Essays? Videos? Podcasts? Everyone has their preference in terms of how they like to receive and consume information. Thanks to those who have provided their feedback to me on their own preferences. I have figured out a way to provide a transcript for my video commentaries and podcasts, so will be providing a link to accompany each one moving forward.
This should be read by this extraordinary man to a joint session of Congress just for starters. If that can’t be arranged , then President Biden should read it for him as a preamble to his next State of The Union address.
Then it should be aired as a commercial on Fox News nightly for a month. I can’t imagine any thinking and feeling American who would not be willing to help defray that cost.
That might begin the reconciliation that follows truth.
Exceptional piece on the part of both authors, and should be disseminated far and wide, on our shores and globally, for this work contains everything that needs saying, encapsulates impeccably our past, our present, and provides us glimpses into our possible futures.
I am disseminating it to ALL my friends, family, church members, my cell phone contacts, etc. I am asking them to share as well. This is a thesis masterpiece (or the beginnings of one). So well done!
Steve good morning, outstanding column as usual! I listen to both the recommended people. As a Black American the “shaping” of the Slave experience is appalling. Even if , and it is doubtful, skills were learned, there was no opportunity to leverage them for the benefit of the Slave! Looking at the whole experience, which is something simpleton “Dumb-Santis” would not do along with that state government in Fl, the Americans who survived that nightmare still did not have the opportunity to benefit from that mis-catagorized skill they learned. That itself exposes the abject “weakness “ of their position. Thank you for sharing and keep showing that Truth Matters!
Just an overwhelming essay! Every US citizen should read, but many of the MAGA cult won’t! Even if they did, they’d likely dismiss it. The other 70% of us must take the lead in the effort to save our democracy from fascism! The cult is working hard, are we?
Wow, “ The inability to think logically is a form of bondage. The refusal to think logically is proof of already being bound,” indeed. From the earliest days of the internet, public channels such as Facebook and YouTube were infiltrated by spywares and viruses from China and Russia. They continue to disrupt and distort images and information in those and other online information channels. You explained the reason very clearly. They are enslaving their own at home but now they are attacking the information channels that symbolize and uphold the democratic freedom elsewhere.
Thinking about the statement that well placed guilt can lead to empathy. There’s the rub for DeSantis & the GOP. They eschew empathy. They think it makes people weak. They truly live in the upside down world where lies become truth. Scarier still is the GOP intention to arm their sheep with deadly weapons without training or a background check, without empathy. There couldn’t be a more dangerous combination.
Thank you for letting me know about Joyce Vance Substack. I subscribed to her this morning. I subscribe to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and consistently find it informative, serious and entertaining. Senator Abdul Jabbar has a a nice ring to it..
Currently I'm reading "Teaching White Supremacy" by Donald Yacovane. Writing history books has always been big business and primarily written by white men. It's a wonder we even know there was ever slavery! Desantis is just doing what has been done in years past but doing it out loud. Thank you for your excellent writing, I look forward to it every day (no pressure, smile)
Florida's voters must believe their live and will forever live in their own small world where their truth, not real truth lives and nourishes their children. Crazy. Their children will grow up one day and find that they had been lied to about history. When I was in the sixth grade in my Catholic grammar school we learned about the civil war. Sister Peters taught us that the civil war was never about slavery, but states rights. It took many years before I realized that the war was about slavery more than states rights, although both were in the mix. Florida voters: Tell them the truth. Don't let them walk out into the world looking like idiots.
Yes. That was what I was taught in public grade school as well. When I learned different was when I started pursuing information on my own. Recently I was challenged by a former classmate who had not pursued any additional information. He said, “The Civil War was about State’s Rights, not slavery. It was about pushing back the overreaching federal government.”. Rather than directly argue with him, I tried another approach and said, “Ok. Let’s go with that for a second, please tell me what rights the States were trying to protect. Wasn’t it the right to own humans?”. That actually stumped him and he couldn’t find an answer for my question. So he of course changed the subject! But at least I jiggled his bubble of ignorance and made him think for a second or two.
