#israel is doing that by wiping out libraries schools etc

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the zionazis are tagging their bullshit arguments as "anti intellectualism" or "purity culture" actually kill yourselves

[santmat]

An Inclusive Rather Than Exclusive Spirituality: Kirpal Singh and the Lesson of Nag Hammadi

By James Bean (Exploring the World Religions Column)

There are the great world religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, the Bahai Faith, Aboriginal/Indigenous/Native American/Sami People, etc. In addition to comparative religion there is also comparative mysticism, the study of various schools of spirituality or mystics that are, or once were, operating within many of these above-mentioned faith communities, East and West. Viewing religions through this particular “lens,” one’s list may include: Kabbalah, Gnosticism (Valentinians, Barbeloites, Nassenes, Manichaeans, Cathers, Bogomils), Hesychasm (Eastern Orthodox mysticism), Syriac and other forms of Monasticism, Quietism, the Beguines, Gottesfreunde or Friends of God, to name a few in the Christian category, Sufism, numerous lineages of Saints, Sant Satgurus and Bhaktas based in India.

The Gospel of the Egyptians

“The god of time (illusion, Kal, maya) has put a cover over the teachings of Saints and thus concealed them from humanity.” (Swami Ji Maharaj)

“And there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. There is nothing buried that will not be raised!” (Greek Gospel of Thomas)

"The great Seth wrote this book… He placed it in the mountain that is called "Charaxio," in order that, at the end of the times and the eras… it may come forth and reveal... the great, invisible, eternal Spirit… The Gospel of the Egyptians. The God-written, holy, secret book." (Gospel of the Egyptians, The Nag Hammadi Library)

In December 1945 a collection of ancient scriptures – fifty-two books – was unearthed near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These texts had been placed in a clay storage jar, sealed, and buried sometime during the Fourth Century AD. Monks who lived at a nearby monastery founded by Saint Pachomius most likely hid them there at the time. They would have been sacred texts once part of the library of this monastic community, one of several Pachomian monasteries operating in Egypt during those days.

Rather than confining themselves to only reading the Old and New Testaments or teachings exclusively from Orthodox Christian sources, these monks had a surprisingly diverse collection of writings that can only be characterized as inter-faith and multi-traditional. In other words, they were also studying the scriptures of other teachers, sages, religions and “cousin” esoteric mystical movements of their day.

The papyrus codices of the Nag Hammadi scriptures includes Christian texts such as the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of the earliest known sayings of Jesus, Dialogue of the Saviour, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Book of Thomas the Spiritual Athlete, Teachings of Silvanus, and Apocalypse of James (Parts I & II).

There are also many examples of mystical or Gnostic Jewish texts. Perhaps the oldest book of the Nag Hammadi Library, Eugnostos the Blessed, is one of many that originate with a sect known as the Sethians, who were affiliated with another line of living teachers in a different branch of Gnosticism that practiced a somewhat Kabbalah-like form of Jewish mysticism.

Several important Nag Hammadi books are part of the Corpus Hermeticum, sacred texts of the Hermetic tradition, an esoteric religious and philosophical mystery school or school of spirituality based in Egypt attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (“Thrice-Greatest Hermes”). These include: The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth Heavens or Planes, Asclepius, and The Vegetarian Prayer of Thanksgiving.

Scholars have noticed there is a strong influence of Neoplatonism, a philosophy based on the teachings of Plato, present in many of the Nag Hammadi texts and Gnostic gospels. Both the Corpus Hermeticum and Nag Hammadi Library refer to India on a couple of occasions, and one Nag Hammadi book by the name of Zostrianos mentions the Persian Prophet Zoroaster. The books of Nag Hammadi are in the Coptic language and are copied by monks from much earlier Greek manuscripts. Some of the writings seem to originate in Syria, just north of Israel, including the Gospel of Thomas (Sayings of Jesus) and Book of Mar Sanes.

The Sentences of Sextus is a Pythagorean text, a collection of proverbs popular with many during the early centuries C.E.. The Pythagoreans were, as the name suggests, followers of Pythagoras, a sect that had a fascinating combination of mathematics, mystical practices and beliefs including reincarnation, transmigration of the soul, and hearing the Music of the Spheres, the Harmony of All Harmonies. They also adhered to a vegetarian diet. In fact, for most of the last two thousand years in the western world the word “vegetarian” has been synonymous with “Pythagorean,” such was their influence on Pagan, Jewish, and Christian traditions. Vegetarians have been referred to as “Pythagoreans” up until recently, when the word “vegetarian” became fairly popular.

Some of the scriptures of Nag Hammadi are from a moderate, fairly mainstream Gnostic Christian movement called Valentinianism, founded by Saint Valentinus of Alexandria. Some suspect that many of the Pachomian monks had been followers of Valentinus and brought their scriptures with them when they joined the monastery near Nag Hammadi.

