A Modern Masterpice

Understanding Blackness

We come from the darkness, and within the darkness, or blackness, lies infinite energy. Scientists are now discovering that
dark matter and dark energy keep the universe in balance. Dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light and so can't be seen. Its existence is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. Dark energy is a form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to increase the rate of expansion. More is unknown about dark energy than is known.

"We know how much dark energy there is because we know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery."~ NASA.

Years ago, just as people once thought the world was flat, it was once believed that the vacuum was actually empty. However, there exist quantum vacuum fluctuations or virtual particles. These are particle-antiparticle pairs that come into existence in otherwise empty space for very brief periods of time. Even though we can't see them, we know that these virtual particles are "really there" in empty space because they leave a detectable trace of their activities. One effect of virtual photons, for example, is to produce a tiny shift in the energy levels of atoms. They also cause an equally tiny change in the magnetic movement of electrons. Many scientists now believe that the entire universe might be a massive quantum vacuum fluctuation.

Less than 60 years ago scientists thought that the universe consisted only of our Milky Way cluster, then it was discovered that millions of such galaxies exist, now it is understood that we only see a small sliver of the universe and that 96% of it consists of dark matter and dark energy - blackness.

So the darkness always was. According to Genesis, God said, "Let there be light: and there was light."

The Holy Qur'an calls it “triple darkness.” It is layers of darkness, but, in that darkness is the power to create life. In that darkness there is the germ of light - as in the womb.

"He creates you in the wombs of your mothers-- a creation after a creation-- in triple darkness; such is Allah your Lord, His is the kingdom; there is none but he; whence are you then turned away?"
(H. Qur'an 39:6)

In Ancient Kemet (Egypt) this realm was understood to be the Duat - enshrouded in the deepest darkness. This realm was understood as having no growth, no birth no death and no passage of time, just eternity. This deepest and most dark realm of the Duat is Asar (Osiris) , himself. This is why Asar is referred to as the "Lord of the Perfect Black" and is often depicted as being black of hue. Spiritually when one can reach this level of consciousness where there are no thoughts in the mind, it becomes calm, expansive and peaceful. If the mind eradicates its desires, cravings and illusions, then it becomes aware of the innermost reality and realizes its connection to the entire cosmos. It is a transcending of all experiences definable by ordinary conceptualization or perception. From a higher level of understanding, the Duat represents the unconscious mind and Asar is that level which transcends the thinking process.1

So it's all about blackness. This is our inheritance. We are direct descendants of the darkness; the stars and the very atoms of our bodies burst from it billions of years ago. We are descended from the darkness, and from us all others descended. Beyond a mere "color", we represent the expanse of the universe- its infinite energy potential, its creative power and its wisdom. Let's embrace ourselves for the good of all.


"And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness - where God was".
~Exodus 20:21

1. Dr. Muata Ashby, Prt M Hru, 2000.

How many Hannibals are there?

Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca (247–183 or 182 BC) was a Carthaginian military commander and tactician.

He is generally considered to be one of the greatest military commanders of all time. In conventional textbooks he is depicted as above:
According to Roman legend, Carthage was founded in 814

BC by Phoenician colonists from Tyre under the leadership of Elissa(Queen Dido). Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the feritile Crescent. The Canaanites and their descendants the Amorites were depicted in Egypt as having light hair and pale skin. In the Bible Phoenians are associated with Greeks. [Mark 7:27]. So if all of that is the case...Then who is this guy?

In 1975, salesman Henry H. Brown

developed Budweiser's Great Kings and Queens of Africa, an educational

program that showcased the rich history of African Americans.

Many have since grown up with this image in their minds. But was Hannibal black simply because he was from Africa? In 1957 J.A. Rogers published 100 Amazing facts about the Negro. As proof that Hannibal was black he states:

"PROOF:

Hannibal is usually depicted as a white man, but his coins in the British Museum and the Museo Kercheriano, Rome, show him to have been an African of purest type with rings in his ears. These coins were struck by Hannibal while he was in Italy. In the absence of other information the most logical argument is that they bore his own effigy, the more so, as the several kinds of them bear the same likeness. Above all, let us remember that he was an African.'

