Happy Friday Night Love and Light to you! Welcome to another winning week of awesome!

 

I had the most amazing day today. Technically, I don’t celebrate The 4th of July. You will not hear me say “Happy 4th” to anyone I like. And yet, every year I end up non-celebrating somewhere with other non-celebrating people, probably having a
decent time, not being dutiful patriots.

 

This year I got to hang out with my dad, my Aunt Bonnie (who is also my God Mother–I call her Auntie Mom-Mom), my Uncle Jessie, Cousin Lisa, Cousin Jessie Jr., Aubrei and my Auntie E at her house in the woods somewhere in Bryn Athyn.

 

 
My Auntie E is one of my Aunt and Uncle’s oldest and dearest friends. My Aunt Bonnie and E went to Art School together and have been exactly like sisters every since they met. They attended each other’s weddings. God Mothered each other’s kids. Took family portraits together. To this day– I mean literally to this day– when we walked in Aunt E’s home today, it was no short ofSisterhood of the Traveling Pants–except my Aunts are in their mid-80’s and there are only two of them. I should also mention here that Aunt Bonnie and Aunt E’s kinship emerged at a time when it wasn’t convenient for Black and White people to co-mingle. Particularly when the white side of this friendship equation is related to probably the oldest money you can shake a stick at, besides the Rockefellers. Take your time.

 

Oh, the stories I’ve heard over the last few weeks. My Uncle Jessie is the story teller. If you sit with him for any length of time, you’ll certainly burn through hours about his time as an Airman in the racist Jim Crow south.  Actually, if there’s any way to spend an appropriate Independence Day, I would say a full day with my Uncle Jessie is it.
His stories are so rich and full of colorful characters–even intrigue–which is always cool. Like when he first arrived for Provost Marshal training in the segregated Air Force. It just so happened in the only integrated part of his service area, he was called a Nigger by one very racist red neck. When my uncle asked the guy what he said, he was brutally beaten up by not one, but three racist red necks. What’d my Uncle Jessie do? After he recovered, he never said a word. Mostly because if he did, there’d be hell to pay from his supervising officer. Instead, my Uncle Jessie secretly planned a revenge coup for those guys.

 

One by one, he returned the favor. Oh, he got them good. It required patience, military skill and a bit of cunning. By the time he had exacted his revenge, he was practically a legend and nobody bothered him again.

 

My uncle was also a bit of a long distance track star, traveling all over the world on the Air Force team. When people ask him what he did in the Air Force for four years, he says quite plainly, “I had fun”. Which is so cool to me, considering at the time of his service, America as a broad stroke didn’t recognize people of color as full people, worthy of full respect. Especially our military servicemen. We could go on for days with stories about that couldn’t we?

 

I’d say the really cool thing about my Uncle Jessie is that despite being justified, he never became bitter about his treatment. He understood fundamentally that not all white people are racist. In fact, equal to his stories about the horrors of living amongst racist people in racist towns all over the country, he had some dope stories to tell about great people, some of whom were his superior officers (and white). Like the time when my Uncle Jessie was to be promoted to Sergeant. One of his racist supervising officers didn’t like that my Uncle Jessie was being promoted, so when the Head Honcho officer that promoted my uncle was away, the racist officer blocked my uncle’s promotion. Funny thing happened when the Head Honcho returned though. It was Christmas eve and the racist dude that blocked the promotion was forced to make it right–all of it–from the stripes for my uncle’s uniform to the paperwork approvals. It all had to be done before the office closed (like several days worth of work had to happen in mere hours) or suffer the consequences. Needless to say, my Uncle Jessie got his papers and his stripes before the office closed.

 

It turns out though, of the dozens of stories my Uncle Jessie has told me– for each nightmare about racist a-holes I heard– I also heard equal amounts of stories about people my uncle befriended who were more than decent. People who could have used their power, white privilege and influence to be stuck still in the status quo of the day, but instead decided to use their position to be who they actually were. Great flipping people. And champion the cause for moving the stagnant world view of that day forward. These people were independent thinkers, who didn’t buy into the mentality that skin color determines a person’s value. They didn’t contribute to the insanity. They did exactly what they could do, when they could do it–and more– to see fairness in this country supposedly founded by and for the free and the brave.

 

To me, that is what Independence Day is supposed to be about. Not celebration and fireworks for celebration and fireworks sake. It’s about honoring the ideas and principles this country was actually founded upon.

 

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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world…

 

Independence from treachery in any form, yes? Unfortunately, the greatest treachery this country has ever owned and has yet to evolve from still happens to be its horribly persistent, ingrained and institutionalized treatment of people of color. Which still sucks. Luckily, I have my Uncle Jessie, my Aunt Bonnie and their oldest and dearest friend Auntie E to remind me that the best people tend to think Independently. No matter their color or privilege. Particularly when its not convenient or come with a parade. Happy Independence Day.

 

So. That’s what I learned this week. I do hope it helps something. Thank you for reading this (!!!) Remember always to #RuleYoSelf with L.O.V.E. Have a Happy Awesome Weekend! Love you madly!
Osho Lovianhal,

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