy Source or a frequency (as many New Agers subscribe to). God is the origin of the Universe being the Creator. Human beings have great intelligence to build the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, and other structures without alien intervention. We are a very intelligent people with a great prefrontal cortex and other neurons that can inspire creativity, imagination, and invention. We should investigate the Mysteries of Life without apology. Yet, we live in a time where slick deceptions must be opposed, and righteousness ought to be endorsed.
As for the Bohemian Grove, we know that his organization meets in Northern California (heavily of GOP members, some Democrats, and some of the wealthiest people on Earth) to "let loose" and have a Druid-inspired Cremation of Care ritual where a 40th owl (representing the Goddess Minerva, not Molech as some believed) in trying to get rid of the worries of the world or riding of care. Many famous people were members like Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Alexander Hague, Casper Weinberger, Herbert Hoover, etc. One of their mottos is "Weaving spiders come not here." The owl in the Cremation of Care ceremony is blatantly idolatrous and has nothing to do with any form of rationality (as many Grovers claim to be Christians, but hypocritically praise the goddess Minerva owl statue). Plays, food, drunkenness, and prostitutes have existed in the Bohemian Grove for years and decades (as proven by author Anthony Sutton and other scholars). Alex Jones was the first person who show footage of the Bohemian Grove to the general public. I don't agree with the reactionary Alex Jones on many issues, but people have the right to know the truth on what takes place in the Bohemian Grove.
We reject the liars who either want to bash every Christian as irrational bigots and others who want to sanitize American history (when American history has been filled with genocide, slavery, and other mistakes. Some of the same "Founders" that some GOP people praise didn't believe in mainstream Christianity, some were Masons, and some expressed hostility towards religion in general like Thomas Paine. Many GOP extremists love to dehumanize asylum seekers who are black and brown but are silent on Ukrainian asylum seekers. All asylum seekers, regardless of his or her color, should be treated with dignity and with respect). We have to use our God-given minds to promote discernment, achieve righteous actions, and advance justice in the world without apology.
The Universe, DNA, and other Mysteries Revealed
When any human being knows about the vastness of the Universe, that person would be humbled and show more respect to it. The Universe is made up of all space and time including its contents. All of the planets, stars, galaxes, nebulae, and every form of matter and energy is part of the Universe. Most scientists believe in the Big Bang theory as the origin of the Universe. The theory states that space and time emerged from ca. 14 billion years ago, and the Universe has expanded ever since the Big Bang. We don't know the spatial size of the entire Universe. It could be infinite, but the observable universe is about 93 billion light years in its diameter at the present time. Thousands of years ago, many thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe. Now, we know that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System (as explained by the observations from Nicolaus Copernicus and other researchers). We know about the laws of planetary motion and the law of universal gravitation from Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and other scholars. What is a light year? A light year is a unit of length used by astronomers to find distances of entities in the Universe. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Because it includes the word "year", the term is sometimes misinterpreted as a unit of time. So, a light year is how far light can travel in one year. One light year is nearly 6 trillion miles. The Universe has many physical laws. In the University, there is many forms of energy like electromagnetic radiation, etc.
So, how do you get from the Earth to the edge of the observable Universe. First, you have the Earth. The Earth is part of a series of planets, asteroids, moons, and other bodies found in space called the Solar System. The Solar System is part of the Radcliffe wave. The Radcliffe wave is the nearest coherent gaseous structure in the Milky Way, dotted with a related high concentration of interconnected stellar nurseries. It stretches about 8,800 light years. This structure runs with the trajectory of the Milky Way arms and lies at its closest (the Taurus Molecular Cloud) at around 400 light-years and at its farthest about 5,000 light-years (the Cygnus X star complex) from the Sun, always within the Local Arm (Orion Arm) itself, spanning about 40% of its length and on average 20% of its width. Its discovery was announced in January 2020 and its proximity surprised astronomers. The Radcliffe wave is part of the Orion Arm. The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is 3,500 light-years (1,100 parsecs) across and approximately 10,000 light-years (3,100 parsecs) in length, containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm (not to be confused with the outer end of the Norma Arm the Cygnus Arm), as well as Local Arm, Orion Bridge, and formerly, the Local Spur and Orion Spur. Then, the Orion Arm (filled with the Earth, the Sun, and the rest of the Solar system) is part of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way encompasses tons of stars too.
The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. The Milky Way is one out of many galaxies in the Universe. The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Milky Way has at least 100–400 billion stars (like Alpha Centauri A, Pleiades, Sirius, Tau Ceti, Proxima Centauri, etc.) and at least that number of planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The Galactic Center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses. Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second (136 miles per second).
