Fall 2025 Part 3.

 

Viola Davis (60 Years Later)

As one of the most hardworking actresses of the 21st century, Viola Davis has powerful, unique African American story. Her family watched her grow from a child to a grown woman. From being part of some of the greatest movies in history to being part of controversial television shows, Viola Davis loves to challenge convictions. She is one of the greatest actresses of all time having won of the EGOT. An EGOT is rare among actors and actresses, as only the top percent of the most talented actors and actresses earn that title in history. EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Therefore, Viola Davis won at least one of those awards in each category, making her an expert in film and theater. She is more than an actress. She is a mother, a wife, and a film producer. She helped to refute the lie and the myth of colorism to present to the world that dark skinned black women have every God given right to show their complex personalities, their beauty, and their humanity without apology. Viola Davis has been ranked night on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century in The New York Times by 2020. She also received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025. 

Her Early Life

Viola Davis was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina. Her parents are Mae Alice Davis and Dan Davis. She was born on her grandmother's farm on the Singleton Plantation. Her father was a horse trainer, and her mother was a maid, factory worker, and homemaker. She is the 2nd youngest of six children, having four sisters and a brother. Soon, after she was born, her parents moved Davis and two of her older siblings to Central Falls, Rhode Island, leaving her other siblings with her grandparents. Her mother was also an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. When she was two years old, Davis was taken to jail with her mother after she was arrested during a civil rights protest. She has described herself as having "lived in abject poverty and dysfunction" during her childhood, recalling living in "rat-infested and condemned" apartments. Davis is a second cousin of actor Mike Colter, known for portraying the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage.

Davis attended Central Falls High School, the alma mater to which she partially credits her love of stage acting with her involvement in the arts. When she was a teenager, she was involved in the federal TRIO Upward Bound and TRIO Student Support Services program. She was enrolled at the Young People's School for Performing Arts in West Warwick, Rhode Island. Davis's talent was recognized by a director at the program, Bernard Masterson. After she graduated from high school, Davis studied at Rhode Island College, majoring in theater and participating in the National Student Exchange before graduating in 1988. Then, she attended the Julliard School of Performing Arts in New York City for four years. Davis was part of the school's Drama Division Group 22 from 1989 to 1993. In a 2025 interview, Viola Davis said they gave her a whitewash interpretation of acting instead of being a better actor. She explained that formal technical training she received helped her play classic roles from Shakespeare, Chekov, O'Neill, and Strindberg, but added "what it denies is the human being behind all that, and as a black actress I'm always asked to show range by doing white work." She noted that "I can do the best that I can with Tennessee Williams but he writes for fragile white women. Beautiful work, but it's not me." She opined that black playwrights such as August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry aren't studied in the same way as the others she had learned from. Therefore, Viola Davis would later take on more revolutionary roles. 

Early Acting Roles

Viola Davis started her early work in the professional stage in theater. Back in 1992, Davis starred in the off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It as Denis alongside Elizabeth McGovern at the Delacorte Theater. In 1996, Viola Davis made her Broadway debut in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Seven Guitars as Vera (alongside Keith David). The play opened on Broadway on March 6, 1996, at the Walter Kerr Theater. She earned critical praise of her performance. She earned her Screen Actors Guild card in 1996 for doing one day of work, playing a nurse who passes a vial of blood to Timothy Hutton in the film The Substance of Fire in 1996. She was paid $518. Davis continued to act in off Broadway in various productions. She was on television shows like episodes of NYPD Blue in 1996 and New York Undercover in 1996. She was in the HBO television military comedy film, The Pentagon Wars (1996) starring Kelsey Grammer, and Cary Elwes. In 1998, she played a small role in Steven Soderbergh's crime comedy film Out of Sight (1999). 

Groundbreaking Roles

By August 2011, Viola Davis played Aibileen Clark or a housemaid in 1960s Mississippi, in the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, directed by Tate Taylor, and co-starring alongside Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Jessica Chastain. Davis described her performance in the film as channeling her mother and grandmother saying, "I feel like I brought my mom to life; I've channeled her spirit. I channeled the spirit of my grandmother, and I've kind of paid homage to how they've contributed to my life and the lives of so many people." She has since expressed deep regret over taking on the role; although she still admires the people she worked with, she does not think the story or portrayal is truthful about the lives of the black characters. The film was controversial, and it was successful at the box office. Davis gained praise for her work. She won two Screen Actors Guild Awards and earned her second Academy Award nomination. She had Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award nominations too. In 2012, Time magazine listed Davis as one of the most influential people in the world. Also in 2012, Glamour magazine named Davis Glamour's Film Actress of the year. On June 12, 2012, Davis received the Women in Film's Crystal Award. In 2014, Davis reunited with The Help director Tate Taylor in Get on Up, a biopic of James Brown, playing Brown's mother. Her daughter, Genesis, also appeared in the film.