The last line is quite true - he was African but that doesn't determine his appearance.
The coins Rogers mentions are below. They have been reproduced by many Afrocentrists who claim that Hannibal was black. These coins are from the Chiana Valley (Italy). Circa 208-207 BC.

However the coins below are from the same period. Carthaginian coins representing Hannibal really just show the archetype of a hero. The portraits are often indistinguishable from Herakles or Alexander similarly found on Phoenician shekel coinage from Tyre.

Ultimately the truth is no one can conclusively determine the "race" of Hannibal. In 2011 we have to be versed and sophisticated enough in our understanding of history not to believe any simplistic assertion of "our" story. Our story should be about accuracy, honesty and truth. This works on both sides. The image at the top of the article is often shown in mainstream textbooks to depict Hannibal. However this is purposely done to mislead as well. It is not clear that this bust, found in Capua Italy, is actually of Hannibal at all. It is only "conventionally" attributed to him.

Song of a Mother to her Firstborn ~ Anonymous/Sudan

"Speak to me, child of my heart.
Speak to me with your eyes, your round laughing eyes...
Speak to me little one,
Clutching my breast with your hand,
So strong and firm for all its littleness.
It will be the hand of a warrior, my son,
A hand that will gladden your father.

O son, you will have a warrior's name and be a leader of men.
And your sons, and your sons' sons, will remember you long after you have slipped into darkness.

But I, I shall always remember your hand clutching me so.
I shall recall how you lay in my arms,
And you looked at me so, and so, and how your tiny hands played with my bosom.
And when they name you a great warrior, then will my eyes be wet with remembering.

And how shall we name you?
See, let us play at naming.
It will not be a name of despisal, for you are my first-born.
Our gods need no cheating, my child.
They wish you no ill.
They have washed your body and clothed it with beauty.
They have set a fire in your eyes.
And the little puckering ridges of your brows-
Are they not the seal of their fingerprints when they fashioned you?
They have given you beauty and strength, child of my heart,
And wisdom is already shining in your eyes,
And laughter.

So how shall we name you little one?
Are you your father's father, or his brother, or yet another?
Whose spirit is that in you, little warrior?
Who lives in you and quickens to life, like last year's melon seed?

O my child, now I am happy.
Now indeed I am a wife-
No more a bride, but a Mother-of-one.
Be splendid and magnificent, child of desire.
Be proud as I am proud.
Be happy as I am happy
Be loved as now I am loved.

Child, child, child, love I have had from my man.
But now, only now, have I the fullness of love.
His soul is safe in your keeping my child, and it was I, I, I, who
have made you.

Therefore am I loved.
Therefore am I happy.
Therefore am I a wife.
Therefore have I great honor.

You will tend his shrine when he is gone.
With sacrifice and oblation you will recall his name year by year.
He will live in your prayers, my child,
And there will be no more death for him, but everlasting life springing from your loins.
You are his sheild and his spear, his hope and redemptiion from the dead.
Through you he will be reborn as saplings in the spring.

Sleep, child of beauty and courage and fulfilment, sleep.
I am content."










"Song of a Mother to her First-born," translated by Jack H. Driberg from Initiation.