Jesus and the Ebionites (Hebrew Christians), the Mandaean Prophet John (the Baptizer), Seth, Pythagoras, Valentinus, and Hermes Trismegistus

From the point of view of the monks contemplating the words of these scriptures, their interest was not a schizophrenic or contradictory eclectic spirituality. All these writings do have much in common. They share common themes and threads, a universal contemplative wisdom that transcends narrow religious sectarian boundaries, a rich treasure-trove of spirituality. The names of the teachers and the schools of spirituality they founded varied, yet the principles and practices were essentially the same. The Tree of Gnosis had many branches.

What a fascinating otherworldly, meditative, and “Eastern” version of Christianity these Coptic monks of the desert had — “a faith once entrusted to the Saints”. (Book of Jude) Egypt once was a kind of “Tibet of the West,” complete with chant. It wasn’t “om mani padme hum,” but there are actually many amazing examples of a rather AUM-like vowel chant preserved in several of the Gnostic texts.

“Wisdom leads the soul to the place of God.” (The Sentences of Sextus, Nag Hammadi Library)

Attempted Planetary Lobotomy

The codices of Nag Hammadi were buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of so-called “non-canonical” books in his infamous Festal Letter of 367 AD. As a new conservative sectarian hardline leadership, with its lists of “approved” and “banned” books, imposed itself upon the monastic communities of Egypt, it is believed that some monks took these forbidden books from the monastic library and hid them away, thus rescuing them from certain destruction, and this free-spirited act ended up preserving them for future generations. The collection of the sayings of Jesus known as the Gospel of Thomas, rather than being the victim of censorship and the book-burning hysteria of the Fourth Century, now has its own website, the Gospel of Thomas Home Page. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, illustrating the leadership role of women during the early days of Christianity, instead of being forever wiped from the pages of history, in the Twenty First Century is the subject of great interest by many open-minded spiritual seekers around the world.

“The tyrant will not be able to take away happiness.” (The Sentences of Sextus, Nag Hammadi Library)

The loss of the Nag Hammadi Library and the destruction of the Library of Alexandria represent two spectacular examples of "Planetary Lobotomy," the unrestrained wanton destruction of the knowledge of humanity. At least in the case of Nag Hammadi, a large percentage of the texts have been restored to us, and we can read them online.

The Lesson of Nag Hammadi

Beware of today’s “Athanasius-types,” the Archons (the rulers, the powers-that-be). The spirit of Athanasius lives on in each generation, desiring to take freedoms away, seeking to blow up statues of Buddhas and Saints, forbidding the study or public recitation of “unauthorized” books of the Masters – deliberately making these books go out of print, causing trouble for many seeking souls, ever thinking up new rules and regulations. The results of the imposition of over-reaching rule-making, control and censorship in spiritual organizations, despite the usual good intentions that are advertised, ultimately leads to the loss of knowledge and wisdom, a reduction in the quality of meditation practice — the dumbing down of a tradition.

“The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. As for you, be as sly as snakes and as simple as doves.” (Yeshua, Gospel of Thomas)

As I’ve written in the past, there is no permanent Institution or University of Mysticism, but a decline-renewal process, a continuous pattern of Masters making a fresh start in a new location, choosing to remain free, to exist in genuineness and authenticity. No need for a hierarchy of scribes or ever-growing caste of Pharisees to surround the Master, ultimately blocking him from our view. Let’s just stick with hanging out with the Master around the Bodhi or Banyan Tree of simplicity. The true Masters do spend time with their disciples. Personal interviews? Answering the mail? Absolutely. Yes. Make every effort to enjoy their company and communications whenever you can during this lifetime, while both you and they are in the body.

The Master says, “What your own eyes cannot see, your human ears do not hear, your physical hands cannot feel, and what is inconceivable to the human mind – that I will give you!” (Yeshua, The Gospel of Thomas – Wisdom of the Twin, Lynn Bauman’s translation published by White Cloud Press).

Administrative religious councils have been at war with enlightened souls since the beginning of time, and ultimately seek to retire and replace living Masters altogether. I remain suspicious of the institutionalization process, the eagerness on the part of some to build ever-larger buildings for themselves, and thirst for power, the creation of new leadership titles, committees and councils to rule over.

“Do not lay down any rule beyond what I ordained for you, nor promulgate law like the lawgiver, or else it will dominate you.” (Yeshua, Gospel of Mary Magdalene)

Only mystics care about mysticism.

The Modern-day Example of Master Kirpal Singh (1894–1974)

The spiritual Master from India, Sant Kirpal Singh, advised his students to follow a satsang template that included a long reading list of potential scriptures and sources of inspiration or Master-instruction: “For the subject of a talk, we may take up the hymns from any scripture, preferably from the Masters of the Sound Current. It may be supplemented by apt quotations from the parallel writings of other Master Saints. The Holy Gospels themselves are full of such material as may fit in with such a context. The illustrations from various Masters are essential so as to bring out the essential unity in the teachings of all the Saints.” (Instructions For Holding Satsang, by Sant Kirpal Singh)