Viola Davis reached unparalleled heights of influence and popularity in the entertainment world by the 2010s. In February 2014, Viola Davis was cast in Peter Nowalk's pilot How to Get Away With Murder show. It was executive produced by Shonda Rhinda for her ShondaLand production company. Viola Davis was the lead character of the show. Like many shows of this latter-day generation, it's provocative, controversial, and filled with intrigue. Her character is Annalise Keating, who is a strong-minded bisexual defense attorney and professor. She becomes entangled in a murder plot with her students. Her character is a mixture of contradiction and talent. Her character is a mix of brilliance and imperfections. Her character has doubt and courage. She is desperate for love and approval, but she is willing to stand up for herself when necessary. The series started officially in September 2014. By September 2015, Viola Davis became the first African-American to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role on How to Get Away with Murder. She received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the role in 2016. Davis also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2014 and 2015. She received nominations from the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her performance on the show. 

By 2015, Davis was in the Michael Mann directed thriller film Blackhat that had Chris Hemsworth. Davis was the executive producer of the crime drama film Lila and Eve, starring herself and Jennifer Lopez in titular roles. In 2016, Davis starred in the courtroom drama Custody, on which she also served as an executive producer, and played Amanda Waller in the film Suicide Squad, an adaptation of a DC Comics series of the same name. In 2016, Davis reprised her role as Rose Maxson for the film adaptation of Fences directed by and starring Denzel Washington. Her performance garnered critical acclaim, and she received her third Academy Award nomination, making her the first black actress in history to achieve this feat. She subsequently went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. 

In 2017, Davis was presented with the 2,597th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by her Doubt co-star and friend Meryl Streep. While accepting the honor, Davis said: "It's like my life flashing before my eyes, and all I can say is, God has blessed my life in abundance." Davis was also listed among and the featured cover star of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" List for the second time, her first being in 2012. Streep penned the article in the magazine, referring to Davis as having "carved a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of the 21st century", commenting that "her gifts as an artist are unassailable, undeniable, deep and rich and true. But her importance in the culture – her ability to identify it, her willingness to speak about it and take on responsibility for it – is what marks her for greatness." In March 2017, Davis was awarded the Artist of the Year Award at Harvard University. Also in 2017, Davis announced that she would write the sequel to the classic picture book Corduroy, titled Corduroy Takes a Bow. In a press release, Davis stated that "Corduroy has always held a special place in my life, first as a child paging through it, and then again with my daughter, introducing her to the adventures of that adorable teddy bear." The book was published by Penguin Random House later in 2018.

In 2018, Viola Daivs debut Two-Sides. That was a documentary series exploring police brutality towards the African American community. It debuted on TV One, running through till mid-February. Davis also starred alongside fellow Shondaland costar Kerry Washington for a special two-hour crossover episode of How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal, aptly titled How to Get Away with Scandal. Davis's guest appearance garnered her a fourth Emmy Award nomination, and her first for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. That same year, Davis starred in the Steve McQueen heist thriller Widows alongside Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Liam Neeson. The film was an adaptation of the popular 1983 British miniseries. She received critical acclaim, with film critic Eric Kohn of IndieWire writing, that the film "largely belongs to Davis...the actress has never been more commanding." She received her second British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance. In 2020, Davis was the executive producer and was in the documentary Giving Voice. It was about following students who entered the August Wilson monologue competition for a chance to compete on Broadway. In 2020, she starred alongside Chadwick Boseman (in his final onscreen performance) as the titular character in the biographical drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, based on the 1982 play of the same name and directed by George C. Wolfe. She received critical acclaim and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her performance, in addition to her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination and her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fourth nomination overall. With that nomination, she became the most-nominated black actress in the history of the Academy Awards, as well as the first black actress to have been nominated for Best Actress more than once. She also appeared on the cover of the July/August 2020 issue of Vanity Fair, photographed by Dario Calmese. 

In 2021, Davis reprised her role as Amanda Waller in the superhero film The Suicide Squad. Also in 2021, she appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in the drama film The Unforgivable, directed by Nora Fingscheidt. Davis appeared uncredited as Amanda Waller in two episodes, "A Whole New Whirled" and "It's Cow or Never", in season 1 of the show Peacemaker, a spin-off of The Suicide Squad, and in the film, Black Adam. Davis executive-produced and played former First Lady Michelle Obama in The First Lady, a Showtime drama series. It premiered in April 2022. After receiving criticism on social media for her portrayal, Davis responded by calling the disapproval "incredibly hurtful" and saying "it is my job as a leader to make bold choices." In 2022, Davis starred in The Woman King, inspired by true events that took place within The Kingdom of Dahomey. The film tells the story of Nanisca, the general of an all-female military unit, played by Davis, and her daughter Nawi, played by Thuso Mbedu. Davis was the narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Disneyland in 2022. In August 2022, it was reported that Davis was cast as Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul in the prequel to The Hunger Games film series, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. In March 2024, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of International Women's Day, Davis was one of a number of the women celebrities that had their likeness turned into Barbie dolls. Also in March, Davis voiced the Chameleon, who was the main antagonist of Kung Fu Panda 4, the fourth installment in the eponymous franchise. In December 2024, Davis reprised her role as Amanda Waller in the animated Max TV series Creature Commandos. In 2025, Davis starred in G20, an action thriller in which she plays the U.S. President.

