Book Review: Smith’s Washington At Home, and Adulting Education

Today, adulting education, part of Project Do Better, comes as a short post on financial self-defense in DC history, which is one of the pre-requisite bits of knowledge to be proven before one can show that one is a true Serving Adult, in the proposed Service Adulthood Challenge. This part of the three parts of self-defense (physical, financial and emotional self-defense), involves knowing your rights and responsibilities in your state or region, as well as in your nation of residence (and origin, if that nation, as often happens, has a claim on you, still). It also involves understanding our shared histories. This book, happily, has a good bit of DC history, even Black history, and a bit of Jewish DC as well.

—

Before I delve into DC history, please remember to “Adult” for yourself, and find out what your legal financial rights are, for instance regarding statutes of limitations on debt, which is is your responsibility to know and defend…

     Here is why I am using an old photo taken of me with a fellow anti-war peaceful protester at the weekly silent Stop The War vigil    in Bath, England, back in 2007 (yes, the same year that I stood in that gap to stop a beating…):  it reminds me of where I personally have been, just as the research I did on DC history reminded me where my family and those around them, from DC and the MD, VA, but mostly DC area, since well before the Civil War, in varying states of free-ness, but all either MU (mulatto) or Black, and thus subject to the Black Codes in whichever of the three states they live in or passed through.  So they really had to be Adults, and know the laws of every area they were in or from.  Part of that “adulting,” as some people like to call it these days, included protecting themselves and their family members whenever possible by owning property  (Note: updated in 2023…).  So, here is the review.

     I found my old notes, from 2010, in my research notebook, and realized that I had never written them up after creating the tours for SHIRtour, my DC community cooperation walking tour company.  What strikes me most immediately about these notes is page 200, where Smith notes that the 1874 DC disenfranchisement “was definitely influenced by ” the fact that more than a quarter of the District’s population was Black, suggesting further reading in Brown, 1978, The Negro In Washington.  In my review of the Guide to Black Washington/ (reviewed back on Feb3rd…), we saw mention of John F. Cook, Sr., and Smith mentions him here, also, as setting up the 15th St. Presb. Church, the first Colored Preb. church (in DC, I presume).  The famous paper of the DC Negro Press, The Washington Bee, is mentioned alongside The People’s  Advocate, and on to Black Broadway on U St, NW, from the 1920s -1950s, and the Howard Theater in DC, which opened at the same time as many other places, in 1910, but Ben’s Chili Bowl doesn’t open until 1958!  🙂  (made famous by President Obama, but we local native Washingtonians all have parents who’ve eaten there for their entire lives…)      And most astoundingly of all, that we were never taught in school, was the fact that on 23 July, 1919, at 7th & U, NW, over two thousand armed Black residents defended their neighborhood White attacks, provoked by the mainstream (white) press!   Who knew about this, and why did we never learn about it?

     More notes about Mt. Pleasant as an early integration neighborhood, cooperation instead of White Flight in Adams Morgan, and Moses Liverpool, George Bell, & Nicholas Franklin opening a school, and Pres. George Washington’s letters to the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, RI as precedent for shuls in DC, cooperation in the Deanwood neighborhood, and Shepherd Park against Block Busters (& Boss Shepherd pbbl turning in his grave!!)…

–

2011-08-08 16:52:00
gender-diffs among Black landowners in Wash. County, 1855… Curious…
I do not have time now, but I am dying to look into why (on p. 127 of Washington at home: An illustrated history of neighborhoods in the nation’s capital; second edition, 2010, JHU Press, Kathryn Schneider Smith, ed.)

4 of the 5 black landowners in what is now roughly the Brightwood neighborhood (via the 1855 Washington County assessment listing 31 landowners along the 7th St. Turnpike, opened in 1822, from Rock Creek Church Rd to the District Line

(presumably meaning to what was then Boundary Street, now FL ave., marking the border of the Federal City, aka City of Washington)  Line, were women.

No time to delve, must check this wonderful book out again in a few weeks!

