Short, Sweet...and Different

It's time to Break It Down!

 

We are eleven weeks removed from the 2024 Election, and ten days post inauguration. As I reflect on the passage of time, especially the last week and a half, I am mindful that eight years ago, every utterance out of the mouth of the then newly elected President seemed mind numbingly outrageous, and the catalyst for all manner of protestation. Fast forward to today. Something is different.

 

The President is the same now, as then. He is equally loquacious, just as prone to make off the wall utterances, and certainly no less controversy friendly. So, what has changed? To be perfectly honest, America has. The President, who has been the GOP Nominee for three consecutive elections, increased his share of virtually all demographics, including Black men, Hispanics, and young Americans. Those increases enabled him to capture a plurality (let’s be clear, not a majority) of the popular vote, the first time Republicans led in that category in twenty years, and just the second time since the 1988 Presidential Election. The differential between him and his Democratic opponent was 1.61%, according to the Associated Press.

 

While all those things are significant, none of them accounts for the principal variance between 2017 and 2025, at least not in my world. I opted not to watch the Inauguration. In fact, I chose to forego the news altogether for the first three days of the week. I even limited my social media activity. I have a complete understanding of the outrage machine, including the recognition that the behaviors and actions that prompt that response are intended to elicit that exact reaction. Well, I’ve opted not to cooperate. With ten days gone, there are 1,451 days left of the madness, Nope, not this time. I’m keeping it ”Short, Sweet…and Different!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

 

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right-hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.”

 

Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the links below:

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/03/nx-s1-5213810/2024-presidential-election-popular-vote-trump-kamala-harris

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2025/01/short-sweetand-different.html

MLK, Jr.: Quotes You Don't Remember...Or, Perhaps Never Heard (Relayed by Nikole Hannah-Jones) Redux '25

It's time to Break It Down!

 

My original posting about the King Holiday dates-back-to January 19, 2011. In 2022, I amended the topic to add a perspective shared by Nikole Hannah-Jones. 

Solomon Peña, who lost his 2022 bid for New Mexico state House District 14, was arrested by an Albuquerque SWAT team for allegedly paying and conspiring with four men to shoot at the homes of two state legislators and two county commissioners, authorities said. No one was injured but investigators said Peña intended to cause serious injury or death. Peña, attributed his defeat to a “rigged” election is accused of masterminding a series of shootings targeting the homes of elected Democrats.

 

But I digress. Consider this “batschitt” craziness an FYI! It’s not the topic of today’s post.

 

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Over the years, I’ve written a post about Dr. King, the holiday, and how it came to pass. Today, I am again revisiting a post I initially wrote and posted Wednesday, January 19, 2011, and that I reprised January 18, 2017, January 17, 2018, and again, January 23, 2019, examining the advent of the King Holiday. It’s been 39 years since the initial observance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday (MLK DAY), and just over 41 years since President Reagan signed the MLK, Jr. Holiday bill into law. Contemporary events continue to remind us that now is an apt time to look into the rearview mirror of time.

 

After over three decades of inculcation into the very fabric of our society, it may be largely forgotten that the conceptualization, submission and continual resubmission of the idea, the enactment, and the gradual national observance, was not the product of universal acceptance of a grand and enlightened concept, but rather, was emblematic of the civil rights struggle itself; steeped in controversy, and the eventual victory of a relentless movement to achieve richly deserved, and long overdue social justice.

Several members of Congress, a few states, and even a President, using a host of creative means, sought to undermine, outmaneuver, sabotage, subvert, and otherwise derail the efforts of the measure’s proponents. Ultimately, the movement was consolidated, snowballed, and would simply not be thwarted.

The effort to create a King Holiday was started by U.S. Representative John Conyers, Michigan, shortly after Dr. King’s death, in the spring of 1968. It was first introduced in the House of Representatives in 1979 but fell 5 votes short of the number needed for passage in the Lower Chamber.