 

Family Life

Viola Davis has been married to actor Julius Tennon since June 2003. The couple has a daughter named Genesis via adoption. Davis is also a stepmother to Tennon's 2 children from previous relationships. As part of her partnership with Vaseline to promote the Vaseline Healing Project, Davis attended the groundbreaking of a free community health center in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in October 2016 that was sponsored by the project. The project provided dermatological care to help heal the skin of those affected by poverty around the world. She was a speaker at the 2018 Women's March event in Los Angeles. 

Accolades

Viola Davis is easily one of the greatest and influential actresses of our generation. She helped to promote dark skinned black women actresses in a positive light, similar to what Cicely Tyson did decades ago. For her stage work,  Davis has won two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, an Obie Award, and a Theater World Award. She holds the distinction of becoming the first actress of color to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Davis is the first African-American to win five Screen Actors Guild Awards. Davis is also tied for the most film wins for an actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards; and with six overall wins, she is the most awarded African American. She has also received nominations for six Golden Globe Awards and three BAFTA Awards, winning one of each, in addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fences (2016). This led to her becoming the first black performer to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting by winning a competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony. She is also the first actress of color to have received four Academy Award nominations. Davis was awarded an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from her undergraduate alma mater, Rhode Island College, in 2002. On January 20, 2020, Davis was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in fine arts from Indiana University. In February 2023, she was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for the narration to her 2022 autobiography Finding Me, making her the 18th person to achieve EGOT status. In 2024, it was announced she would receive the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. In December of 2024, the Coalition for Faith and Media presented Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon with an inaugural Faith and Spirituality in Entertainment Honor for the work of their production company JuVee Productions.

 

Reflections

Viola Davis stands on the foundations of giants from Cicely Tyson, Sarah Vaughan, Dorothy Dandridge, and other artists who love their work. She was born in the South and raised in the New England state of Rhode Island. So, her diverse experience greatly influenced her diverse contributions involving movies, television, and the stage. As being a winner of the EGOT, her contributions to acting are paramount and diverse. After receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025, she is still going strong to outline some of the great stories of our time period. She went on the Broadway play of August Wilson's Seven Guitars in 1996. For those who don't know, August Wilson is one of the greatest playwrights in human history. She has been on The Woman King, Doubt, Fences, and other films that show not only the comfortable side of life. She has been involved in controversial, complex roles, because human beings are filled with nuance and complexity in our lives personally. 

Defending Our Rights

 

We live in a new time in our history. I was born 20 years after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and 15 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am an Older or what people call a Geriatric Millennial now. We should always defend our rights and reflect on the past and present. In that sense, we can use activism and other cogent, progressive actions to make a better future. Time moves very rapidly at times. I remember 1992 just like yesterday, when I did a project in my city's local library. By 1994, I had first used the Internet when it was in its infancy. This journey to find out the real truth started in 1997 when I was 14 years. Since 1997, I have never looked back and learned about political issues, spiritual matters, inventions, real history, heroes, and the dynamic nature of human ingenuity. I first heard about the Atlantis story in 1998. After 9/11, my understanding of the world accelerated. People who are like us (who are more than 40 years old) saw the Reagan Presidency, the OKC Bombing, the Million Man March, 9/11, the Iraq War, Jena Six, the invention of the iPhone, the first African American President being elected, COVID-19, and new threats of authoritarianism in 2025. After all of this time, I still have my core convictions. Nothing is new under the sun. That is why we have to advocate for our purposes in life and stand up for justice. Many of our political views change from time to time because of age and life experience. I am no exception, but I am more progressive than years back. I believe in equality, I believe in voting rights, I believe in confronting climate change, I believe in God, I believe in loving my black African heritage, and I believe in promoting democracy. If there is no freedom, then we must confront society in making sure that liberty is enacted for all people.  Life deals with irony at times. Next year, America turns 250 years old. We want America to live up to the ideals that our ancestors lived and died for. Also, we desire that the principle of liberty and justice for all to spread globally. No one can be an advocate for truth unless that person promotes justice for all people.

My 8 Core Convictions

It is vitally important to make sure that present and future generations know where we stand on issues. We stand on the courage and actions of previous generations like Generation X, the Baby Boomers, the Silent Generation, the WWII Generation, etc. Therefore, our modus operandi is never about downplaying the legacies of past icons, because they have valuable insights into how we should conduct our own lives. The following eight principles are what I believe in my heart and spirit. It has been a long journey creating blogs, being on forums, showing the facts in public, and writing information on other social media for over 20 years now. For almost three decades since 1997, I learned of the truth on a higher level. I created my first major blog in 2005 when I was in my early 20s. Now, in 2025, I am in my early 40s. Therefore, time has rapidly transversed in my life. My maturity and understanding about how the world works has certain improved over the course of more than 2 decades. We live in a new time now as we are not children anyone. Numerous people, who are Millennials, are middle-aged now. As a middle-aged black human being (me being a Millennial too), you think about the big picture and reflect more on life. A lot of legends have passed away like Sam Moore, Vivian Ayers Allen, Danielle Spencer, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Mama Mosie Burks, Walter Scott, HollyHood, my friend and author Trojan Pam (she was from Chicago, who wrote books exposing racism and desiring black liberation. I emailed her real life. She was a like an older sister to me). We miss them to this day.