“To fill the human heart with compassion, mercy and universal love, which should radiate to all countries, nations and peoples of the world. To make a true religion of the heart as the ruling factor in one’s life. To enable each one to love God, love all, serve all, and have respect for all, as God is immanent in all forms. My goal is that of oneness. I spread the message of oneness in life and living. This is the way to peace on earth. This is the mission of my life, and I pray that it may be fulfilled.” (Kirpal Singh)

Kirpal Singh was a prolific writer, publishing scores of books over the years, quoting from most every world scripture, mystic, poet, philosopher, and great Master that has ever existed spanning the centuries, very much embodying this same curiosity and inclusive universal spirituality we find present in the Nag Hammadi Library of Egypt. May the legacy of both always be remembered and honored for all time to come. ////////

#Gnosticism #Gnostic #Gnosis #NagHammadiLibrary #GnosticGospels #KirpalSingh #Library #Books #InterFaith #Religions #Inclusiveness #Coexist #Tolerance #Curiosity #InterFaithDialogue

[the-record-columns]

Oct. 23, 2019: Columns

Ava Dowell — ‘My Journey’

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

Ava Dowell is truly in inspiration just to be around.

She speaks from the heart, a thankful and faithful heart, of her life with cancer. She has become a nationwide advocate for Breast Cancer Research and help for dealing with cancer and its survivors--which she proudly numbers at nearly four million women. 

A Wilkes native, Dowell has spent much of her life in Seattle, and her tireless advocacy and work on breast cancer awareness is celebrated during "Ava Dowell Day" there.

She is referred to by many as the Wilkes Face of Breast Cancer. This past Saturday she sponsored a Breast Cancer Awareness Luncheon at the Wilkes County Public Library in North Wilkesboro.  Among the various handouts was a copy of what she refers to as "My Journey," It follows below.

My Journey

During my annual mammogram in April 2011, the image did not detect a tumor that was in my right breast.  (As I have learned later, this was due to the density within the breast.)  However, three months later while showering, I noticed this lump-like knot grossly protruding from my right breast.  I was in total shock!  It had been lying dormant and unnoticed.

I contacted my primary doctor immediately, and she ordered a MRI and biopsy.  I was diagnosed with TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER, a very serious Breast Cancer diagnosis.  My awesome medical team recommended that I seek a second medical opinion.  The Seattle Cancer Alliance Center confirmed the original diagnosis. My next step was to meet with the oncology surgeon.  I knew that I needed support to help me navigate this important meeting.  I asked my girlfriend of 30 years to attend the meeting with me.  Also, the Director of the Breast Cancer Survivor Group (Angel Care), who is also a breast cancer survivor, was able to attend as well.

  As you would imagine, the whole situation was overwhelming.  All of us listened carefully and took many notes.  After many long exasperated hours of prayer, discussions, etc., I opted for bilateral mastectomies; followed by eight aggressive cycles of chemotherapy.  The chemo drugs felt like a human mass of fungus flowing though my body.

  Through it all, I knew that I would not let breast cancer, and the negative effects of chemotherapy treatment defeat me!  I was going to FIGHT this Cancer!  My medical team had explained to me about the daunting pros and cons of Triple Negative Breast Cancer.  I didn't allow my medical team, including my primary care doctor of 29 years, influence my thinking.  I was going to succeed.

  The diagnosis of CANCER has made me look at my life and how I want to live it.  I believe I have a God given purpose to be a change agent for spreading breast cancer awareness.  I am now an advocate for breast cancer research and educating women on the importance of early detection.

  I am committed to attending breast cancer symposiums and conferences to further my education.  My mission is to be a voice to women who need the moral support to fight this terrible disease.

  It doesn't matter what type of Breast Cancer or the Stage of your diagnosis.  The bottom line is making sure you get the best treatment possible, and that means EARLY DETECTION!!!!!  Please join me...not only get your examination, also talk to family, friends, etc., to ensure they do the same.

  Support one another with God in your heart.  Together we can find a CURE.

  Many blessings to you all.

   Ava Dowell

  “Attention Please: Halloween Has Been Cancelled”

By HEATHER DEAN

Record Reporter

The words in the headline of this column is exactly what some children across the nation are hearing from their school system administrations.

The reasoning is that Halloween is not an inclusive enough holiday.

Chicago school district said, “As part of our school and district-wide commitment to equity, we are focused on building community and creating inclusive, welcoming environments for all. While we recognize that Halloween is a fun tradition for many, it is not a holiday that is celebrated by everyone for various reasons and we want to honor that. We are also aware of the range of inequities that are embedded in Halloween celebrations that take place as part of the school day and the unintended negative impact that it can have on students, families, and staff. As a result, we support our schools that are moving away from Halloween celebrations that include costumes and similar traditions.”

The scary part? It’s not just in Illinois. This has been taking hold with Iowa, Connecticut, and New Jersey on the list, some cancelling parades, zombie walks, and even trick or treating citing safety issues.  Other states, including Delaware, Alabama, Missouri, California, Virginia, New York and Georgia, have strict rules for trick or treating.