 

High profile opponents to the measure included Senator Jesse Helms, NC, Senator John McCain, AZ, and President Ronald Reagan. Both Senators voted against the bill, and Senator McCain publicly supported Arizona Governor Evan Mecham for his rescission of MLK Day as a State Holiday in Arizona. The campaign however, reached a critical mass in the early 1980’s. Spurred on by Stevie Wonder penning a song in King’s honor called, “Happy Birthday,” a petition drive to support the campaign would attract over 6 million signatures. It has been called the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. History.

 

Buttressed by what had become a wildly successful public campaign, Congress soon followed suit. The proposal passed in the House by a vote of 338-90, and in the Upper Chamber by a vote of 78-22. Given the dimensions of this overwhelming support, in the form of bicameral veto-proof votes, President Reagan signed the provision November 2, 1983, and it became Federal Law. The first observance under the new law took place January 20, 1986, rather than on January 15th, Dr. King’s birthday. A compromise in the legislation specified that the observance take place on the Third Monday in January, consistent with prior legislation (Uniform Monday Holiday Act).

 

Of course, that was not the end of the story. It would take more than 30 years after Dr. King’s death before the Holiday was fully adopted and observed in all 50 states. Illinois holds the distinction of being the first State to adopt MLK Day as a State Holiday, having done so in 1973. Twenty years later, in 1993, for the first time, some form of MLK Day was held in each of the 50 States.

 

It was not until 2000 that South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges signed a bill to make MLK Day a paid holiday for State employees; giving the Palmetto State the dubious distinction of being the last of the 50 States to do so. However, Mississippi also sets itself apart by designating the Third Monday in January as a shared Holiday that honors the memory of Robert E. Lee and Dr. King…two fine southern gentlemen.

 

Three summers ago, after entertaining a whirlwind, on again off again, job offer from UNC, journalist, McArthur Fellow, Pulitzer Prize winner, and UNC alum Nikole Hannah-Jones opted to choose Howard University as her next employer, over UNC. Ms. Hannah-Jones, who gained notoriety for her work on the 1619 Project, has become a lightning rod for discourse around issues of civil rights, and the much-ballyhooed topic known as Critical Race Theory, #CRT.

Two years ago, NH-J was invited to give an MLK speech on the Monday Holiday. She discovered that a few members of the group hosting her wrote and subsequently leaked emails opposing her giving the speech. Those who opposed her felt it dishonored Dr. King to do so and characterized her as a “discredited activist” “unworthy of such association with King.”

This insight motivated her to call an audible. She scrapped her original speech and spent the first half of her speech reading excerpts from several of Dr. King’s speeches…without revealing that they were his words. She subbed BLACK for Negro, to avoid dating the material and giving away the fact that it was from over half a century ago. Literally, that’s all it took to transport to 2022.

Here is some of Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 2022 MLK, Jr. Day speech:

“It was in the year 1619 that the first BLACK slave was brought to the shores of this nation. They were brought here from the soils of Africa and unlike the Pilgrim fathers who landed here at Plymouth a year later, they were brought here against their will…”

“White Americans must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society…The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and racism…”

“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power. A nation that continues year after year to spend more $ on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

“The crowning achievement in hypocrisy must go to those staunch Republicans and Democrats of the Midwest and West who were given land by our government when they came here as immigrants from Europe. They were given education through the land grant colleges…”

“These are the same people that now say to black people, whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains and who were emancipated in 1863 without being given land to cultivate or bread to eat; that they must pull themselves up by their own bootstraps…”

“What they truly advocate is Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor… “We know full well that racism is still that hound of hell which dogs the tracks of our civilization.”

“Ever since the birth of our nation, White America has had a Schizophrenic personality on the question of race, she has been torn between selves. A self in which she proudly professes the great principle of democracy and a self in which she madly practices the antithesis of democracy.”

“The fact is, there has never been a single, solid, determined commitment on the part of the vast majority of white Americans to genuine equality for Black people.”

“The step backwards has a new name today, it is called the white backlash, but the white backlash is nothing new. It is the surfacing of old prejudices, hostilities and ambivalences that have always been there…”

“The white backlash of today is rooted in the same problem that has characterized America ever since the black man landed in chains on the shores of this nation.”

“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance…with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that BLACK AMERICANS HAVE come far enough.”

