History and Heritage: Redux

This is an interesting situation; the one revolving around the statue of N. B. Forrest.

On the one hand, you have the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other like minded people appealing to History and Heritage and Historical Preservation in defense of the statue...oh, and don't forget The Law.

On the other hand, we have people like Tami Sawyer saying she's glad to see that people in Memphis want to bridge the racial divide, but that we still need to have a conversation on why the divide exists.

Cool. Let's start with the history and heritage of the statue itself.

It was 1905. Bob Church was still the Boss of Beale St.

N B Forrest was as dead as Congressional Reconstruction.

Ida B. Wells had already been run out of town by the lynch mobs,

and

E H Crump Buggy and Harness Co. was doing well.

Lots of cities were putting up statues in those days. How very Progressive of the good "old" citizens of Memphis to erect a statue of one of their own; and by "good 'old' citizens of Memphis," I mean the vindictive white people who remembered the good old days when it was legal to steal people's lives and sell them on Adams St.

Undaunted by the loss of the "War of Northern Aggression," they pressed on and pushed back against the negro hoard, who for some unimaginable reason didn't want to go bacK to the plantation, so they started a Klub. N B Forrest was the first chief exeKutive officer.

But let's be fair here, all the Klub wanted was to dress up like ghosts and scare a mess black folks out of the city and back to the country where they could find more suitable work...you know, in the cotton fields.

"Yeah, we were just tryin to scare 'em...we didn't kill an awful lot of them...but you should'a seen it that one time when...it was so funny... Such a sight to watch them {insert slur} run!"

Who better to symbolize their heritage than N B Forrest?  All they had to do was put his robes in the famous satchel he always carried, and dress him up like History.

Even after Forrest was dead, and whatever the condition of his soul, the rulers of Memphis couldn't pass up an opportunity to trot the old boy out for the sake of demonstrating  and reinforcing their God granted superiority.

Only, except for the bronze uniform, the statue itself didn't even really symbolize the Civil War, or the brave men who fought for what they believed they believed (not stuttering).

In their minds, the statue symbolized white supremacy, and all the intimidation that implies (why do you think the damn thing faced South Memphis?).

The following is an item that appeared in the Memphis Daily Scimitar the day before the unveiling, so the statue was still covered by a sheet of canvas (or some other whitish fabric).

You can read or skip the whole article below if you want, but I'm going to comment on the sections I've highlighted:

Forrest Again in White Shroud

Memphis News Scimitar 30 Apr, 1905

     Out of the past and back from that mysterious state which men call death, Forrest has come to his own again. Stalwart, strong and invincible, he sits erect on King Philip, overlooking Forrest Park and turning his eagle eye toward the south just as he was wont to do forty years ago when the chaotic conditions of life required the organizing of the Ku-Klux-Klan for the protection of the honor and independence of Southern social conditions.

     Clad in his old Ku-Klux garb, a pall of white that covered horse and rider, the great leader of this secret clan rides once more by night, in moonlight or starlight calling his own to follow him again. It may be only a mirage of a war-loving brain that peoples the park again with spectral men in ghostly garb, but when the midnight hour rings clear across the stillness of the sleeping city the greensward becomes an arena where rank by rank, file by file, the old members of the clan come to follow their leader again, crossing and recrossing from the shadow of the trees to the wider open spaces of light, quiet, irresistible, determined, as of old. From the widely scattered graves they come, the green doors of the turf swinging noiselessly back, and horse and rider coming down the long lanes of the past to answer the call of that leader whose iron hand held the reins of safety over the South when Northern dominion apotheosized the negro and set misrule and devastation to humiliate a proud race. From far and near they come, for who of his old men would not come if Forrest would but call?

     One by one they come from the long green aisles that lead the way to the graves of the Confederate dead in Elmwood, and shod in silence, they weave their way across the streets of the sleeping city to the open place in the park, where the leader waits. From lonely graves down in the valey (sic) they come again, the long white garb fluttering in the night wind -- did you think it only a cloud you saw?

