Summer 2010

Views and sounds of people past and present beyond confined geographies and timelines of most urban fiction writers and rappers, ... need to be researched and written by a new generation of sighted and verbal story-tellers about the pursuit of goodness. We want new writers to research and recall the unheralded and most often unknown young men and women in generations past who served and paid the price pursuant goodness that some folks call "blessings."

Our question for all gifted and talented youth to consider with their fresh minds and potentials is: how does goodness come into existence? By adventure, education, friends, labor, laws, luck, money, prayers, reading, skills, work, wars or all those things plus a lot more to be considered in considering ancestral journeys UP from them and theirs to you and yours? Consider possibilities that your genealogy has a purpose.

We decided to compile this page on our website targeting gifted and talented youth of African heritage; ... because the last of our beloved Kennedy brothers and sisters (Senator Edward Kennedy and Sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver) have now passed over from what we saw and heard in our own lives. Their lives in pursuit of goodness very much defined the essences of cherished virtues and values "the least of us" can live 'by and by' as we attempt to understand why goodness comes and goes again and again often unnoticed and unheralded by politicians, preachers, or professors. In fact, we would argue the pursuit of goodness is not about glory as might occur in a Hollywood movie scene but rather the worth of generations yet to be born.

Our belief is that we saw and heard a model family with moral worth inherited from multi-generations in pursuit of goodness, ... beyond personal lives, liberties and pursuits of happiness (feeling good)? Our theme on this site is that even the best and brightest of any age are part of a far greater generation and regeneration process by mothers of faith, hope and love facilitated by functional fatherhoods in belief and courage. As individuals, Kennedys were not perfect but as family they freely and willingly chose to be our brothers and sisters in Christ even before they knew about any or many of us who were naked and hungry.

It is a story that might be helpful in addressing the age-old question in scholarly Christian thought. Why does "goodness" come into existence? Is it physical, spiritual or both? Does it transcend generations? A related question is whether or not goodness can be pursued minus seeking to be a good offspring and sibling to others in pursuit of goodness? Dr. King suggested we judge the contents of a person's character rather than other common factors such as racial, cultural and even financial heritage of other people. We would add that judging a person's before and after generations is also important in understanding long march challenges overcome in the spirit that King and other believers such as A. Philip Randolph and the Kennedys. They very much believed in the D-Day 1944 contribution of Sylvester McCauley (Rosa McCauley Parks brother) walking across the beaches and minefields at Normandy nearly 20 years before the great march in 1963 continuing the long struggle for humanity. What role did their mothers' play in bringing to term and determinations to pursue goodness in the dangers and faces of evil as we know to have existed?

We cite the Kennedy characteristics as an example of multi-generation pursuits of goodness rooted in family values as compared to novelty individualism of the me, my and mine images of goodness imagined by novelists and screen-writers. They are a contrast to many Christians, ... who do not perceive themselves in the context of past (excepting Christ and maybe Jefferson), present and future generations. We cite the Kennedys as an example that knowing one's ancestors and lives they lived is important in understanding how progress is generated, regenerated and measured in spirit and flesh rather than the "fools gold" of degenerated attitudes and behaviors imitated from famed lives and fashions as occurred with real men and women like Sly Stone (below right). The Kennedy existence helped Christians remember what a family is in the context of generations (not dynasties of the rich and powerful such as the Medici, Rothschild, etc.) that matter to "the least of us." They helped reaffirm for many millions of Americans that families matter most in the long-term pursuit of goodness, albeit individual members may achieve mid-term and short-term success in endeavors contributing to the common cause and wealth of goodness.

From all that we have read about the Christian Era (C.E.) to-date, even the genius of William Shakespeare never imagined the best was yet to come with believer families like the Kennedys helping to change a world for betterment of "the least of us." And it is their dream that lives on into the future of generations not yet born. Our story about the Kennedys is not a fable such as The Swiss Family Robinson or other make-believe screen plays about 19th century virtues and values of courage, faith, hope and love "for goodness sake" to emulate in overcoming adversities. The Robinson generations we knew and know required more than a single lifetime or cast of characters to achieve goodness for themselves.

The great stories are yet to be written about men and women like Harold and Barbara Martin up from the Lowry, Martin, Robinson and Wilkerson generations of African, Cherokee and Seminole ancestors integrated and love and labor for useful lives by self and other believers in the virtues and values proven true. Those enlightened and educated souls of our generation are being unfaithful to the faith many inherited from known generations during the past two centuries, ... if they remain silent about facts that adversities were overcome by believers like Allen, Douglass, King and others embracing, loving and alliances with many brethren such as Francis Asbury, Abraham Lincoln and the Kennedys. We would suggest that empowerment in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness came by aspirations and struggles to integrate (not segregate) for goodness sake.

For all believers and even agnostics, behold below the countrymen of two men in Papua New Guinea who in turmoil of the Pacific War in 1943 came, saw and acted to "keep hope alive" not simply for the crewmen of P.T. Boat 109, ... but also for "the least of us" not yet born such as President Barrack Obama and others into the light of a better and brighter world. The men of African heritage who sought and found "wisdom's child" to help "the least of us" were fishermen for goodness sake.

In London we were fortunate enough to interview Charles K. Siniu on my right who is an official in the Maritime Transport Division in government of Papua, New Guinea. As guests at the Marne Hotel, owned by a business woman from Nigeria, we quickly learned the fellow occupants from Papua New Guinea were countrymen of Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana rescuers of our beloved 35th President of the United States. So far as we can determine they were fishermen of functional courage who practiced their Christian faith in daily challenges of the sea all around them. Their islands and sea in 1943 included Japanese patrol boats, sailors, soldiers and ships determined to drive the allied American, Australian and British forces out of the Solomon Islands that Japanese Empire had invaded and occupied in their quest to master and control.

Millions of people migrated to the Solomon Islands from Africa upward of 50,000 years ago across expansive Pacific Ocean long ago, and over many millennium evolved into many village based small tribal groupings and languages. By the time, John F. Kennedy arrived with the U.S. Navy many Solomon Islanders had been evangelized and assimilated in generations of Christianity evolved from philosophy of Jesus in a world that categorized and classified them as savages with a heritage of cannibalism, barbarism, tribalism and all the other definitions of inferior human beings. Yet we know that too was overcome by propagation of virtues and values matured and nurtured by many generations of belief and effort in the cause and matter of a common humanity that many have never believed in or wanted for "the least of us."

Their story that became part of ours is not the kind African-Americans will ever hear from Ira Glass and other hosts on the National Public Radio Network whose views of "the least of us" in "This American Life" which leaves much to be desired in the enlightenment of Americans about events and people that ought to matter for goodness sake. We hasten to add that a major deficiency in NPR type programming is that few of their programmers can imagine interesting stories outside 20th century novels or discourse as to how functional goodness comes into existence.

Our story is about courage, faith, hope and love ... not urban fiction or Hollywood make-believe scenarios of geography and history. There is nothing to "rap" about for gifted and talented students who do not like to read a lot or use English as the language of empowerment to go where lesser endowed never do. And, the stories referenced on this page are intended to afford scholarly youth believers more insight about some interesting events and people, such as the Kennedys, we have seen and heard in our journey up from:

.... slave raids, trades, slavery, terrorism, persecution, poverty, ignorance and disease in Africa, the Americas, Caribbean, the Pacific and Europe. The dark past was overcome by the spirit of goodness among believers we could see and hear like the Kennedys who saw us when and where "the least of us" needed functional Christian fellowship such as the Peace Corps. JFK announced recruitment, training and sending of young men and women when and where pretentious prophets would never go and do anything but wait and wonder. Some perhaps wondered when the Almighty would come to end a world few knew much about, including attitudes and behaviors beyond old testament beliefs of doom and gloom. We believe the world is without ending so long as believers like Adam Crosswhite below believe in the trans-generational power to keep it. Men like him embraced the Kennedys long before or we ever knew them and their kind of believers. By faith? Hope? Preachers? Sheriffs? Lawyers? Or all of them who came in the pursuit of goodness in whom they believed. People like him believed that "beliefs come first" followed by courage and faith. Was he wrong? Ignorant of money?