The Ancient Egyptian Parable of Sa-Asar

A man and a woman wanted to have a child, but could not concieve so the woman, named Mehusekhe, went to a temple to sleep in hopes of finding guidance from one of the neteru (gods/goddesses). A spirit came to her in a dream and told her to find her husband, eat from a melon vine and embrace him in love. She became pregnant and her husband, Setna was very happy. In a dream, a spirit came to Setna and told him the child would be a boy and he is to be named "Sa-Asar"*, and that he would do great wonders in the land of Egypt. When Sa-Asar was a boy of 10, he was already respected as an enlightened sage. One day he and his father were looking at two funerals. One funeral was for a rich man, who had many mourners, attendants, and offerings to the neteru. The other funeral was for a poor man, who had no one to mourn him and no offerings to be placed in his tomb. The father exclaimed, when my time comes, may my funeral be like the one of the rich man." Sa-Asar looked at his father and said "oh no father I hope you die like the poor man." Setna looked at Sa-Asar with surprise. Sa-Asar then led his father to the netherworld to see the fate of the two souls, and his father saw that the rich man was judged and found to be unrighteous, having committed more evil deeds than than virtuous deeds so his fate was to suffer. Ther poor man had led a virtuous life so all of the offerings of the rich man accrued to the poor man and the poor man was led to the presence of Asar, the Supreme Self, the Divine Essence, who was seated on his throne. While Setna saw the rich man suffering he saw others reaching up grasping at food that was dangling above them by a rope. Still others were making (twining) ropes while at the other end Donkeys were eating the rope. "Tell me Sa-Asar", Setna said to him in amazement, "what is the meaning of these two things I see?

Sa-Asar answered, those who are twining are the people who on earth labor everyday but their labors are fruitless for themselves because they do not perform the right actions, but the fruits of their actions benefit others. Those who are reaching up to get their food in vain are those who in life on earth have life before them, but do make use of it. Those who are found to have more misdeeds than good deeds are made to suffer. Those who are found to have more virtous deeds than misdeeds are allowed to be among the gods and goddesses as one of them, and their ba(soul) flies up to be among the glorified spirits.** *At the end of the parable Sa-Asar explains his true identity. The name Sa-Asar means son of Asar or son of Osiris. Therefore this teaching comes from the wisdom of Heru (Horus). **   

“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”(Eccles.12:14) Quran 99:7-8 - "So he who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it And he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it.

Gil Scott Heron: Peace Go With You Brother

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)

Primitive

Is it accurate for Western scholars to characterize the Africans, Asians and Indigeonus Americans as primitive or backwards simply because, in 10,000 years, they couldn't concieve a world that looked like...this?

Unity is Everything: The Great Law of Peace

Unity and its Legacy












"In all your acts, self interest shall be cast away. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people. And have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, the unborn of the future nation."
~ Gayanashagowa

Gayanashagowa or the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Six Nations (Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, the Seneca and Tuscarora) is the oral constitution whereby the Iroquois Confederacy was bound together.
Historians date the confederacy and its constitution to as early as 1090 CE.
The law was conceived by Deganwidah, known as The Great Peacemaker.


According to the Haudenosaunee legend, "the story of the Peacemaker and the Tree of Peace as we know it today originated in a time of terrible conflict. It was a time when people forgot to be thankful, and a time when almost all of the people had strayed from the Creator. This is the dark period and perhaps the most violent time of our history. Once again discontentment settled in our people and bloody wars took place in every village."

It is reported that Deganwidah was born a Huron, and by some accounts it was a virgin birth. Others say he was born an Onondaga and later adopted by the Mohawks. By all accounts, he was a prophet who counseled peace among the warring tribes.

The vision from the Great Maker * that peace would come to all nations led the Great Peacemaker to work all his life to bring this to fruition. The Great Peacemaker prophesied that a "white serpent" would come to his people's lands and make friends with them, only to deceive them later. He said a red serpent would make war with the white serpent but that after a season, a "black serpent" would come and defeat both the "white" and "red serpents". According to the prophecy, when the people gathered under the elm tree become humble, all three "serpents" would be blinded by a light many times brighter than the sun. Deganawidah said that he would be that light. His nation would accept the "white serpent" into their safekeeping like a long-lost brother.