“…for the good of America, it is necessary to refute the idea that the dominant ideology in our country, even today, is freedom and equality and that racism is just an occasional departure from the norm on the part of a few bigoted extremists.”

“If America does not respond creatively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say, that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men.”

“Why do white people seem to find it so difficult to understand that the Black people are sick and tired of having reluctantly parceled out to THEM those rights and privileges which all others receive upon birth or entry in America?”

“I never cease to wonder at the amazing presumption of much of white society, assuming that they have the right to bargain with BLACKS for their freedom…”

Oh, the uncomfortable silence as I read Dr. King’s words at a commemoration of his life when people had no idea that these were his words. When I revealed that everything, I said to that point was taken from his speeches between ’56 and 67… Can you say SHOOK!

Then I read all the names that white Americans called King: charlatan, demagogue, communist, traitor — and brought out the polling showing more than three-quarters of Americans opposed King at his death while 94 percent approve of him now.

I left them with this: People who oppose today what he stood for back then do not get to be the arbiters of his legacy. The real Dr. King cannot be commodified, homogenized, and white-washed and whatever side you stand on TODAY is the side you would have been back then.

In fact, most white Americans in 1963 opposed the March on Washington where Dr. King gave the “I Have A Dream” Speech with that one line that people oppose to anti-racism like to trot out against those working for racial justice.

When the speech was over, Father Pfleger, who had been cheering me on from the crowd, whispered in my ear: That’s what you call the “You Gone Learn Today” speech.

“This is why the 1619 Project exists. This is why the decades of scholarship that undergirds the 1619 Project exists. Because if we do nothing, they will co-opt our history and use it against us.”

Dr. King was a radical critic of racism, capitalism, and militarism. He didn’t die. He was assassinated. And many, including Reagan, fought the national holiday we’re now commemorating. “If you haven’t read, in entirety, his speeches, you’ve been miseducated & I hope that you will.”

As it was in 1625, 1725, 1825, 1925, and yeah, it remains in 2025…”MLK, Jr.: Quotes You Don’t Remember…Or Perhaps Never Heard (Relayed by Nikole Hannah-Jones) Redux ’25!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1483187472276328449.html?fbclid=IwAR3Gq0hLX0vDKCRlP693LO4TBL9-jWsBZnPiUg5Nqmf–T2c63h3l3BCwu8

 

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2024/01/17/mlk-jr-jr-quotes-you-dont-remember-or-perhaps-never-heard-relayed-by-nikole-hannah-jones-redux-24/

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2025/01/mlk-jr-quotes-you-dont-rememberor.html

Justice Department Reviews and Provides Assessment if the Tulsa Race Massacre

It's time to Break It Down!

Occasionally, I run across a printed story so compelling, that rather than write about it, I instead, shard in whole cloth an already written story. This Department of Justice (DOJ) press release on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street was one of those stories. At its core, this piece is emblematic of why so many conservatives line up in opposition to DEI, CRT, and inclusion policies and practices.

 

This week, the Justice Department issued a report on the Tulsa Race Massacre. The report documents the department’s findings, made during its review and evaluation of the Tulsa Race Massacre, undertaken pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act. The Civil Rights Division previously announced it was undertaking this review during a Cold Case Convening held on Sept. 30, 2024.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said, “The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community.” White Tulsans murdered hundreds of Greenwood residents in 1921, burned their homes and churches, looted their belongings, and locked the survivors in internment camps. 

The Justice Department has not previously spoken publicly about this race massacre, nor officially accounted for the horrific events that transpired in Tulsa. This report breaks that silence by rigorously examining and providing a full accounting of one of the darkest episodes of our nation’s past.

 

This report reveals new information and shows that the massacre was the result, not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated, military-style attack on Greenwood. Now, more than a century later, there is no living perpetrator for the Justice Department to prosecute. But the historical reckoning and the need for it, of the massacre continues. This report reflects our commitment to the pursuit of justice and truth, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles. We issue this report with recognition of the courageous survivors who continue to share their testimonies, acknowledgement of those who tragically lost their lives and appreciation for other impacted individuals and advocates who collectively push for us to never forget this tragic chapter of America’s history.” 