     Old men rise from their sleep in comfortable homes, from soldiers’ refuges and from hospital beds, and in their dreams ride out to meet him again. To watch the park would disappoint you, for what mortal eye may see the soldier-spirit that comes again to its own? You would see only mist-wreathe blowing hither and yon from shadow to shadow, where a file of ghostly men of the Ku-Klux-Klan performed again their intricate evolutions: you would hear only a sigh of the wind where the stern warriors repeated in concert the great, binding oath of the order you would hear only the scamper of tiny animal feet or the sleepy call of a night-bird where the men called together of deeds to be done or wrongs to be avenged: you would hear only the faint rumble of thunder where the great company of horses trampled with pad-softened hoofs across time-hardened turf and granolith walk. A phantasy of the brain you will say, for only to those who know will the sprctral throng and its meaning be known. Only to those can the mysteries of the night be interpreted, for by day one sees only a stalwart figure in bronze and stone draped still in its sculptor’s canvas waiting for the cord to be drawn that will reveal a fitting memorial to a man who served his country with honor and distinction and with his sword carved his name on the walls of the temple of fame in those days of long ago “when knighthood was in flower."                                           A. B.

There is nothing in this entire panegyric that honors one soldier. The soldiers who are mentioned are forever connected to the then defunct terrorist organization.

That's the Nathan Bedford Forrest people saw when they bothered to notice the statue at all. Whether you know it not...whether you want to admit it or not, that's the heritage you're trying to preserve.

As far as The Law is concerned, you got out-politicked period.

The mayor and the Council found a loophole and exploited it. That's politics, and congratulations to them for pulling off a conspiracy in broad fricken daylight. It's the most brilliant thing I've seen all year, and it makes me laugh.

Memphis Daily News

And just so you know, I'm as white as a mayonnaise sandwich. Hell, I like being white, but I hate the idea that some people look at me and see that son-of-bitch, and those like him.

You know the people I'm talking about looking at us funny; perfect strangers who look at us like we're  the white person who put the chip on their shoulder, like it's our Heritage or something.

I wonder what would happen if we just owned the chip...owned our heritage, instead of drawing lines in the HIstorical sand. <hashbrownsNOTMYHERITGE> 


Now, if you want to keep on appealing to History, you go right ahead, because this mayonnaise sandwich is breaking his silence and joining the conversation.

Peace Y'all

The Sixth Seal

Noah, his name means Rest because, they said; "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed."

I guess it was Noah who figured out that his people made better shepherds and vintners than they did crop farmers, or it may have something to do with the fact that the flood moved Noah and his family farther north, near the modern border between Syria and Turkey. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Prelude To The Sixth Seal

Seth called on the name of YHWH, and Enoch walked with YHWH, but people are people; and when it comes down to it, the Sons of God were people.

The Sons of Man (the pre-flood Sumerians) were as fruitful and religious as the Sons of God. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had spawned an orchard, and the fruit was tasty; exotic women, vast riches, and great power. All the Sons of Adam had to do was forget who they were.

Signs Times and Progress (part two (part two))

Just as God commanded, the personified tribes of Adam were fruitful, even after Cain killed his brother and rode away on the white horse. God granted Adam and Eve Compensation; that’s what they named their third son. Of course, when they said it, it sounded more like, “Seth.”

Seth had a son and called him Enosh (Mankind), in other words, The Sons of God began to think and behave less like the Awdawm and more like the Sons of Man. They, this third generation (of tribes) had begun to assimilate into the world around them.

Signs Times and Progress (part two (part one))

Abel was dead and Cain rode the white horse, but Adam was spry for a man of 130. Eve, who wasn’t much younger than her husband, had another boy; she called him Seth (Compensation). Adam lived another 800 years after that, making him 930 when he died.

I always thought that if I were an anti god guy guy I’d be jumping all over Genesis 5. Nine hundred and thirty years old…Really?

They've Been Here All Along

I used to think that Revelation was the scariest book in the Bible, what with creatures having too many horns eyes and crowns to fit on one head and the four horsemen who are waiting for God to give the Word so they can start smiting people and spreading misery before Jesus throws a mountain on the beasts' heads and sends whoever's left on earth straight to Hell...pfft

Signs Times and Progress (part one)

Cain’s hate made him the first casualty of the war. He escaped with his life, but he had gone beyond the reach of Grace, and he was a fugitive from the justice owed to the Sons of God.