Deganwidah converted Ayonwatha (Hiawatha) in the territory of the Onondagas; then he made a solo journey to visit the Mohawk tribe who lived near what is now Cohoes, New York. Initially, the Mohawks rejected the message of the Great Peacemaker, so he decided to perform a feat to demonstrate his purity and spiritual power. After climbing a tree high above the Ga-ha-oose, the cataract now known as Cohoes Falls, the Great Peacemaker told the Mohawk braves to chop the tree down. Many onlookers watched as the Great Peacemaker disappeared into the swirling rapids of the Mohawk River. They believed he had perished until they saw him the next morning sitting near a campfire. Greatly impressed by the Great Peacemaker's miraculous survival, the Mohawks became the founding tribe in the Iroquois Confederacy.



The Great Peacemaker established a council of clan and village chiefs to govern the confederacy. Each of the tribes had a balance of power between the sexes. Most decisions were made by consensus to which each representative had an equal voice. Using the system of the Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha, the Iroquois became the dominant Native American group in the Northeast. The oral laws and customs of the Great Law of Peace became the constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy, established by the 16th century or earlier. The united Iroquois nations are symbolized by a Eastern White Pine tree, called the Tree of Peace. Each nation or tribe plays a delineated role in the conduct of government

According to historians the democratic ideals of the Gayanashagowa provided a significant inspiration to Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and other framers of the United States Constitution. John Rutledge of South Carolina, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, is said to have read lengthy tracts of Iroquoian law to the other framers, beginning with the words "We, the people, to form a union, to establish peace, equity, and order..."



(In October 1988, the US Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Constitution upon the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.) The Haudenosaunee are recognized as having the longest living Democracy on earth established nearly 900 years ago. Many now refer to it as Spiritual Democracy.



"Spiritual consciousness is the highest form of politics..."
The Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western World
Geneva, Switzerland (1977)

* The Great Maker - Wakan Tanka (Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka) is the term for "the sacred" or "the divine". This is usually translated as "The Great Spirit" or the "Great Mystery". Before the attempted conversion to Christianity, Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka was used to refer to an organization of sacred entities whose ways were mysterious; thus, "The Great Mystery". It is typically understood as the power or the sacredness which resides in everything that exists. This term describes every creature and object as wakȟáŋ ("holy") or having aspects that are wakȟáŋ. Ababinili" is how the Great Mystery is "known" by the Chickasaw people. Ababinili personally created all things and personally instructed the Chickasaw people on "how to live long and healthy lives." In Chickasaw tradition Ababinili has extensive talks with various parts of "his" creation regarding the relation of mankind to Creation and how Creation and mankind each ought to behave in each case.

** The Great Law of Peace - http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/greatlaw.html

Malcolm, الحاجّ مالك الشباز - b. May 19, 1925

Supreme Focus

A Sufi Tale


“Not so long ago, as time is counted, there came to a certain oasis far in the western desert a mystic. He was a Qalandar, a wandering sufi, who had walked the deserts of Africa and Arabia for many years, seeking only solitude wherein he could remember his Creator and contemplate the Divine mysteries.



"His virtue and faith, his submission to the will of Allah, had been rewarded with tranquility of spirit, and his sincerity and devotion on the path of Love was such that the Hidden had been revealed to his heart, and he had become a Wali, a Friend of Allah.