–

So, it turns out that many of the former slaves who owned property were light-skinned women, manumitted by their owners, as has happened in at least two cases in my family.  This may or many not partially explain the lack of Black male property owners in DC at the time vis-a-vis Black Women owners.  More research is needed, but it holds with commentary down the family line about women being differently positioned in the DC black community.  As for the Jewish community in DC,   Washington Hebrew Congregation starts without a building, much of the community living along on 7th Street, NW, which was also known as Market str if I recall correctly, as it leads down to the Wharf, back in 1852.  The YMHA, on 11th and Penn. was also an important center of the community.  Several families came down from Baltimore around and especially after the Civil War.  For more details on the synagogues, see pages 62, 91, & 94.

    More on my continuing striving with family history and financial self-defense next week, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Share  two different resources on your ideas of financial self-defense.

2.) Share your thoughts on how you found and like each of the resources you found.

 

ShiraDest

based on a post  originally drafted in September of  12020 HE

Review: The Jews of Washington, D.C.: A Communal History Anthology by David A. Altshuler, ed.

     First, our usual SoL Saturdays PSA reminding Cooperators to share with friends and neighbors on your local consumer protection laws.

Now, the review.

      This book  has a far more narrow scope than Garfinkle’s more recent (and more comprehensive) work,  The Jewish community of Washington, D.C.      But, this book is also still essential to understanding relations between communities in the District.  From the first recorded Jewish person in DC, in 1795, to Captain Jonas P. Levy (on page 14)’s opposition, in the 1850s, to a treaty on POW rights that left out Jews, to the YMHA, to the JCC, DC has an interesting Jewish history.  Especially the history that surounds a little know group mentioned on page 249: the Sons of Israel Fraternity.   In 1857, they protest an anti-Jewish Swiss treaty, about which I’d like to learn more, if any fellow researcher has the time to look up for us.  Unfortunately, my notes from 2010 leave off here, from this book, after mentioning several synagogues and Albert Small, a very well-known personage in the DC Jewish community.  This book was one of the many that I read in 2009, 2010, and 2011 while creating walking tours meant to illustrate the cooperation that had been quite strong between several different communities in DC, and which  led to my further writings about those tours, DC, and how we can start to  rebuild community cooperation today.

Shira

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Click here for more posts about:

Learning through story via TV: Babylon5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin,  La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, or El Ministerio del Tiempo Reviews

and

Learning via Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

        Willing Readers, please consider sharing #ProjectDoBetter.  This review is part of my personal work to help our society Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

  Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

old version of Black and Jewish Americans fight together for human dignity… in Spain…

     A newer post mentions my all time favorite show, El Ministerio del Tiempo (sorry Babylon 5!!), and how an old friend told me, after watching an episode together, that one of her relatives had  gone to Spain, and fought in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Lincoln Brigade which turned out to have been known officially as the Lincoln Batallion.

(see link to the full post after this image…) 

Black and Jewish citizens  from the USA fought valiantly for freedom.

In honor,   for the  victory against racism overseas and at home, and to

keep on cooperating…  To Do Better… 

Shira Destinie Jones

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
aka online as ShiraDest, aka as just Shira;
originally posted on March 16th, 12017 HE

Review: Histoire Des Juifs De France -Tome I, by Philippe Bourdrel

     I read this book as I began learning French, so the comments may be a bit rough in the spelling department.  I suggested starting by glancing first at page 46 to see how the author connected the Albigensians  (aka the Cathars) and their thirst for tolerance with the history of the treatment of the Jews of France, through out the history of the country.  It was a very interesting connection.  My only complaint about this book was the over repetition of a particularly important theme.   Even though it is a crucial theme taken up also by Project Do Better, which is that:   

no one should be force to do work uninteresting to that person, and no one should be forced to do work not suited to their personality just to be allowed to live.

-page 362

78.02% Why does Bourdrel keep hammering away at the obvious: we know that most professions were closed to Jews, thus certain choices were forced upon them. Why keep repeating it?