The Milky Way is part of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly 3 megaparsecs (10 million light-years; 9×1019 kilometers), and a total mass of the order of 2×1012 solar masses (4×1042 kg). It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape; the Milky Way and its satellites form one lobe, and the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites constitute the other. The two collections are separated by about 800 kiloparsecs (3×106 ly; 2×1019 km) and are moving toward one another with a velocity of 123 km/s. The group itself is a part of the larger Virgo Supercluster, which may be a part of the Laniakea Supercluster. Beyond the Local Group is the Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) made up of galaxies. At least 100 galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs (110 million light-years). The Virgo SC is one of about 10 million superclusters in the observable universe and is in the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, a galaxy filament. Beyond the Virgo Supercluster is the greater supercluster entitled called Laniakea.
The Laniakea Supercluster (/ˌlæni.əˈkeɪ.ə/; Hawaiian for "open skies" or "immense heaven") is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies. It was defined in September 2014, when a group of astronomers including R. Brent Tully of the University of Hawaiʻi, Hélène Courtois of the University of Lyon, Yehuda Hoffman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Daniel Pomarède of CEA Université Paris-Saclay published a new way of defining superclusters according to the relative velocities of galaxies. Beyonce the Laniakea Supercluster, you have the observable universe limit (filled with superclusters all over the Universe) being 93 billion light years (or 28 billion parsecs) in diameter. Therefore, the Universe is so vast that our minds are not fully comprehending everything in the Universe.
As you get older, you see how the Universe is interconnected. All entities of the Universe consist of the same substances. These substances deal with atoms and subatomic entities. In science, there are natural laws, gravity, and natural processes that are real. The human body is a complex biochemical, atomic being that is organized by atoms. There are levels of organization in the human body. At the atomic level, the human body is made of atoms. Atoms have electrons, protons, and neutrons. More than 96 percent of the human body is made up of a few elements called Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen. Elements are made up of many atoms. Oxygen is the most abundant element in the human body, and carbon is an element related to a huge basis of living matter. Hydrogen is key in living organisms too. Nitrogen is found heavily in DNA too. Atoms come together to exist as molecules. Macromolecules are needed for life to exist on Earth. The four major molecules of life are proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates. Proteins are formed by amino acids coming together. We, as human beings, definitely need proteins to live a long, healthy life. Proteins help the human body to function. The body uses protein to build and repair tissues, make enzymes, and make hormones plus other chemicals. Nucleic acids are used in DNA (DNA is a molecule made up of atoms. Chromosomes are made up of multiple DNA, DNA is found in the nucleus, and the nucleus is found in the cell) and RNA. Lipids are molecules that have structural components of cell membranes, store energy, and signal molecules. Carbohydrates are sugars of monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides (used to store energy, have cellular messaging, and support cells plus tissues).
Trillions of atoms make up one cell. The human body has about 100 trillion cells. At the cellular level, life starts. All living beings have at least one cell. It's like a Universe within a Universe. Cells come together to form tissues. The human body has 4 types of tissues, and they are connective tissues, epithelial tissues, muscle tissues, and nervous tissues. Muscle cells form muscle tissues like smooth muscle tissues, skeletal tissues, and cardiac muscle tissues. Nervous tissues are found in the brain and other locations of the body. Many tissues form organs in the human body. Organs perform specific functions in the body. The brain is the control center of the body. The heart pumps blood through the blood vessels. Organs together form 12 organ systems of the human body. The organism level is all of the atoms, molecules, tissues, organs, and organ systems coming together as one human being. That is why each human being (made up of trillions of cells) is unique, specialized, and has great gifts in the Universe. Cells are made up of proteins, which is a type of molecule. Molecules are a collection of atoms. We are made up of very intelligent atoms with great power and energy.
Atoms are far too small to see directly, even with the most powerful optical microscopes. But atoms do interact with and under some circumstances emit light in ways that reveal their internal structures in amazingly fine detail. It is through the "language of light" that we communicate with the world of the atom. In quantum physics for the past years and decades, they discuss about light links to atoms and frequency all of the time. Similar to a tuning fork or even a musical instrument, the electrons of atoms have a natural frequency at which they tend to vibrate. When a light wave with that same natural frequency impinges upon an atom, then the electrons of that atom will be set into vibrational motion. Most of the atom is empty space. In the Universe, forces from Nature hold structures in order in many cases. Many physicists believe in the value of fractals and even in the existence of consciousness. From the subatomic world to the galaxies, we are made of the same elements, atoms, and stardust from the origin of the Universe. From the Big Bang to human beings, we have great value in the Universe. We aren't accidents as we were formed by trillions of atoms in a combination of natural functions in a complex, intelligent biological system.