Halloween has been celebrated in this country since the late 1600’s and evolved across the years from America’s melting pot of immigrant cultures. So, it’s under attack why, exactly? Avoiding hurt feelings? Slacking on the part of Educations system?  Nah, just follow the money and the people behind it…

Corporations continue to rack up. Halloween comes in second only to Christmas in spending, with an average $2.5 billion a year and gaining, and continues on the upward slant of becoming people’s favorite (guilt-free) holiday.  And why wouldn’t it be?  It’s the one day a year you can be anything you want, differences don’t matter, and everyone gets a treat regardless.

Halloween is firmly planted in our society; it’s as American as pumpkin pie for goodness sake. But that’s not what many in the Church want to hear.  In 2017, a poll showed that 87 percent of believers feel that Christians should not celebrate Halloween, while 13 percent believe it’s okay. I mean it’s got to encompass at least four of the seven sins, right? Some may consider that percentage low, but I can tell you first hand that many in this county refuse to be a part of our annual Halloween Parade, (even though it’s a fundraiser for a non-profit that benefits kids in this county) citing religious beliefs.  

My childhood religion was part of the 87 percent to the extreme. Growing up in what I fondly refer to as “the cult” we were not allowed to celebrate any holiday. During class birthday, Valentines Day, and St. Patrick’s Day parties, class field trips to see the symphony perform a Christmas show at the Walker Center, even making Mothers’ Day cards, we had to go sit in the library and do school work. Attending the school’s “fall festival” was walking a tight line, because many of the staff dressed up in costume and handed out candy. Even then, I would never consider it fair to cancel a holiday just because of us three kids who didn’t celebrate.

Here in Wilkes, I know of children who’s only Halloween celebration they will get is in the class, because families can’t afford costumes, or gas to take the kids out.  And what’s next, telling an entire class of elementary students that they can’t color handouts of Hanukah or Kwanza candles, and Yule logs because they are “not a holiday that is celebrated by everyone for various reasons?”  

Since North Carolina is not on this list yet, may I ask a small favor? Don’t be a Halloween Nazi.

If a kid comes to your door, festival or trunk-or-treat, and you judge them to be “too old for this” just give them the candy anyway. At least they aren’t in a gang, vandalizing, or doing drugs. They say it takes a village, so I admonish you to keep “building community and creating inclusive, welcoming environments for all” in your Halloween festivities, not the lack thereof.  

No Peace or Prosperity for the average "Palestinian"

By AMBASSADOR EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

The Palestinian leadership is basically divided into two entities.  One is Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization, which governs Gaza, and the other is the PA/PLO.  The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the national representative of the Palestinian people. It runs the Palestinian National Authority (PA), the semi-autonomous government tasked with managing the Palestinian territories (until it makes a deal with Israel). Fatah, the secular nationalist political party that’s dominated Palestinian politics for decades, controls the PLO and PA.  In practice, the PLO runs the government in the West Bank but not in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. It also conducts peace talks on behalf of the Palestinians, but its authority to implement those deals has, in the past, been hampered by poor relations with Hamas.

Hamas, which won the last Palestinian election and controls the Gaza Strip, rejected the recent “Peace and Prosperity Plan” being discussed since Hamas is guided by the Islamic principle of “Jihad” – holy war against the non-believers – and openly rejects Israel’s very right to exist. Any plan that does not wipe Israel off the face of the globe is, was, and always will be, unacceptable.  For them to accept any plan that changes the status quo, the PA/PLO would have to give up their eternal narrative of victim-hood and accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state with defensible borders.  Somehow the woes of twenty-five years of failed leadership for the Palestinian people are all blamed on Israel. It's time for the world to encourage a new path for those calling themselves Palestinians.  If the Palestinian people truly want a better life, it’s time they end their perpetual discourse which defines them as constantly facing adversity and suffering loss and blaming it all on Israel.  It's time for the Palestinians to move forward toward a future defined by dignity, integrity, honesty and a heartfelt desire for peace and cooperative existence. Their biggest enemy is not Israel nor the United States.  The biggest enemy of the Palestinian people is the evil dwelling within their own hearts, minds, culture and ideology.  For decades they have blamed the Israeli “occupation” for everything deemed wrong in their lives thus absolving themselves of any responsibility. Until the Palestinians change their mindset and embrace values conducive to nurturing an atmosphere of peace, they will never move an inch toward gaining a better and brighter future – with or without an independent state.

So, why has the Palestinian leadership rejected the Peace and Prosperity Plan?  To begin with, the plan demands accountability.  The reforms which the Peace and Prosperity Plan suggested to the Palestinian legal, educational, and health systems reflected deep-seated and wholly justifiable criticism of the failed, biased, and ineffectual systems of the PA/PLO, which has abused billions of dollars of donor aid. But the primary obstacle came when the US authors of the plan dared to state that the financial resources raised would not be given directly to the PA/PLO but rather would be “administered by a multilateral development bank” that would ensure its efficient and effective allocation so that “all the Palestinians – not just the wealthy and connected – share in the benefits of peace.” This is the real reason for the PA/PLO rejection of the plan. It's no secret that for years the Palestinian leaders have fed their own bank accounts with millions of dollars of donor aid. This is how the late Yasser Arafat, president of the PA, was able to maintain a residence in Paris on the Champs Elysees in which his wife resided most of the time.  The current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a Abu Mazen, has an estimated net worth of well over $100 million much of which is believed to have come from embezzlement. 