Being on this Earth, you get the time to know people of many walks of life. You grow, and you realize what is fundamentally important is to show love and the truth to the people. It is about working in our communities to improve our lands, and it is to work together in a common cause to promote peace, justice, and truth. Not to mention that following morality, integrity, sacrifice, and righteousness will lead into a fruitful life spiritually, emotionally, and physically (as exercise and healthy eating will work wonders for people. This is done not for narcissism as some claim. It is about living a more expansive, tranquil longevity). I have been around in many places of the world, and I have known a lot of human beings. One secret lesson in life is to always strive to be the best version of yourself intellectually, spiritually, physically (exercising, eating healthy, drinking water, reading, learning more vocabulary, developing social skills, getting rid of toxins, and getting regular medical checks up will cause you to live longer. Also, get blood work, so you can know your vital health metrics), emotionally, and financially (without materialism and a lust for money). Doing that will bless you in manifold ways. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Doing action makes sense. Another key point that I want to make is that we should promote compassion and empathy, too. Far too often, some want to show meanness, including disrespect (or a passive-aggressive attitude), and disguise it as being "real." That isn't being real. It's all about promoting evil. So, in our lives, we should show our empathy and human compassion to those suffering as other people have shown humility and compassion towards us before. Maintaining your boundaries like always is vital, but we should never lose our humanity. Never give up in life as life is a precious gift meant to be explored, lived, cherished, and filled with development. Our humanity certainly means that we show goodwill towards human beings of every background. Also, it is important to give wisdom and inspiration to the younger generation (who are in their 20s from Generation Z, Generation Alpha, etc.) who are doing great work in sending the truth out to humanity. As I have mentioned before, anyone 25 years old or younger is a baby to me. So, we must allow the babies to grow (with our advice and tools) and establish their legacies (expressing their own power) as human beings. 

 The younger generation has used technology from TikTok to various new school apps and being in the streets to express their unique ideals that ought to be respected. I wanted these 8 pristine principles to encompass my core convictions. Obviously, there are more than 8 principles that I live by, because we are multifaceted human beings. Yet, I have chosen these specific types of principles as they are highly important in my value system or my moral core. If someone wants to know what my political views are all about, then these 8 precepts wholeheartedly exemplify what I am all about ideologically. These are the values that I hold dear and live by in my daily walk on the Earth. Here they are:

1. The Protection of Civil Liberties: For millennia, human beings have developed civilizations. These civilizations spread in the four corners of this Earth filled with scholars, inventors, architects, teachers, lawyers, doctors, entertainers, athletes, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, financial experts, etc. Our civil liberties always matter for many reasons. Civil liberties protect our individual and collective rights. They teach us about the importance of community and our power as individuals. The Bill of Rights promotes the concept of civil liberties that can't be taken away. Many people take civil liberties for granted, but other nations in the world have much less rights than we have in America. Numerous folks don't realize how blessed they are. Therefore, we must realize that our civil liberties (which are fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to individuals) ought to be protected and strengthened like the freedom of speech, the right to protest, the right to bear arms (I believe that gun rights is an individual right, but I agree with reasonable gun control regulations to save lives and protect our communities), protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, the right of due process, etc. 

2. Environmental Justice: I will forever be pro-environment. I live in an urban environment, and that environment taught me that planting trees, throwing trash away in trash cans, and being careful on how I treat Nature are important actions to pursue. You can't be a revolutionary or a person who cares about the world without being in favor of helping the environment. When I was a child, the cartoon show Captain Planet certainly inspired me to care for the environment in a higher level. It is important to promote clean air, clean water, and advance protections of animal species. Also, with climate change, we realize that the Earth is much warmer than it was decades ago as proven by scientific research filled with true data. Even back during the Johnson administration during the 1960s, authorities knew about climate change. That is why clean energy has worked wonders to help humanity globally to deal with the real problem of climate change. Helping the environment means getting rid of toxins in the waters, including the oceans, it means improving our health, it means thinking about things beyond ourselves from recycling to improving air quality. Earth Day reminds us that deforestation, biodiversity loss, and other evils must be combatted. We certainly don't need more cuts to NOAA. We desire more investments in disaster relief funds and NOAA, so we can save human beings' lives. With new issues like BPAs, radiation, etc., we must be cognizant of the importance of developing a better Earth. 