There is a connection between the beginning of time and the present. As advances in quantum physics and science in general advance, we see how the Universe is much more complex and larger than previously assumed. Once upon a time, we thought that atoms were the smallest unit of matter. Now, we know about quarks being smaller than atoms. When the Big Bang happened, it didn't exist from nothing. It existed from a superior Mind and Power Energy that conceived of it in my view. We know that all matter has an origin, and the human mind can create thoughts and actions via many actions. Therefore, it isn't extreme to assume that the Supreme Intelligent Mind and Power (which is Almighty God) caused the universe to exist in the first place. For anything to exist, you have to have motion, quarks, atoms, and various conditions for things to form. Even the Bible says, as a person thinks, so that person is. Thoughts and emotions cause actions and behavior among human beings. That is why Yeshua said the Kingdom of God is within you. That means if you want change, you have to plan and think about things to create change (along with respecting God and doing the right thing).
More and more scientists are coming out to believe that an atom is like a miniature Universe, and the Universe is like a large scale of an atom. The Universe is based on an image of electromagnetic waves, atoms, and many natural energies that are in constant motion. That is why many physicists believe in the hologram theory in describing the Universe. Even solid matter technically isn't exactly solid, because atoms are mostly empty space in reality. When Yeshua is said that the Kingdom of God is within you, he means also that the same substances in the universe are within you. He is absolutely right. You are made from the same stardust, elements, atoms, and other chemicals that the Universe was created from. Part of the dynamic parts of the Universe and human beings relate to fractals. Fractals (found in the Fibonacci numerical concept) are in Nature, mathematics, and in human beings too. The structure of an atom is similar to the structure of the Solar System and the galaxy in a pattern. So, the universe is fractal, even DNA is fractal. There is no such thing as no motion in the Universe as the first law of thermodynamics says that energy is not destroyed or created, it just transformed into something different. The Universe is made up of vibrating energy. Matter is energy in a certain vibration. All atoms have energy, therefore human beings obviously have energy. More 21st century scientists are now saying that there are much more than four dimensions.
One of the greatest parts of human beings is DNA. DNA is an important molecule that is filled with information necessary to build human life. DNA works with RNA in dealing with proteins (Amino acids form proteins), and DNA is found in the nucleus of a cell (for the most part. A small amount of DNA is found in the mitochondria where it's called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA). DNA is a storage medium like a USB drive. One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. That is why modern-day scientists are trying to use DNA technology now to store more information. We know that Microsoft recently created has a partial DNA storage system or like a DNA digital hard drive. This first fully automated DNA data storage helps to save tons of information. We know that among 14 generations can hold onto epigenetic memories in DNA according to scientists. DNA sends wireless signals. DNA can emit two types of waves including electromatic waves (EMS) and topoisomerase like ones. EMS carry messages of a DNA and help it to communicate with other DNAs and also pure water. Topoisomerase like waves open packings of DNA and copy its genetic material. In the journal of International Journal of Radiation Biology, Martin Blank and Reba Goodman believe that DNA is a fractal antenna in electromagnetic fields. There is a human energy field. Humans can only see a small spectrum of light in the electromagnetic wavelength.
The telomeres in DNA contribute to aging as the more we age, the more the telomeres degrade. Aging effects the organs and other aspects of the human body which is why healthy eating, exercise, reduction in stress, and other actions contributes to strengthening human DNA and making aging much slower. Harvard scientists have used gene therapy to reverse the aging process of elderly mice involving DNA now (Jae-Hyun Yang is the co-author of the study). PBS has shown information on gene editing with CRISPR. In other words, DNA has tons of information as the Universe is filled with information too. The human brain is so complex that it has magnetite crystals. These are in the brain being clumps of a mineral composed of iron oxide that is naturally magnetic (called magnetic minerals). Some scientists say that they exist because of air pollution or other reasons. There is rhythm in the Universe, especially in Nature. For example, there is the Schumann resonance being a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. They exist around the Earth's surface and ionosphere. People study the Schumann resonance to study weather patterns and other aspects of how the Earth functions. Also, we have scientific evidence proves that people living a less stressful life filled with love improve DNA wavelength function and live longer lives (in rejecting permanent fear causing DNA to exist in a higher frequency). The Earth sends off electromagnetic waves constantly. That is energy. Dr. James Gates Jr. has researched the adinkra codes (that the Akan people from Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana have researched by the early 1800's) in trying to explain reality and supersymmetric particles. Every thought from the brain comes out as light waves. That is why you study STEM at a higher level, you see how complex the Universe's dimensions are. In everything that happens in the Universe, there is a cause and effect. In other words, you are jumping and falling on Earth is caused by gravity preventing you from flying into the air. From a stone to the sun, all matter has energy filled with electrons, protons, and neutrons with electromagnetic fields. There are natural laws that deal with how the Universe functions like the law of gravity, the conservation of mass, Newton laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. Therefore, real change has to done with taking positive action in the real world. You have to build, act, confront evil, promote goodness, and do the right thing to make a difference. That is just straight up fact. In having a desire, there are requirements in how to get what you want (requirements exist in Nature and in other facets of society). You can't do anything and wish for manna. You have to work for it, be honest, be sincere, and live life. You are required to learn things, grow, and develop your mind to fight for real change in society. If you need help, there is no shame in getting help.
