God knows

God created us to have free will. But God can't just give us free will. We have to choose to have free will. The object of the choice was the Tree of Knowledge. Our partaking of the fruit of that tree was our declaring that we wanted free will. We cannot have free will unless we choose to have it.

The sin in the Garden of Eden was in our answer to God's question "Did you eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge?" God knew the answer as God always knows the answer of any question asked. God asks a question to allow us to choose the answer.

Colored only

I sit down to write and become paralyzed because there is so much fear, pain, and grief to address. What can I say that has not been said? How can I help assuage some of that distress? Will a shovel full of soil help you climb out of that deep, dark well of despair?

Here goes with my meandering ramblings.

When I was 6 or 7, around 1955, we were living in Fayetteville, NC. One hot summer day our family went downtown to a department store. My parents were talking with a salesman about something and I became thirsty. Looking around I spotted a water fountain and started toward it. There was line at the fountain. Not having learned patience I looked for another and found on with no one using it. So I got my drink of water from that clean fountain. As I returned to my parents the manager, I think, came up and informed my parents that I had illegally drunk from the Colored water fountain and that we must leave. Being Irish American from the Boston, MA area I had no idea what the fuss was about. My parents had to explain it to me.

That incident has stuck with me through the years. I continue to learn from it. Some of the lessons are:

• My memory says that the manage that ushered us from the store was afraid. A six year old ignorant boy threatened his existence. I could be wrong. Maybe it was anger, but then fear and anger are closely related.
• Looking back I have realized that people of color were not allowed in the store. But the store had to have a water fountain designated for the disallowed customers. And maintain it; it was clean and in fine working order.
• The draconian cultural norms that attempted to strip dignity from people of color also stripped the creators of those norms. While trying to continue slavery they had descended into slavery themselves.

We left the store and never returned. My father was angry even though, as my mother always told me, he was prejudiced. My parents explained honestly.

Are Black Men Lazy?

For most of my life I have heard that black men are lazy layabouts. That is not what I have seen.

Part of the story of people of color is that black men were systematically barred from entry to the labor market. Only black women were hired and then at slave wages.

Eventually the government came to the rescue and introduced welfare. The catch was that welfare was not available if there was a husband around. He should get a job and support his family. But they would not hire him. Or if they did it was at wages too low to support a family but too high to qualify for subsistence. So the men had to leave for their families to have food and shelter.