 

3. The Freedom of the Press, Speech, and Religion: Those three freedoms are what I cherish. In this generation, many people want to bash all of the media. I don't agree with that view, because tons of independent media institutions are doing yeoman's work in presenting to the people the unvarnished truth without censorship like The Real News Network, etc. The freedom of the press means that the press should be given the right to do their jobs without harassment or unfair scapegoating from any administration (or any human being). It means that the press should ask the tough questions to anyone without partiality. It's all about getting the story right as accurately as possible as it pertains to the motivation of the agenda of the press. The press has every right to ask questions about numerous issues such as political issues, economic matters, social issues, and other issues pertaining to the human race. PBS has a strong media service historically that ought to be invested in. The freedom of speech means to express our ideals. I have been censored even on YouTube before, so I know what it feels like to have my words gone. The freedom of speech is about human expression, being bold at times, being honest about your thinking, and going out to express other freedoms. We know that slander and libel are not about the freedom of speech, but malicious activities done to hurt people. So, I don't agree with slander and libel. 

The freedom of religion is self-explanatory. Many Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and religious minority groups are persecuted worldwide now in places like Nigeria, China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and other countries. That is wrong as no one should be persecuted because of his or her religious faith. In America, we have the freedom of religion, which I agree with. This doesn't mean we support a theocracy as extremists believe, and this doesn't mean that showing religious expression in public should be banned as other extremists desire. It means that people can publicly or privately express their religious faith as long as it doesn't violate the human liberties of another person. I believe in the separation of church and state, as the government shouldn't have the right to endorse a religion or infringe on the rights of others based upon religion. Also, people have the right to believe in religion or not in a free and open society. That means that religious people, atheists, agnostics, etc. should have equal rights in the Earth. For me personally, I believe in God. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior (Yeshua HaMashiach) who died on the cross and rose from the dead saving the sins of the whole world as the only begotten Son of the living God. I believe in God the Father, and I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit (Ruach Ha Kodesh). 

4. The Rejection of Tyranny and the Rejection of Fascism: I reject authoritarianism. We have to keep it real and realize that Donald Trump is a tyrant. Subsequently, we live in America now filled with fascism. For over two decades, I have written in opposition to authoritarian governments, Big Brother policies that infringe on human civil liberties, and fascism. Many of our ancestors fought fascism during WWII, as two of my distant cousins, who are Leslie Goffigon Jr. and Delaware Floyd Harris Sr, fought the Nazis at Normandy on June 6, 1944. For the record, I don't agree with the creation of the new world order. I don't agree with the creation of a global government, as I believe that nation-states can trade and cooperate with each other (even with alliances) without such an agenda that centralizes power more into fewer hands. 

I oppose the agenda of oligarchy. There is irony in this issue. Alex Jones and people of that ilk (who are far right compromised MAGA extremists) during the 1990s and 2000s talked about black helicopters, tyranny, camps, and the military in the streets. These same people are silent in 2025 (during the 2nd term of Donald Trump) when we have military in the streets of Los Angeles, ICE arresting even U.S. citizens without due process of law, we have Trump allowing the construction of actual internment camps to house migrants and immigrants, we have actual Muslim bans, and Stephen Miller desiring if habeas corpus should be abolished (to promote his xenophobic agenda). Alex Jones slandered the Sandy Hook victims, and he has been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to the Sandy Hook families. That shows them (people like Alex Jones, etc.) to be hypocrites as they don't want to criticize Trump on his blatantly authoritarian policies, including the Supreme Court giving Trump near total immunity on any crime. This is an example of how we must remain consistent to oppose tyranny and fascism regardless of who is in office. It is wrong to witness DEI programs gone, to witness innocent federal workers being fired for no reason, to see families split because they are migrants, to witness a massive increase in the executive branch of government enacting unconstitutional policies, and brainwashed people agreeing with Trump unconditionally. We will endorse liberty and freedom without compromise. 

5. Equality for all: I mean that precept. I believe all people are created equal in the image of God and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without exception. Equality doesn't mean that everyone is identical. Even twins aren't genetically 100 percent identical. Many far-right people (like red pill extremists, Hoteps, racists, sexists, xenophobes, MAGA followers, etc.) confuse equality with identical. Equality means that everyone has equal worth and equal value, deserving to be treated with the same dignity and respect afforded to all people. I reject sexism and xenophobia. Some of the far-right extremists obsess over the concept of criticizing "woke" not to oppose extreme political correctness, but many of them desire to deprive minority groups of fundamental human rights. Woke means acknowledging the dignity, humanity, and suffering of oppressed people and advancing the necessity to take action to eliminate injustices and discrimination. Equality doesn't mean to ignore oppression or embrace the falsehood that we live in a complete meritocracy. It does mean that injustice and oppression should be fought against, so the system of racism/oppression can be replaced with an authentic system of justice and liberty for all in the human race. 