In order to maintain wealth, power and authority, it’s advantageous to keep the masses poor, downtrodden and agitated.  This, in a nutshell, is why the leaders of the Palestinian people have rejected a plan that would have given the average Palestinian a shot at a life of peace and modest prosperity.

The Cake Went Upside Down

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

It was a busy weekend for on location productions. It all started early Saturday at the Taylorsville Apple Festival as we continued our search for some of the tastiest apple pies in the Carolinas. Cameras were on location early enough to see the morning come alive.  

We were aware of the reputation of two fried apple pie makers and were in time to witness the line of people waiting for the pies before the festival officially opened. It was a great visit with the pie makers and those who were in line for not just one pie, but 10 to 20 pies.

The fresh hot apple cider was also a big treat. We watched as the apples we put in a grinder and then into a crusher to make pure juice. It was heated and then served; No need to add sugar, Mother Nature added the perfect amount.

It was then time to join camera crew members already in Hudson, NC. This was the beginning of our two-day coverage and stage production around Jan Karon Days. Jan was born in the Dula Hospital in Lenoir and then lived with her grandparents in Hudson as a child.  

Jan Karon is best known and admired for her New York Times bestselling Mitford novels. Her accomplishments are significant and that’s why the first celebration of Jan Karon Days was so special.  

Our involvement started a few months prior with call from Hudson resident and Commissioner Ann Smith. It was during that conversation that I became more than a little intrigued with idea of doing a segment around Hudson and Jan Karon.

Little did I know from that call the story would turn into far more than a short segment. As our research developed, I filled my Audible book listening line up with Mitford books.    

As many of you know, I spend a great deal of time traveling the Carolinas for story research, development or on location production. All that translates to a lot of time for me to think and listen.

Father Tim and many of the Mitford residents became my traveling companions. There were many moments of laughter, reflection and consideration. While I enjoy reading, I love hearing a story come to life with the spoken word.

After many visits and calls with the dynamic trio of Ann, Cathy and Janice at the HUB Center in Hudson, we were ready for our action-packed weekend.

Everyone was in place for the 11:30 a.m., Jan Parade which featured a blending of local dignitaries and Mitford personalities. Jan rode in a red convertible driven by Father Tim and her car would slow and stop as fans approached.

The parade was delightfully charming with seemingly endless smiles.

And then it was time for a special lunch gathering. The lunch was preset and consisted of very healthy portions of a tasty chicken salad, pasta salad, assorted cheeses and grapes. The center piece of each table was a beautiful Orange Marmalade Cake.

All was going well. I shared a table with our crew and Hudson leaders. We were all enjoying our chicken salad but there was much talk about the cake. I decided that I would cut the cake. Some wanted smaller pieces, and some wanted larger pieces.  Regardless of the size, we all loved the cake and with almost half remaining, it was time for a few smaller second pieces. So…I went in to do my work once again. The thing that I did not consider was the fact that I had already cut half the cake and the weight of the remaining cake was mostly on one side. As I went in for the second round, I touched the side of the cake stand. I’m not sure how, but it was as if time slowed as we all watched the remaining cake turn completely upside down.  

Amazement and laughter ensued; everyone looked our way and the chef arrived with an offer to bring a new cake.

The rest of the day went well and ended with a dinner theater experience.

But one thing is for sure, the Upside-Down Orange Marmalade Cake is best enjoyed with friends and laughter.

Thanks for the memoires Jan.

I’ll tell you about Sunday next week. It was a grand day indeed.

Carl White is the Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In The Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its 11th year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at noon and My 12. The show also streams on Amazon Prime. For more information visit www.lifeinthecarolinas.com. You can email Carl at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com

[clubofinfo]

