Velvet Sky (eBook)

Prologue

Well here we are, near the end of February, and the aftermath and cleanup of blizzard 2016. I was beginning to think that Philly had escaped any major snowfalls this winter until this. Everyone was snowed in watching either the presidential races or tabloid TV, and wondering if anyone of color would be nominated for the Oscar awards this year; this demographic has been very slim since the inception of these awards in 1929.

This country has gone through quite a history of classifying folks of African descent; once upon a time prior to the ending of slavery, in the United States, the proper term was “negro”, then after 1865 the classification became “colored”, and remained as such for the next century. In the sixties, at the crossroads of equality awareness for colored citizens, the birth of the term “black” arrived with great musical artist pronouncing, “I’m Black And I’m Proud”. Then sometime in the 1980s, we transitioned to the term “African American”, and this seems to be the official classification that has remained to 2016.

Our current “Commander and Chief” is causing me to think of contributions of my top ranked United States Presidents. My top five are Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Barak Obama. This is not necessarily my list of favorites, but each one of these leaders faced near impossible challenges. They led the country and world through these challenges, to the point of generations after their time, reaping the benefits of their wisdom and sound decisions. Let’s start with President Abraham Lincoln.

President Lincoln knew that his decision to declare the Emancipation Proclamation, would lead to certain civil war. He considered that our great nation was built on the backs of black slave labor; slavery in the colonies was established in the 1600s, long before the infant nation gained its independence from Britain. The dawn of the industrial revolution, in the 1800s, revealed the reality that this young nation no longer needed forced human labor to keep the union functioning. The strife came as a result of Southern and Midwestern plantation owners feeling threatened, because they were soon to lose the wealth gained from slave labor. Many bodies were needed to produce cotton, and other products that were grown on these vast plantations. Meanwhile the northern states were quickly adapting to wealth gained from the industrial revolution of the 1800s.

President Washington will always be remembered as the “Father of The Nation”. He was the British General that led the rebellion against the British King, which led to the birth of this great nation.

President Roosevelt will be revered for rescuing the nation and the world from economic depression; his fiscal policies caused the nation to get back to work after the pandemic of 1918, and the end of World War I. It was on President Roosevelt’s watch that World War II was ending.

President Kennedy will never be forgotten, because of his courage and prudence in standing strong against nuclear aggression from Russia. In the late 1950s the world came close to another great war. Also this great president’s courage ushered in the modern early 1960s argument of civil rights for all citizens, and he demanded the end to racial discrimination.

This is President Barack Hussein Obama’s last year in office, and I heard an interesting fact; he is the first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to have won more than one term by the popular vote and the Electoral College majority.

Like President Franklin Roosevelt, who turned around crashing US and world economies, President Obama stepped into the arena just before the US was about to lead the world to another economic disaster. He certainly has his hands full with this modern terror network that has evolved from ISIS to ISIL; yes the militant group that started out defining themselves as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has now evolved to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant to include now the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

I have a feeling that since this is the Commander and Chief’s last year in office, the opposing party is going to challenge his duty to select a new Supreme Court justice, in the wake of the very recent passing of the Chief Justice, and there is talk of dismantling his work on the Affordable Care Act; this is the law that seeks to establish universal healthcare for all US citizens, and all for no apparent reason, other than the attempt to erase any accomplishment of this highly successful leader with pronounced African heritage. Hail to the chief, America has survived, and based on unemployment dropping, we seem to be in economic recovery.

I’m also beginning to notice that Black History commercials are missing this year, and the debate on Black Lives Matter continues to churn in the wake of more police killings, of primarily unarmed black men. The former Secretary of State seems to be the only presidential candidate to have the courage to speak on ideas and possible solutions to this cancer that is plaguing our nation. This seems to be a dark cycle that we thought was tackled in the 1960s, and now the same situations are coming to surface with some of the same results; there are riots and civil rebellion, and the revisit of militant organizations that were birthed so long ago, in response to the hate that victimized those who seemed to receive little to no justice.

There are too many hot topics these days. One is the resignation of the president of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, after news broke that she was a white woman who disguised herself as black. She seems to have genuinely identified with African American culture, based on her black affiliations and family make up. It seems to me that a resignation was uncalled for, because her record proves that she has upheld the mission of the NAACP, and her biggest opponents seem to be mostly silent on the issue of black on black homicide, this makes me wonder if her opponents really do understand that black lives matter.

All over the nation, another debate is taking place that involves the removal of the Southern Federal Battle Flag, also known as the confederate flag, and statues commemorating military leaders of the confederate army. Along with this debate is the protest of the “National Pledge of Allegiance”. All of this conversation involves the history of our nation from day one. It also involves what the flags stood for. We have experienced the creation of four distinct flags from the nation’s birth.

The first flag of the United States of America was designed and commissioned by Congress and made by Betsy Ross, in Philadelphia in 1779. The original flag included 13 horizontal stripes, red and white side by side, with a navy blue square containing a circle of 13 white five point stars. The stars and stripes represented the 13 British colonies that rebelled against England, and later became the first states in the union. At the birth of our country, all colonies possessed black slaves. As valiant as our Declaration of Independence was, with its enduring phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are; Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” did not include humans that were black slaves. When the first flag was commissioned, based on this declaration, all thirteen original states held slaves; in fact the first slaves were brought to the new settlement in the early 1600s.

The next variation of the flag was The First National Flag of the confederate states of America. It was made in 1861, shortly after the civil war began; this flag flew until 1865. The flag design was three bold horizontal stripes, two red and one white. The flag retained the navy blue square with 13 white stars. The two red stripes represented the North and South; the red emphasized the struggle and hardness. The white stripe represented purity. The 13 stars commemorated the 13 states of the union. Overall, this flag represented the divide in the great nation, all over this one moral question; “is it just to maintain slavery in a country built on the suffering of black people?”

During the same period of the previous flag, a variation of the new flag of the confederacy appeared. One common design representing the Southern United States, it was not adopted at that time, but eventually became the symbol of the nation’s commemoration of battle. This flag would later be known as the “rebel flag”, “Dixie flag”, and “Southern Cross”. This flag design is a diagonal navy blue cross containing white stars, on a red background. All these flags represented division, civil war, and the battle over the morality of slavery. In time, new flags that represented the United States, were adopted and they would evolve to the American Flag that flies today to recognize the original 13 British Colonies and 50 states in the union.

To date the “rebel flag” is a divisive symbol that most Americans feel should not be celebrated, but placed in museums to recognize a most troubling period in American history. There remains a remnant of Southern states that will not abandon this flag; they have said that it symbolizes southern pride.

Our current flag has also sparked new debate of the Pledge of Allegiance by athletes; these athletes are taking a knee when the pledge is recited and the national anthem is sung. The athletes protesting are bringing attention to current day struggles of minorities, who seldom get...