“Now it came to pass that the night the mystic wandered into this oasis and lay beneath a palm tree to rest before the midnight prayer, there was, unknown to him, another man under a nearby tree who was also making camp for the night.
“But the other man was a notorious bandit, once the feared chieftain of a band of robbers who had for years plundered the spice caravans and waylaid rich merchants on their way from the coastal cities to the inland towns. The outcry against his merciless raids, however, had at last reached the ears of the Sultan and he had ordered his soldiers to hunt down the band and destroy them. Many were caught and executed. Many others deserted their chief out of fear that they would share the fate of their comrades.
“Eventually, this evil man found himself alone. His purse was now empty, every last coin having been spent in escape, and he was a hunted criminal with a price on his head. Even his former allies, those dishonest merchants who had bought his stolen goods, closed their doors against him. They also feared,lest the wrath of the Sultan fall upon their necks. And so he had fled for many days across the desert and come at last to the oasis where, tired and hungry, he sat beneath a tree and cursed his wretched fate.
“Now I ask you, which of these two men is the greater, and which the less? Whom has God blessed and whom has He cursed? No, do not answer! You do not know the answer, for you are not their judge. The Creator alone is the judge of His
creation.
“Munkar and Nakir, however, the angels who question the dead when they are assigned to the grave, looked upon the scene of the two men and sighed. ‘Surely,’ said Munkar ‘here at least the true gold may be seen from the false. These two may be judged, though their end is not yet come. Allah will have the greater, and Satan the less.’ ‘Alas! It must be so,’ agreed Nakir. ‘True gold is the most rare, and therefore are the fields of heavens spacious indeed, while the halls of Hell are filled to bursting, overflowing even the deepest pits.’
“Now Allah perceived the thoughts of His servants, and spoke to the hearts of the two angels. ‘Verily, thou hast pronounced their just fate,’ He said. ‘Yet woe unto mankind had I created the world by justice alone. Am I not the Merciful and Compassionate? Behold! I will visit them with sleep and visions that thou shalt know the truth of My creation.’
“Thus the Lord sent sleep and mighty dreams to the mystic and the wretched thief. And lo, the Qalandar awoke in hell, even into the midst of the great fires of the pit. And the bandit chief arose in Paradise , where he stood among the saints before the very Throne of Allah.”
The Master laid down his spent pipe and sipped his tea. His eyes searched our faces over the rim of the glass.
“Is it mercy to send the worst of man to heaven?” he asked. “Or justice to send the best of man to hell?”
No one dared answer. “Good!” he said soothingly. “To cleanse the heart of judgment is to discern the Way of Love. And such was the lesson of Munkar and Nakir.
“For they beheld the Sufi awaken in the very midst of Hell, and saw that most worthy of men rise up naked as the fires burned his flesh and the cries of tormented souls pierced his ears. Yet he did not feel pain at the touch of the flames, and showed neither surprise nor fear. His thought was only of his Beloved, and no affliction was great enough to sway his love. He sat among the fires and the torment as an ascetic sits, and in a voice clear and strong he began to sing.


“‘La Illah illa Allah! La Illaha illa Allah!’
(There is no creator except Allah!)

“The fires blazed furiously as the song began and then dimmed to smoldering embers, and the burning mountains trembled at the Holy Name. Now the tormented souls ceased their wailing to listen, for the name of God is not uttered in the pits. Then there was no other sound to be heard but his, and the song went on and on until the very foundations of Hell were shaken, and the damned souls began to feel a spark of forbidden hope.
“Surely Hell would have fallen into ruin had not Satan himself appeared, and begged the Sufi to depart. But the old man would not move, for he had walked many years on the Path of Love, and the Beloved’s Will was his will, whether it be paradise or eternal fire.”
The Master paused for a moment to again sip the tea beside him. He did not look at us until he began the tale again.
“And what of the thief?” he asked, when the glass was empty. “This chieftain of bandits who was once so feared and terrible, and who had fallen into wretchedness and misery, the fate of all such men in the end.
“God caused the two angels to perceive his vision also, and they saw him rise and stand robed in white, trembling amidst the host of heaven before the Throne of Almighty God. And the angel Gabriel spoke unto him.
“‘By the mercy of the Lord, thy Creator, thy earthly deeds are forgiven thee,’ he said. ‘Come now and be at peace.’
“And now the truth filled his heart, and great wonder, and every veil fell from his eyes; and he saw with a clear sight the Majesty and Beauty of His Compassion, and he wept.
“And the Lord God spoke unto him, and said: ‘O man, fear not. For thou canst not fall so low that I cannot raise thee up.’
“And fear left the thief. He knelt and prostrated himself before his God and wept. On and on flowed the endless tears of his wasted life, until they became the very waters of mercy and would not cease; and the feet of the saints were washed by his tears.
“He would have wept for eternity had not the vision ended and the two men abruptly awakened. Then the thief saw the Mystic as he stood, and came to him still weeping from the dream. And the Sufi perceived all that had befallen them and embraced him, and they prayed together at the midnight hour even unto the dawn. Much befell them afterwards, for the thief became the disciple of the Sufi, but that is all of their tale I will tell.
“And Munkar and Nakir, who had perceived but the tiniest particle of the unending mercy of Allah, bowed before their Creator in submission, and in shame of their rash condemnation. For surely beyond the comprehension of men and angels is the Judgment of Allah.