Expert: In exile at St. Helena, when asked about his dishonorable treatment of Toussaint, Napoleon merely remarked, “What could the death of one wretched Negro mean to me?” The Black Napoleon, or that’s what former slave Toussaint L’Ouverture was called. Get this, historians – the leader of the only successful slave revolt in modern history in effect defeated the genocidal white trash that is part of France’s legacy.  Haiti – that French colony, and he was the son of Gaou Guinon, an African prince captured by slavers. Sent to that white French genocidal colony of Saint Dominque. Toussaint, born May 20, 1743, under the Code Noir, that black code that legalized all the harsh punishment (treatment) of slaves. Property. L’Ouverture was allowed unlimited access to a library of the manager of the Breda plantation. His godfather was a priest, Simon Baptiste, a kind fellow who taught the young Toussaint to read and write. I’ll come back to L’Ouverture in a minute, first moving to a new friend, Toussaint Tyler, named after L’Ouverture. Mr. Tyler and I met recently, coming into the office at my day job as social worker for homeless folk, stuck in a system of addiction, criminal charges, mental health challenges. Portland, Oregon, and Mr. Tyler and I are quickly brothers in arms, looking at our six decades on Planet Earth as one of struggle, triumph, exasperation, recrimination, rejoicing, repulsion, anger, happiness, and revolt. I am more settled into my anti-Capitalist fervor than is this man of god, myself having declared anarchism and socialism and communism as the only way out of this warring white Capitalism that has decimated tribes and cultures and entire races of people. Early in my scattered life. My friendships with men like Toussaint Tyler, Sr., are based on deeply held respect for the individual coursing through capitalism’s hall of horrors. Mr. Tyler, homeless, in a shelter, introduces me to his older brother who had just gotten out of prison, 25 years straight time. His brother is the gifted and focused one in the family. Mr. TNT Tyler says his brother, who was just released from McNeil Island Corrections Center in Pierce County, Washington, is the smartest and ablest fellow around, who entered into a life of crime ripping off rich folk and faced the music here in Oregon with some hard-hard time in prison in Washington. Where his brother learned the law, learned his own new mission in life, and who is now more than just an inspiration for Toussaint. Toussaint Tyler, once the leading rusher as fullback for the University of Washington Huskies. He was born in Barstow, California. His nickname was TNT Tyler, called one of the greatest fullbacks in Husky history. Punishing running style and bone-crushing blocking. We are talking about a 58-year-old man who has seen the gridiron since age nine, a man today who is forgetful and now homeless, who has been couch surfing for years, who once had glory and wives, and who is now awaiting a brain scan, ordered by the National Football League. TNT and I talk about the Will Smith movie, “Concussion,” a flick Tyler saw when it came out two years ago. “Man, I just started crying when I saw my life in many ways depicted on the screen.” This is the rotten NFL, the elite owners, the chosen few paper jockeys and lawyers and MBAs, who watch mostly people of color slam bodies and craniums into each other for a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry akin to Roman times gladiator exploitation. Enslavement. Boys hitting each other in Barstow or Compton or Baltimore or Toledo. The NFL, a non-profit shit-storm of Predatory Capitalists using the dumb-downing of America to fill stadiums, land TV/Cable contracts and sell the junk of faux celebrity. Tyler had his own trading card with the New Orleans Saints. Tyler traveled the country and the world as a football hero. Over six feet two inches, 240 pounds, a hard-hitting man who has admitted to more than a dozen concussions. He’s been in and out of recovery – pain pills, cocaine, opioids, and booze. He was riding a wave of limelight as a former player in the NFL, including the Saints and Minnesota Vikings . . . decades of Traumatic Brain Injury depression and outbursts of angry, physicality. I run my life around narratives, around the people who have intersected with me as dive master, photographer, journalist, teacher, social worker, traveler, and activist. His story now, after my sixty years on planet earth, hits me hard – heavy on a personal level, both positive and negative. Exploitation of the black man by the elite, by the worthless white men in suits and ties, those golf-loving whites, the money men, the tribe of shekel collectors, the very tribe of men who that mythical Jesus Christ went to town on upsetting the money changers’ money tables. Harvard, Yale, law schools of the elite, MBAs from large Division One schools, running poor whites and blacks and Latinos into the ground, to the grave, through the psych wards, under the belly of the beast of drug addiction, homelessness, and the halls of criminal injustice. Tyler tells me about his father, an amazingly talented man, self-taught, who was a lightweight boxer, who had seven kids. Mother who worked for the government. Their United States of Israel roots not from California but from Arkansas and Baton Rouge. Tyler traces his African roots to Sierra Leone. “I never understood why I was crying all the time, and depressed.” He has had a knee replacement. Tyler shows me both wrists – big surgical scars from massive fractures from defenders slamming helmets and face-guards into his body. “I am beat-up, for sure. I forget things. The NFL knew in 1954 that head trauma from pounding gridiron players hitting each other caused permanent brain damage – shrinking, permanent atrophying of parts of the brain, a sloshing of parts of the brain.” This is the American way – full-throttle exploitation, on the field, in the workplace, in neighborhoods. The elite, polluting cities, our air, the water, our children’s minds, the dreams of adults, and the hopes of the aged. We are one giant Trumplandia Casino Capitalism Continuing Criminal Enterprise. Signing our death warrants. Tyler, lasting four years in the NFL, and ending up as a juvenile detention officer for King County (Seattle), working with 12 to 17 year olds locked up in a county lock-down facility. He was in his addiction then, as a county official, and he worked hard on gang-prevention and working with troubled