We aren't meant to have mental chains. In my view, human beings are living, fractal, mathematically based bio-chemical beings (a high percentage of our body is water, and water is a tetrahedron structure as a water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom) with a lot of energy filled with a body, mind, and spirit created by God. As for water, the entire surface of a DNA double helix is coated with layers of water molecules. This water attaches to the genetic material via hydrogen bonds, made by sharing hydrogen atoms between molecules. Through hydrogen bonds, water an influence how DNA takes shape and interacts with other molecules. We need water to survive as human beings literally. Is consciousness real? Yes, you think, you breathe, you live, and you act, therefore you have consciousness. We are meant to be free.
When people say that humans have electricity in their bodies, these people are right. In fact, every cell in a living human body has a tiny electric charge. There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body, and each cell on average has 70 millivolts or 0.07 volts. The Neurons and glial cells can carry electrical signals too. Inside every cell in the human body, there is tiny energy producing like power plants called mitochondria. Mitochondria helps to convert the food we eat and the air we breathe into ATP, or a special type of fuel that powers our cells and us humans too. Cells can capture and release energy too via cellular respiration (requiring oxygen) and fermentation (which doesn't require oxygen). There is power in the cells, power in DNA (which is a molecule that modern scientists have documented is a storage of some of the greatest information in the Universe ties to us human beings), and power in you. That is why the human body functions in ways that we take for granted, because every organ system of the body has a purpose and a role for our health and lives.
Epilogue
After the course of years and decades, we know the truth. We know about the struggle of freedom among the human family. For example, many the Roman Empire stole millions of square miles in their monarchial empire, and heroic people (including early Christians) stood up against the Roman Empire for its oppression against people, for its worship of the Emperor as a god (which is illogical and plain wrong), and its vicious brutality. We realize that that the Golden Rule is a paramount concept to love and embrace. Also, we know that love is a term that has been distorted by some. Some want to use the term love as an excuse for them to do what they want without boundaries and without restraint. Love is not about that. Love is about sincere respect and concern for fellow people, because it is the right thing to do. Also, love is about righteousness, justice, empathy, compassion, and inspiring real change to see the truth. Therefore, it is important to note that some exploit the meaning of love to be a bigot. Love has nothing to do with being an irrational basher of people or hating a person by virtue of what someone is born to be. The truth is that everything isn't perfect. We have Big Pharma being involved in scandals. We witness an unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine. We see massive income inequality in America and worldwide. The good news is that we have the power to do something about it with reason, logic, and social activism. One of the biggest deceptions is Putin. Many far-right and fake liberals are uniting to defend Putin's politics. Putin is a dictator, a liar, and a racist by saying "U.S. is not a white Christian country anymore, we Europeans need to preserve our culture." The truth is that America was never 100 percent white. Diverse people lived in America for centuries and thousands of years. Native Americans and Pacific Islanders lived in the Americas for thousands of years. Additionally, black people lived in Europe thousands of years ago (we have DNA evidence and artifacts proving this. Black people lived in Europe during the days of the Roman Empire), not just 5 centuries ago. Therefore, my precepts are clear that we must be consistent in opposing tyranny and advancing righteousness in our lives.