The Kennedys we saw and heard were about 19th and 20th century trials and tribulations in the living flesh with blood, guts and tears beyond any scenes that could fit into a Hollywood movie script; ... but, yet can be one of many stories that ought to be written above and beyond urban fiction writers who have talent but need better purpose in their life's work. The opportunity exists to not only remember Kennedy brethren for their pursuit of goodness; but also to tell youth why we, as believers, ... believe the spirit of goodness is not confined to or defined by a single life or generation or cause seeking it.

The Kennedys were not about a single event such as the fabled Pentecostalism spiritual raptures that afford many lowly educated folks to escape the realities of living and learning about real disciples that help uplift "the least of us." It is philosophically unhealthy for so many to know so little about the geography and parameters of the faith they weekly profess and pay to believe in. One's world view is very much influenced by geography and people observed, and too often limited by writers and actors to make-believe fiction about places and persons generalized to be the same as, less than or more than others. The only certainty is that not all believers believe or behave alike. Our hope is to help encourage African studies programs seeking knowledge about experiences and memories before, during, up from and beyond plantation and ghetto matriarchies, ... in the light of real people and places (including air, land and seas) in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. We want youth to understand that people of African heritage, even in the Solomon Islands, are not now or have ever been monolithic but "the least of us" had and have a common spirit with "exemplary believers" like the Kennedys.

We are very concerned that too many youth of African heritage in America and abroad are not being taught about the geography and other functional aspects of virtues and values that helped uplift their ancestors. Youth are being told too many fanciful tales by a lot of writers/rappers without knowledge. And, too many, even most priests and preachers, have removed themselves to the comforts of the upper room rather than going out into the multitudes of youth hungry to be seen and heard about matters that matter to them, ... such as other people seemingly living lives above and beyond, or below their own. How did this faith factor come to be with vast majority of young Black males utterly contemptuous of Dr. King's (and our) faith up from slavery? Who are their mothers? fathers? grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, coaches? teachers? preachers? parole officers? Why are vast majority of young Black men unfit to serve in families, communities, sports, the military services or any organized endeavors that require attitudes and behaviors for service to others? Why do the heathen rage and imagine false things? Is urbanized Black motherhood dead? Who do they emulate? TV characterizations?

"A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed." John F. Kennedy
Gifted novelists like James Baldwin born in the same generation #65 (births 1920-1949) as us did not see what we saw. Unlike Baldwin indoctrinated in beliefs about beginnings after the facts of human birth, nurture, inspiration, motivation, education, and expeditionary living, ... we chose to begin with spirit of Christ existing before the Pentecost rapture by folks who want to believe goodness falls down like "bread from heaven." Our purpose with this site is the regenerations of our own paternal and maternal ancestors up from slavery, ... rather than bible-belt generalizations and pretentions by past, present and future preachers citing bible scriptures rather than observations that might encourage youth to believe "We Shall Overcome." We want new generations to embrace the philosophy of life generated by Jesus (not simply organized religion worship rituals), and have knowledge and understanding as to what some believers in older generations think we saw and heard about Kennedys and times spanning at least three generations for goodness sake beyond LiteraryPentecostalismofJames Baldwin

Non-believers (and old testament pundits for dead prophets) believed President Kennedy and brother-in-law Sergeant Shriver acted to combat the spread of communism or wasted their time instead of awaiting perfection promised in the new kingdom to come, ... by Jove, Jehovah, and the many other names for God in virtually all cultures and languages including those in Africa. It is amazing indeed that so many who owe so much too so few souls like the Kennedys have the audacity to minimize and even criticize them for daring to seek goodness in overcoming evil. Yet, we know it has always been that way with many claimants of knowledge who imagined "The Fire Next Time" and other empty rhetoric but "So What?" [trumpeter Miles Davis]. Enlightened and educated African-Americans heard and long remembered a voice trumpeting in the wilderness (Senator Robert F. Kennedy) ... seeking to prevent a fire-storm in the face of heathen rage by ghetto minded youth following assassination of Dr. Martin Luther. The Kennedys were miles ahead of most Christians we knew, ... with virtues that most readers and writers like Baldwin did not integrate (such as risking life to help others).

Some critics of the Kennedys habitually find fault with facts that so many millions of Americans and other believers throughout the world express love of them, ... despite their faith the end is not near for new generations yet to be born. We believe the best Kennedy kind of human beings are yet to come forth from the wombs, ... venturing for knowledge and understanding of many worlds throughout the universe of multiple solar systems and planets. Robert F. Kennedy posed the challenging question: "Why not?" The Kennedy-Shriver world view included the moon and "least of us" and differed from ideologies most commonly propagated around them about the poor as unworthy especially so in under-developed nations and territories like New Guinea.

We would argue their actions were consistent with Philosophy of Life espoused by Jesus for functional outreach to mothers and children. Past decades of Christian missionaries had proven that sending bible quoting preachers to far corners of the earth was not enough (pouring old wine into new bottles). They wanted functional help for new generations to gain knowledge in pursuit of a better life such as local health clinics, crop rotation, mosquito eradication, schools, bridging, roads, rain water storage and rodent control. These brothers and sisters in Christ had seen the light, and knew more than preaching and teaching was needed and necessary in a world threatened by totalitarian doctrines and strategies including degenerates like Mobutu Sese Seko embraced by the Nixon administration because he professed to be anti-communist but in reality was and ruled as Bula-Matari.html

"Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both." John F. Kennedy

left slice A lot has been published about their political legacy but not enough about the spiritual based philosophy that seemingly is their guide and rock of ages many folks believe in. Long before President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had any idea of someday being President of the United States, he wrote about matters that youth ought to consider and not sleep through issues about realities of the 20th century that proved reasoning alone even by the best educated, wealthy and most proficient men and women, ... is not enough. JFK was a student just like many of you when he applied his great mind and energy to issues during his youth that would soon pit the forces of good versus evil.

In addition to the six million European Jews that perished, more than 20 million Russians and approximately 10 million Germans died because the lights for goodness went out all over the world as political leaders fell asleep after World War I. Over 50 million lives were violently ended between approximately 1922 when dictator Benito Mussolini launched the ideology of fascism which appealed to many would-be dictators, ... and year 1945 when the Axis Alliance was ended.

Scholars of African heritage ought not dare (or allow others) to imagine that Black men did not have a dog in the brewing fight for life, liberty, land and lusts for power including oil, gas, rubber and all the potential mineral wealth of Africa and Asia. Black men in the Caribbean and African colonies of European nations were in the fight from its very beginning and died in place, often unknown, as battles raged with thundering intensities never known in human history. Preachers who pretend to predict Armageddon is coming never saw or heard what did come by any other name. And, the end of the world did indeed come for a lot of souls, good, bad and indifferent including farmers standing in the fields of Poland and all the others kinds of people imagined in the Book of Revelations predicting end of the Roman world. Young men like the Kennedy brothers, far better enlightened and educated than most preachers pretending to be prophets, ... saw and heard the lightning and thunder of bombs and guns of a world ended for many souls.

More than 50 million people were killed during World War II (not including millions more under-counted in Africa and Asia), ... in a relatively long years of international combatants including the Japanese conquest of Manchuria and Italians that conquered Ethiopia. If the suffering that occurred was not called Armageddon, ... so what? And non-believers who did not believe cited beginnings other than Nazi bad news, ... most certainly were "born again" by war's end in 1945 to know evil is not restricted to race, color, sex, religion or geography? But, many old testament preachers did not see or hear the second coming that awakened youth like the Kennedys. But, as with all times of war, even when David was on the throne, ... many if not most people sought to avoid the coming horror. Voices of great men and women cried out, "Who shall we send?" "Send us" said the Kennedys. And when the storm came, Winston Churchill said it in year 1940: "Never did so many owe so much to so few."