youth in King County, Washington. Tyler today continues to talk about living a lie most of his life – chasing women and fame, drugs and money. “I didn’t need football to make it in life,” he says. He is so sure that youth should not be playing football until their brains are fully developed. Tyler tells me that he was at Roosevelt High School in Portland recently, and saw a little kid, an eight-year-old, laying on the ground, crying about his head hurting after taking a hit on the football field. I’m glad my sons didn’t play football. If I could do life all over again, I would have never played football, gone into basketball. One son, Toussaint Tyler Jr., played college basketball for Central Washington University. A story was written up about the sixth man for the men’s basketball team, Mr. Tyler’s son. Tattoos all over his body – rib-cage, wrist, knee, shoulder. Each inscription plays a significant reminder to TNT’s son about where he comes from, where he is going and where he doesn’t want to go: • Me Against the World • Respect Few, Feat None • Family Forever • Brotherhood • Only God Can Judge Me • Tha Truth • All Eyez on Me Toussaint Tyler Sr. is talking about the class action lawsuit against the NFL, a party of over 22,000 claiming NFL negligence, asking for money to cover years of drug abuse, psychiatric breaks, incarceration, broken marriages, failed relationships, split-up families, and internal anger-confusion-dementia. These white so-called leaders, elites going to their elite children’s Christenings and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, going to their dear children’s graduations from elite universities, law schools and business colleges, they are demons, felonious, as criminal as criminality can come, laughing all the way to the bank, living it up in their five homes each, jet-setting the globe with the blood and brains of the real workers, the real heroes, wiped all over their zero escape clause contracts. All those One percenters and their Little Eichmann agents and riffraff controlling the lives of the sacrificial lambs. Sure, we can Google (another massively screwed up project of control run by another set of war-loving elites) Toussaint Tyler and see he was the only one in pro-Football to knock out Lawrence Taylor. Sure, Toussaint is gunning for getting onto various boards – Urban League, YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, etc. – and wanting to help turn lives around. Sure, Toussaint wants the homeless in Portland – some really raw characters that make Charles Dickens’ novels seem like Mister Rogers Neighborhoods – to be helped. Toussaint Tyler asks me to stay with the non-profit I was working at. Wants me to meet bigwigs and help sell programs to the elite in Portland (Intel, Nike, adidas, et al). I want to throw in with Toussaint Tyler, Sr. – I want to hit up these metro sexuals, these gentrifying elites, these bourgeoisie, these Bill Gates and Paul Allens and Phil Knights types to get down to real business, to getting their bullshit philanthropic ideals into real gear. We need to help the homeless and the drug addicted get on their feet with REAL programs, with solid recovery, where they can get SPECIAL treatment, in a time of Neoliberalism and Trumplandia. We are running non-profits with genuflecting and begging, hoping for social workers to get to work with shitty pay and tons of on-the-job trauma. My non-profit gets grants, and we are hobbled by the constraints of the millionaire class, and the state and county and city agencies. Being homeless usually means trauma in each and everyone’s lives – beaten down in families, drugs, sexually abused, the physically kicked down, psychic knockdowns, punished into the criminal justice system, hobbled by the debt levelers, controlled by the broken education system, held down by the business community, the exploitation class, and held back by bureaucracies of evil. College bowls for Toussaint – Rose Bowl and Sun Bowl champion; in another Rose Bowl, Hula Bowl, Japan Bowl, San Diego Hall of Fame. Second-team Pac 10 running back for two years. Honored as a Huskie Legend, NFL Alumni. “None of it matters. I am in a new life, starting new.” He ended up dead on arrival, in Pullman, Washington, three years ago, 60 pills swallowed in a suicide cocktail. He had done a lot of crack to make those head blows and shitty life decisions and all those mammas to his six kids sort of go away, or at least level out the pain of all those valleys and rock bottoms which are the geography of his spiritual and psychological life. Ahh, Haiti, and the despicable French, then, now, forever – defeated by a slave, who read voraciously, especially Enlightenment thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one member of early moderate revolutionaries who considered seriously the question of slavery. As is the case of most French thinkers, these moderate revolutionaries were not willing to end slavery. Applying the “Rights of Man” to all Frenchmen, including free blacks and mulattoes (those of mixed race), the so-called revolutionaries gave into the plantation owners in the colonies who were furious and fought the measure. In 1791 the measure was retracted. This betrayal triggered slave revolts in Saint Dominique (soon called Haiti), and Toussaint quickly became leader of the slave rebellion. L’Ouverture (the one who finds an opening) was added to his name, as he led a rag-tag army. For anyone listening to the unheralded voices of the people’s history, he or she can take his hat off and honor Toussaint who successfully fought the French, whose numbers were also decimated by a yellow fever outbreak. He fought seven battles in seven days and defeated the French. As is the true DNA of the white race, the French wanted business as usual, desiring Haiti to go back to slavery and colonial rule. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted Haiti out of his hair, agreed to its independence and Toussaint agreed to retire from public office. Eventually Napoleon, as is so true of many of the French’s DNA code, invited Toussaint to a meeting under the promise of his protection. The French Army arrested Toussaint, put him on a ship headed for France, and Napoleon ordered D’Ouverture to suffer in a mountain dungeon where he was starved to death with all number of depravations put upon the Haitian hero. Getting Haiti off his back, Napoleon gave up Haiti to independence and sold the French territory in North America (the Louisiana Purchase) to the United States. Toussaint Tyler, Sr., named after the great Haitian hero, sits with me in my office, and we go over his plans to get his driver’s license back, plans to get him a job at $11 an hour, and plans to come back to life as a community organizer. He’s forgetful, having left his satchel on the Portland light rail (MAX) with his photo IDs and social security card inside. He tears up when telling me about his granddaughter, Serayah McNeill, who plays Tiana on the hip-hop TV series, “The Empire.” Daughter of his eldest son, Serayah is a talented musician, athlete, and can do anything, Toussaint tells me. Her very presence on TV, her thriving life, her existence is a testament to her succeeding and a reminder to her grandfather that he once was in her life as a child and now he’s been MIA for years. “She reminds me of how I screwed up so many people’s lives.” This is the story in America, one I touch daily, with men mostly, and the years taken away by drugs, by incarceration, racism, shitty employment, all told, millions of lives destroyed by the white man’s bad seed, fall from his and her own grace. The decades and centuries of structural and mitochondrial determinants in the success and failures of an entire group of people who made this country, built the fucking White House, put the land to work, harvested and swaddled the white woman’s children, what a travesty. Repeated daily from sea to shining sea, exploitation after exploitation. And the NFL, microcosm of the chosen ones’ destruction of almost anything good, tribal, hating all people’s who live lives far from the money printing presses, the coin of the realm – slavery for enriching the few, the fattening up of these voracious people eaters, these lovers of anything close or aberrant to what the entire Trump legacy represents: the people who run the rackets of college sports and professional gladiatorial athletics, or replace sports with big pharma, big business, big military-surveillance-punishment complex, big ag, big food, big medicine, big media, big education. These people are the ones that deserve a million slave rebellions run by the likes of Toussaint D’Ouverture. The rabid dog, ahh, the beheading is necessary for the safety of the village. Yet, it’s all flipped backwards – the elite, the weakest, the minority of all minorities, the Chosen One Percent living out their blasphemy until old age, while the good and best the world can offer, murdered, slowly, quickly, at the moment of birth. America – the racket, the thug nature of this warring nation, the disharmony of the children sucked into diabetes and mental stasis created by the chosen few’s tools of control: food, consumer popular culture, Hollywood, media, digital dumb-downing. Here, from the movie, Concussion, the doctor, Bennet Omalu, asking why the world doesn’t want to know about his research into football head injuries and players’ deaths, suicides, incapacitating pain, drug addiction, incarceration, murders: Dr. Bennet Omalu: What do they want? Dr. Cyril Wecht: The NFL wants you to say you made it all up. Dr. Bennet Omalu: I made it up? Dr. Cyril Wecht: They’re accusing you of fraud. Dr. Ron Hamilton: If you retract, you’ll be fine. This all goes away. Dr. Bennet Omalu: Why? Why are they all doing this? Dr. Cyril Wecht: They’re terrified of you. Bennet Omalu is going to war with a corporation that has 20 million people on a weekly basis craving their product the same way they crave food. The NFL owns a day of the week, the same day the Church used to own. Now it’s theirs. They’re very big. Note: A forensic pathologist, Omalu conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, which led to his discovery of a new disease that he named chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. He is currently the chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif. and a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. These one percenters and their 19 percenter Little Eichmanns holding up their universal Capitalist scam, they are perpetuating the chronic traumatic encephalopathy onto all aspects of society with each experiment deemed necessary to create legions upon legions of marks, the exploited, the punished, the destitute, the near homeless, all of us shoved into their consumer prisons for the pleasure of their sin upon humanity. Greed, prostitution, elimination. At eight years of age, I knew I was going to be in the NFL. I was the fourth all-time leading rusher for UW. But my life is more than that, I know now. I’ve lived a life for and about Toussaint Tyler. It’s been a selfish life. I want to work to help this community, these people on the streets outside. Man, all messed up on meth, dirty, on the streets, sleeping in alleyways. We have to find a way to help them. So continues the dilemma of the One Percent, the Churches, the Poverty Pimps, all those non-profits run for the pleasure of a few at the top. So goes the journey of Toussaint Tyler, invoking just a little bit of his Haitian namesake’s rebellion. Each day it becomes clearer to me that those in state capitols and on K-street, Wall Street, in the corridors of power, peopling the think tanks and commissions and secretive world of the bankers and bankrollers of pain, shame, war.  They are the giant tapeworm eating at the soul of humanity. Clearer and clearer that the exiled, the broken, the incarcerated and just let out, the Toussaints and a million others, they have the power of lucidity, the power of perspective, and the power of seeing outside the miasma of this country’s madness. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if the magic wand pushed a giant interstellar vacuum onto the earth that sucked up all the detritus on this planet – those buttoned up thieves lusting for their gigantic thefts, uniformed weapon lusting hoards lusting for war, all those coders and money changers, the renter class, the bankers, the technologists, the entire army of takers. Toussaint and I hug, as I say good-bye on my last day at one non-profit as I move to another. Life is slipstream, the sum total of serendipity, these chance encounters, as my brain folds more of what I know is social justice and revolutionary focus. He and I come from two different worlds, and belief systems, yet, well, what more can a brotherhood bring than the joy of understanding those who are different but cut from the same cloth of wanting justice and seeking enlightenment. http://clubof.info/