Well done, Carey! If we can learn how to ask question that make people think, the way you did, this could do a lot of good in this world. Arguing is not effective with certain kinds of people. A well placed question can make a difference and we need it! Thanks.
As I’ve come to understand it, the Southern State seceded to preserve their states’ right to maintain and expand chattel slavery. That’s the right they really cared about, and the right of slavery is called out in many of the secession declarations.
What happens when kids challenge this and other “hooded” standards and push back? They will argue and report that a few FREE blacks during the antebellum had the ability to succeed and then show case after case of the atrocities of slavery.
When I was in 7th grade in 1976, I got kicked out of gym class and got an F for the quarter because I challenged the male PE teacher to give the all girl’s class fun things to do like the boys got to do. In my disrespectful moment, I remember the other girls cheering me on. We didn’t want to play kickball every day while the boys had more athletic options. My point is at age 13 I was filled with the ideas of the women’s movement --ERA, bra burning, reproductive freedom, etc. My mom was a professional in the social service field. I was woke in the spirit of 1976 and women’s freedom.
Some of those kids in Florida are also woke, and they have liberal parents who are tired of the conservative agenda in their state, especially their schools. There will be push back in the classrooms.
Try as they may, you can’t stop that wheel of fortune from turning. Cultural change has been set into motion.
When I was in high school I fought for the right to attend Shop class rather than Home Economics. As far as I know I was the first female to attend Shop class in my high school. I don’t recall it being a big fight though. I do recall being made fun of by the boys for being in class and the girls treating me like they thought I was weird for even wanting to attend. At the time it didn’t even occur to my young brain that I was fighting for the rights of women. Because I wasn’t, I was just more interested in learning how to make things with wood and how a car engine worked rather than learning how to sew and cook. And I didn’t understand why no one else had questioned it and asked to switch up the previous status quo of girls take Home Ec and boys take Shop.
Tracy, I'm so glad you wrote about the 'push back' that has been set in motion by students in Florida and across this country. If you tell kids they're not supposed to read certain books, or learn the truth about history in this country...many will be highly motivated to read those books and to learn what is being hidden from them. There will be 'push back' and there probably already is plenty of this going on. Students unite. Rebel! (They are!) Thanks.
Jabbar is outstanding and should run for office. I've been thinking this for years. He'd also make a good VP pick and help a Democratic ticket. Keeping all of us in bondage is just what our enemies want. This includes the Kochs and allies who are enemies of a clean environment and a more equitable society. Most of all, the Russians, who have waged a disnformation war against the free world, with the USA as its prime target. They're very good at this and have many decades of practice. Just ask the former Iron Curtain countries. Truth is their enemy. Their aim is the confuse individual minds. They have help here from experts at this, such as Flynn and Bannon. Musk and Kennedy now too. None of these people want Americans to see reality clearly. It helps the Russians to have continued racial strife hear. Facing the truth of our racist past and beginning to heal from it would make us a stronger nation, which is exactly what they don't want.
Elizebeth, Please keep speaking out on this! I hope Steve will really go after this subject more in the future, too. The monsters are real, domestic and foreign. Thanks.
The Rs are correct to fear the truth. Once the whole story is understood, including chattel slavery and the post-Reconstruction South’s treatment of their former slaves, there is self-reflection for all of us. By choosing to lie they perpetuate the deep-set infection.
If you have a chance, please look at “ This is sacred ground”: a series offered by the Episcopal Church on how we, as a nation, have treated our minority populations.
This should be read by this extraordinary man to a joint session of Congress just for starters. If that can’t be arranged , then President Biden should read it for him as a preamble to his next State of The Union address.
Then it should be aired as a commercial on Fox News nightly for a month. I can’t imagine any thinking and feeling American who would not be willing to help defray that cost.
That might begin the reconciliation that follows truth.