So far as we know, the family that generated and inspired the Kennedys we knew, ... had everything many folks wanted: fertility, education, enlightenment, intelligence, good health and looks, liberty, friendships, and a lot of money to save, invest or spend. They did not have to do anything to help anyone, ... even in the worst of times and places in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indeed, why would well educated and enlightened Harvard men of means risk their lives when they could have stayed safely out of harms way like Richard Nixon and many other Kennedy adversaries and critics? In the reasoning of many envious men of letters and lesser endowments, ... the Kennedys were irrational, reckless and driven by "impossible dreams" like the Man From La Mancha. But the dreams of great minds like Abraham Lincoln, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy have been made real by our own existence as believers that even though evil men may slay our dreamers, ... they cannot destroy the dreams we inherited from them for goodness sake. The Kennedys are now many, many more and greater than ever before! And the dreams live on!

Rose Fitzgerald (July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995) on right was born of Christian generation #64 and became a mother that mattered a lot in generating goodness that benefited the "the least of us." We are reminded in our faith that without mothers, goodness can not come into existence except by the womb of mothers as it was in the spiritual beginning celebrated as Christmas. She was a gold star mother that suffered the loss of a beloved son and daughter in horrors that pitted the forces of evil against Allied forces in Africa, Asia and Europe. But, like the challenges and skills in playing the game of baseball, ... it was not easy for the Kennedys to pursue goodness, nor can we decide who was first or last in the body and spirit of Christ.

The non-believers would surely ask: "Why would your loving God take away the lives of a faithful woman's first-born son and first-born daughter?" We do not know but have observed the Kennedys "never were alone"! In fact, it took a team (mother and father) for each of them to be conceived and born, and in all things that mattered what we saw were people united, whether in fun or functional endeavors to help themselves and others. They all, always, teamed up with others to find, face and overcome adversities whether in the home, education or professions. And, the same holds true for other believers even like Bill Gates whose life and success is bound up in teaming with others especially his father and wife.

The individualism and fame sought by so many among the least of us was not be found in any of the Kennedys we saw and heard. Our concern is that so many youth are being indoctrinated by movies and television to see and believe individual achievement is by standing, thinking and acting alone, as though some type of fabled Greek god or John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Michael Jackson. We want them to understand the Christian doctrine of "two or more" applies in all matters seeking goodness even entertainment and sports. Too many preachers are ignorant of Christian doctrine that a young man or woman has to "get up, suit up and team up to win for goodness sake." Doing goodness alone is an absolute fallacy!

But we dare to believe that since birth of Jesus as the Christ to many believers, ... virtues of courage, faith, hope and love for "the least of us" have amazingly transcended generations past, present and future. And, those virtues have been displayed by many people and places such as the Fitzgerald-Kennedy families of Massachusetts since at least the American Civil War. It is hoped that gifted and talented in new generations will grasp the concept and evidence that even in the best of families and lives, ... goodness is without endings so long as believers exist.

Sort of like a professional baseball game with famed players, competing managers, base coaches, many umpires, billions of fans and unlimited innings. And, like all patriots before and after them in Massachusetts they were born of mothers, like Abigail Adams (and the unknown enslaved mother of Crispus Attucks), ... seeking goodness in their faith. Indeed, without faith there was no beginning of goodness in Kennedys.

The spirit of American freedom was born of courage in Massachusetts at a time and place when very few later beneficiaries of it, ... dared imagine that liberation from tyranny, slavery, polygamy, and serfdom was a Christian calling rooted in philosophical yearnings far above and beyond the ideas of organized religion and government. A generation of Black, White and Native American women in the 1740s-1750s gave birth to thousands of common boys (free and slave) who miraculously grew into courageous men nurtured with virtues heretofore believed to be held only by the educated elite.

Common men born of common (and especially slave) mothers were not expected to have a philosophy of life, other than obedience and faithfulness to their superiors in land, liberty, and litigation. But a uniquely Christian flame was lit in Boston that spread far beyond its boundaries into the hearts and minds of men and women for at least a hundred and fifty years (five generations). The Continental Congress, American Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War and Constitutional Conventions were mere beginnings in the faith that would generate men and means to not only end chattel slavery but pursue goodness against for "the least of us" throughout the earth, both Jew and Gentile.

Massachusetts was by far a bastion of the anti-slavery movement and when war came, it generated 73 regiments with approximately 147,000 men (including two composed of African-Americans led by White officers). Many of the young men conscripted or volunteered were born in Ireland and migrated to America during the great 1840s potato famine that uprooted millions and changed America. Over 14,000 of these young men died in the war and fatalities likely included one or more of the approximately 132 Fitzgerald and 127 Kennedy young men likely related to the Kennedy's we know and love. And, as with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (left), we believe their lives were not spent in vain but rather certainly sacrificed in the onward march of Christianity as we know it.

An argument can be made that John F. Kennedy and his siblings courageous and giving lives were DNA predictable perhaps a hundred years before we ever knew and loved four consecutive generations of goodness spanning significant events for "the least of us":

(1) Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (2) Her Kennedy offspring (4) Barrack and Michelle Robinson Obama as brother and sister in Christ to a lot of Kennedys and billions of others who would believe and understand.

And, less African-Americans should ever forget 50 years between 1960 and 2010, ... Cardinal virtues of faith, hope and love came out of the east in face of neo-Platonists who reasoned "the least of us" were not deserving or ready because we lacked courage necessary to be free. In their reasoning, superior people would never have accepted slavery and rather have been put to death than accept life as a slave; but many Kennedys and others in Massachusetts believed otherwise before and after the great war many believers perceived as battles of Armageddon.

A fascinating reference fact for us is the Civil War website documentation of many Fitzgerald and Kennedy young men from Massachusetts that served in Union military and naval forces; and, some were named Joseph, John, Robert and Edward. And they would have known that African-Americans like Samuel Ceasar on right, who served in the 5th Cavalry Regiment (U.S. Colored Troops) were also patriots. And so were more than 700,000 young White men who served honorably in the hundreds and thousands of campaigns and battles necessary for "the least of us" to be free and citizens today. We would argue the Fitzgerald's and Kennedy's along with many other Irish Catholics in Massachusetts likely saw and acted on our behalf long before we knew them to be in pursuit of goodness. The Irish potato famine that generated so many suffering immigrants was in effect an asset for the cause of Black emancipation.

A matter in fact is that many prominent men of means and letters in American history dating back to the post revolution years were adamant "the least of us" whether living slave or free should not be viewed or afforded the status of citizenship. Busrod Washington, Francis Scott Key, Washington Irving and many others wanted the government to deport otherwise free Blacks. And, the post-civil war urgings by many citizens in the east, west, north and south prompted a decidedly Christian liberation movement to generate 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution that silenced proponents of mass deportation, ... until very recently with new outcries to deport so-called aliens, even if born in the United States.

For us, it is important that educated youth of African heritage everywhere know and understand that liberation and equality could never have been obtained without souls like the Kennedy color and kind, and ought not be hip-hoped away in poetic raptures and rhetoric by voices and fiction writers that know not that they know not how liberation was achieved, ... beginning with the man from Galilee. Without an understanding of HIS philosophy that inspired many millions such as the Kennedy's, it is unlikely that we can comprehend what inspired them to live and do as they did.

The site is not about organized religion but courage, faith, hope and love that helps document our speculation that Fitzgerald and Kennedy soldiers and sailors unfamiliar to us, ... were related to the pursuit of goodness we saw and heard in our 20th century lifetimes. Indeed, there was a Kennedy (perhaps Black, Mulatto or White) who also served in the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment (colored troops) commanded by Colonel Robert Shaw, a young man born into a prominent Boston family that gave him up to glory in helping save the union and salvation of "the least of us."

Others like John (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald on left below were born (same year as Lee Lowry) during the great emancipation war. His faded picture is on left. Both men fathered offspring, with Fitzgerald raising up six in the body and spirit of Christ, and Lee Lowry raising up nine in the same faith. Even though of different states, denominations and even color they shared the common virtues and values including love of country. And, both would have daughters and grandsons who volunteered and served honorably during World War II in pursuit of goodness. We would argue their glory came in the generations generated that helped others long after death, if we choose to remember them as having lived a useful life?