Rosa Parks Heroic Revolutionary
One of the greatest heroes of black history and human history is Rosa Parks. I was inspired to write about Rosa Parks again, because recently many jealous and ignorant people (using misogynoir) want to downplay Rosa Parks's revolutionary history. Rosa Parks was a revolutionary in ever since of the word. You can recognize Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, Jeaeatta Reese, and Claudette Clovin being involved in the Birmingham Bus Boycott and civil rights without minimizing and lying about Rosa Parks's activism. It is important to set the record straight for real. Rosa Parks was a human being who outlined courage in the world to advance strident opposition to injustice. Rosa Parks stood up for Malcolm X, worked with the Black Panthers, fought against the prison industrial complex, opposed apartheid in South Africa, and was actively engaged in the black freedom movement long before the 1950's. Rosa Parks did more than participate in a boycott. She was standing up for self-defense and human rights before many of these racists and haters were born. That truth isn't known by many people. The real Rosa Parks was a heroic woman who fought for black freedom back decades before the 1960's, even before the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Yet, that reality has been documented by many books like the recent book entitled, "The Silent Revolutionary Rosa Park: The Untold Story" by Catherine Wright and "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" by Jeanne Theoharis. This year is the 110th year Anniversary after Rosa Parks's birth. This year of 2023 is the perfect time to show the truth about Rosa Parks's life and to show a new generation the real story of the revolutionary hero Rosa Parks indeed.
Early Life
To mention about Rosa Parks's longevity comprehensively, you have to look at her life chronologically. She lived from February 4, 1913, to October 24, 2005. Her parents were James McCauley (1886-1962) and Leona Edwards (1888-1979). Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her father was a stonemason and carpenter, and her mother was a teacher. Her maternal grandmother was the daughter of a biracial slave. Rosa's parents separated, and her father moved north looking for work in 1915. Rosa and her mother lived with her maternal grandparents on their farm in Pine Level, Alabama. The family was very religious, so they attended the African Methodist Episcopal Church constantly. On August 20, 1915, Rosa's brother, Sylvester James McCauley, was born to James and Leona McCauley at Pine Level, Alabama. She or Rosa Parks started elementary school in Pine Level in 1918. Her mother also taught her about educational subjects as her mother was a former rural schoolteacher. Rosa's father visited her, and he would not see her again until after her marriage. Rosa Parks always believed in self-defense since her youth. By 1920, Rosa was threatened by a white boy in the street. She immediately picked up a brick and dared him to use violence. By 1924, Rosa Parks and her family moved to Montgomery, Alabama. She attended Miss White's Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. The school was burned down twice by white racists. Rosa was bullied frequently by white children, but she always stood up for herself. In, 1929, Rosa Parks attended Alabama State Teachers College but had to drop out to take for her sick grandmother and mother. By the Spring of 1941, she was working as a housekeeper when a white neighbor of the family (that Rosa was working for) tried to rape her. In 1931, Rosa Parks met Raymond Parks, a barber working in Montgomery. Raymond Parks was also active in the Scottsboro Boys's Defense. He proposed to her on their second date.
The Start of Her Activism
On March 25, 1931, Raymond Parks took food to the jail where nine black young people (aged 12 to 19 years old) were falsely accused of raping two white women. Despite one of the victims later testifying she made the story up, 8 of the boys were found guilty. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) became involved in the case. It took many retrials and appeals over 15 years before they were all released from prison. On December 18, 1932, Rosa Parks married Raymond Parks at Pine Level, Alabama. In 1933, Rosa Parks returned to school and earned her high school diploma. She had great qualifications, but she struggled to find work. She resorted to working in a number of part-time jobs. By 1943, Rosa Parks's brother, Sylvester, enlisted in the army. Rosa Parks in 1943 boarded a bus driven by James F. Blake. After she sat down, the driver told her to get off the bus and enter by the back door. When she got off the bus, he closed the doors and drove off without her. She made a mental note to never use a bus driven by Blake again.
Rosa Parks joined the Montgomery NAACP in December 1943 and soon became the branch Secretary. In September 1944, Mrs. Recy Taylor was defended by Rosa Parks. Parks was sent by the Montgomery NAACP to investigate the gang rape of Mrs. Recy Taylor, a black mother, by six racist white men. Despite one of the men confessing, the authorities refused to prosecute. She launched a letter-writing campaign to press the Governor of Alabama to intervene. Recy Taylor was a black woman who deserved her rights to be respected. By September 1944, Rosa Parks founded the Committee for Equal Justice to help black women who were subjected to interracial sexual abuse and rape. In 1945, Rosa Parks took a position at Maxwell Air Force Base. The base was a federal organization and racial segregation was not allowed. Being able to freely interact with white people for the first time made a great impression on Rosa Parks. In that same year, Rosa Parks was the office manager for E. D. Nixon, the President of the Montgomery NAACP. She attended a progressive leadership training program in 1946 at Tennessee. This program was slandered as Communists by racists and far-right anti-Communist extremists (including members of the John Birch Society). In 1947, E.D. Nixon was the State President of the Alabama NAACP. Rosa Parks continued to work as his secretary. By 1949, Rosa Parks restarted the Montgomery NAACP Youth Council. May 17, 1954, was the date when Chief Justice Earl Warren spoke in favor of the Brown v. Board of Education case that banned public school segregation as being unequal and against the 14th Amendment.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, Rosa Parks attended the educational course for activism in workers' rights and racial equality at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee (which was slandered by white racists and far-right people as Communist). In March 1955, a 15th year old black school girl Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman and was arrested. Her case was not taken up by Montgomery black leaders due to the fact that she was an unmarried minor and pregnant. Society was much more conservative back then. Despite the court ruling in Brown v Board of Education that all state schools should move to integration; many schools defied the ruling.
