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809, 2016

Trump plays high school dodge ball

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:53-05:00September 8th, 2016|Categories: trumpwatch, trumpwatchhome|Tags: Clinton, Commander In Chief, Matt Lauer, Rodrigo Duterte, The Art of the Deal, The Art of War, Trump|0 Comments

3 things to think about: Being one of 1,860 billionaire's does not qualify anyone to be President of the United States. One lousy interviewer can deprive Americans of critical information Read more...

309, 2016

Racism, misogyny and genius: A reading list for Donald Trump and so-called leaders

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:53-05:00September 3rd, 2016|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Albert Einstein, Alexandre Dumas, Donald Trump, General Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, Mary Wollenstonecraft, Nicholas Wade, Plato, Srinivasa Ramanujan, The Black Count, The Republic, Tom Reiss|0 Comments

(Above centre) Genius Srinivasa Ramanujan at Cambridge (1914) Five things you might not know: Einstein and Feynman had their genius-equal in Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician, who faced racism and Read more...

209, 2016

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|1 Comment

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 Read more...

1808, 2016

Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump Photo by thelibertarianrepublic

Do we see a pattern here?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:53-05:00August 18th, 2016|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Bill O'Reilly, Clinton, Jesse Ventura, Thomas Jefferson, Trump|0 Comments

(L-R) Lamar McKay, President BP, Steven Newman, CEO Transocean, Tim Probert, Halliburton Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay Donald Trump and Jesse Ventura What's going Read more...

908, 2016

Canadian Debate: Be it resolved, Donald Trump can make America great again

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:54-05:00August 9th, 2016|Categories: business, politics|Tags: Aurea Foundation, Christopher Hitchens, Ian Bremmner, Jennifer Granholm, Laura Ingraham, Munk Debates, Newt Gingrich, Paul Krugman, Peter MUnk, Robert Reich, Trump|0 Comments

Canadians mark the calendar, pay attention, this matters (2 minute read) Just a month before the US election and three days after the first Clinton-Trump debate at Hofstra University, in Read more...

608, 2016

The Great Olympic Lie: Aiding and abetting corruption and greed in the name of propaganda

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:54-05:00August 6th, 2016|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Athens, Hitler, Jesse Owens, Lord Acton, Olympics, Rio|0 Comments

Synopsis The numbers are shocking, the losses staggering and the Olympics are a failed and losing proposition perpetrated on the taxpayers of host nations who pick up the multi-billion dollar Read more...

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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.