  

The report discloses the department’s findings on the Tulsa Race Massacre and examines events that occurred between on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when white Tulsans mounted a concerted effort to destroy a vibrant Black community, remembered today as Black Wall Street. During the massacre, hundreds of Black residents were murdered, their businesses and homes burned to the ground and their money and personal property stolen. Survivors were left without resources or recourse. Subsequently, the City of Tulsa resisted offers of meaningful help to the victims and utterly failed to provide necessary aid or assistance, at the same time efforts to seek justice through the courts foundered.

Despite the gravity of the department’s findings, no avenue of prosecution now exists for crimes that occurred during the massacre — the youngest potential defendants would today be more than 115 years old, and the relevant statutes of limitations expired decades ago. Nevertheless, as the federal government’s first thorough reckoning with this devastating event, our review officially acknowledges, illuminates and preserves for history the horrible ordeals of the massacre’s victims. As antilynching advocate Ida B. Wells said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” This report aims to do that very thing.

The Nature of the Review

A team of career lawyers and investigators from the Emmett Till Cold Case Unit of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division conducted the review. Members of the unit spoke with survivors and with descendants of survivors, examined firsthand accounts of the massacre given by individuals who are now deceased, studied primary source materials, spoke to scholars of the massacre and reviewed legal pleadings, books, and scholarly articles relating to the massacre. The team produced a thorough, 123-page, sourced report.

Factual Findings

The review revealed that, on the night of May 31, 1921, a violent attack by as many as 10,000 white Tulsans destroyed Greenwood, a uniquely prosperous Black community. The attack was so systematic and coordinated that it transcended mere mob violence. The review found that the trigger for the violence of the Tulsa Race Massacre was the kind of unfounded condemnation that, at the time, was commonly employed to justify unspeakable treatment of Black men; a white man alleged that a Black man, 19-year-old Dick Rowland, assaulted a white woman who operated an elevator he used. After Rowland’s arrest, a local newspaper then sensationalized the story, and soon, a mob of white Tulsans gathered outside the courthouse, demanding a lynching.

The local sheriff called on Black men from Greenwood, many recently returned from service during World War I, to come to the courthouse to prevent a lynching. The white mob saw this effort to protect Rowland as an unacceptable challenge to the social order. The mob grew. A confrontation broke out, and when someone fired a shot, horrific violence erupted. The Tulsa police deputized hundreds of white residents, many of whom — immediately before being awarded a badge — had been drinking and agitating for Rowland’s murder. Law enforcement officers helped organize these special deputies — as well as other white Tulsans — into the forces that would eventually ravage the Greenwood community.

Violence was initially unorganized and opportunistic. But at daybreak on June 1, a whistle blew, and the violence and arsons that had been chaotic became systematic. White Tulsans, many of whom had recently drilled together as the “Home Guard,” formed to replace members of the National Guard who had gone overseas during the Great War, became organized and efficient in their destruction. They looted, burned and destroyed 35 city blocks while Greenwood’s residents tried desperately to defend their homes. As the fires consumed Greenwood, many Black families fled for their lives, leaving behind their homes and valuable items. White residents chased them across and beyond the city, taking into custody men, women, children, the elderly and the infirmed, and looting the homes they left behind. The destruction of the district was total. The survivors were left with little to nothing.

Law enforcement officers (both from the Tulsa Police and the National Guard) disarmed Black residents, confiscated their weapons and detained many in makeshift camps under armed guard. In addition, there are credible reports that at least some law enforcement officers did more than arrest and detain Black men; some participated in murder, arson and looting. After the devastation, city officials promised to help Greenwood rebuild, but the government of Tulsa not only failed to do so, it also put up obstacles to residential reconstruction. White local leaders rejected outside aid, claiming they could handle the recovery, but then provided little to no financial support. Instead, claiming the area was best suited for industrial use, they imposed harsh new fire codes that priced residents out of the area.

Legal Findings

The department’s report concludes that, had today’s more robust civil rights laws been in effect in 1921, federal prosecutors could have pursued hate crime charges against the massacre’s perpetrators, including both public officials and private citizens. In addition, if modern interpretations of civil rights laws were in effect in 1921, police officers, public officials and any who acted in concert with such persons could have been prosecuted for willfully violating the civil rights of massacre victims. Many of these legal avenues, however, were not available in 1921. The few avenues for federal prosecution that were available in 1921 were not pursued.

