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Medium AlternateDHughes2016-12-10T00:40:36-05:00

605, 2022

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|1 Comment

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 Read more...

1404, 2022

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|0 Comments

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 Read more...

2311, 2020

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|0 Comments

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 Read more...

1711, 2020

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|0 Comments

"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, Read more...

1411, 2020

When communities and the “Reporters’ Gallery Yonder” wither, the roots of democracy die.

By DHughes|2020-11-14T10:34:43-05:00November 14th, 2020|Categories: business, community, politics, social|Tags: Barry Rooke, Canadian Parliament, Canadian Press Gallery, Cathy Edwards, Cobourg, Dalton Camp, Edmund Burke, Globe and Mail, James Hamiltion, John Ralston Saul, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Munk Debates, Port Hope, Postmedia, Tip O'Neill, Torstar, Yanis Varoufakis|0 Comments

Canadian democracy in decline: An essay (7 min read) “All politics is local." – Tip O'Neill I remember the day, November 27, 2017. A Monday morning. The sky was blue, Read more...

1311, 2020

How does Trump con 72 million voters?

By DHughes|2020-11-13T12:16:27-05:00November 13th, 2020|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: Bernie Madoff, Charles Ponzi, Hoover, hope, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Maria Konnikova, obama, reagan, Sam Harris, The Confidence Game, Trump|2 Comments

He gives them 'hope' in a swamp of meaninglessness (3 min read) "Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool." – Voltaire Trumpism is a religion, a Read more...

12 Next

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.