Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

How important is the presence and absence of (1) open discussion of ideas to humanity,   and how pivotal is the presence and absence of (2) the written word, and the (3) ability to physically (digitally) distribute such ideas to impact local, national, and global events? On page 88, of ‘Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995),’ Michel-Rolph Trouillot, paraphrases, Louis Sala-Molins “claim” ‘that slavery was the ultimate test of the Enlightenment.’ Whereas Trouillot goes one step further and sais that “the Haitian Revolution was the ultimate test to the universalist pretensions of both the French and American revolutions. And they both failed. In 1791, there is no public debate on the record, in France, in England, or in the United states on the right of black slaves to achieve self-determination, and the right to do so by way of armed resistance.” In such a manner does Michel-Rolph Trouillot place before the reader the possibility that the American Revo...

Every seventh day he was given a bottle of whisky; he sat under a tree; he would escape his reality, even if the truth of his chains of air would all return to him before midnight. Frederick Douglass had taught himself to read and write using two books and a dollop of determination: He read and studied The Columbian Orator; a compendium of essays and literary pieces wherein the practitioner gains articulate eloquence in character and pronunciation), and the Holy Bible. The latter gave Douglass profound ideas about what God intended, moral teachings on humanity, and intellectual upbringing through a God-Sanctioned understanding of human history. As a slave in the south, Douglass did not have a family experience, was not raised in a home with siblings, father and mother, did not have birthday parties, or attend school; there were no after school activities or playing catch with Dad in the late afternoon hours of the day. All he had was an inner spark kept alive that urged him ...

“A vision is best taken on by the culture of a people when it is not forced,” I say to Fidel. In Spanish, they told the two young teenage sisters to take off all their clothes. The two girls refused. A standoff ensued at the Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba.The authorities said they needed to check if they were carrying ‘contraband.’  Their mother and father had looked to get them on a flight out of the country after the new, ruling leadership had ordered these girls and many others to work in the sugar cane fields under the Cuban sun. The girls were adamant in their position and refused to comply. Anything could have happened at that moment. Ultimately, the authorities relented and allowed the young girls to board the flight to American soil.  My maternal grandfather and grand uncle had a thriving law practice in La Habana. Life was good for my family but it came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro and his band of visionary rebels forcibly took over ...