They had a lot in common but a hundred years and three generations would be required before the world could understand why and the mystery in our faith that HIS spirit of goodness is without ending or easy to understand. We can document events and people but cannot prove a metaphysical purpose in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. But, we have free-will to believe. John F. Fitzgerald, born 1863

We are inclined to believe goodness spans more than a single lifetime and is fostered by: virtues of courage, faith, hope and love; and values of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness by people of many colors and places. It is not found by seeking affirmative actions among the dead, and believers ought to remember philosophy that goodness even when crucified will rise again in the cause of salvation. So, why do so many people believe in something our most advanced learning and reasoning cannot prove to exist? We cannot reason the Kennedy siblings inherited their charm from maternal grandfather "Honey Fitz" but all could sing the sweet sounds that my Aunt Adaline Kyle Atkins Brown and millions of women like her, young and old, loved to hear. It was a song many men loved to sing along with their barbershop quartets, and boys learned from fathers and team-mates to congregate closely in order to perform.

It is a very difficult task but a review of the beginnings and lives in pursuit of goodness is helpful in deciding who you are relative to others, of all colors, both at home and abroad. For us, the movement of hidden hands, spiritual projection of goodness is not easy to comprehend except by faith alone that such energy exists far before and beyond our own lives.

We are concerned that youth generations (born after World War II) of African-Americans should not be ignorant as to why older ones like Jesse Jackson and John Lewis, still alive and kicking, ... tend to view the Kennedys as brothers and sisters in spirit of Christ. By contrast, many enlightened and educated African-American ministers of the gospel are inclined to accept Clarence Thomas as related in the flesh; .... but not the spirit that helped lift us or anyone else UP during the past fifty plus fifty plus fifty years (five generations of evil and good) the Kennedys saw and heard in their focus on Christ. They saw and heard evil that propagated Adolf Hitler was the long awaited Messiah to save the Aryan race for rule over all other races and extermination of those not deserving of his salvation. They saw and heard boasting by Mussolini that Italians were going to bomb Ethiopians back into the stone age. They saw and heard proclamations from all over the world about who was superior and who was inferior to who. And, a real world Armageddon erupted for them to see and hear!

While most able bodied young men of sound minds in the English speaking world "including many in places like Ghana and the Virgin Islands) were conscripted into military services to help wage war against the Axis Powers, ... there were many others like Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. who did not wait for conscription but rather volunteered for the most challenging aspects of the war such as combat aviation and submarine service. The rigorous testing and training demands of such service generally eliminated most youth who sought to do so and only the very best, brightest and courageous were chosen. A degree from Harvard or Yale was affirmative action only to the extent that initial entry testing often occurred on the campus of choice; but, without the required stamina and other mental-physical attributes, most applicants were sent away to seek other endeavors in the military services.

Young Joe was one of the relatively chosen few Americans, British, Canadian and Australians the Allies depended so greatly on during the very dismal years of 1940-1944 when victory was always in doubt. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor because against all the odds, he climbed into the cockpit of plane loaded with dynamite intended to destroy a Nazi German submarine pen off the coast of France in the hope that doing such would hasten the end of a submarine warfare that had killed tens of thousands of Americans and British sailors. His body was never recovered after his plane exploded mid-air but the spirit that drove him to try and be helpful, ... we now know did not die.

It was a very significant event time-line in the history of African-Americans wherein very few White men of authority and influence believed "the least of us" mothers could possibly have conceived, birthed, nurtured, inspired, motivated and educated even a few young men with the courage, faith, hope and team spirit necessary to be a combat aviator. Hollywood projected images of African-Americans prior to the war had been devastating with many Black actors like Willie Best (on left) and many others helping to indoctrinate the widely accepted view that African-American young men were stupid, lazy, uneducated and certainly not courageous, ... and in fact scared of their own shadows and worse. The use of Blackface makeup by Black and White entertainers was very common and characterizations of African-Americans as inferiors to Whites and even animals such as family pets of Whites was desired and expected by movie fans.

Willie earned a lot of money appearing in over a hundred films and was loved by movie producers, directors and fellow actors for his characterization of young Black men in America. Men like Bob Hope thought of him as wonderful. So far as we can determine, he did not generate any goodness for anyone and died young. Before death, he had to have known that men of his color secretly despised him as a traitor to his ancestral kin that had fought and died in the Civil War to give him freedom to stand and walk like a man, ... not "Stepin Fetchit." Anti-Black bigotry by Jews and Gentiles in Hollywood was rampant. Many liberal souls like Robert L. Vann, owner of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper insisted that all young men, both Black and White, ought be given the opportunity to achieve the status of flying like an eagle. Another liberal First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt agreed to fly in an aircraft piloted an African-American and upon landing safely convinced the President that he should keep hope alive by allowing the best and brightest African-American young men to be tested and trained as combat aviators. Still, there were others condemned it as attempts at race mixing, ie social engineering.

The big challenge to the Kennedy brothers and sisters listening to Bing Crosby croon his famous big hit about brotherhood was whether or not the song included them. Many of the rich and famous families of the era did not agree that poverty was an issue for them to do anything about; but, we now know millions of youth in the 1920-1930s were inspired to think not simply about what to do with their lives, ... but more so how to hold onto their faith that "the least of us" were their brothers and sisters in Christ. And, yes, there were millions of believers and non-believers in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Caribbean, Europe and even the Pacific wh who reasoned differently. There were many ideologies that ranged from governments being indifferent to those such as fascists who reasoned rich Jews such as the Rothschild brothers in Frankfurt, London and Paris, ... were the cause of poverty and suffering.

Others like the Samurai that ruled Japan reasoned Asians could only prosper by being subjected to Japanese economic interests. In America, the infamous Ku-Klux-Klan ideology admired by Adolf Hitler more or less retracted back to its core base origins in the southern rebel states; but unlike the plight of Germanic Jews, ... African-Americans did not have a lot of wealth to be envied such as banking and merchandising establishments. Whereas Austrian, Dutch andGerman Jewry (unlike Jewry in Poland and Russia) was highly urbanized with synagogues, beautiful landed estates and other displays of living well, ... African-Americans in the rural south had next to nothing except their personal liberty and wooden church buildings well known to the Klan that burned them at will. The depression slowed urbanization based on industrial opportunities and competition among poor Blacks and Whites; and, subsequently virtually killed Klan organizing capabilities in the industrial north. Closed factories and mills could not be blamed on "the least of us."

Kennedy liberalism, ... like that of the Roosevelt's, Rockefellers and many other northeastern wealthy American families in the 1920s was rooted in what they saw and heard as Christians much more so than ideologies that sought to rationalize and reason human relationships, minus the philosophy of Christ. Ideologies of imperialism had generated World War I and loss of tens of millions in lives. To do or not to do to or for others? That was the big question in America, Asia and Europe as various ideologies such as capitalism, communism and fascism fluttered and flourished in the world's nation-states including United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The world-wide depression that erupted with the stock market crash of 1929 challenged many super-rich families to not only hold onto their financial wealth but also their faith as brothers and sisters in Christ as their light. The vast majority of rich people and their religious identities certainly did not perceive themselves to be brethren with people legally and socially categorized and classified by schools and mass media to be their inferiors. When the lights went out in Europe and all over the world, ... the sons and daughters of many rich and poor men and women (not all) were forced to embrace in a common cause to enlighten humanity

The Kennedy family is an example of people who are all of different personalities but of the familiar character we admire. Their virtues and values are not perfect but an example we have seen and heard for the past fifty years as helpful to "the least of us" ... while many others of equal or greater wealth have chosen to envy and hate them for trying to pursue goodness (affirmative action) beyond the walls of organized religion and tax-deductible charities. The Kennedys knew that except government initiated economic and social changes that included conscription and hiring of African-Americans during World War II and the Korean War, ... injustice and differentials based on race would have remained etched in fabric of a racist society nurtured by government and private enterprise managers, lawyers, police, judges, journalists and even entertainers.

We are fascinated about the character of those who would have them remembered to be less than the patriotic Christians they were. Selfish critics like Rush Limbaugh is reflective of ancestors like himself, having avoided military service in World I, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War. Civil War website indicates some of his ancestors did enlist as rebels against the U.S. Government, and that should never be confused as patriotism.

