Bluesman Commentary

The notion that literature and poetry is less important than science is pure techie nonsense, and has nothing to do with what is known. Knowledge from the Minds of Babes…We see how babies move towards numbers and aesthetics. “The job of the baby,” Dr. Spelke said, “is to learn.” So what happens to the many children who gave up on learning, when in other nations, they fight life and death battles just to write a poem? Women Risk Death
Life experiences of many children have created a social problem as a consequence that life must be made easier for children or that public schooling should be a holding pen for inadaptable children. Falling empires and partisanships created huge internal problems. For even those born with the propensity to learn have suffered from an anti-youth society, which rose from a mental view of short term consumption and living it up. Even if we have the mantra that every day must be lived, what happen to the cultivation leg of the stool? And when did we forget that playing is learning too?
In Ifa Orisa, it talks about how life is enjoyed and welded bite by bite, that big shallows can choke even the elephant. Because life has speeded up doesn’t mean we have our minds and habits on accelerated time. It is the educated and adapted mind, which can efficiently navigate the times we are in. Learning is a slower process than unconsciously living, and prerequisites. We must return to the discipline for the sake of our present and future generations. The open mind is the nimble mind.

Black Classic Radio

Me don’t know
Old School
Me know
Classic

Me don’t know
Old School
Me Know
Coltrane, Puente and Smokey

Me don’t know
About old/new
Me hear streams
What you know

Tweeps?

please buy Black Radio by Robert Glasper, it is a poetic delight and thank you so kindly Robert

Landai…And ghazal met, for –
Dedication
Giving seeds for
New poetess
© kac

Like It Is – Gil Noble has passed at 80 years old, 44 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and 60 days after the killing of an unarmed black boy.
Gil told the story of “race music” sold around the world, where bands like The Rolling Stone, 50 years ago, heard and made it a motif of their own. Even reminding our youth, of their own creators of American Rock and Roll. How profits were made for record companies whom were the progenitors of TV Mega Stations like CBS and ABC. Augmented by the fact that Ruth Brown and others had to fight for the royalties and residuals of struggling Black artist, needing to pay health bills and nursing homes.

He was made the Griot of Harlem and of the Afro-American legacy and experiences. And no one did better than Gil. He showed Sara Vaughn to young children that were attending her old school in Newark. Asking do you know this lady? There will be no other hot archives for us to purchase than the one Gil Noble created. It is a monster. For a long time our artist and the Civil Rights movement was inseparable. Gil was the master journalist who taught a world how to document the best and the brightest of an ethnicity even if you didn’t agree with all the players. He became independent after earning a time slot on ABC Sunday Afternoon, since 1968.
My response to those who complained that I didn’t present the other side of the story was that this show was the other side of the story. He stated in 1982

Racism is dead as known, yet; as seen by the gun laws and arrest of young black males, up to allowing strip search for even fines, something’s are not dead but revised. Even Gil had to point this out in his last days. The Brady Campaign calls it “George Zimmerman Armed Vigilante Act.”
The violence we see among our own is a violence that Gil Noble creatively pointed to as a subculture derived from violence in the America’s societies. That too many live the expectation, bequeathed by others.
May we cherish and learn from the breath of work of this loving giant who loved his nation and ethnicity, as any other American.

I finally cried deeply at watching the home going of Whitney Houston, who was the baby beside Guru. It has been two years since my mother passed, and I had to be strong for the family and my children. Lamenting is a ritual with poetry and very healthy. The amount of gifted musicians/singers, though I realize this was the beginning of a new century, was quite amazing in looking back. They gave me so much joy, and for me a lovely -
Remembrance
by Rainer Maria Rike

And you wait, keep waiting for that one thing
which would infinitely enrich your life:
the powerful, uniquely uncommon,
the awakening of dormant stones,
depths that would reveal you to yourself.

In the dusk you notice the book shelves
with their volumes in gold and in brown;
and you think of far lands you journeyed,
of pictures and of shimmering gowns
worn by women you conquered and lost.

And it comes to you all of a sudden:
That was it! And you arise, for you are
aware of a year in your distant past
with its fears and events and prayers.

I believe like others; it will be along time before humanity see this greatness at one time:

Abbey Lincoln 80 – 2010 Abiodun McCray 2010 (Master Teacher)
Hank Jones 91 2010 James Moody 85 -2010 Lean Horne 92 – 2010
Guru 43 – 2010 Gary Shider 56 -2010 Marvin Isley 56 – 2010
Ron Banks 58 – 2010 Teddy Pendergrass 59 – 2010 Al Goodman 67 – 2010
Solomon Burke 70 – 2010 Shirley Verrett 79 – 2010 Marvin Sease 65 – 2011
Joe Arroyo 55 – 2011 Sam Rivers 88 – 2011 Gil Scot-Heron 62- 2011
Phoebe Snow 58 – 2011 Nickolas Ashford 70 -2011 Etta James 73 -2011
Cesaria Evora 70 2011 Johnny Otis 90 – 2012 Jimmy Castor 77- 2012
Don Cornelius 75 – 2012 Whitney Houston 48 – 2012
Looking at the branches of a tree from the floor – this came to me.
Branches…
Reaching at clear blue sky –
Grasping rituals
With one called Whitney
Going Back