What Was the Civil War About?

At the 150th Anniversary of the U.S. Civil War there still seems to be some dispute as to what the war was about. This is quite curious.

Let's end the debate right now with a look at what the second highest ranking member of the Confederate States claimed at the outset.

Below is a quote from Vice President Alexander Stephens [with historical commentary]:

"Stephens gave what is known as his Cornerstone Speech on March 21, 1861 at Savannah, Georgia. In this speech, Stephens fundamentally lays out what the conflict between the North and the South is all about. One sentence (that gives the speech its name) of this extemporaneous speech stands out as the definition of the Confederate cause and what its government stood for:

'The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution...Our new

government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the

great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his

natural and normal condition.'

– Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Hamilton Stephens.

With these words from his Cornerstone Speech, Alexander Stephens is stating in a nutshell the reason for secession … slavery. In our modern world of today, these words by Stephens are shocking and ugly. His words are so contrary to our times, that it may be necessary to read them twice, to see if what you thought he said, is really what he said..."

Why is there a debate?

Diodorus on Ethiopia and the Origins of Kemet

There is a popular myth still existing in the minds of many that Ancient Egyptians and their culture were introduced into Africa through Asia. But this is a modern myth, born of the racism of the last few centuries. It was largely disseminated by a highly regarded Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie.

Petrie was responsible for mentoring and training a whole generation of Egyptologists, including Howard Carter (known for discovering Tutahkhamen's tomb.) Petrie contended that the culture of Ancient Egypt was derived from an invading Caucasian "Dynastic Race" which had conquered Egypt in late prehistory and introduced the Pharaonic culture (Trigger, 1994). Petrie also happened to be a dedicated follower of the pseudo-science of Eugenics. Petrie claimed that his "Dynastic Race", in which he never ceased to believe, was a "fine" Caucasian race which entered Egypt from the south in late pre-dynastic times, conquered the "inferior" and "exhausted" "mulatto" race which then inhabited Egypt, and slowly introduced the finer Dynastic civilization as they interbred with the inferior indigenous people (Silberman, 1999).

As astutely pointed out by John Henrik Clarke, it's difficult to believe that Caucasians could have brought civilization to ancient Egypt when at that time they had no comparable civilization from which to bring it!

Nevertheless, thanks to Diodorus Siculus we can get a glimpse of how the ancients themselves understood their own origin.

Diodorus Siculus was a Sicilian Greek historian who lived from 90 to 21 BC. He wrote, a world history in 40 books, ending it near the time of his death with Caesar’s Gallic Wars, entitled Bibliotheca Historica ("Historical Library"). Below is an account from Book III.

On the Ethiopians who dwell beyond Libya and their antiquities (Book III)

(Ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus and Diodorus used the word Aethiopia(Αιθιοπία) to refer to the peoples living immediately to the south of ancient Egypt, specifically the area now known as the ancient Kingdom of Kush, now a part of modern Nubia, as well as all of Sub-Saharan Africa in general.)

"Now the Ethiopians, as historians relate, were the first of all men and the proofs of this statement, they say, are manifest. For that they did not come into their land as immigrants from abroad but were natives of it and so justly bear the name of "autochthones" (sprung from the soil) is, they maintain, conceded by practically all men..."

