A weekly commentary by David Hughes [David no longer writes his weekly commentary – on to broader things]
November 21, 2018 – “People are the worst”
November 15, 2018 – “Remembering to forget”
November 7, 2018 – Community spirit … looking after each other.
November 1, 2018 – “Where’s the Outrage?”
October 19, 2018 – “Vote and pay it forward”
October 10, 2018 – “Vocal minorities”
October 3, 2018 – “Less than the best”
September 19, 2018 – “Asking the right question”
September 12, 2018 – “Notwithstanding”
September 5, 2018 – “McCain and the road to character”
August 30, 2018 – “Premortem – avoiding failure”
August 23, 2018 – “Lame Duck Collusion”
August 17, 2018 – “The inmates are running the asylum”
August 9, 2018 – “Nature bats last”
August 2, 2018 – “Pogo: We have met the enemy”
July 26, 2018 – “Whistling past the graveyard of democracy”
July 19, 2018 – “Gaia and the West Harbour ”
July 12, 2018 – “Nature’s needs: It’s a choice”
July 5, 2018 – “Measuring character”
June 20, 2018 – “The Price of Ignorance.”
June 13, 2018 – “Be careful what you wish for.”
June 6, 2018 – “Ya’ Got Trouble.”
May 31, 2018 – The no-shows are the “idiots”
May 24, 2018 – “The power of public engagement ”
May 17, 2018 – “Watching over the cookie jar”
May 10, 2018 – “Consequences and cookie Jar politics”
May 2, 2018 – “David was a consequence for Goliath”
April 26, 2018 – “The Fear of Consequences”
April 18, 2018 – “Lies, damn lies, and collusion”
April 11, 2018 – “The Shadow Government”
April 4, 2018 – “Collusion in action”
March 30, 2018 – “Collusion is rampant”
March 23, 2018 – “Collusion”
March 14, 2018 – “Grateful for Democracy”
March 7, 2018 – “Kakistocracy – government by the worst”
February 21, 2018 – You get what you pay for.
February 14, 2018 – Charles Darwin for Mayor
February 8, 2018 – Next Generation of Leaders
January 31, 2018 – Don’t Let the Drumbeat Stop
January 26, 2018 – Disconnection & Alienation
January 18, 2018 – Oprah for President? No!
January 12, 2018 – Why Democracies Die?
January 6, 2018 – Anti-Resolutions & Armchair Critics
December 29, 2017 – Resolutions
December 22, 2017 – Alabama as a learning moment
December 15, 2017 – Sexual Abuse Is An Opportunity
December 8, 2017 – Blunt force corporate trauma
November 30, 2017 – Free Speech Under Attack.
November 24, 2017 – The Weinstein Effect.
November 17, 2017 – Is cooperation going to the dogs?
November 10, 2017 – Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore
November 5, 2017 – Malignant normality
October 21, 2017 – Bill 162 – Leadership attendance optional
October 21, 2017 – Women, Jewelry & Art
October 9, 2017 – The Value of Questioning
October 4, 2017 – Life Insurance Settlements
September 28, 2017 – Fighting City Hall – and Winning!
September 23, 2017 – Loss of Honour
September 16, 2017 – Five Leadership Qualities
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“People are the worst”
Coming 2026
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.
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