Carl Sagan | Straightspeak

The road to character is steep and …

By DHughes|2018-07-20T11:58:29-04:00July 12th, 2018|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: Adam Smith, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, David Brooks, Plato, Sigmund Freud|

it's a dead-end for most "so-called" leaders (Hanging Coffins, Echo Valley, Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines – photo courtesy Trover) (8 minute read) Being in a position of leadership is not a qualification for being a leader; leadership positions are a dime-a-dozen, leaders are as rare as the humility and wisdom that guides their lives. David Brooks, in his excellent Read more...

Men should go to Mars, women should lead Earth

By DHughes|2016-12-14T08:13:37-05:00December 6th, 2016|Categories: business, community, politics, social|Tags: Carl Sagan, Daniel Kahneman, E.O. Wilson, John Gray, Richard Dawkins, Voltaire, Yuval Noah Harari|

It's time for leadership to move to a higher purpose Seven things you might not know One in four Americans think there is a greater likelihood that humans will colonize Mars rather than achieve gender parity in the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies.[3] Only 21 of the Fortune 500 companies have women at the helm.[3] Men are 85% Read more...

The perspective of the Pale Blue Dot

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:53-05:00September 2nd, 2016|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: Carl Sagan, coherence, Earth, endangered species, harmony, Pale Blue Dot, stewardship|

Four things you might not know: In 1994, Carl Sagan asked NASA to have Voyager I take a photo of planet earth from 3.7 billion miles away. He called it "The Pale Blue Dot." Voyager I was launched from Earth in 1978 and traveling at one million miles a day for 35 years it finally left our solar system in Read more...

My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title "Five Generations to Freedom."

It's historical fiction because, unfortunately, I can not find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, the facts just aren't there. I have written three books based on other families and their genealogy but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left few records – slavery.

My great grandmother, on my father's side, was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a white, French plantation owner in Grenada and a black slave named Mary, who worked on the Count de Poulain's plantation. Amelia was raised in her father's home and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage, she "disowned" her mother Mary. Once, when Mary visited her daughter, Amelia told her, "Get out and never come back." And Amelia, as a mother herself (twelve children), told all of them, "Marry white." And many did, including my father. My mother was white Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where dad became a doctor.

It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary (we do not know her last name) to free themselves from the bondage and stigma of their black heritage. But today, my children embrace it and are damn proud of it. Unfortunately, the 150 years in between has been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying, Filled with anger, rejection, shame, fear, violence, murder and ... love, romance, kindness, perseverance and pride.