Now, the statute of limitations has expired for all federal civil rights offenses. Moreover, the team could find no living perpetrators, and prosecution under any law (federal or state) would almost certainly be foreclosed by the Constitution’s Confrontation Clause, which requires the government to provide live witnesses who can be cross examined by the accused. Such witnesses would need to have sufficient knowledge to prove a particular defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The report recognizes that some may find the department’s inability to prosecute a painful or dissatisfying outcome. However, the review recognizes and documents the horrible events that occurred as well as the trauma and loss suffered by the residents of Greenwood. While legal and practical limitations prevent the perpetrators of the crimes committed in 1921 from being held criminally accountable in a court of law, the historical reckoning continues. Legal limitations may have stymied the pursuit of justice, but work continues to ensure that future generations understand the scale and significance of this atrocity.

 

Following issuance of the report, Assistant Attorney General Clarke will convene with members of the Greenwood District, survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Tulsa civil rights community and other stakeholders.

For further information please contact the Office of Public Affairs. If you have information about a civil rights cold case, meaning a hate crime or other civil rights offense that resulted in death and that occurred on or before Dec. 31, 1980, please contact the Civil Rights Division’s Cold Case Unit at Coldcase.Civilrights@usdoj.gov.

 

In a way, the non-action following this report is reminiscent of that following Trump’s 34 felony convictions, and Jack Smith’s chronicles on January 6 and Trump’s election subversion case. ”Justice Department Reviews and Provides Assessment of the Tulsa Race Massacre!”

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

 

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right-hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.”

 

Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the link below:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-results-review-and-evaluation-tulsa-race-massacre

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2025/01/justice-department-reviews-and-provides.html

James Earl Carter, Jr.: Centenarian

It's time to Break It Down!

 

As I reflected upon contemporary events, sifting through the corridors of my mind for a suitable topic du jour, a couple of mega (not MAGA) matters landed on my radar. 

 

Monday was January 6th. As American History continues to unfold, chances are that date will be as resonant and memorable for our fellow citizens as December 7^th. In 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor represented the fiercest attack ever on America, the institution, from external forces. Arguably, on January 6, 2021, the attack on the Capitol represented the fiercest attack ever on America, the institution, from internal forces…at least aside from the Civil War. In fact, even during the hostilities of the Civil War, no factions breached the walls of the Capitol. 

 

While Vice President Harris returned the Certification of Electoral Votes  to it’s normal perfunctory status, on Monday, with little or no fanfare, the collective media sphere did make note of it, because of course, last time, the Certification was interrupted by gallows on the grounds of the Capitol threatening the life of the then Vice President, a horde breaking windows, and crashing doors, running through the building with Confederate Flags, giving chase to government officials, while trashing the building, attacking law enforcement officers with bear spray, defacing Congressional offices, and smearing fecal matter on the walls. There are those who argue that Trump contributed to, if not caused that version of American carnage. Tempting as it is, that is not the topic I chose for today.

 

Familiarly known as Jimmy, James Earl Carter, Jr. was our nation’s 39^th President. He served one term, having been elected November 2, 1976, defeating President Gerald Ford, and losing four years later, on November 4, 1980, to Ronald Reagan. Carter had a term filled with a vast array of challenges, including the Iran hostage crisis, rampant inflation, unrest in the Middle East, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a gasoline shortage due to production declines, massive gasoline price hikes, and resulting rampant inflation, along with rising unemployment. It may not have been the worst Presidential tenure; Hoover bore the brunt of the Great Depression. It was, however, bad enough to seal Carter’s fate as a one-term President.

 

While there are those, especially Republicans, who label Carter the worst-ever U.S. President, just as many view the arch of Carter legacy as being so much more than his presidency. President Carter who passed away Sunday before last at 100 years old was the oldest former President, and the first to reach the century mark.

