Collagen is one of the most important part of the human body. It is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. It is the major part of connective tissues. It is found heavily in mammals. Collagen is made up of amino acids bound together to form a triple helix of an elongated fibril called the collagen helix. The connective tissues where it is mostly found at are in cartilage, bones, tendons, ligaments, and skin. A tropocollegan molecule is a three left handed procollagans forming a right handed triple helical tropocollagen. The colloagen differs on mineralization. So, collagen tissues can be rigid (in bone), compliant (tendon), or have a gradient from rigid to compliant (cartilage). Collagen can be found in corneas, blood vessels, the gut, intervertebral discs, and the dentin in teeth. In muscle tissue, it serves as a major component of the endomysium. Collagen makes up 1-2 percent of muscle tissue and up to 6 percent of the weight of strong, tendentious muscles. The fibroblast is the most common cell that creates collagen. Gelatin, which is used in food and other industries, is collagen that has been irreversibly hydrolyzed. Collagen can be used in treating complications of the bones and skin. The name collagen comes from the Greek κόλλα (kólla), meaning "glue", and suffix -γέν, -gen, denoting "producing." This refers to the compound's early use in the process of creating glue from boiling the skin and tendons of horses and other animals. Over 90% of the collagen in the human body is type I collagen. However, as of 2011, 30 types of collagen have been identified, described, and divided into several groups according to the structure they form: All of the types contain at least one triple helix. The number of types shows collagen's diverse functionality. There are Types I to IV including other types. Collagen is used by doctors to help people with heart issues. Some use collagen to be used in cosmetic surgeries to help burn patients or the reconstruct dental, orthopedic, and other surgical reasons. Human and bovine collagen are used for dermal fillers tor treatment of wrinkles and skin aging. There are many types of foods that help produce natural collagen for the human body. Each year, a human being produces less collagen. Registered dietitian Carrie Gabriel said that bone broth is a great food to get collagen. Too much sugar and too much refined carbohydrates can cause inflammation and damage collagen. Health experts are in unison to say that no one should eat excess sugar. Fruits and vegetables obviously improves the quality of the skin. The 3 amino acids that help to grow collagen are proline, lysine, and glycine. Other pro-collagen foods are chicken, fish, shell fish, egg whites, citrus fruits(like oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and limes) berries (i.e. raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries), garlic, tropical fruits, leafy greens, beans, cashews, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc.
The rights that we do have today didn't exist in a vacuum. They have a long history of human beings in the four corners of the Earth (in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, etc.) developing legal laws in dealing with various affairs. The Code of Hammurabi back in ca. 1754 B.C. was a Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia. The Babylonian leader Hammurabi enacted the code. It cited rules like an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It dealt with class, gender, men, and women. It is found on a 7.4 tall stone steele. There was Moses being shown as the lawgiver in the Bible. Rules are found in ancient Egypt, the rest of Africa, Asia, and in the rest of the world. Alfred the Great lived from 848-899. He was the King of the West Saxons who helped to unify many Anglo-Saxons of England. He defeating the Vikings by 878 at the Battle of Edington. He helped to make a law code book. In it, it had translations of English of the 10 Commandments, a few chapters from Exodus, and the Apostolic Letter from the Acts of the Apostles (15:23-29). Alfred's code has 120 chapters because Moses lived 120 years according to the Bible. A heavy contributor to our law today is the Magna Carta that was created in 1215. This law restricted the excessive power of Kings and other rulers in the land of Britain. The Magna Carta created rules that developed habeas corpus and the right of juries to determine cases. Habeas corpus protects us from being imprisoned unlawfully.
It made King John of England to proclaim certain rights to freemen and respect rights. It confirmed common law that influenced the legal perimeters of the English speaking world. Later, John Wycliffe was a religious scholar who promoted representative government. He translated the Bible and questioned the veneration of saints and transubstantiation. He believed that the Bible, not the Papacy or clerics, was a reliable guide to truth. John Wycliffe also wrote that, "This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This was long centuries before Abraham Lincoln said similar words during his Gettysburg Address. Even the Catholic Church apologized for executing Jon Hus back in the 1400's. Hus allowed allowed women to preach and serve in battle. He said "Women were made in the image of God and should fear no man." Jan Hus' views influenced the Protestant Reformation. Later, you have many legal traditions that influenced the development of the Constitution like the 1689 English Bill of Rights (that cites the right to bear arms and limits the powers of the Monarchs to be regulated by Parliament), John Knox's and John Locke's words of "all men are created equal," and the words from the English legal scholar Blackstone. The 1689 Bill of Rights came after the English Civil War between factions who wanted the authoritarian king to run everything or a more fairer body of government controlled by the people. John Cromwell was one leader of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell was right to ideologically disagree with the Roman Catholic Church theologically, to allow Jewish people to return to England without oppression (to express their own faith), and to disagree with the excesses of a universal monarch. His error was that somethings he went too far in some of his actions of warfare. It is important to note that many Baptists were persecuted by many Protestants, because Baptists rightfully refused to baptize babies plus Baptists rightfully believed in the separation of church and state. In Book 1, Chapter 1 of Blackstone’s Commentaries, the point is made that “every individual” has “the right of petitioning the king, or either house of parliament, for the redress of grievance.” These Commentaries had pro-liberty provisions in them as well. People have every God-given right to nonviolence and self-defense.