Ask your Congressional Representative to enter it into the Congressional Record.
Hear him!
David A Ross great idea KUDOS ✅
Exceptional piece on the part of both authors, and should be disseminated far and wide, on our shores and globally, for this work contains everything that needs saying, encapsulates impeccably our past, our present, and provides us glimpses into our possible futures.
Mia, I so totally agree with you.
I am disseminating it to ALL my friends, family, church members, my cell phone contacts, etc. I am asking them to share as well. This is a thesis masterpiece (or the beginnings of one). So well done!
Mia Marietta BRAVA thank you
Steve good morning, outstanding column as usual! I listen to both the recommended people. As a Black American the “shaping” of the Slave experience is appalling. Even if , and it is doubtful, skills were learned, there was no opportunity to leverage them for the benefit of the Slave! Looking at the whole experience, which is something simpleton “Dumb-Santis” would not do along with that state government in Fl, the Americans who survived that nightmare still did not have the opportunity to benefit from that mis-catagorized skill they learned. That itself exposes the abject “weakness “ of their position. Thank you for sharing and keep showing that Truth Matters!
Just an overwhelming essay! Every US citizen should read, but many of the MAGA cult won’t! Even if they did, they’d likely dismiss it. The other 70% of us must take the lead in the effort to save our democracy from fascism! The cult is working hard, are we?
Wow, “ The inability to think logically is a form of bondage. The refusal to think logically is proof of already being bound,” indeed. From the earliest days of the internet, public channels such as Facebook and YouTube were infiltrated by spywares and viruses from China and Russia. They continue to disrupt and distort images and information in those and other online information channels. You explained the reason very clearly. They are enslaving their own at home but now they are attacking the information channels that symbolize and uphold the democratic freedom elsewhere.
What a powerful essay! All of it is truth. This needs to be shared far and wide. Excellent.
Thinking about the statement that well placed guilt can lead to empathy. There’s the rub for DeSantis & the GOP. They eschew empathy. They think it makes people weak. They truly live in the upside down world where lies become truth. Scarier still is the GOP intention to arm their sheep with deadly weapons without training or a background check, without empathy. There couldn’t be a more dangerous combination.
I am better for having read today's column. Thank you for sharing Mr. Jabbar's words. His words are clear, concise and powerful.
Thank you for letting me know about Joyce Vance Substack. I subscribed to her this morning. I subscribe to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and consistently find it informative, serious and entertaining. Senator Abdul Jabbar has a a nice ring to it..
Currently I'm reading "Teaching White Supremacy" by Donald Yacovane. Writing history books has always been big business and primarily written by white men. It's a wonder we even know there was ever slavery! Desantis is just doing what has been done in years past but doing it out loud. Thank you for your excellent writing, I look forward to it every day (no pressure, smile)
Florida's voters must believe their live and will forever live in their own small world where their truth, not real truth lives and nourishes their children. Crazy. Their children will grow up one day and find that they had been lied to about history. When I was in the sixth grade in my Catholic grammar school we learned about the civil war. Sister Peters taught us that the civil war was never about slavery, but states rights. It took many years before I realized that the war was about slavery more than states rights, although both were in the mix. Florida voters: Tell them the truth. Don't let them walk out into the world looking like idiots.
Yes. That was what I was taught in public grade school as well. When I learned different was when I started pursuing information on my own. Recently I was challenged by a former classmate who had not pursued any additional information. He said, “The Civil War was about State’s Rights, not slavery. It was about pushing back the overreaching federal government.”. Rather than directly argue with him, I tried another approach and said, “Ok. Let’s go with that for a second, please tell me what rights the States were trying to protect. Wasn’t it the right to own humans?”. That actually stumped him and he couldn’t find an answer for my question. So he of course changed the subject! But at least I jiggled his bubble of ignorance and made him think for a second or two.
Well done, Carey! If we can learn how to ask question that make people think, the way you did, this could do a lot of good in this world. Arguing is not effective with certain kinds of people. A well placed question can make a difference and we need it! Thanks.