Indeed, even during the great war, him and his kind, ... managed to avoid rather than help defeat Axis Alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan. It is even more amazing that this self described champion of individualism and private enterprise has been generated by a family of men who seemingly have all lived on government paychecks for at least the past 100 years. We make this point to emphasize that moral worth is inherent in the spirit of Christ, ... and people like Limbaugh self-described conservatives have never advanced the cause of Christianity in America or anywhere else, and certainly are not called by Christ to judge Kennedy worthiness to "the least of us."

JFK on the far right in the picture below did not fear and open fire on the two Black men who happened to find him and his ship-wrecked crew. Rather, he used his inherited Kennedy charm and smile to seek and entreat Christian virtues he discovered them to possess. One might even say he received and accepted the much prayed for salvation, ... sent to him by the Lord that he probably prayed to during trials and tribulation of nearly being killed and captured by the Japanese. The sons of Nippon would surely have executed him and his men. Think about this possibility of being attacked by sharks while seeking rescue in the channel waters, or probability of a broken back, ... and leadership passed to another crew member who might have surrendered or even opened fire on the strange Black men who discovered them? What would Lt. George Bush, also a very courageous Harvard man who was one of the northeast rich elites in the Pacific, ... have done? (Note: President George Bush, Sr. was also awarded a silver star for his display of courage in the same very bloody campaign by the U.S. Navy).

Knowing all this and more about natives in the Solomon Islands, JFK had the courage nevertheless to seek embracing two Black strangers that unexpectedly appeared. We have to assume that he also had great faith that he and his crew would be rescued and probably prayed like he had never prayed before; and, he was not stupid. A favorite fable told around soldier campfires is about non-functional faith:

"the unbelieving believer who when warned about a coming flood advised police that he would trust in God and not move from his home. So, when the flood waters came, he waved away the boat sent for his rescue and prayed some more as he moved to the second floor of his home. When waters moved higher to engulf the second floor, he prayed some more for deliverance, and finally when the bedroom was under water the unbelieving believer simply moved atop the roof and prayed some more where he waved away a helicopter sent to rescue him. Waters came higher, covered the roof and the unbelieving believer continued to pray until he drowned. When his soul appeared before Saint Peter, he vehemently complained that he had faithfully prayed for deliverance never received. And, Peter laughed as he explained the prayers were received and they sent cops, a boat and a helicopter but being a stupid, ... you refused to move."

Though employed by the Australian coast watchers, Gasa and Kumana nevertheless required a lot of courage not given to ordinary men. Who is to say they, like JFK, with firearms at the ready were not inspired to the goodness that we now know as facts. Armed men in the tensions and surprise of strangers will almost always shoot first and ask questions later but JFK did not see these Black men as his potential enemies and the rest is history that Hollywood screen-writers 50 years ago understood, ... faith and fate of a gifted child called and able to perceive a common humanity in "the least of us."

In the movie about his life and challenges as a young naval officer in the Pacific, Hollywood movie-makers to their credit did not, or Kennedy probably vetoed, any typical artistic expression, casting and characterizations of tribal men as naked savages with war-paint, feathers, and skulls and bones. And, aspiring black actors and walk-ins were spared the challenge of getting a day's pay as an actor to denigrate "the least of us." Perhaps we should thank JFK since like his father before him, he reviewed and essentially approved the script before the movie was made.

The miracle was not that he survived Japanese sinking of his boat, but rather the acts of courage, faith, hope and love during days of ordeals above and beyond what average men would have overcome. And it came to past that writers, and preachers too, should know many young men and women like young John F. Kennedy answered "send me" when the call sounded, "Who will I send?" Indeed, anyone who doubts the killing that raged in first half of the 20th century was not a biblical proportion Armageddon, ... likely also cannot imagine more than a hundred million violent deaths including Africans, Asians, Europeans and over 450,000 Americans. The entire world was engulfed in it! Pretentious pulpit preachers and bible readers who imagine something worse is coming were likely asleep or unborn in the body of knowledge about functional Christian experiences and salvation.

Enlightened and educated African-Americans like Attorney Robert L. Vann, publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier and all Black College Presidents and Chaplains knew the war being waged was something that would very much impact the future of millions of Black children not yet born. They saw and heard what fascism did and was doing in Africa (including South Africa), Asia and Europe where human beings deemed inferior were categorized and classified, ... to be treated as such. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia had warned the League of Nations and world of preachers, teachers and politicians back in 1937 that doing nothing to stop the wanton Italian bombing and invasion of Ethiopia was an omen of Armageddon begun.

And mind you all to forever remember that had Japan not surrendered in 1945, there would have been at least a hundred thousand African-American gold star mothers by Christmas. The war plans and capabilities of both the British Empire and United States duly anticipated a long and bloody invasion of the Japanese home islands, and casualty predictions included the many African heritage troops that would have been engaged. It is silly for any enlightened and educated scholar to dare suggest any less than a million American young men would have died in the first week or weeks of the scheduled invasion.

Reading about racism and the various discourses of learning about it, such as the writings by serious Black writers is good for those seeking to gain greater knowledge but ought never become a substitute for understanding that many, many, many young Black men dating back to the first and second American revolutions for liberty paid a dear price for it. Neither emancipation from slavery nor the acquisition of civil rights ever occurred without prices in blood being paid by a lot of young men who generated no heirs because they were dead, cripple or crazy from what they had "seen and heard."

We were pleasantly surprised to learn the story of John F. Kennedy, like our own, was very much a product of the great Emancipation War that reestablished the United States as one nation, under God, for the people, of the people and by the people. The Kennedy's were born of faith, hope and love that included the courage of Fitzgerald and Kennedy ancestral kin in Massachusetts in the Union forces of good during the American Civil War; and enlightened and educated African-Americans at Harvard and other bastions of learning ought never allow their patriotism to be unlinked from the courage we saw and heard in the brothers that spanned our lifetimes.

The critical endorsement and support by the Kennedys for Senator Barrack Obama to become the Democratic Party's nominee for the office of President of the United States was about a lot more than political considerations but rather a continuation of their cause to help make right matters that have been wrong. We want youth to know that Kennedys required a lot of family heritage courage to undergo the hatred vented against them for their outreach to us.

The first generation of them in Massachusetts and serving in the Union Army likely knew feelings of resentment at being categorized lesser human beings than descendents of early Pilgrims or "lace curtain Irish." Their second generation saw and heard religious bigotry against Roman Catholics, ... and the third generation overcame it all for themselves and "the least of us." There are many self described Puritans and even middle-age tea-party pretenders who view the Kennedy brood as unappreciative traitors to their inherited class of wealth (there are an estimated 400 billionaire families in the United States of which the Kennedy's could be one of them if they ever wanted to. With their kind of brains, charm and energy a single team of them on wall street could have quickly out performed their fabled "Papa Joe."

Kwame N'Krumah and Martin Luther King, Jr. bonded as brothers in the body and spirit Christ long before most activists in the 1960s comprehended they were intellectual giants with a common cause to help uplift "the least of us" with the philosophy of Jesus, not the ideologies of left or right-wing political strategies. They both welcomed youth generations of the day to join them in a journey both comprehended would be longer than their lifetimes. After all is said and done, men and women, regardless of how gifted and talented are only flesh and blood if not empowered with the energy to lift up and fly like an eagle. Believers like Shirley Chisholm personified the cause of Black women professionally trained social workers in high and low places, ... not socialism as an academic excursion of various ideologies with no measureable beneficiaries among "the least of us."

We offer this critique to those who would believe that after our experiences into, during and up from slavery, persecution and segregation: we should never allow or be silent in the face and place of those men or women who rationalize capitalism, conservatism, communism, fascism, feminism, liberalism, Limbaughism, Marxism, materialism, Mobutism, nationalism, racism, socialism, tribalism or any ideology that seeks to ignore or replace our ancestral beliefs in a living Christ.

More than just ministers still believe that without something miraculous, we would never gotten up from where our ancestors had fallen! For non-believers, we urge them to examine the historical facts rather than putting their faith in faithless talking heads who seek to reason into existence something that never was or will be in generating goodness.

For absence of a better teaching point, we suggest that scholars help preachers look at the Fitzgerald-Kennedy lineage of goodness to comprehend that Joe, John, Robert and Edward may have been vessels in the passage of goodness that existed even before they were conceived and born. For African-Americans in particular they were all shinning lights atop the hill in march of Christianity that lifted us up to behold the wonders and mysteries of faith held by some (not all) among "the least of us." The ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also embraced the Kennedys.