Ibae bae tonu

Are We a Smart Species

Since the development of personhood which I contend begot at the signing of the Magna Carter (1215) or common laws and reached zenith in the American Civil Rights, we have had the evolutionary tension between the self-cultivating person and the needs of the common or community, given the tribes and slaves that gather under one flag and now the globe. Augmented with societies burden of carrying individuals who are deemed mentally incapable or apparently unproductive. In many nations after WWII, it is now called Human Rights, which is still being debated, in blood also.
A development of scientific tools saw leaps in the 1960’s and on, in order to prove or disproof many spectialive philosophies of science or what are known as a priori knowledge. Three great events occurred empirically, one – understanding life under the laws of thermodynamics (Chaos and Order); two – the Working Theory of the Mind; and three, the actually experiments of DNA and biological evolution, proven.
One of the biggest postulation put to rest was that babies were born sponges, now we know; they are already engaged with an active mind, to be intellectually nurtured up to adulthood. That intelligence is 40% inbred and the rest based on education, personality and life experiences.
Two – that change in behavior can modify genes and be passed down to next generation, a better understanding of natural selection or adaptation.
Evolution Shown
Three – That this thing we called life is not center around the human and everything must die and give to another life form. The species’ called human came from other species’, defeated two offspring, and probably will split again or evolve closer to the machine and further from the animal. Yet, the basic human ontologically will remain with all its quirkiness and with the dominance of unconsciousness, till our total end into the impregnated void.
There are much more exciting proven and disproven working theories, especially in Cosmology, but I choice to keep to these because of a growing debate about us the Human race and solutions to serious problems in our present future.
We play-out again this person verse, now, the common globe, as we played out the Libertine (Libbers) verses Calvinist (Determinist); now it is Personhood verses Technologists. Enhancements….Happiness!??
Yet I agree with Karl Popper there has to be something between Chance and Determinism; as a scientist on the Universe series puts it, our species has been an awesome achievement given the Sun will be brighter in 1/2 billion years. To be continued.

Where is the new middle ground for the human?

The spreading of science to the public was just recently in my generation of the Baby Boomers. Now with the increase of technology and pragmatic observation, there is a growing debate around “free will” – choice, and the dominance of the subconscious in every day behaviors, very old philosophically, yet, with known ontology, augmented by première discoveries of genome and theories of the mind.
As the swing of, authoritarianism is on an increase around the world, augmented by the old battles of Liber, Conservative, Anarchist, Theocrats and now Technocrats, we find ourselves in a necessary dialogue at a very dangerous time since 1920’s. With the privileges of the Western world, and the inadequacies of central government, entropy has caught up to it after 400 years, of course, triggered by new ideas, new markets, new skills, and, not some denial of Divine Ethos, or, some written Social-Economical Fiat of the 18th Century.
Mediterranean Area for 12 Centuries
2500 BC – Angels with Wings
Natural Forces/Divine protection
900 BC Iraq – Cherub – gods and human beings
600 BC – Persians dualistic struggle
Magic to solve daily lives
Planned Funerals
1000 BC -Guardian Angel – Judaism
160 BC – Cherub
Lilth 1:27 Genesis, Canaanite, then Eve (Gnome states more than one Eve out of Africa)
Enoch – 365 year old book
Daniel – Michael and Gabriel
Set Satan an adversary of human not g_d 1 CE Job and Apocryphal (Hidden Book)
80 BC Solomon text books, spell casting
First Christian 336 CE
Coptic Church 3k years old – Mary and 9 Angels, Amulets
1300 – 1600 Europe -Violent Church/State Inquisitions – Demons/Saints
Human wish fulfillment of Utopia – Divine Harmony with Cosmos
Angels – History International Channel 2011-01-23

By 1555, Calvinists were firmly in place on the Genevan town council, so the Libertines, led by Perrin, responded with an “attempted coup against the government and called for the massacre of the French … This was the last great political challenge Calvin had to face in Geneva”. Wiki

Even if we say farewell to the Holocene Era and welcome the Anthropocene Era, human emotive and propensities are not changing that fast. Life has proven evolution is a tedious process. The duality of liberal leanings and conservative leanings will remain with all the extremes. It still remains how consciousness and mindfulness, as we look to travel our galaxy and our planet changes ( to what no one can predict precisely) will change the evolving person and its society. The danger remains as a species, for groups, to demand control of the uncontrollable; to continue the dead art of Theism, and its archaic rebuttals of Atheism. The “mantras” of daily religion or “meaningless rituals” will exist as the junk of our bodies is an integral part of our evolution and of the Cosmos. No matter what we call g_d.
VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT
Called or not called God is present
Jung, Carl
We Have Looked Back To See Our Future

Entanglements

Aztec gods hold sway on America
Sacrificed children for

conquest foot ball

Temples built high
Names gloried
Idol worship abounded

Mother’s tears heard
Revenge by Mothers of Justice
Royalty naked again

Aztec gods hold sway on America
Scarified children for

ephemeral mortals

Ifá/ òrìşà
Ancient Wisdom:

Ika Meji! We will no longer make ebo with people!

