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

Will deeper contemplative thinking get us beyond fake news and the illusion of progress? Or are we stuck in the reality of irrational human existence?

Three things you might not know "Intelligence is a type of lethal mutation that threatens the human species ... and the average life span of a species, of the billions that have existed, is about 100,000 years, which is roughly the length of time that modern humans have existed." – Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) "Humans cannot live without illusion. For Read more...

By DHughes|February 23rd, 2017|Categories: uncategorized|0 Comments

Why does everyone ignore the numbers …

and the truth about the presidency of the United States and the state of democracy from the largest nations to the smallest communities? Five things you might not know Donald Trump became the President of the most powerful nation in the world even though only 25% (1-in-4) of American voters voted for him. Of 251 million eligible voters Read more...

By DHughes|February 8th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: David Frum, election turnout, Isaiah Berlin, President Trump, The Atlantic|0 Comments

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned …

and democracy has no chance without women equal. Five things you might not know Crowd scientists (there is such a profession) stated the Women's March in Washington had 3 times more people than Trump's inauguration. Ashley Judd at the Women's March said, "They ain’t for grabbing … they are for new generations of nasty women." In 1868, Susan Read more...

By DHughes|January 25th, 2017|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: Ashley Judd, Donald Trump, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey|6 Comments

If knowledge is king, intelligence the king-maker and mental processing capability the difference-maker, where does that leave leaders like Donald Trump? And the rest of the world?

Don't answer that! At least not until you've read this book Five things you might not know Research by Dr. Elliott Jaques and Kathryn Cason established two fundamental measures that universally apply to a leader's capability in judgement and decision-making: i) An individual's mental processing capability; and ii) the complexity of the information to be processed.[1] It's set Read more...

By DHughes|January 18th, 2017|Categories: business, community, politics, social|Tags: Donald Trump, Elliott Jaques, Kathryn Cason|8 Comments

Napoleon Bonaparte illustration from Gundur Agayev collection at gunduzart.com

Is leadership in full retreat …

as speed, complexity and growth trump trust? Four things you might not know Two-hundred and four years ago, megalomania and narcissism trumped trust in leadership as Napoleon, after ignoring repeated advice against invading Russia, suffered a ruinous retreat, returning with only 40,000 troops out of a Grande Armée of 400,000. Self-interest vs. cooperation is a fundamental dilemma in animal Read more...

By DHughes|January 5th, 2017|Categories: business, community, communitywatch, politics, social|Tags: Donald Trump, Francis Fukyama, Jane Jacobs, Napoleon Bonparte, Niall Ferguson, Robert Putman, Tom Friedman, William McNeill|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.