We invoke the memory of Dr. King to remind scholars that he rejected the notion that violence against or within the most powerful nation ever on earth, ... could not bring about beneficial change for "the least of us." Both the Civil War and wars of the 20th century proved his point the U.S. Government ought not be challenged to be violent. Ask the Japanese! Ask Black Panthers like Bobby Seales and Elbridge Cleaver? It was always sheer nonsense by the uneducated and unenlightened in imagining that young men who could not even organize and sponsor baseball teams and leagues for boys, ... could somehow recruit, train and pay militant young men to pursue goodness or conducive change such as good health.

We should not go to our graves allowing urban fiction writers and demagogues to proclaim and claim powers Black Power Movement that never existed in bringing about changes we hold precious and dear such as: ... young men helping to raise up a new and better generation by integrating a greater society of virtues and values paid for with the blood, sweat and tears of generations that Dr. King saw and heard. And, in his lifetime, even the under-educated such as Malcolm X came to understand that Elijah Mohammed (former Baptist preacher) was wrong in his vision of racial separation.

World War II confirmed the world or nations cannot be separated by race since genetically there is only one ... the human race. Too many scholars, failing to analyze the functions and factors of real power that can be measured by methods and means of proven analysis, ... are allowing themselves to lend creditability to illusions about power rather than relationships with believer generations like the Kennedys spanning over a hundred and fifty years. By researching and reading only about a single person or place in the name of scholarship we exclude realities that matter most, ... the spiritual existence of a goodness not often seen but self-evident by the second or third generation.

Our story we want the world to not forget is that of young John F. Kennedy before and after he became the President of the United States and declared to the world that segregation was morally wrong. Doing so required a kind of courage not common at all among world leaders and even less so in presidential politics. We are compelled to believe President Kennedy was one of many in a long line of believers with the courage to act in their faith. No President, King or Queen since Abraham Lincoln had the courage to make such a statement of doctrine, ... mindful that most Christians and Jews believed their moral values in the eyes of God for five centuries should not be challenged.

Prior to the racially defined realities in World War II, most Americans viewed African-Americans as a minority race in the United States. Very few viewed "the least of us" as part of Judeo-Christian majority embraced in moral doctrine the majority lived by. As Dr. King noted, eleven o'clock on Sunday mornings were the most segregated hours in America; and very few priests or preachers challenged the doctrine that made it so.

Senator Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley among many self-styled conservatives and libertarians both renounced the new doctrine pronounced by JFK as liberal attempts to dictate morality and an infringement on American liberty. But the new doctrinal pronouncement impacted and moved sufficient activists among Christendom and Reformed Judaism already shaken by Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail.

And before President Kennedy declared racial segregation was morally wrong, ... he had already signed executive orders that made it possible for our current president Barrack Obama to be conceived and born in the United States; visualized not only the Civil Rights Acts to tear down entrenched evil such as apartheid in America; but also fathered the Peace Corps to help Africa transcend into modern nationhood. Before his death he initiated affirmative action that opened the doors of public policy making by thousands of people with African heritage backgrounds such as Thurgood Marshall. And though millions of men and women in America and abroad would condemn and even hate him for his Christian activism (liberalism), ... he and his family members did these things and more for "the least of us."

AFRICAN HERITAGE INCLUDES A CENTURY OF KENNEDY COURAGE, FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE OF CHRIST

As an example, we can cite but not sufficiently reason as to why President John F. Kennedy affirmatively acted on behalf of "the least of us." Political scholars have tried for more than fifty years to analyze the man without understanding his functional faith inheritance, not to be confused with organized religious participation. Indeed, Clarence Thomas with no apparent inherited faith up from slavery or projection into the future, ... is also a Roman Catholic but certainly not of the same affirmative virtues and values as the Kennedy brothers and sisters. For Thomas any initiative by government not authorized in the constitution is unconstitutional (including Jefferson's Preamble Declaration that all men are created equal and Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves). He is not alone for there are millions who historically profess to be believers but devote their lives in reasoning judgments that disrupt actions to help uplift "the least of us."

We are not preachers but want new generations to understand historic adversaries to generations of goodness, ... very much unlike the Kennedys who joined reasoning with their faith, which is not easy to do even for great philosophers and nearly impossible for jurists like Clarence Thomas. Wanabees such as Thomas mindsets (with no history of ever helping anyone but themselves) among others who call themselves conservatives have the audacity to imagine generations of goodness before them, ... including all the Kennedy's, both Martin Luther Kings' and Thurgood Marshall, were philosophically misguided. Such men and women never explain what they would have done or even now do, ... in situations of past, present or future confronting "the least of us." Which ones if any would have joined arms with the very liberal republicans of their color but not their kind in combating injustice? In fact, the generation of goodness is a family affair measurable by generations and "fruit does not fall far from the tree!"

We do not know the names of disciples or denominations that obviously labored for love of Christ in New Guinea but John F. Kennedy likely knew and understood the Black men confronting him may have been sent to help rather than harm him. JFK was more than a scholar in that having read widely and very quickly, ... he was able to apply knowledge gained to conclude quickly that Gasa and Kumana might be helpful. Indeed they were, having been sent by Australian coast watchers to find him if he would receive them. Had they failed or Kennedy's men refused to accept their offer of friendship, African-American history during the past 60 years would have been quite different indeed. The Allied forces would still have conquered the vast Pacific expanse below including the Solomon Islands, ... but racial persecution and segregation as we knew it worldwide would have continued unabated throughout the 20th century. True, the spirit of goodness may have emerged in another man or woman but who, when, where and how?

Gifted and talented writers can surely imagine that without Gasa and Kumana, ... there would not have been a Congressman Kennedy, Senator Kennedy and President-Elect Kennedy and future Attorney General "Brother Bobby" in 1960. There would have been no one to call the Birmingham jail and warn Alabama officials to not allow beating, lynching or otherwise traditional harms to Dr. Martin Luther King. Can anyone imagine Richard Nixon and his prospective Attorney General (John Mitchell) taking such an initiative had he won the election of 1960? Without the Kennedy brothers, the historic civil rights march and Dr. King's inspirational message at the Washington Mall in 1963 would never have gained official permission to occur. There is no way that President Eisenhower would have approved the request for such a gathering. Ike would have feared and acted to prevent a cause for the breakdown of law and order?

One might argue in theory the fate of Martin Luther King, other African-Americans and that of Africans everywhere flowed from the uniquely Christian faith of a gifted White man and two Black men in the Solomon Islands who overcame their fear of the Japanese who routinely executed anyone caught doing anything suspicious. It is almost unthinkable that had Jack Kennedy not been elected President in 1960, ... any of the events initiated by him would have been successfully pursued by Black Republicans like Arthur Fletcher. Fletcher designed and implemented Nixon's affirmative action plan to generate a relatively few Black millionaires via government contracting that annually generated many thousands of White wealthy businessmen and women.

Many courageous Black Republicans like Jackie Robinson, Arthur Fletcher and Bill Atkins may have tried to influence President Richard Nixon during critical era of 1960 - 1968, ... but to little or no avail without the Kennedy brothers in the Senate winning friends and allies for the same. Bill Atkins was a close friend of Whitney Young, worked closely for the moderate Republican Governors William Scranton and Raymond Shaffer; and knew many in his party aligned with Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. He later observed that few, if any, republican leaders had the willingness or political courage to do what the Kennedy's did.

In those days, progressive African-Americans born into Lincoln republican families up from slavery such as those of: Roy Wilkens of Kentucky, Whitney Young of Missouri, William Beverly Carter of Pennsylvania and Edward Sexton of Kansas, ... greatly admired the courage and Christian beliefs of Robert F. Kennedy. In private, they referred to Black democrat friends as "Brothers on the other side" and to Kennedy as "Brother Bobby." RFK was their kind of Christian, both courageous and rich; and the fact that he was not a republican never overshadowed moral centrist they saw and heard.