6. Advancing the General Welfare (and the Social Safety Net): For the eons of human history, people always honored the general welfare. The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution cited the right of the government to promote the general welfare of the people. That means that the government does have the right to provide resources to help human beings for sincere reasons. Therefore, I will always believe in a strong social safety net to help the homeless, the poor, the working class, and the middle-class people of the Earth. It has been sixty years since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, which were signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The social safety net is readily grown by our work. We work hard and earn our Medicare and Social Security benefits. Medicaid is for the poor, those with disabilities, and other human beings who desire them. We have an unjust law that cuts Medicaid, SNAP, and other social programs massively while giving $1 trillion in tax breaks for the super wealthy. That is why people from across the political spectrum desire a strong social safety net to assist millions of Americans and other people worldwide. By nature, I am opposed to austerity as radically cutting the social safety net and radically cutting foreign aid (including cuts to the highly successful Pepfar program that has helped to save people's lives from HIV/AIDS overseas) will harm people in America and worldwide. During the Great Depression (and before that event), millions of Americans didn't have adequate retirement insurance. That is why people made President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to sign a law to make the Social Security Act in order to allow Americans to have Social Security after a certain age, usually in their late 60s now. Social Security has saved tons of lives for generations. A robust public social safety net is a blessing for the human race in general. 

7. Economic Justice: I am fully an economic progressive for life and for eternity. That means that I don't believe that large corporations should do what they want whenever they desire. There should be legitimate regulations on how businesses, corporations, and people in general should operate. For example, we should have policies involving handling air safety, so plane crashes can be reduced. We want regulations on food and drug safety, so people won't be sick or ill from bad foods or dangerous drugs. We desire a great disaster response and public health safety in order to save human lives literally. These legitimate regulations have nothing to do with harming economic power. It is about making the economy truly fair for all people, irrespective of a person's income level. Economic justice means living wages, universal health care, affordable housing, and a system that fights against poverty (not grows it). No American can live on $7.25 an hour, especially if that person has children. In our time, that income can't allow people in the United States to get benefits, pay for rent, get food, buy a car, and pay for utilities in a modern-day society. So, the minimum wage in America should be higher than that amount to be a living wage.  

That is why we can't view Capitalism or Communism as infallible (I don't agree with Stalinist Communism, as that philosophy violates human civil liberties, makes humans just cogs in the wheel of the state, and Stalin himself became an anti-Semitic, unstable male before his passing). These are man-made economic systems with imperfections. Anyone who makes capitalism a deity (or wants capitalism to be followed unconditionally) is doing idol worship, and capitalism does merit some legitimate critique. We have the problems of many large corporations that ship millions of Americans' jobs overseas, oppress workers overseas, pollute the environment, lobby for governments to promote unfair trade agreements, and allow people to scapegoat immigrants (who desire to live a better life) in a xenophobic fashion (instead of the one percent) for economic sufferings in the world. It is false to assume that capitalism is ordained and preordained to rule the economic system of the world (to manage humanity in just the rich, middle class, and the poor in a survival of the fittest mentality) when Adam Smith, David Richardo, and Thomas Malthus (capitalist leaders) either supported eugenics, followed anti-poor scapegoating, and desire other systems that makes a lax effort to promote the rights of workers. I certainly do agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s, Ella Baker's and Malcolm X's critiques of capitalism too. Some have talked and wrote about the necessity of a class struggle to enact true economic justice. By the 2010s, I accepted this premise as I lived through the Great Recession and saw the suffering of many people in dealing with the recession, while Wall Street had massive bailouts in the billions of dollars. Therefore, I had to analyze things more to witness the importance of promoting a radical redistribution of economic and political power for class oppression to be gone. 

It is hypocritical for the far right and neoliberal moderates to lecture to the poor about a work ethic to escape poverty when these same people (who love MAGA) live in gated communities and support economic policies that strip the poor of living wage jobs that they need to support themselves. In other words, there is nothing wrong with having money, but far too often, many people (especially some super-rich people) exploit money to look down on the poor, advance materialism, love covetousness, and desire a selfish individualism that doesn't take into account the collective responsibility of us all to promote economic justice for all people. The vast majority of the poor, working class, and middle class work very hard all of the time, refuting the lie that poor people lack a strong work ethic. Workers have every right to have labor rights, to have adequate benefits, including pensions, and the right to strike. We don't want corporate welfare for the super wealthy, we reject financial fraud, and we want the government to really work for the people. True government is made by the people and for the people, because true government exists to increase the blessings of liberty and justice for all people. 

8. Racial Justice: I am a black American man, so I believe in racial justice by default. Racial justice means that black people should have the same rights as anyone else without oppression, without racism, and without discrimination. This has nothing to do with hating non-black people. It has to do with not whitewashing our history, not following the myth that America is without sin (or America is infallible), and desiring true representation in our society. To this day, black people are unjustly murdered by the police, discriminated against, called slurs (recently a white racist woman called a black child the n word in Rochester, Minnesota. The racist white woman has been funded with massive financially support by white racists), abused, kidnapped (as missing black people are underreported by many in the corporate media), and exploited constantly. That reality has been ignored or minimized by racists. We should keep on fighting for justice and never bow down to injustice. The current oppressive and racist system must be replaced with a system of justice, period. 

