democracy | Straightspeak

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 Allegory of the Caves (380 BCE), introducing it with Socrates saying, "And now, I said, let me show in an allegory how far our nature Read more...

One small step for democracy, one giant leap for Port Hope

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:40:56-05:00April 6th, 2014|Categories: communitywatch|Tags: democracy, moon landing, Port Hope|

Is there hope for democracy in small towns? The metaphor of the moon landing is overused but it seems appropriate for a local historic event that happened just one week after the forty-fifth anniversary of the moon landing (July 20, 1969). That first step was on July 21, 1969 and on July 29, 2014, one small town with a lot Read more...

Oh Canada, oh no! Is Harper selling out to China?

By DHughes|2016-12-10T00:41:08-05:00October 29th, 2012|Categories: business, politics, social|Tags: China, Clayton Ruby, democracy, foreign trade, forest ethcis, Mitt Romney, Prime Minister Harper|

Prime Minister Harper toasts the selling out to China. All part of the race to beat Americans to the big China pie. (photo: forestethics.com) Sign this petition BEFORE November 1, 2012 – hurry! Stop Canada's Prime Minister Harper from creating his version of state capitalism! Click here to sign the petition: Here's another conservative who says one Read more...

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.