On August 26, 1955, Dr. Martin Luther King became a member of the executive committee of the Montgomery National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On August 28th, 1955, Emmett Till (being 14 years old) was brutally murdered by white racists. His mother insisted on a public funeral with an open casket to expose the brutality of his murderers and the extent of racism in the United States. On November 27th, 1955, Rosa Parks attended a meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist church. Speaker T. R. M. Howard told the audience that the two men accused of the murder of Emmett Till had been acquitted. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks's life would be changed forever. Rosa Parks boarded a bus and sat in the first row of the ‘blacks’ section of the bus. She had not noticed that the bus driver was James Blake, the driver that had driven off without her in 1943. After a number of white people got on the bus the bus driver insisted that four black passengers including Parks should stand so that white passengers could sit down. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and Blake called the police. She was arrested and charged with violation of the Montgomery City Code. On December 2, 1955, E D Nixon, president of the Montgomery NAACP decided to use Parks’ arrest as a test case to challenge segregation on the buses. Martin Luther King was chosen to lead the boycott. Despite his reluctance to take up the challenge, King was persuaded to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was agreed that all black people would boycott the buses from Monday 5th December. After a mass meeting at Martin Luther King’s church, it was decided that the boycott would go ahead on December 5, 1955. It is important to note that unsung black women and black men were leaders in the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement too. Black taxi drivers carried black passengers for the price of a bus ticket, others shared cars, and many made their journeys on foot. Rosa Parks was found guilty of failing to obey the bus driver's request and fined $14 on December 5, 1955. By December 8, 1955, Montgomery officials issued an order that any taxi drivers charging less than 45 cents would be fined.
In 1956, Rosa Parks lost her job in a department store. Dr. King was arrested and put in jail for leading the continuing boycott of the city buses on January 26, 1956. On January 30, 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s house was firebombed. His wife and daughter were not hurt. Many want retaliation against the racists, but Dr. King convinced them to not respond in violence. By June 5th, 1956, the case of Browder v Gayle, which challenged the bus segregation laws, decided that bus segregation was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. The Montgomery city council immediately appealed the decision. The appeal against the decision in Browder v Gayle was held. The city lost and the original decision was upheld (on November 13th, 1956). In 1957, Rosa Parks had more death threats. She was unable to find work, so Rosa and Raymond Parks moved to Hampton, Virginia. By September 9, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law. The Act made it illegal for anyone to be prevented from voting. It was intended to outlaw the Jim Crow Laws that allowed state and local laws to impose discriminatory sanctions on black Americans but in practice, it had little effect. By late 1957, Rosa and Raymond Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan. Racism existed in the North and Midwest, so Rosa Parks was active in the struggles for equality in Chicago and Detroit.
The 1960's
By the 1960's, America was changing. A massive social revolution existed. In 1962, there was an issue with a lack of housing in Detroit. Many years prior, numerous buildings were destroyed to build railways and roads. The problem was that 70% of those evicted from the buildings targeted for destruction were black Americans. This caused tensions among people of diverse races in the city of Detroit. Yet, Rosa Parks fought for housing justice for black people. In Detroit by 1964, she told an interviewer that, "I don't feel a great deal of difference here ... Housing segregation is just as bad, and it seems more noticeable in the larger cities." She regularly participated in the movement for open and fair housing. She saw many forms of discrimination against African Americans in Detroit, and she wanted to do something about it.
