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Future and Spirituality
By
Marvin X
Where is the spiritual community
headed? We cannot continue treading water. Those who
profess spiritual consciousness have a duty to let their
little light shine throughout the land, throughout the
world. We must dispel darkness with divine truths that
are common to all believers in the spiritual path, which
is the path of peace, not war, the path of love, not
hate. No matter what you think about me, I am moving
toward radical spirituality. At least I am on the road,
I am in motion. What about you? If we don't get there,
at least we tried, we made the effort. We do not claim
perfection, but we are in the process, and what is life
but a process—by
degrees we obtain perfection, Al Qur'an teaches.
Religious and sectarian hatred is as
much an abomination as racial hatred, ethnic and gender
hatred, for the sun shines on us all, believer and
nonbeliever, sinners and the saved. And who is without
sin and who is beyond saving? Did not Lazarus come back
from the dead? There was a time not long ago when I
slept in alleys, doorways, parks and bus stations, when
I ate in soup kitchens and wasted myself in dope dins.
But when I got tired after a decade of madness, I made
the effort to regain my sanity and recognized the truth:
I am in God/God is in me.
This truth is in everyone and is
everywhere, it is found in all religions, no one has a
monopoly on truth, no tribe, no sect, no denomination,
no faith, no race.
Let those who believe believe as they
believe. You are not the judge, you are not the jury, be
sure you believe as you believe and are not fickle in
your faith, for we shall be tested, then we shall know
believers from non-believers.
And to whom shall it matter: your way
is your way and my way is my way—lakum
dinu kum waliya din.
What is the future of us all, nuclear
annihilation or movement toward the realization of
spiritual unity and thus toleration of differences. Or
shall we fall victim to religious and sectarian violence
that is contrary to the divine spirit that flows through
us all.
Truth is eternal, not individual,
personal or political. All the prophets taught the same
truth: peace, love, and happiness. They taught freedom,
justice and equality. They taught liberation of the
oppressed, the poor, the broken hearted. They taught us
to heal the sick, help the lame walk, and the blind to
see. Feed the hungry, give homes to the homeless. This
is the spiritual path. This is the way to walk in the
sun. This is the way to tomorrow, there is no other way
except continued strife, war, and eventual destruction
of mankind. Haven't we shed enough blood, suffered
enough pain, attended enough funerals of sons and
daughters slain in the hood, slain on foreign
battlefields. How many more mothers and fathers shall
weep for their children?
The spiritual community must
transcend dogmatism, sectarianism, and narrow mindedness
to see the bigger picture—the
divine picture that embraces all.
If Muslims and Christians what to
annihilate each other for whatever reason, a new people
shall arise from their ashes, a people who will truly
reflect spiritual consciousness, not ignorance and lust
for power and domination.
Share the wealth, share the truth,
eliminate poverty, disease and ignorance and many of our
spiritual problems shall wither away. And we shall be
amazed to discover that they were not problems at all,
merely illusions of petty minds that refused to see the
Higher Power within themselves and without. The future
is now, seize the time.
posted 4 July 2006
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 14 December
2011
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