Ed Sexton and his family were republicans a long time before most African-Americans switched to the Democratic Party, and a century longer than White southern democrats who decided to become republicans. African-American republicans in Kansas and Michigan such as Paul Lawrence Reeves Wilson Brady, born 1927 (appointed to the federal bench by President Nixon) were born into families long engaged in anti-racist causes and organizing; and welcomed Christian fellowship with the Kennedy brothers even though registered in different political parties.

Ed was a friend of U.S. Senator Robert Dole and had access to Senator Everett Dirksen who was the Senate Republican Leader, and helped write and push forward the Civil Rights legislation that many Blacks, Whites and even women who benefited from it, ... now proclaim as undesirable liberalism. Sexton also admired Robert F. Kennedy, said so to the electorate in Kansas, and was elected to the State Senate before becoming Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee during Nixon's first term.

He was not afraid to pronounce in a political speech that ... "the party of Lincoln" his ancestors joined during the Civil War was "for the people, of the people and by the people" whichever came first. African-Americans like like Sexton were born into families with long histories of opposition to color coded causes and passions predating the Civil War when Kansas was an ideological battleground before the war finally erupted. His ancestors sided with Christians helping rather than enslaving "the least of us;" ... and put their lives on the line for freedom and liberty, while most African-Americans directly affected simply watched and/or "waited on the Lord."

It was certainly that way during lifetimes of the Kennedy brothers we observed. Some did something helpful to "the least of us" while most did nothing to help themselves or others; but, in the spirit of Christ were certainly equal to receive the blessings some may even have prayed for. Indeed, it is a mystery of our faith that so many who owe so much to so few should not be enlightened and educated to know who they are. We want African-Americans to preserve memories of those who came in HIS name even though they died doing so. The Kennedy brothers certainly did, and whether republican or democrat we ought not let ideology of the right or left obscure their truths in being believers. Now that they are all deceased, African-American youth need to be told their story in the context of our own beliefs in a living Christ, not pretentious faiths or ideologies.

William Beverly Carter was absolutely impressed when RFK not only went to South Africa but proclaimed the racist government therein his beliefs that apartheid was wrong and immoral. Not even the powerful Nelson Rockefeller would have displayed such courage. After his death, many made clear they would have voted and even campaigned for him had he lived to win the Democratic Party nomination for President and a near certain election to the presidency. In fact, these men of means that mattered did not see RFK or even JFK as democrats so much as they viewed contents of their character to be in the moral center of political life at home and abroad. Almost to a man, they all cared about "the least of us" in Africa, ... not due to political ideology but rather like the Kennedys because Christ asked that we do so. Many went into Africa at every opportunity, and it is very symbolic to African-Americans that not only did Dr. Dubois die in Africa on the eve of Martin Luther King's famous address in 1963; but also Whitney Young in 1971 who passed away in waters off Nigeria that likely had brought his ancestors from West Africa to America.

It is most ironic that so many Republicans of African heritage like Judge Brady with ancestry links back to the beginnings in the Party of Lincoln were not only overlooked by the modern party of mostly people who know little or nothing about the history and actions of the generations and causes that preceded them. There is an obvious difference between opportunists like Thomas versus the Kennedy faithful who for over fifty years have demonstrated that joining one's faith with reasoning is not easy but can be done. Thomas by his own admission makes no effort to do so, but merely looks to see if a matter is addressed in the constitution, ... not the preamble, bill of rights, legislative discussion or any other factors, including the philosophy of Christ. Most enlightened and educated African-Americans up from slavery are morally obligated to remember brothers and sisters in Christ that helped lift us up, not embrace make believe ideologies without historical substance or facts. Prior to the current generation of opportunists claiming to be and wanting to be imitators of life, ... Black republicans were sincerely conservative about preserving the virtues and values of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and thousands of others that paid the price and bore the burden of actions exemplified by the Kennedys. "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. [John: 34]"

Years before he died, Clarence Pendleton literally shocked Christian believers by coining the phrase "bleeding heart liberals" Truly, the man was a heathen to have uttered such a contemptuous remark. Yes, many of us raised up in the faith of our ancestors up from slavery shed buckets of water seeing Jackie Kennedy holding the head of JFK as his life ebbed away. And, what believers did not cry seeing images of preachers like Andrew Young cry as they watched Martin Luther King die in Memphis at the Lorraine Hotel. And, we cried again when seeing images of rich and famous Roosevelt Grier on left shed tears of remorse and prayer as he held the head of Robert F. Kennedy following the fatal shooting that occurred in Los Angeles. Rosey was a Christian believer who loved the Kennedys because they too were believers in his Lord, not because they were rich and famous. He seemed never to forget who died for him and "the least of us" including rich, handsome and privileged Kennedys who did not have to do what they did. As Joe Kennedy senior once remarked, "each has enough money to do as they please."

Indeed, most rich folks have had free will to generally do as they please; and the fact that many have done for others is more about ideology or tax deductible contributions and claims of philanthropy. but rather the spirit we believe in, which is the application of everlasting energies of life. People not enlightened and educated in the faith cannot understand. They have knowledge about the bible and organized religion but not understanding.

How did a man like Pendleton graduate from an institution like Howard University and not hold onto the faith that espoused affirmative actions by believers? Pendleton exploited every affirmative action program in sight including the Baltimore and San Diego Model Cities programs that paid him well above what he was earning as a swimming coach at Howard University. Like Judas, he betrayed those who had tried to love and honor him with trust. What he experience in the Baltimore Model Cities program was a wakeup call that urban conditions and decay were worst than imagined even ten years before Congress finally enacted laws to help the helpless. But, rather than helping he did what others would do, ... denounce the incompetence, immorality and waste laid before his feet. And, when the public money to pay him was ended by President Nixon in July 1973, ... he like hundreds of others decided to become a republican to get a job. Ed Sexton said his phone was ringing off the hook, ... wanting help to send their resume to John Erlichman at the White House or any other place that would put them on the payroll. And, we do not critisize those who took advantage of opportunities to do so; but, rather our contempt is for men and women who did so by embracing anti-Kennedy ideologies of resurgent racism against "the least of us."

We are confused and often wonder, who are these new comers in the cause of who, what, when, where, why and how, ... minus the philosophy of Christ? How is it that so many gifted and talented athletes, of all educated African-Americans, ... seem no longer to care or carry the torch that lighted their way. Even in places like Washington, D.C. wherein during the 1950s, the graduates of places like Cardoza, Dunbar and Spingarm High Schools with outstanding athletes like the Baylor, Swann and Wills brothers, ... the spirit of goodness espoused by the Kennedys was self-evident. There were many athletic souls from therein who took their gifts and talents into Africa and the Caribbean to find and help "the least of us" learn and love the sports in which they had excelled. And, men and women in the urban centers abroad learned to call them coach and great words in the faith like "sister and and brother."

All who saw and heard about the Kennedys knew it was likely that the greatest would be the least as they, like Jackie Robinson, made way for the coming of an ever greater champion. Elgin Baylor certainly sensed the coming of Magic Johnson to the Los Angeles Lakers. He was from Cardoza High and knew the clock was forever running on him and all great athletes. It was not enough to be the best of the best on the fields of dreams but also when the games were played and won; and careers as players ended to devote some time and resources to finding and integrating "the least of us, boys and girls" into love of the game and each other. The real story behind the stories about the Kennedy Brothers and Sisters is that all loved the sport of life by living believers. They knew their turn had come and would go to make way for the coming of others, ... perhaps making the least of them among the greatest of us as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The superficial ideal of individual worthiness is a selfish cop-out by men and women who have no history or intent of helping anyone other than them and theirs. O. J. Simpson comes to mind as a successful man without any plan to "help somebody." Labeling themselves as Black conservatives does not erase the stench of Black hypocrisy that smells just as bad as that generated by Whites with the same attitudes and behaviors towards "the least of us." Several of the most wealthy of Black millionaires have died during the past decade generating funerals that families were hard pressed to find and write about anyone helped by their existence. One prominent Black billionaire lawyer, known to be selfish, before avoiding the Vietnam War and making his first millions, ... died unexpectedly and most former undergrad classmates and fraternity brothers avoided the funeral. A few noted that he had refused to help historically Black Colleges and Universities with dire needs but instead gave his money to Harvard that did not need it. They compared him to Willie Gary, also a former athlete and graduate of a historically Black institution, just as rich and financially frugal, ... but much more liberal in his attitudes and energies devoted to helping "the least of us."

