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Home Blog Style 1DHughes2016-12-10T09:32:56-05:00

This is us …

By DHughes|2022-05-06T10:21:55-04:00May 6th, 2022|Categories: business, community, politics, social|Tags: abortion rights, Alito's leaked memo, Allegory of the Caves, Community, David Sloan Wilson, democracy, E.O. Wilson, equality, Fox News, Fox Ntion, Plato, Putin, Socrates, Tucker Carlson, US Supreme Court, war in Ukraine|

still trapped in Plato's cave! "The prisoners would mistake the shadows for reality." – Socrates, The Republic, Book VII (20 min) About 2,376 years before Fox News was founded (1996), Plato wrote his renowned Read more...

This is us …

By DHughes|2022-04-19T11:03:52-04:00April 14th, 2022|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Charles Darwin, Derek Chauvin, Hitler, Jonathan Haidt, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Plato, Putin, Russian invasion, Socrates, Steven Pinker, The Atlantic, Trump, Ukraine war|

Are Will Smith, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Derek Chauvin, Ginni Thomas, Irma Grese, Marjorie Taylor Greene, angry truckers and KKK members just high profile primates in the lab of the failing human experiment? [Photo Read more...

The contrasts are black and white and stark …

By DHughes|2020-11-23T14:54:28-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Categories: business, community, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: America, Bob Woodward, Columbia University, Jared Kushner, obama, Rage, Simon & Schuster, The Promise Land, The Situation Room, Trump, White House|

in everything from hope and anger to failure, character, leadership and friendship (4 min read) Two men. Two Presidents. Two stories. Two books. Two Americas. Two visions (well, at least one). One rooted in Read more...

Three of the most dangerous words in history …

By DHughes|2020-11-17T14:50:59-05:00November 17th, 2020|Categories: business, politics, social, trumpwatch|Tags: Adolf Hitler, Alois Hitler, Fred Trump, Graham, McConnell, Nazi, Romney, The Elephant Journal, Trump|

"Going along with" (4 min read) "We were just going along with ..." has been the shameful, crying confession of millions of good people across a history of war, carnage and tyrannical leaders. And Read more...

This is us …

The contrasts are black and white and stark …

Three of the most dangerous words in history …

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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.