Je suggérais de voir d’abord P. 46 (….cathares et Kabbale soif tolérance), P. 176 (sur lair de La Marseillaise…), P. 187, P. 254, P. 340 – Les lettres peuvent aider les prisonniers!!  P. 357

/

I suggest first seeing p. 46 (Cathars and Kabbala thirst for tolerance), 176 (davening to the tune of the French Republic’s national anthem…), 187, 254, 340 (letters really can help political prisoners!!) and 357.

–

P. 46 “Le catharisme exprime…une soif de tolerance, …”
P. 161 “… la nuit du 4 août …”
P. 176 “… sur l’air de La Marseillaise.” -Just like at The Hav, T.I. and Zoo Minyan does for MLK Jr.’s BirthDay and Labor Day!!
P. 187 -Napoleon tried to reform the Great Sanhedrin?!

P. 340 -Letters from overseas can help political prisoners…

P. 357 -‘right’ since if the government says it’s true, it must be true…

Je suggerait voir dabord P. 46 (…cathares et Kabale soif tolerance), P. 176 (sur lair de La Marseillaise…), P. 187, P. 254, P. 340 – Les lettres peuvent aider les prisionniers!!, P. 357

  Definitely a book I would suggest reading, although I am not sure if it ever got translated into English.  It left me reeling, shocked by some of the people, like Napoleon trying to reconstitute the Great Sanhedrin, the Jewish high Rabbinical court that was disbanded 2000 years ago, so that they could rule in his favor, and by some other things in a favorable way, such as the fact that letters really can help people being unjustly detained.  As a member of Amnesty International, some years ago, I used to sign such letters, but always wondered if they ever did any good.  Now I see that they may indeed help, still.

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts on how learning history, and learning several languages, can doubly empower  all of us in this world, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

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Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

     Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about and sharing #ProjectDoBetter.  This review, and learning languages as well, is my personal way of contributing to Project Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Review: The Ornament of the World, by María Rosa Menocal

    I spotted this book, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain,  on display in the DC Public Library, years ago, but I still recall seeing the book, and marveling that at last, someone had written about the Convivencia.

Maria Rosa Menocal has added a crucial work to the body of community cooperation literature which should be read by all.

One of her comments which I found distressing  was that

“most people died alone”

of the Black Plague. How awful to see how readily our affections and ties to one another are abandoned.

But she also shows a culture of cooperation in her book which we can emulate today.

We can Do Better

Shira

Action Items:

1.) Share your thoughts, please.

2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,  Lupin,   La Casa de Papel/Money Heist, or El Ministerio del Tiempo Reviews

Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction Writing (including Ann & Anna…)

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.  This review is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to the task of building cognitive and infrastructure tools that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world.  Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world.  And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

ShiraDest

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

MLK Day Series Review: Netflix Jaguar, & Justice vs. Revenge?

   It was the Spanish Public television series El Ministerio Del Tiempo that brought my attention to  the Franco era, and the fact that Franco had been allied with the Nazis.  The Netflix short series Jaguar dramatizes one aspect of life under this dictatorship: the hunt for fugitive Nazis living under the protection of Spain’s dictator.  A team of hunters, all camp survivors except for the youngest, who is the son of a man killed in the camps, are working to bring a prominent Nazi to justice as he transits Spain on the way to South America.  To do this, the team needs to recruit a young survivor bent on killing the handler of this Nazi.  Since she happens to be the only person able to recognize the guy, having survived as a servant in the headquarters during the war, the team leader must persuade her to put justice above personal vengeance.  It is an excellent drama, also dealing with perceived  betrayal, redemption, and the horrible paradox of a sadistic torturer whose research also happened to provide scientific data.

