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Blog Medium ImageDHughes2016-12-10T00:40:42-05:00

America, please vote with your prefrontal cortex, not your amygdala

Synopsis Are US voters caught in a culture of anxiety disorder and not able to engage their prefrontal cortex when considering which presidential candidate to vote for? Certainly one candidate appeals to the "thinking brain" and the other the "reptilian brain." And if neuroscience and Dr. Clotaire Rapaille are right, and “the reptilian brain always wins," then America is in Read more...

By DHughes|August 3rd, 2016|Categories: politics, social, trumpwatchhome|Tags: amygdala, Donald Trump, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, Paul Ryan, Paul Whalen|0 Comments

O’Reilly is superficially right on America’s race problem

Synopsis O'Reilly's premise is based on a belief in free will, which has been embedded in white, American culture since before 1776. It holds that everyone has the free will to pull up their bootstraps and let their indomitable human spirit overcome all odds. It’s very Horatio Alger-like. According to this creed, O’Reilly believes that all young black boys and Read more...

By DHughes|July 31st, 2016|Categories: politics, social|Tags: black, O'Reilly, race, race problem, white|0 Comments

Is the pomegranate the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of sex?

Pomegranates could be called a "passion fruit," except when it's recalled for Hepatitis A. (1 minute read) Just when you thought it was safe to eat the pomegranate Recently, Zoomer magazine (see earlier blog) highlighted a group of five foods that could feed your sex drive (walnuts, bananas, peppers, avocados and pomegranates). Since then, pomegranate sales are not Read more...

By DHughes|July 2nd, 2016|Categories: social|Tags: Cialis, Costco, Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Oprah, pomegrante, USFDA, Viagra|0 Comments

Can farmland save urban renewal?

They're coming, they're coming ... can the farmers save the urbanites? As published in Northumberland Today, May 15, 2014 In 1973, Oregon State passed a law to protect farmland and they drew a circle around every town and city in order to curtail urban sprawl. This was at the height of suburbamania when "new towns" were spreading like spilt milk across Read more...

By DHughes|May 20th, 2014|Categories: communitywatch|Tags: Cobourg, Erin Mills, Jane Jacobs, Mayor Linda Thompson, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Portland Oregon, urban sprawl|0 Comments

In search of leadership

Two things you might not know: Lee Iacocca's leadership at Ford (1968-1978): To fix the Ford Pinto's exploding gas tank problem Ford did a cost-benefit analysis: "To fix would cost an additional $11 per vehicle, and Ford weighed that against projected injury claims for severe burns, repair-costs claim rate and mortality. The total would have been approximately $113 million (including the Read more...

By DHughes|April 10th, 2014|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: hula hoops, Joseph Joubert, Liz Wiseman, Peter Drucker|0 Comments

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My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."

"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama

This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.

It's historical fiction because I cannot 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, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.

My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.

It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.

As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.