 

Carter, the classic anti-establishmentarian as president, came to Washington in the wake of the Nixon-Watergate scandal with the stated mission of disassembling the Washington establishment. In contemporary parlance, one might say, he aimed to drain the swamp. In assembling his Cabinet, he sought and relied upon several smart people with one glaring deficiency: experience in navigating the Washington’s massive and complex bureaucracy. The peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia packed up his bags after one term, and took what to some, was a surprising route. He returned to his roots in Plains. After having been crushed by Reagan in the 1980 Election, Carter exclaimed that he would pattern his post-presidency after Harry Truman and not endeavor to personally enrich himself.

 

To that end, Carter turned to statecraft and made diplomacy one of his calling cards. Quickly, he made his mark in the Middle East by meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1981, and touring Egypt in 1983, as well as meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization. These initiatives expanded the upon the work that he’d begun while President, with the Camp David Summit and Accords.

 

In 1994, President Clinton enlisted Carter’s assistance in a North Korea peace mission. Carter negotiated an understanding with Kim II Sung. Carter would later announce the outline of a treaty with Kim on CNN, without having the Clinton Administration’s consent to spur action.

 

In March 1999Carter met with Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui. He praised the progress Taiwan made in democracy, human rights, economy, culture, science and technology. Carter, however, remained controversial in Taiwan due to having ended U.S. with the country.

 

In addition, Carter championed a plan to hold elections in Venezuela in 2003 (though the country didn’t get it done), in 2006 he stated his disagreements with Israeli domestic and foreign policy while saying he supported the country. Meanwhile, he extended his criticism to Israel’s policies in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, in 2007, Carter joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, to announce his participation in The Elders, a group of independent global leaders working together on peace and human rights issues, he visited Darfur, Sudan, Cypress, the Korean Peninsula, and the Middle East. He attempted to travel to Zimbabwe, but he was prevented from doing so by President Robert Mugabe’s government. In 2008, he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in 2010, Carter traveled to North Korea and negotiated the release of Aijalon Gomes, in 2012, he stressed that Egyptian military generals could take full executive and legislative power to form a new constitution, in 2017, he to the Trump Administration to be a diplomatic envoy to North Korea, and in 2018, official files revealed that in 1993, Carter had suggested a Northern Ireland peace process role by President-Elect Bill Clinton.

 

Lest one be deluded into thinking Carter was a one-trick pony, his peanut farm had amassed $1 million in debt when he left office in 1981. He began writing books to retire the debt, and by 2019, he’d written over 30 books, including best sellers, covering a variety of topics, including a novel, a children’s book, reflections on his presidency.

 

In 1982, Carter founded the Carter Center, a non-governmental and nonprofit organization designed to advance human rights and alleviate suffering. He worked with the World Health Organization to eradicate dracunculiasis, also called Guinea worm disease. The incidence decreased from 3.5 million cases in the mid-1980’s to 25 cases in 2016, and four in the first seven months of 2024.

 

Jimmy Carter, and his wife and life partner Rosalynn, were involved in many endeavors after his presidency, but none were more notably connected to the Georgia native than Habitat for Humanity. The Carters initiated the Carter Work Project in 1984, Over the past 40 years, the former President and his work has touched lives around the world. The Carter’s examples have rallied volunteers, supporters, and celebrities to take part in the mission of helping Habitat for Humanity become internationally recognized for building decent and affordable housing. The Carters touched the lives of thousands of Habitat homeowners and volunteers, and inspired millions across the globe. The Carter Work Project has had more than 108,000 volunteers in 14 countries and built 4,447 homes.

 

Of course, there is more that can be said about a man who lived a century. He was the first American President born in a hospital, grew up in a town populated almost exclusively by Black people, played high school basketball, attended Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Institute of Technology before matriculating and graduating from the Naval Academy, married Rosalynn (a high school valedictorian) after college, and played sprint football, and ran cross country at the Naval Academy, and worked in the Navy’s nuclear engineering program. In summary, Jimmy Carter was a Renaissance Man. Peaceful transition…”James Earl Carter, Jr.: Centenarian!”

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

 

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right-hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.”