Photo by Tim Simons on Pexels

   Today we observe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday, and remember that he was preparing, when he was killed, to lead a campaign that would advocate for all people suffering from injustice.  He reminded us that

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

    This series is set in 1962 Madrid, and can be a bit hard to follow in places (particularly when the person speaks who is hard of hearing), so the Closed Captions help.  Thousands of Spaniards died in the camps, many of them simply sent for being Republicans (part of the alliance of the Republic that Franco destroyed in 1939).  Some quotes from a few episodes that really got me follow:

Ep. 1:  “Si lo pegan un tiro…nadie se enterería de sus crímenes. Nadie se sentiría vergüenza de sus actos.” Por eso tenemos la justicia.”

/

“If he’s shot…no one will hear of his crimes.  No one will feel the shame of his actions.”  This is why we have a justice system.

and

Episodio 2: “Alguien tiene que evitar que esos desgraciados mueren de viejos en sus camas.” Gracias!

/

Ep. 2: “Somebody has to prevent these jerks from dying of old age in their beds.”  Thank you!

And we also deal with the trauma of survivors, and their inability to fit in in a society that expects us all to be happy, to be normal, to live as if all were well:

Episodio 6: “…te das cuenta de que ya no eres como los demás y nunca lo vas a ser…te han quitado…”

/

Ep. 6: “…you realize that you are no longer like everyone else and you never will be…they have taken from you…”

   The interesting thing about this series is that we never really find out why any of the team members were sent to the camps.  The only religious references are to the oldest team member, a formerly devout Catholic, who has lost his faith due to the horrors he saw in the camps.  All bear the tattoos and the emotional scars, even the kid, who does not have a tattoo, but does have a photo of his father who died in the camps, and for him, it is the same as the tattoos of the survivors.  We see, in this kid, the result of trauma passed down, even when he was not in the camps, but suffers the same pain as the older survivors.  Being young, of course, he deals with it in less rational and more impulsive ways that cause problems, of course, for the team.  Even more interestingly, for  the story, we never find out who funds and runs this team.  Hopefully, that will be for a season two of this series, which deserves to be renewed and watched far more widely than it appears to have been thus far.

Podemos hacer y ser mejor…
(yes, we can Do  and Be Better…)”

  

This is another part of the work, imho, that Toni Morrison spoke of for the Black woman writer.  We must bear witness to what has been erased about our own past, yes, but Dr. King pointed out that we must also speak for those who were unable to speak for themselves, so that the past of others who were unjustly persecuted may also be uncovered, and eventually reconciled.   #ProjectDoBetter focuses on the language learning needed to facilitate both the empathy, and also the hearing and telling of those stories.

Shira

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Click up top, above this review on the ShiraDest main menu, to read more reviews, or, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

or

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or

narrative Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing.

Also,

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading and sharing about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Who By Fire: Connaître le Personnage d’M. / Meet the Character M.

My Work In Progress: Who By Fire: I Will -Book 1, is part of a historical fiction series. I’d been planning to set up a blog for the novel, with each major character posting every so often, but am not sure if there is interest, so I’ll start with just letting a few characters from Who By Fire introduce themselves briefly. Like this:

Bonjour, je m’appelle Martin, ici aux États-Unis , mais j’ai plusiers noms, a vrai dire. Donc, c’est plus facile, je suppose, qu’on m’appelle tout simplement “M.”

Hello, I am called Martin, here in the US, but I have many names, to be honest. So, I suppose it is best if we simply call me “M.”

Our dear M. is a man of few words, in general. 🙂

Progressive Jewish abolitionists befriended and struggled beside members of the Black community over the years in the United States, even during the period of chattel slavery.  M. is one such man standing with both Free People of Color like our hero’s particular friend, and also with enslaved people. Since today is French Fridays, he chose to introduce himself in this language of the world, from 1838.

I’d planned to start drafting in time to finish 100k words of a 1st draft as part of NaNoWriMo last year, but Do Better took precedence. I’m starting #WhoByFireIWill drafting again, still working out the various character voices.

I am currently outlining the scenes as a historical urban portal fantasy, sub-genre of either suspense or thriller.