Black culture is great too. Black culture is diverse. It relates to how we cook our cuisine from gumbo, rice dishes, various vegetables, many meats, and to greens. Black culture is how we write literature from books to magazines that showcase our genius, our beauty, and our personalities. Black authors from Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and tons of other people, we black people have mastered the art of literary expression as found in the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago Renaissance, etc. Black culture focuses on our great entrepreneurial powers from Black Wall Street to modern-day black owned businesses that have grown in the 21st century. Black culture deals with STEM and inventions with great STEM scholars like Mae Jemison, George Washington Carver, Katherine Johnson, Valier Thomas, Granville Woods, and Lonnie Johnson who researched the natural functions of the Universe, math, other sciences, and technology to be a beacon of light in the Universe. Black culture is about true music, filled with legends from Aretha Franklin, Tammi Terrell, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Etta James, Diana Ross, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, and Jennifer Hudson. We know that black culture relates to athletics with Arthur Ashe, the Williams sisters, Michael Jordan, Gabby Thomas, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Simone Biles, and Althea Gibson, who also promoted philanthropy, helping the younger generation, and social activism (beyond displaying their physical talents to the world). 

Additionally, Black culture deals with us standing up against evil, advancing a positive health culture, showing resiliency, having a strong work ethic, and speaking truth to power among leaders like Gloria Richardson and Wilma Rudolph. Black culture deals with our rhythm, our swagger, our fashion, expressing love, and being cultural leaders in general. We set the trends that the world follows us. We are never inferior as many racists try to mimic or copy our melanin, our rhythm, our speaking tones, our bodies' phenotypes (and racists have stolen our DNA to create medical treatments. That is what happened to Henrietta Lacks. Racists only want to control us. That is why we condemn racism), and other ways in how we live our lives. Our melanin is gifted from God. We don't worship our melanin or our phenotype. We only worship God alone. Melanin can convert light into energy, melanin can protect us from radiation by absorbing and scattering electromagnetic radiation, including UV, visible, and infrared light (which has been documented by mainstream scientific studies found in the National Institutes of Health or the NIH). Now, we have new studies showing that neuromelanin plays a key role in protecting neurons and sequestering toxic molecules. So, black culture is very diverse and very beautiful. We are wonderfully made in the image of God with our great melanin and our Blackness shining. Now, you know the truth. 

This representation (of showing more stories of black heroes and supporting black people making a difference in society) adds to our diversity, and diversity is part of our strength within the human family. Subsequently, I am inspired by the stories and legacies of Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Octavius Valentine Catto, Diane Nash, Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Gloria Richardson, and other black heroes who sacrificed their lives for our freedom in 2025. I believe in voting rights, I oppose racial profiling, I believe in black unity globally, I adhere to black liberation, I do support reparations for black Americans, and I believe in Black Love. I believe in global Pan-African unity as Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Europeans, Africans, Afro-Latinos, Afro- Turks, the Siddis, etc. are my Brothers and my Sisters. I do believe that Black is Beautiful. 

*So, if anyone want to know my cherished views, this list shows fully about what I stand for.

Growing Over the Years

As time goes on in life, you have to grow. No one is the same person identically now than years or decades ago. The reason is that we have diverse experiences, we met tons of different people, we read a wide spectrum of literature over time, and we receive advice from numerous quarters. Back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton was President. I researched many issues, and America back then during the 1990s had some political polarization with Newt Gingrich, the radio host Rush Limbaugh, and other people. Yet, even in the 1990s, America was nowhere near as polarized as today. When the Clinton impeachment hearings came about in 1999, I was in high school. Most of the country supported Clinton. Back then, my political views were more Democratic back in the 1990s. By 1990's, I knew about the Atlantis stories, Freemasonry, and other religious views. I believed in God. During the 2000s, Bush Jr. was President. I embraced a lot of conspiracy-related information by the early 2000s about the CFR, the Bohemian Grove, the Bilderberg Group, and other information. I read information from Robert Howard's HardTruth website, Cutting Edge Ministries' information, and other sites that exposed Freemasonry during the 2000s. When 9/11 happened, I started to research more information, created by blog in 2005, and had many conservative views on religion. The 9/11 Truth Movement grew during that time. My view, as I have gotten older, is that I agree with many parts of the 9/11 Truth movement and disagree with other aspects of it today. Still, I was more progressive on the war on terror, civil liberties, and other issues. The Iraq War started in 2003, and I opposed the Iraq War by June 2003. By this time, I had views which were progressive, conservative, and libertarian. I saw the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. There was euphoria among our people in the street. My view is that I disagreed with Obama on some issues, but I admired the love that Barack Obama has for his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama. Barack Obama would have a mixed legacy of President, executing great policies for America (in fighting for equal pay, going about to invest in HBCUs, and other actions) along with making errors (especially on a neoliberal foreign policy). With the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008, my economic views did change. Seeing more poor people in the streets and massive economic upheaval, I had to re-evaluate much of my views (in rejecting Austrian economics) to be completely economically progressive by 2010. 