 

Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the link below:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2025/01/james-earl-carter-jr-centenarian.html

Happy New Year: Here's to Auld Lang Syne Redux - 2025 Edition

It’s time to Break It Down!

 

Another holiday week, another reprised edition of “Break It Down!”

This Issue has been revised from the Break It Down post I originally conceived, created, and published December 29, 2010, and subsequently re-posted in amended formats December 28, 2011, December 31, 2014, December 30, 2015, December 28, 2016, January 3, 2018, January 2, 2019, December 30, 2020, December 29, 2021, December 28, 2022, January 3, 2024, and today January 1, 2025. This is my first post of the month, and of the year 2025 This is the 913th Edition of Break It Down, which debuted August 20, 2007, on the BlogSpot platform. I migrated the principal site to WordPress August 3, 2012, approximately three weeks before the Fifth Anniversary of the blog. You may find this and most other posts at either site.

 

With this post I hope you had a blessed and bountifully Happy New Year. Now, enjoy today’s blog post.

 

The one-half fortnight between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a unique occurrence in the unfolding of the American version of the Gregorian Calendar. It is the only instance in which the space of a mere seven days separates two major holidays. Unquestionably, the timing is propitious. Millions of holiday travelers returned home from their Christmas commemoration and revelry, just in time to get a day off to “celebrate” the New Year…and recuperate from their extracurricular activities, including the exploits of New Year’s Eve. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I hope to the extent feasible, most people whose traditions include Christmas, celebrated, and observed the arrival of the New Year, responsibly. If not, by now, you should have had a few hours to work through the fall out.

 

In last week’s post, I presented a re-formatted airing of my personally crafted Christmas post, (https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2024/12/25/twelve-days-of-christmas-the-e-concert-2024-edition/) from past Noels. This week, I doubled down and revisited my trusty time capsule. Once again, this tack permits new readers to catch-up by seeing the piece, it allows long-time readers to reflect upon both the passing year as well as the theme lifted in the post, and finally, it ensures that those busy readers, with no time to invest in checking out a new blog during the holidays, will not have to miss anything. It’s a win, win…win!

 

With that loosely framed preamble behind us, here’s this week’s déjà vu all over again post.

 

Since we are still in the Sweet Spot of the holidays, I shall practice minimalism. For your purposes, that means the blog should be available, but not intrusive. To that end, I am taking a page from the Christmas e-concert but going a step further. Instead of a concert, I give you a song…of reflection.

 

Robert Burns, a Scot, wrote a poem (Auld Lang Syne) in 1788 that has come to symbolize the spirit of mass contemplation that people around the world invoke as the clock strikes midnight, signaling not just the dawn of a new day, but of a new year. Undoubtedly, you have been somewhere, at some time, when you joined those assembled to sing Auld Lang Syne, which loosely translated means, Times gone by.

Once again, that time is upon us, as today is the first day of the 26^th year of the 21^st century. After thoughtful reflection, I have had no choice but to conclude, my travails have been few and small, especially when compared to my blessings, which have been both abundant and vast! All praises to the one true, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God; a mighty fortress is He.

 

No need to thank me for my inherent thoughtfulness. But, by all means, “Drink a cup of kindness,” or eggnog, or Champagne, or “name your favorite adult beverage,” for me. And, if you are a teetotaler, water will do nicely, thank-you!

 

As I complete my first post of 2025, and prayerfully and faithfully reflect upon the year gone by, I leave with you this familiar Irish Toast:

 

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

 

It was my unique honor and privilege to visit with you briefly for each of the 52 weeks of last year. I hope you have derived a fraction of the pleasure reading (and occasionally listening to) the blog posts, that I have experienced from preparing and sharing them with you. May 2025 bring you the fulfillment of all your fondest desires. “Happy New Year: Here’s to Auld Lang Syne Redux – 2025 Edition!”

 

I invite you to click on the links directly below, which lead to an A cappella and a Jazz interpretation of Auld Lang Syne, arranged and performed by the late Lou Rawls (and listen to the remainder of this week’s edition of Break It Down):

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/question279.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

 

I’m done; holla back!

 

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

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Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the links below:

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2025/01/happy-new-year-heres-to-auld-lang-syne_1.html