Haunted, hunted, and alone, Cain, the Spear gathered a band of marauders and plundered his way east, away from the face of his father Adam.

His band formed a brotherhood of eight, but God hinted that they needed a glyph…a symbol…a sign that said:

Fear us or die, for we are loyal to No God! Harm one, and seven will take revenge.

We are:

NEPHILIM

Self Inflicted

There must have been a whole village of the Sons of God when you count the Awdawm who left the garden with the first couple. And just as God said, Adam worked the earth and paid for his crop with sweat and struggle.

Adam and Eve, and the other Sons of God had many children of pure Awdawm stock, and every mother had a first child.

Eve’s was a boy:

“I have gotten a boy from God! I will call him Spear.”

Tree Serpent and the Seed of Prophecy

Adam had a dream that shaped the memories of the Sons of God:

He was looking east from the bank of the river, opposite the garden. He could see the silhouette of the Tree of Life against the predawn sky. It stood above the fruit trees that had fed him his whole life. Then, in his dream, came the sunrise.

Its rays, like swords that turn in every direction, stabbed the ends of the horizon and the great dome of the heavens. Backlit by the sun of that first day, the Tree was shrouded in white light.

Adam and Eve vs The Real World

Smirk if you remember thinking you couldn’t wait till you got to be a grown up.

“Grown ups can do anything they want.”

Stand With the Kneelers

Our flag represents more than our military. It doesn’t belong to our military. It belongs to We The People. It represents We The People.

Are you offended by the form of protest more and more athletes are choosing?

Good.

Innocence Shamed

If ignorance is bliss and innocence is blind then the Awdawm were Paradise.

*Text box mine

They, the blissful innocent Awdawm in their garden were the Tree of Life. Of course, ignorance is easily cured, and once their eyes are opened, the innocent die.

It is a miracle that this primordial breed of mankind would survive at all, if only through two curious scraps of memory who engaged a stranger in a conversation that centered around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:

After Afterthought

When a god, in this case Zeus himself, presents a gift, there are two considerations that should be taken into account. Epimetheus only accounted for one; that refusing a gift is the same as declaring war.

What he didn’t consider was that the gift was his to keep.

Where Afterthought Begins

There was a man, Epimetheus. His name means afterthought. He lived in the regions around Thessaly (he could see Mt Olympus from his house) thousands of years after the serpent seduced Awdawm-ish and Awdawm-ishah. He was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and lived to see the dawn of the Greek Bronze Age.

Awdawm-ish and Awdawm-ishah

If you don't read the video, the rest of the post won't make a lot of sense, so enjoy.

Why would God set him up that way? Why would God plant temptation in His own garden just so He could tell the man not to give into it? If that isn't diabolical, what is?

Seven Days In Reverse

Genesis 1:1 - 2:4

The Biblical seven day account of creation is an allegory, a mnemonic for a people just beginning to preserve their collective memory by way of worshiping their One Supreme God. The symbolic days represent the millions of centuries that passed before our memory was born. 

They, the people of Abraham, would tell and retell this and other stories for thousands of years, both before and after they developed the ability to write it down.

Does it astound you that the Hebrews' collective memory stretches back into everyone else's prehistory? It does me.

The Bible starts with the first day; let's call it "Sunday." I'm going to start with the seventh day, "Saturday," and work backwards. After that, you can look at the chart I made to compare the Bible to Science.

How to read the Bible for the First Time All Over Again

Short answer:

Like a Book

In Chronological order

Foreward

No Preaching, Just the Word

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God… …and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”   John 

I believe the Bible, God guys not so much.

I believe the Bible is filled with legend, allegory and myth. Those are beautiful things, and they don’t make the Bible a pack of lies. These methods of telling stories, of giving account of ourselves, are the cradles of our most original ideas and cherished truths. That’s what I believe.

An Invitation

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I mean sure, rules are rules, and there are few rules we hold higher than those contained in our Constitution. We’ve proven over and over that the Constitution is worth dying for, but how closely do we hold the ideals it protects? Are they worth living for?