President John F. Kennedy on June 11, 1963 gave a speech saying that segregation was legally and morally wrong. He would introduce new civil rights legislation. By June 23, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 100,000 people on a Freedom Walk in Detroit. By 1963, Rosa Parks was at the March on Washington, D.C. That was on August 28, 1963. There were about 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to be part of the march. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his prominent “I Have a Dream” speech during the rally. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22,1963. By July 2nd, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law. The law stated that discrimination by race, colour, nationality, religion or sex was illegal. King was present at the White House for the signing of the Act. In 1964, Rosa Parks was active to help the progressive Democrat John Conyers to be a Congressman. Rosa Parks convinced a reluctant Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to support Conyers. By 1965, Rosa Parks became the secretary and receptionist for John Conyers’ office. Part of her role was to speak to people in local communities and keep Conyers aware of local issues. Rosa Parks visited schools, senior citizen facilities, community meetings, and hospitals to speak up about socioeconomic issues (like welfare, education, job discrimination, and affordable housing). Rosa Parks was a friend to Malcolm X. Rosa Parks supported the Freedom Now Party, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (whose motto was a Black Panther in 1965), and she stood up for truth. On February 21, 1965, Rosa Parks’s hero Malcolm X was unjustly assassinated in New York City by members of the NOI. Malcolm X was illegally monitored by the FBI, the CIA, and the NYPD’s BOSSI unit. These groups were responsible for the atmosphere that caused Malcolm X's death in my view. On March 25th, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama. SNCC, the SCLC, the Dallas County Voting League, and other groups were heavily involved in the Selma Voting Rights Movement. Rosa Parks traveled to Selma to support the march. By August 6th, 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law to make racial discrimination involving voting illegal.
By January 22, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved into a tenement building in Chicago to draw attention to the poor living conditions of African American in the city. Dr. King worked with Al Raby and other to promote the Chicago Movement that wanted to ban housing discrimination, promote excellent education, eliminate poverty, and build up communities in a progressive manner. By July 6th, 1967, it was reported that about 50 percent of black people eligible had registered to vote. On July 23, 1967, the rebellions in Detroit took place. The police raided an unlicensed after-hours bar. The raid caused the rebellion as black people in Detroit experienced de facto segregation, police brutality, racism, race riots, and poverty for a long time. The rebellions continued for 6 days and completely changed Detroit forever. By 1962, these policies of urban renewal and highway construction had destroyed 10,000 structures in Detroit, displacing 43,096 people, 70 percent of them African-American. Parks lived just a mile from the center of the riot that took place in Detroit in 1967, and she considered housing discrimination a major factor that provoked the disorder.
She served on a "people's tribunal" on August 30, 1967, investigating the killing of three young men by police during the 1967 Detroit uprising, in what came to be known as the Algiers Motel incident. She also helped form the Virginia Park district council to help rebuild the area. The council facilitated the building of the only Black-owned shopping center in the country. Parks took part in the Black Power movement, attending the Philadelphia Black Power conference, and the Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. She also supported and visited the Black Panther school in Oakland.
Dr. Martin Luther Jr. led a march in Memphis, Tennessee in support of black sanitation workers in early 1968. These workers wanted living wages, benefits, and just human dignity. Later, there was violence there caused by provocateurs that shocked Dr. King. Yet, Dr. King wanted to promote nonviolence in Memphis and promised to march again in Memphis. On March 31, 1968, the Republic of New Africa was formed. This was a black nationalist organization was founded to support the vision and ideals of activist Malcolm X. Rosa Parks supported their ideals and often collaborated with the group. On April 3, 1968, Dr. King delivered his famous, prophetic ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech at Mason Temple in Memphis. A day later on April 4th, 1968, Dr. King stood on the balcony outside of room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. He was shot and killed by a bullet. He was pronounced in hundreds of cities in America (being the largest urban rebellions since the American Civil War) dead at 7:05 pm. Immediately, rebellions spread nationwide. On April 9, 1968, Dr. King’s funeral was attended by more than 50,000 people. By 1969, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers was formed in Detroit, Michigan. The aim of the group was to secure equality for black human beings. Parks did not join the group but frequently collaborated with them.