"And they say that they were the first to be taught to honour the gods and to hold sacrifices and processions and festivals and the other rites by which men honour the deity; and that in consequence their piety has been published abroad among all men, and it is generally held that the sacrifices practised among the Ethiopians are those which are the most pleasing to heaven."

"As witness to this they call upon the poet who is perhaps the oldest and certainly the most venerated among the Greeks (Homer) ; for in the Iliad he represents both Zeus and the rest of the gods with him as

absent on a visit to Ethiopia to share in the sacrifices and the banquet which were given annually by the Ethiopians for all the gods together:

For Zeus had yesterday to Ocean's bounds

Set forth to feast with Ethiop's faultless men,

And he was followed there by all the gods.

"They say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the leader of the colony. For, speaking generally, what is now Egypt, they maintain, was not land but sea when in the beginning the universe was being formed; afterwards, however, as the Nile during the times of its inundation carried down the mud from Ethiopia, land was gradually built up from the deposit. Also the statement that all the land of the Egyptians is alluvial silt deposited by the river receives the clearest proof, in their opinion, from what takes place at the outlets of the Nile; for as each year new mud is continually gathered together at the mouths of the river, the sea is observed being thrust back by the deposited silt and the land receiving the increase.

And the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold, Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners. For instance, the belief that their kings are gods, the very special attention which they pay to their burials, and many other matters of a similar nature are Ethiopian practices, while the shapes of their statues and the forms of their letters are Ethiopian; for of the two kinds of writing which the Egyptians have, that which is known

as "popular" (demotic) is learned by everyone, while that which is called "sacred" is understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learn it from their fathers as one of the things which are not divulged, but among the Ethiopians everyone uses these forms of letters. Furthermore, the orders of the priests, they maintain, have much the same position among both peoples; for all are clean who are engaged in the service of the gods, keeping themselves shaven, like the Ethiopian priests, and having the same dress and form of staff, which is shaped like a plough and is carried by their kings..."

The Truth Regarding King's Murder

Maybe that title is unneccesary because, well... who needs the truth when we have the "official story"?

The official story is that James Earl Ray a racist, ex-con killed King and that he acted alone. Now, essentially, the mainstream maintains that if you

question their 'official story', you are a conspiracy theorist -or worse, you are against the government. This is the same logic we have recently heard from George Bush, "either you're with us or you are with the terrorists." Wow, what a bind to be in. So most of us simply ignore what happened and all the evidence that exists outside of the inexplicably narrow official story. But that evidence has been mounting - considerably. Or maybe we aren't aware of the evidence because the mainstream media has done a superb job of keeping it below our radar.

It is hardly known that according to a Memphis jury's verdict on December 8, 1999, in the wrongful death lawsuit of the King family versus Lloyd Jowers "and other unknown co-conspirators," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a conspiracy that included agencies of his own government. Almost 32 years after King's murder at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, a court extended the circle of responsibility for the assassination beyond the late scapegoat James Earl Ray to the United States government.

How long shall they kill our prophets while

we stand aside and look? -

Bob Marley

So what if based on the outcome of this trial we

have questions? Let's say we have no grand conspiracy concocted but just questions regarding some things the official story doesn't even attempt to explain or consider such as:

1. Why did Loyd Jowers the owner of Jim's Grill in Memphis come forward and state that he had been asked to help in the murder of King and was told there would be a decoy (Ray) in the plot?

(Jowers said the man who asked him to help in the murder was a Mafia-connected produce dealer named Frank Liberto. Liberto, now deceased, had a courier deliver $100,000 for Jowers to hold at his restaurant, Jim's Grill, the back door of which opened onto the dense bushes across from the Lorraine Motel. Jowers said he was visited the day before the murder by a man named Raul, who brought a rifle in a box.)

2. Why did store owner John McFerren say when he arrived around 5:15 pm, April 4, 1968, for a produce pick-up at Frank Liberto's warehouse in Memphis he overheard Liberto on the phone inside saying, "Shoot the son-of-a-bitch on the balcony." ?