World Population reached 7 Billion

Not until 1804 did the world reach the 1 billion mark, and in 1974, there were still only 4 billion in the world.

Sifting World

Mapping the Anthropocene

Muerte

Michecacihualt
Always there to remind you
7 billion will feed

A warrior never worries about his fear
Carlos Castaneda

Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Two men have passed, seemly from different journeys, yet; there are similarities. One of course is Steve Jobs and the other is the great Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth.
A Great American Warrior

Their lives center this debate for me, around conscious and this thing called free will. I believe the exceptional person has a strong will and a higher consciousness. We can’t allow the technocrats to shape this very important discussion, though I agree; free will has been miscued for many historical reasons and one is ignorance. Science is demanding a narrative by us whom believe in the Spirit and the Beauty of Men and Women who shaped the evolution of the human species.
Free Will Is Challenged

This conversation will be louder as time goes by; two of my favorite scientist have shaped it long ago:

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein, “Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium”, 1941

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl Sagan

Earth Doesn’t Love Us
Our Species
Our Cousins

Where there are humans,
You’ll find flies,
And Buddhas.
Kobayashi Issa

The Story of Twins – Baba Wáňdé Abimbólá
At one time, the king of Ife went into the forest (against the advice of his advisors and kin). His only son was ill and none of the diviners/healers was able to cure him. The king went looking for a particular tree he thought would cure his son. He went where he remembered it, but it wasn’t there. He then went to another place he thought it was, but nothing looked familiar. Before long he was lost. Earlier, the òrìşà Ifa (Òrúnmilá) had twin children called Ędun. One was male, one female. They were humans but they had tails. Their mother, Pèrègúnlèlè, had many husbands, and had children with each of them. Ifa taught them (the Ędun) how to make medicine. They weren’t particularly happy with the humans, because the people mocked them because of their tails. When they were of age, Ędun went into the bush.
Back to the king.
Ędun saw the king, lost in the forest and exclaimed “the source of good character is lost”. This sounds like the cry of the colobus monkey. They asked the king, “Why are you here?” He replied, “I am lost in the forest. I don’t know the way back to town.” Ędun brought water to the king and he drank. Then Ędun told the king to mount on their back. They traveled rapidly, tree to tree back to the edge of the city. They asked if he could find his way home from there and he said “yes”. Then Ędun left and the king called all his advisors and kin and said he would not go to the palace until the whole world had a chance to celebrate his return. The invitation to the party, called Oşìn, was sent to everyone.
There are 18 apartments in the royal palace. The King lives in the farthest back apartment, the 18th. The 17th apartment is for the diviners. There are 16 royal diviners who are, after initiation and election/appointment, kings in their own right.
Then Ędun (the colobus monkey) went. They were warned about the rudeness and shame found by the other animals but they were human and had helped the king. They also knocked on the door at Ìlèkùn Olà. The response was the same. The Ędun replied “When the king was lost, we brought him back. When he was thirsty we gave him water to drink. How can you keep us out?” The king heard them and replied, “That is true, open the door and let them in.” Ędun said “No, you don’t need to open the door, we will open it.”
The people inside tried to open it, but were unsuccessful. Ędun then used their àşe, or their medicine, learned from Ifa himself, to open the door. They then became one of the Awo Oòni, diviner kings in the 17th apartment of the royal palace. Because of Ędun, twin children are revered (or worshiped) as Ìbejì.

USPS made adjustment in operations from Franklin’s operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act.
CHANGE is our constant as humans, as is our stable traditions of commerce and market. Yet in reality nothing is absolutely stable or secure. There always those big hiccups down these rivers.
The US Post Office was one of our first examples of national, commercial services. It stayed pretty well run, even, brought in the first Kennedy Program (allowing “handicap” persons to work), with the lowest cost for mail in the world.
THEN a change of communication and commerce came into being like a rapid break in a dam. Over a billion people a day were now e-mailing, even the pie and cheese cards were not being sent, through this massive mortar, brick, and people network. This was already taking place in 1987; the USPS has been forced to give up residential first class mail. One that was perfected after WW II, the young couldn’t care less. So what will be our social tradition, many elders are transforming themselves.
The pension system as we know it is dead. With all wage contracts being frozen up to 3 years. The USPS will probably be next to convert: forcing all employees into a personal IRA or 401 in the nearest Credit Union, and direct deposit only please!
The amount of deployment and attrition of employees has increased since 1991, demanding now: part time (4 hrs a day), “non-traditional” workers, and written into the 21st Century Wage/Health Contracts. The 50 thousand job ($50,000) is no more for the non-managerial and top has been downsized when duplications are taken out of the process. Streamlined Management and Functions; got big automata machines for flats, and kiosks; the question still will be: what is it you are selling and consumer’s attraction to this new Postal Service. For us elders, customers service will probably re- introduce sales trucks, just like getting your daily ice cream. WTF! This is the new Post Office Store, grandpa.

Retail Post Office
Closure List

Disclaimer: I work for the unions