A calling ...



- Buckminster Fuller

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Paradigm conflicts

Did you know that the Ptolemaic Map of the world was the accepted view in 1482, 1300 years after it was produced? Why are "accepted truths," which happen to be false, which hold back progress, so blindly accepted? Education is historically a source of ignorance. When truths are not adequately reflected upon, and process becomes the end, falsehoods are perpetuated.

A perfect example was the notion that segregation would last another 100 years, which was the view when my dad was in law school at the University of Chicago. After Law School, my dad came to Washington, became a lawyer at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and began developing relationships with Civil Rights leaders. Dad was more interested in justice than practicing law. Once, dad tipped off Julian Bond that an important principle was being compromised by the US government, and Julian Bond organized a demonstration in front of Sargeant Shriver's office. Dad often traveled to Mississippi, where he developed relationships with groups such as the NAACP and SNCC, leaders who had "guts," knew how to organize, and were willing to risk their lives to shame the Nation about Jim Crow laws.

Interesting people were always staying in our home. I remember Eddie Brown, the brother of the Black Panther Rap Brown, who ultimately became a disappointment to my dad, because after the success of the one man one vote movement, he wouldn't buy in to the ideas of Kelso, because "they would never allow it." Dad never compromised on principle.

One of our family treasures is a letter from Medgar Evars, who was assassinated in Mississippi because he was the anti-Jim Crow, thanking mom and dad for their hospitality. My father's first hand account of the factors that led to the assassination of Medgar Evars is one of the best examples of investigative journalism that nobody has read.

In 1979, when I was a sophomore at Yorktown High School, I remember when a group of angry farmers drove their tractors to Washington to protest the loss of family-owed farms. Dad was in contact with Tommy Kersey, a Cajun from Louisiana.. Dad recommended that they surround the Federal Reserve Building. There was a blizzard that Februrary, and Tommy drove his tractor and plowed us out so that dad rode into DC with Tommy, and the farmers surrounded the Federal Reserve.

Dad has always seen things a little differently, and has always been a little ahead of his time.