I began writing this historical portal fantasy novel in June, 2020, when certain characters would not let me alone, and my ancestors seemed to demand that I write. I can add notes and questions as they arise here, if they will seem interesting to fellow writers, such as my question from 23 September, 12020: was there a public library in 1838 Baltimore, and could Jewish or Colored people use it? -Working in a way to reference a classic, like the 1001 Nights, which would have been known in 1838…

Lucy, the -Protagonist’s Wife (J. Bell’s The Quadroon: Public Domain image from NYMet…)

Who by Fire: I Will is a historical fantasy novel cycle trilogy, I currently expect.

Working Cover for historical fantasy WiP

Tagline:

  “Forever is a very long time.”

Logline:

To save his son, a desperate escaped slave must make a choice, but the price is eternally high.

The hero (aka the Protagonist) is an escaped slave, who dreams of buying his wife Lucy’s freedom and moving North with her and their son.

His particular friend is a Free Person of Color, one of the main characters, devoutly Christian, who teaches at night, and dreams of visiting Damascus as part of his Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, before he dies.

As the work evolves, I may post articles from the point of view of different characters. Let me know if you, Dear Readers, would be interested in such posts, and I shall write them for you!

Action Items in support of empathy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Share two different reasons to write your own novel, or write your Grandmother‘s story, even if it’s not in novel form.

2.) Share your thoughts on how you plan to get started on that writing work,  perhaps with the help of a book on how to write,

3.) Write a book, story, blog post, or comment here, even, that uses a bit of that work.

Dear Readers, have you any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?

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Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector,  Lupin, or La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) reviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, please consider sharing   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Forgotten Black History: First Black American Unit Commander -in Spain

This gets nearly no attention that I’ve seen, in Black History:

     They went to fight for the Spanish Republic, and for equality.  A friend from my synagogue in Albuquerque, NM, mentioned, speaking of a TV episode about the Spanish Civil War, her personal connection to this war:

–

As we discussed my all time favorite show, El Ministerio del Tiempo (sorry B5!!), a friend recently told me that one of her relatives had fought in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Lincoln Brigade which turned out to have been known officially as the Lincoln Batallion.

Looking into the history of the Lincoln Batallion, I found, among others, Oliver Law, a Black man who had to leave the USA to become the first African-American in US history to command a military unit (not counting NCOs during the US Civil War like Robert A. Pinn, who picked up the standard and command after the deaths of all of his officers), during the Spanish Civil War.

In total, one Black woman and 54 Black men volunteered from the United States, where they were treated with disdain, to fight racism and oppression on the other side of the Atlantic. They hoped to change things back home in the US, and they were following the calling of their consciences, to fight racism and oppression where they could: in Europe.  For Tom Page, it was the first time he was treated with human dignity, and for Salaria Kea, the only Black woman to volunteer, it was a dashing of hopes upon returning home.  But for all, it was honorable service to humanity.

Like Delmer Berg, the last surviving American to travel to Spain, 1/3 of the volunteers were Jewish. This was in keeping with a long but little-known tradition of cooperation between the Black and Jewish communities well before the 1960s.  In that sacred tradition, led by Dr. King, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Gandhi and many others, we must continue the cooperation between individuals, families, communities and states that so desperately needs to continue, to move us all forward as a united human race.

May all of their memories be a blessing to us all, and a reminder of Human Cooperation
Zichronam LiVrachah,
Shira Destinie Jones

Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
ShiraDest
March 16th, 12017 HE

–

So, it turns out that Langston Hughes also fought Franco, and lived to tell about it:

“90 African-Americans who took up arms in Spain under the banner of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. … Baltimoreans who read the Afro-American would have learned about the war from its correspondent Langston Hughes.”

Continuing self and pro-bono education (aka Adulting Ed.) is part of Phase I of the Project Do Better  movement and part of increasing cooperation for the common good.  Now, rather than going off to fight, we can help to build:

Action Items:

1.) Share  two more examples of community cooperation.

2.) Share your thoughts on how you feel such cooperation increases the Common Good,

3.) Write a book, blog post or comment to this post that uses this history.

