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

1412, 2011

Who dies first? The chicken or the egg – or you?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:29-05:00December 14th, 2011|Categories: business, social|Tags: ABC 20/20, Egg McMuffin, eggs, Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., GOP, Iowa election, McDonald's, Mercy for Animlas, Salmonella, Sparboe Farms, Wright County Farms|0 Comments

Where does salmonella come from? Maybe your Egg McMuffin? McDonald's Egg McMuffin ain't what it's cracked up to be. Because there are dead chickens in the hen house Read more...

1112, 2011

Read this book – before you vote for anybody!

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:29-05:00December 11th, 2011|Categories: politics, social|Tags: Capitol Punishment, Democrats, incumbents, Independents, Jack Abramoff, Republicans|0 Comments

You may never again vote for an incumbent Want solid insider information, a great mea culpa and a view from the confessional – all in one book? Read Read more...

1810, 2011

Exercise is great for the brain – really!

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:34-05:00October 18th, 2011|Categories: business, social|Tags: diet, exewrcise, fitness, gluten-free, health, Jane Fonda, Oxygen|0 Comments

Better body, better brain. That’s what the research is saying. We kind of knew it, but now a number of studies have shown that people Read more...

2108, 2011

Michele Bachmann to meet with Dalton McGuinty on how to sign political pledges and lie and get away with it

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:45-05:00August 21st, 2011|Categories: uncategorized|0 Comments

Michele Bachmann, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Presidency, and Dalton McGuinty, Premier (like a Governor 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.

Who dies first? The chicken or the egg – or you?

Read this book – before you vote for anybody!

Exercise is great for the brain – really!

Number of states with the death penalty? It’s worse than you think.

Michele Bachmann to meet with Dalton McGuinty on how to sign political pledges and lie and get away with it

“My friends and I have been coddled long enough … It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” – Warren Buffett, Aug. 14, 2011, New York Times