By 2010 and to 2015, my views became more refined to support justice and the intersectional aspects of the human race. By 2015, I researched more about progressive ideals and became more in favor of human liberation. By the 2020s and in 2025, my views are clear. I have my core convictions. I wrote down many words exposing the real doctrines of Freemasonry, the Boule, the Skulls and Bones, the O.T.O. the Eastern Star, and other occult secret societies in opposition to them because they have bizarre, offensive oaths, some praise false Greco-Roman gods (like numerous fraternities and sororities), and many have the agenda to control the mass of the people while getting power for themselves. Still, I disagree with these secret orders and like-minded organizations. That hasn't changed. After almost a half of a century of me living on this Earth, I am man enough to admit my mistakes, reject falsehoods, and be a better human being as time has gone onward. Me being almost 50 years old is very surreal, and I appreciative of life in a genuinely sincere way. Now, I still express my dissent with these secret orders and organization because truth is superior to falsehoods. I believe in spirituality, I believe in social justice, I believe in equality for all, I endorse care and improvement of the environment, and I have grown to follow the principle that economic justice is a necessity. In terms of the Trump movement, everyone knows that I am opposed to it. I have seen a lot in the world, and I will continue to be inspire to show the truth to the people without apology. 

Inspirational Determination

It is important to show inspiration to human beings, too. Every American is either a descendant of a slave, an immigrant, or a migrant from another continent. That is the reason why we have to be clear and fair to all people. Some stoke fear and hatred based on race, immigration status, sex, or background, but we shouldn't follow folks who embrace such retrograde views. Our ancestors were heroic people. They have fought slavery, Nazis, and other tyrannies to liberate humanity from oppression. Our ancestors made inventions, created governmental structures, and stood up for basic human rights. There are many truisms in the Universe. One such truism is that positive action is better than doing nothing. Reading, studying how the world works, growing in spirituality, and just helping people in your community don't require fanfare, don't require a big ego, and don't require anything but legitimate action. We have to be inspired to protect democracy. When Texas Democrats leave the state for Illinois to break quorum because the Republicans want an unjust gerrymandering scheme, then we have to acknowledge that the Democrats are doing the right thing in that regard. We must never give up during this new Gilded Age. There are many people in America and the world, from Virginia, New York, Illinois, Nebraska, etc., who are appalled at what is happening to America done by Trump. They are appalled at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They abhor the problems with detaining people without due process of law. That is why we must not only expose Trump (which we must do). We must advocate for legitimate policies like increasing the minimum wage, fighting poverty, allowing corporations to be accountable if they do something wrong, promoting paid family leave, advancing elder care being affordable, creating more affordable housing, having health care for all, and pursuing racial and economic justice.

Victory is Ours

We live in unique times. There are those who want to give up and capitulate to the status quo filled with angst and bitterness. Other human beings want to never give up and fight for justice and democracy out of a sincere heart to see freedom for all human beings. I believe that we all should never give up and keep on working to make the world better than the past and the present. There are many MAGA people, Hoteps, incels, and other people who want to shame progressive people for embracing their views in public and in private. The truth is that progressives did many positive things in the world. One of those positive things is the promotion of legitimate unions in our society. Great unions contributed to cause policies like weekends off, paid vacations, work breaks, sick leave, paid holidays, no child labor, safer working conditions, and health care and retirement benefits. Progressives did the right thing to refute the myth of trickle-down economics. Trickle-down economics is the lie that tax cuts for the super wealthy would just trickle-down wealth to the rest of the people, including the working class and the middle class. Reagan tried those regressive policies back in the 1980s, and it never worked. It did increase the deficit and caused more suffering for the poor and the oppressed massively. The reality is that nothing trickles down massively from the super-rich when Reagan, Trump, and Bush Jr. did tax cuts for the super wealthy and large corporations. You only build the economy from the bottom up. You have to promote better wages, you have to give incentives for small businesses to sell their products, you have to give people better working conditions, and give people better benefits, and you have to develop the growth of the social safety net. Many conservatives forget that there is nothing wrong with a robust social safety net that people pay into that benefits families and individuals long term. That will cause more consumers to buy more goods and services in growing our economy. The only way to fight fascism displayed by Trump and his acolytes is unity, belief in truth, and organizing to combat the policies that are harming American society. We resist tyranny from the Trump regime (including its agents from DOGE, the DOJ, etc. We know that Social Security's chief data officer Charles Borges resigned, because he gave a whistleblower complaint accusing members of DOGE of uploading confidential personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to an insecure cloud server which is totally illegal and immoral). If we desire our liberty to be preserved, then we must sacrifice for it. Right now, Trump wants to ban mail in voter and make voter ID laws mandatory, which is against the spirit of voting rights and human freedom in general. Still, there is always a remnant of people among every background who are standing up for justice and democracy in the world. I will never lose my faith. We still embrace the Dream as Victory in the end is ours. 

By Timothy