Further Work for Justice
By the 1970’s, Rosa Parks continued to fight for equality and justice. He helped with many committees and organizations that fought prison abuse. Rosa Parks desired the freedom of political prisoners in America, especially cases involving the issue of self-defense. During this time, both Rosa and Raymond Parks suffered ill health (like stomach ulcers) and needed hospital treatment. She helped found the Detroit chapter of the Joann Little Defense Committee and also worked in support of the Wilmington 10, the RNA 11, and Gary Tyler. Following national outcry around her case, Little succeeded in her defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault and was acquitted. Gary Tyler was finally released in April 2016 after 41 years in prison. Although Parks was a famous woman and much in demand to speak publicly, the couple was not well off and ran into financial difficulties. Raymond Parks, Rosa’s husband, died of throat cancer on August 19, 1977. Rosa’s brother, Sylvester, died of cancer on November 27, 1977. Rosa moved in with her mother, who was dying from cancer and dementia in 1978. Her mother, Leona McCauley, passed away in Detroit by December 12, 1979 (at the age of 92 years old). She learned from a newspaper of the death of Fannie Lou Hamer, once a close friend. Parks suffered two broken bones in a fall on an icy sidewalk, an injury which caused considerable and recurring pain.. In 1979, she was given the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal. The Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation was set up in 1980. She continued to fight for justice. By 1987, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development was set up. Unrelated to her activism, Parks loaned quilts of her own making to an exhibit at Michigan State University of quilts by African-American residents of Michigan.
Later Years and Her Passing
In 1992, Rosa Parks’s autobiography “Rosa Parks: My Story” was published. She was a victim of being robbed and assaulted in her home by a coward on August 30, 1994. People helped her to move to Riverfront Towers. Quiet Strength was her memoir being released in 1995. In 1999, Parks filmed a cameo appearance for the television series Touched by an Angel. He passed away on October 24, 2005, of natural causes at the age of 92 years old. Rosa Parks’s funeral was very important in black history and world history in general. She was survived by her sister in law (Raymond’s sister), 13 nieces and nephews including their families, and many cousins. Most of them live in Michigan and Alabama. City officials in Montgomery, Alabama and Detroit accounced on October 27, 2005, that the front seats of their city buses would be reserved with black ribbons in honor of Parks until her funeral. Parks' coffin was flown to Montgomery and taken in a horse-drawn hearse to the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, where she lay in repose at the altar on October 29, 2005, dressed in the uniform of a church deaconess. A memorial service was held there the following morning. One of the speakers, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said that if it had not been for Parks, she would probably have never become the Secretary of State. In the evening the casket was transported to Washington, D.C., and transported by a bus similar to the one in which she made her protest, to lie in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Since the founding of the practice in 1852, Parks was the 31st person, the first American who had not been a U.S. government official, and the second private person (after the French planner Pierre L'Enfant) to be honored in this way. She was the first woman and the second Black person to lie in honor in the Capitol. An estimated 50,000 people viewed the casket there, and the event was broadcast on television on October 31, 2005. A memorial service was held that afternoon at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. With her body and casket returned to Detroit, for two days, Parks lay in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Her funeral service was seven hours long and was held on November 2, 2005, at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit. After the service, an honor guard from the Michigan National Guard draped the U.S. flag over the casket and carried it to a horse-drawn hearse, which was intended to carry it, in daylight, to the cemetery. As the hearse passed the thousands of people who were viewing the procession, many clapped, cheered loudly, and released white balloons. Parks was interred between her husband and mother at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery in the chapel's mausoleum. The chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel in her honor.
Rosa Parks's Extraordinary Legacy
Years ago, I didn't know of the much more revolutionary life of Rosa Parks. Now, I do. Rosa Parks was more than a woman who didn't want to sit in the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was born in the Deep South and saw racism firsthand. Yet, she courageously promoted self-defense and justice for all. In the midst of the black freedom movement, she was on the frontlines to show support for the Scottsboro Nine and worked with Myles Horton at the progressive Highlander Folk School. She lived in Alabama, Hampton (in Virginia), and Detroit. Her life of activism was all about her love for black people. She was a friend to Malcolm X and a supporter of Robert Williams (who promoted active self-defense during the 1950's in Monroe, North Carolina). She worked with progressives, communists, socialists, anti-war activists, and Black Power movement advocates. Tons of people didn't know that Rosa Parks expressed overtly anti-war and anti-capitalist views. Rosa Parks was a revolutionary every step of the way. A real freedom fighter is more than a person who talks a good game. It's also a person who is out in the streets to advocate change and build movements of social change. Many people, in recent years, have minimized and even lied about Rosa Parks. It takes a real coward to disrespect a legend like Rosa Parks, especially after she passed away. Now, we live in a new generation where we will set the record straight on the glorious life of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks fought for the justice of black women like Recy Taylor and Gertrude Perkins (who were raped by racist white men). Rosa Parks spoke out publicly against racism, against police brutality, against poverty and against the Vietnam War. Rosa Parks was a legendary black woman whose legacy of honor, integrity, and determination will forever be respected by all of us indeed.
Rest in Power Sister Rosa Parks.
By Timothy
No comments:
Post a Comment