As I’ve come to understand it, the Southern State seceded to preserve their states’ right to maintain and expand chattel slavery. That’s the right they really cared about, and the right of slavery is called out in many of the secession declarations.
Thanks Bill, that explains the link of the two. States rights and slavery.
What happens when kids challenge this and other “hooded” standards and push back? They will argue and report that a few FREE blacks during the antebellum had the ability to succeed and then show case after case of the atrocities of slavery.
When I was in 7th grade in 1976, I got kicked out of gym class and got an F for the quarter because I challenged the male PE teacher to give the all girl’s class fun things to do like the boys got to do. In my disrespectful moment, I remember the other girls cheering me on. We didn’t want to play kickball every day while the boys had more athletic options. My point is at age 13 I was filled with the ideas of the women’s movement --ERA, bra burning, reproductive freedom, etc. My mom was a professional in the social service field. I was woke in the spirit of 1976 and women’s freedom.
Some of those kids in Florida are also woke, and they have liberal parents who are tired of the conservative agenda in their state, especially their schools. There will be push back in the classrooms.
Try as they may, you can’t stop that wheel of fortune from turning. Cultural change has been set into motion.
When I was in high school I fought for the right to attend Shop class rather than Home Economics. As far as I know I was the first female to attend Shop class in my high school. I don’t recall it being a big fight though. I do recall being made fun of by the boys for being in class and the girls treating me like they thought I was weird for even wanting to attend. At the time it didn’t even occur to my young brain that I was fighting for the rights of women. Because I wasn’t, I was just more interested in learning how to make things with wood and how a car engine worked rather than learning how to sew and cook. And I didn’t understand why no one else had questioned it and asked to switch up the previous status quo of girls take Home Ec and boys take Shop.
Right On!!
Tracy, I'm so glad you wrote about the 'push back' that has been set in motion by students in Florida and across this country. If you tell kids they're not supposed to read certain books, or learn the truth about history in this country...many will be highly motivated to read those books and to learn what is being hidden from them. There will be 'push back' and there probably already is plenty of this going on. Students unite. Rebel! (They are!) Thanks.
Fantastic stuff, Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Abdul-Jabbar.
Your remarks give me hope! I already subscribe to Kareem Abdul-Jabber’s substack and cannot recommend it enough.
"Honestly, when I first read that my immediate reaction was that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should run for the United States Senate."
Or maybe it would be even better for him to run for the House? His sensitive brilliance is badly needed there!!
I'd love to see him tower over Jim Jordan!
Physically, oh yes!! Intellectually and spiritually, he already does....
Jabbar is outstanding and should run for office. I've been thinking this for years. He'd also make a good VP pick and help a Democratic ticket. Keeping all of us in bondage is just what our enemies want. This includes the Kochs and allies who are enemies of a clean environment and a more equitable society. Most of all, the Russians, who have waged a disnformation war against the free world, with the USA as its prime target. They're very good at this and have many decades of practice. Just ask the former Iron Curtain countries. Truth is their enemy. Their aim is the confuse individual minds. They have help here from experts at this, such as Flynn and Bannon. Musk and Kennedy now too. None of these people want Americans to see reality clearly. It helps the Russians to have continued racial strife hear. Facing the truth of our racist past and beginning to heal from it would make us a stronger nation, which is exactly what they don't want.
Elizebeth, Please keep speaking out on this! I hope Steve will really go after this subject more in the future, too. The monsters are real, domestic and foreign. Thanks.
Excellent essay by all.
The Rs are correct to fear the truth. Once the whole story is understood, including chattel slavery and the post-Reconstruction South’s treatment of their former slaves, there is self-reflection for all of us. By choosing to lie they perpetuate the deep-set infection.
If you have a chance, please look at “ This is sacred ground”: a series offered by the Episcopal Church on how we, as a nation, have treated our minority populations.