3. Why did an FBI agent admit the agency called King to urge him to stay at the Lorraine, a black owned motel instead of the white owned (more secure) Holiday Inn where he had stayed before?

4. If the FBI didn't make that call, who did? Why?

5. Who made him change his room from a secluded ground floor room to the second floor balcony space?

6. Why were two U.S. Army officers from Army's 111th Military Intelligence Group stationed on the roof of Memphis Fire Station 2 on April 4, 1968 ? (Carthel Weeden, captain of Fire Station 2 in 1968, testified that he was on duty the morning of April 4 when two U.S. Army officers approached him. The officers said they wanted a lookout for the Lorraine Motel. )

7.Why were the only two black firefighters temporarily transferred from that location on Apr. 3?

8. Why was Ed Redditt, a black Memphis Police Department detective, removed from his Fire Station 2 surveillance post two hours before King's murder?

9. Why was there testimony of two rifles, one that was found in a bundle behind the rooming house and one witnesses say Loyd Jowers retrieved from the actual shooter, still smoking, which he broke down and disposed of?

10. Why didn't the FBI ever do a ballistics test matching the slugs taken from King's body with the rifle attributed to Ray? (Judge Joe Brown, who had presided over two years of hearings on the rifle, testified that "67% of the bullets from my tests did not match the Ray rifle." He added that the unfired bullets found wrapped with it in a blanket were metallurgically different from the bullet taken from King's body, and therefore were from a different lot of ammunition. And because the rifle's scope had not been sited, Brown said, "this weapon literally could not have hit the broad side of a barn." Holding up the 30.06 Remington 760 Gamemaster rifle, Judge Brown told the jury, "It is my opinion that this is not the murder weapon.")

12. Why did Loyd Jowers testify that immediately after the killing, MPD Lieutenant Earl Clark (the MPD's best marksman), now deceased, came out of the brushy area and give him a smoking rifle at the rear door of his restaurant, Jim’s Grill?

13. Why did Several witnesses at the 1999 trial testify that they saw two men running away from the brushy area, one burning tires as he drove away in a green 1965 Chevrolet past a police car that took no notice, another getting into a police car and being driven away? (The official story has always been that nobody shot from the bushes but that James Earl Ray fired from a bathroom window of the rooming house.)

14. Why did Olivia Catling who lived a block away from the Lorraine on Mulberry Street after hearing the shot claim that "the shot came from that clump of bushes," indicating the heavily overgrown brushy area facing the Lorraine and adjacent to Fire Station 2?

15. Why did Earl Caldwell a New York Times reporter staying at the Lorraine Motel on the evening of April 4, in a videotaped testimony, after hearing the shot, say he saw a man crouched in the heavy part of the bushes across the street? The man was looking over at the Lorraine's balcony.

16. Why did the Memphis Police and the FBI ignore Earl Caldwell's and any testimony that contradicted the belief that Ray fired from a bathroom window of the rooming house across from the Lorraine? (Caldwell:"I will always remember the puff of white smoke and the cut brush and having never been given a satisfactory explanation. "When I tried to tell the police at the scene as best I saw they told me to be quiet and to get out of the way. I was never interviewed or asked what I saw by any law enforcement authority in all of the time since 1968.")

Of course there are tons more questions. Over 70 witnesses at the 1999 Civil trial gave testimony.

But the myth of James Earl Ray, the lone gunman remains. Part of this is the belief that he

confessed.

Every story, and I mean every story, about Ray over the years by the media has begun with the same phrase:

"James Earl Ray, the confessed killer of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. . . . "

But Ray actually pled guilty (after 3 days of coercion by his attorney.)

Pleading guilty and a voluntary confession are two completely different concepts - of course with a confession comes more details about what, how and why events happened. Ray never provided any of these (days later he even re-canted his guilty plea).

See, William Pepper "An Act of State".

Let's see how much of this is discussed today.