If anyone wants to study civil liberties, he or she should look at the aftermath of 9/11 to witness how important civil liberties are to protect plus preserve forevermore. Many people were sent into Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some of the folks there had no ties to al-Qaeda at all. Also, the Bush administration had fierce debates with civil liberty proponents on civil liberties. We know of the pro-Bush torture memos being so bad that people from across the political spectrum condemned them. The so-called liberal lawyer Alan Dershowtiz defended torture during the Bush years (2001-2009). It is no secret that the Bush family and the Bin Laden had business for years. No major party has a monopoly of anti-civil liberty measures. On March 23, the American Civil Liberties Union reported: “The Obama administration has extended the time the National Counter-terrorism Center (NCTC) can collect and hold on to records on U.S. citizens and residents from 180 days to five years, even where those people have no suspected ties to terrorism. The new NCTC guidelines, which were approved by Attorney General Eric Holder, will give the intelligence community much broader access to information about Americans retained in various government databases…Authorizing the ‘temporary’ retention of non-terrorism-related citizens and resident information for five years essentially removes the restraint against wholesale collection of our personal information by the government, and puts all Americans at risk of unjustified scrutiny. Such unfettered collection risks reviving the Bush administration’s Total Information Awareness program, which Congress killed in 2003.” As for the Trump administration, everyone knows that he promoted anti-democratic, anti-civil liberties on many levels. For example, Trump is explicitly in promoting the policy of banning people from Muslim majority countries to go into America, he wants to ease libel laws, he wants the police to rough up suspects, he condemns peaceful protests against police brutality in vulgar terms, he agreed with waterboarding (which is torture), etc. Recently, in early January 2021, Trump told the Georgia Secretary of State that he wants to change the election result to make him win Georgia. This phone call was recorded on tape. Trump's act is not just about eliminating tons of African American plus other votes. It is a promotion of outright treason against our democratic system. There is no other way to put it. His actions violate the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution.
My 3rd cousin from Connecticut (at the North) is Pastor Dwain V. Gatling, whose wife is First Lady Antoinette Gatling (Chapman). Pastor Gatling was born in 1970, and Antoinette Chapman was born in 1969. They have their own ministry at Bristol, Connecticut. Their children are Daniel Gatling and Naomi Gatling (who are my 3rd cousins too). Pastor Dwain V. Gatling is a descendant of Beatrice Latrice Williams (1918-2010) and Beatrice's grandfather Adam D. (b. 1862). Many of my relatives live in Connecticut, and their ancestors came from the South. Beatrice migrated to Connecticut from North Carolina. Another descendant of Beatrice Latrice Williams is my 3rd cousin Lynnette M. Sparkman McLaurin (she was born in 1977), and she married David M McLaurin. Both of them live in Connecticut. Lynnette M Sparkman McLaurin is part of my paternal family just like Pastor Dwain V. Gatling.
Also, in the Midwest, my 5th cousin Josina Pittman-Greene works at the St. Louis Community Foundation. She is a descendant of Zilphy Claud (1820-1893). Josina's grandfather was the great Georgia activist Theopolis Melton Lowe (1925-2016). Josina is related also to the late woman Lydia Claud. She or Josina Pittman-Greene is from Columbus, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia. She is married to Derrick Greene. St. Louis, Missouri has a long history involving the black freedom struggle. Missouri was a slave trade before the American Civil War. During the U.S. Civil War, it was part of the Union, but pro-Confederate sympathizers were common in the area too. After the Civil War, Jim Crow existed. Not to mention that St. Louis is one large epicenter of the freedom movement against oppression, police brutality, and other evils that still plague our world. Ferguson is just next door to St. Louis, and we know of the heroic protesters plus activists in Ferguson desiring real social change. Many people in Missouri have been heroic to stand up for truth and human liberty.
To know about American culture is to truly know America. America is very much a multicultural nation. Also, black culture is a key part of American culture too. From politics, music, fashion, art, literature, STEM Fields, education, and other realms of human civilization, black Americans have made exceptional accomplishments in American history. People of Asian, Latino, European, Pacific Islander, Native American, and other backgrounds are part of American culture as well. Semi-distinct cultural regions of the United States include New England, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the West—an area that can be further subdivided into the Pacific States and the Mountain States. One aspect of American culture is its diversity. People know about the Bible Belt of the South and the liberal areas of the West Coast in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington state. We have art from Norman Rockwell to Augusta Savage. American music styles and influences (such as rock and roll, jazz, rock, techno, soul, country, hip-hop, R&B, blues) and music based on them can be heard all over the world. Music in the U.S. is diverse. It includes African-American influences spanning a long time. The first half of the 20th century century is famous for jazz, introduced by African-Americans. According to music journalist Robert Christgau, "pop music is more African than any other facet of American culture." We, who are Americans and others in the world, enjoy listening to Whitney, Mariah, Teena Marie, Amerie, Rakim, and other artists. Music is a universal language, and music is known to being people together. America, at its best, is focused on the ideal of all people being created equal plus making justice the goal of us all.
One great point about Blackness is that representation is not enough. We also need sovereignty, independence, and resources for justice. Our lives shouldn't be omitted, but we need representation, respect, and liberation. Our duty is to rise. Our ancestors were raped, thrown into the Atlantic Ocean, taunted, murdered, tortured, and oppressed in disgusting ways. Yet, our ancestors never gave up the fight for freedom. They fought in Africa, they fought in the ships, they fought in the Americas, and they fought in other places too for us. For us, they gave their lives realizing that their legacies lived on through us. Working for the interests of the black collective remains preeminent in our way of life. One deception in our generation is the corporate promotion of so-called black shows that in term degrade black people under the guise of promoting a warped version of "Blackness." We know of these shows' names. They either refuse to show Black Love or show black people in conflict with each other while worshiping whiteness as divine and all powerful (which is obviously a lie). That is precisely why I believe in pan-African unity.
By Timothy
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