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

 

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, please consider sharing   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, Stayed on Freedom’s Call Page 50/50, and Endings

       How does community complete a project?  Generally with a feast of some sort.  To end this project, I leave you with the feast of tradition from both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and from Rabbi Hillel.    That of community.

     I wrote this book in the belief that community cooperation is important.  I hope, as we come to the end of my book, Stayed on Freedom’s Call, that this journey has been a valuable one for you (last week was Page 49…):

” …      Ending the discrimination faced by both the Jewish and African American communities required the resources of all of the members of these combined communities. Members of both communities cooperated to end the dual disgraces of both antisemitism and segregation, quietly at first, and then more openly. Beginning in the earliest part of the 20th century, moving into the beginnings of radical protest in the 1930s, and then culminating in the massive non-violent protests led by SNCC, the SCLC, and others, including many famous Jewish and African-American activists of the 1960s. Mobilization within both communities worked to overcome obstacles faced by members of both communities.  As individuals realized that when one does not stand for others, soon there will be no one to stand for you. Is this, perhaps, the idea that the Rabbis meant to convey when they said that all of Israel was responsible, one for one another?   For, only by cooperating both as individuals and as communities can we hope to achieve the goal which Dr. King and Rabbi Hillel before him, two men of peace and cooperation, inspired for future generations.

      “

    So,  Page 49 was last week, and this brings us to the end of this book (the remaining pages are references).  Thank you for reading this last page. 

     Next Thursday will feature a guest post, and then we will begin our Thoughtless Thursdays series…

Action Prompts:

1.) Share your thoughts on how this page from Stayed On Freedom’s Call helps continuing empathy-building cooperation, and may also  help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.   (You can download the entire book for free here from The ShiraDest webpage…)

2.) Write a story, post or comment here that uses those thoughts.

***************** 

Click on the main menu above to read, if you are interested in learning through:

Science Fiction/Fantasy Shows,  Lupin, LaCasaDePapel, & other show reviews… 

or 

through the more traditional method, via lesson plans, but holistic:

Holistic High School Lessons,

 

Thoughtful Readers, please consider

examining   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, Stayed on Freedom’s Call Page 49/50, and Intersections

       How does community intersect?

     I wrote this book in the belief that community cooperation is important.  I hope, as we come to the end of my book, Stayed on Freedom’s Call, that this journey has been a valuable one for you (last week was Page 48…):

” …friends or members of my family say “But by the grace of God, there go I.”

It was generally spoken in reference to another member of the community who may have been showing various signs of the stress under which many of us labored, but were somehow usually able to hide. Individuals in difficult situations were expected to attempt to bear up under the strain as best they could, but could also generally count on some level of support in return from others in the community. There was a feeling that all members of the community were responsible for taking care of one another, to a certain extent.

These similar ideas, that community must not be abandoned, and that anyone could experience periods of tremendous difficulties, bind the Jewish and African-American communities ideologically and culturally. Yet, it is also in the spaces between communities, where we cross cultural and ethnic boundaries to live out our shared values and both defend one other and our mutual principles, that we find and strengthen our shared cultural resources. Our shared ideals of liberty and justice for all find firm footing in our shared values of equal human dignity, equal opportunity, and mutual interdependence. For this reason, Dr. King called for a Universal Basic Income for all American citizens, as he pointed out in his last book, published shortly after his
assassination, that without equal economic and political justice for every community, our world can only descend into chaos.

      “

    So, it turns out that I might have needed to explain a bit more, on this page, about something, but what?

Page 48 was last week, next week will be Page 50, our last page…

Action Prompts:

1.) Share your thoughts on how this page from Stayed On Freedom’s Call helps continuing empathy-building cooperation, and may also  help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.   (You can download the entire book for free via the main menu, above, from The ShiraDest writings page…)

2.) Write a story, post or comment here that uses those thoughts.

***************** 

Click on the ShiraDest blog menu to read, if you like:

Narrative and Prose Nonfiction,     

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Historical Fiction Serial Stories

Thoughtful Readers, if you are on so inclined, please consider sharing   #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.