Robert F. Kennedy was a rich lawyer who had no self serving reasons to be liberal but he certainly was when "the least of us" needed voices in the wilderness like Thurgood Marshall, ... would not have been anywhere near America's federal court system without the Kennedys. Certainly not on the Supreme Court as a predecessor to Clarence Thomas who imagines that "he just happens to be Black." By contrast to Justice Thomas, both below men who "just happened to be black and Christian" were also sworn to live and uphold the same constitution. The below souls covered two different generations under the same constitution and Christ that Thomas claims to believe in. But Davis never did throughout official segregation, color-coded silence treatment at West Point World War II, ... separate his reasoning about America from that of faith in Christ. Young Milton Olive whose greatest ambition in life was to become a minister of the gospel in Chicago with guys like the young dynamic Jesse Jackson, ... did not separate reasoning from his faith in Christ even unto death and wanted to be what Clarence Pendelton referred to as a "bleeding heart liberal." African-Americans owe a lot, if not everything, ... to liberal thinking about the life and lives of others. What is liberal?

Kennedy's philosophical moorings were in the philosophy of life given by Jesus, ... not Plato, Socrates or Aristotle as many classical thinkers tried to espouse. Facts are that Kennedy's spiritual existence cannot be explained by classical thinking. He not only inspired a nation to land men on the moon but to do so righteously with thousands of inventions that have benefited "the least of us." He accomplished more goodness between 1944 and 1964 than many of the great philosophers, excepting Jesus, achieved in their lifetimes. Like Jefferson before him, Kennedy read and understood the classics and Shakespeare too. He understood that "to whom much is given (power), much is expected." He did not seek the Presidency for purposes of enriching the wealthy class or restraining "the least of us."

Had the Kennedy brothers not come along to affirmatively see and hear "the least of us," ... counter strategies to advance aspirations of young Black men like Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes on left would not have occurred in the circles of political powers. Both men avoided serving in the U.S. military on the flimsy excuse they had high lottery numbers but were supportive of the war without volunteering. They were clearly too selfish to be liberal do-gooders; and decidedly non-liberal minds would have had no need for them to negatively critique Jesse Jackson and other young Black ministers (also opposed to the war in Vietnam) preaching in the streets of hopelessness and despair. But, Jesse and other civil rights proponents were not hypocrites like Thomas and Keyes who avoided it, ... and then years later claimed to be one with conservative ideology that generally supported it as "a war against the communists." Before his death, President Kennedy had made clear his intention to withdraw American military advisors from Vietnam wherein factors included a small Roman Catholic minority attempting to rule a country wherein the vast majority were Buddhists. And the national hero in North and South Vietnam was Ho Chi Ming, ... who had been an ally in helping America and Great Britain defeat the Japanese in Indo-China. America had been duped by the post-WWII French connection.

Much more useful and important to the least of us in Africa and America, ... the spirit of goodness espoused in the courage of Robert F. Kennedy condemnation of apartheid in South Africa would not have occurred in the persons of few other significant politicians in the era. And, President Reagan in the 1980s would not have cared to hear Keyes at the United Nations condemning efforts by "the least of us" to condemn investments by Americans in upholding the economic system of apartheid. Guys like Jesse Jackson and Randall Robinson would not have been able to develop a listening audience among African-Americans or anyone else to give a damn about Blacks in South Africa. Self-styled Black opportunists like Keyes, by abandoning and avoiding any efforts to help Nelson Mandella, a devout believer, ... were in effect abandoning the Catholic faith of men like Robert F. Kennedy having reasoned it was in their self interests to voice the views of men and women who called themselves conservatives.

It is amazing indeed that anyone, especially those up from slavery, could claim on one hand to be believers in Christ and on the other embrace ideology devoid of his philosophy. We are most fortunate for the Kennedy brothers and sisters, ... never so arrogant as to supplant classical reasoning over their faith as many hypocrites do. We can bet our last dollar that without the Kennedy intervention, Martin Luther King would likely, exactly like Nelson Mandella across the sea, ... have been charged and found guilty of communist instigated sedition with a subsequent sentence of 20 years to life imprisonment.

The Southern Christian Leadership Movement would not have died but like the African National Congress in South Africa, ... it would have been categorized as a communist front organization linked to similar activities in places like Ghana where N'Krumah's functional Christianity (government provided health care and schools for future mothers) was viewed with suspicion by Americans "fighting communism."

JFK would have been knowledgeable and impressed that so many Ghanaian young men had struggled and sacrificed their lives in the great Pacific war against the evil Empire of Japan. Jack Kennedy would have known that Kwame N'Krumah lived at Burma Camp in Accra named in honor of Ghanaians who died in Burma while fighting Japanese aggression in Asia and the Pacific. He would have known that many Africans had served the British Empire in fighting and dying against the evils revealed in Fascist Germany and death of his beloved brother and sister. We now know that had he lived it is very doubtful the United States Government would have sided with forces conspiring to destroy N'Krumah's influence in Africa. N'Krumah's bottom-line, as we now know and understand was to always to generate a better generation of mothers to generate better generations of young men and women to change Africa for the better, not foreign ideologies of the east or west though both sides may have claimed to embrace the spirit of goodness such as health care and education for "the least of us."

Kennedy did not fear African, African-American and African-Caribbean liberation initiatives as having hidden Marxist beginnings. It was only after JFK was gone that media pundits, like ideology driven William Saffire of the New York Times, gained influence and power interpreting both men as cold war adversaries rather than Christians trying to be useful to the Christ they believed in. Our concern is that so many youth lacking geographical or historical knowledge up from the past of human degenerations, denigrations and persecutions including slavery and polygamy, ... have not been enlightened enough via education and their environments to understand how we got up to the moon or beyond the cotton curtain and ideologies of non-believers in "the least of us."

And we hope new generations are enlightened by the same spirit of change championed in gifted and talented peers "Talented Tenth" ... born of mothers enlightened in the cause of goodness in multi-generations before and after any or all of us (including preachers who allegedly "talk to God")! How does a family come into existence? By generating new generations in pursuit of goodness, or even "Sly and the Family Stoned" which is now too often a reality among "the least of us" in households wherein mothers and dependent children seek happiness in the shadows of darkness rather than enlightenment in pursuit of lasting goodness. During the turbulent 1960s-1970s, Sly was a famous cheer-leader in the cause of drug induced feelings.

Feeling good in a group of people engaged in the use of hallucinating alcohol and drugs has never generated goodness, and referring to each other as family occurred in a baby-boomer generation of Americans who sought to redefine it. A generation of alcohol and drug addiction is bad news, not good. And Kennedys experienced that also as with "the least of us." Our hopes are that gifted and talented youth will not be influenced by alcohol and drugs nor constrained by reasoning based on clothing, color, hair, sexuality, and other trappings of modern media about human attitudes and behaviors. We want youth generations to see and hear about some of the matters seen by us during past decades of wonder and climbing to tell our story rooted in the good news (beyond but not excluding parameters of organized religion pastored by trained and trustworthy souls).

The big picture of the bigger than life Pacific Ocean for certain is beyond abilities of many writers to understand the world outside their ghetto based ideologies rooted in single-mother households often without grand-parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins or even self esteem, ... and often induced by mind altering drugs that distort realities of existence as beneficiaries of goodness by prior generations. A lot of otherwise best and brightest baby-boomers, born after 1945, were blessed with world-war survivors that included young men like John F. Kennedy and Harry Belafonte. Had Japan not surrendered, the planned invasion was predicted to cost at least a million American lives including African Americans and probably young Jack Kennedy and his brother Robert also in the Navy. We say, the Kennedy's like Belafonte are an important milestone in African heritage history up from a challenging past that included World War II, ...the possible undesired outcome of which during 1941-1944 threatened not only Jews in Europe but also "the least of us" in Africa and Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

Take time to travel and learn outside the ghettoes of despair and destructive new generations. Perhaps visit people and places of courage such as the University of Papau New Guinea. They have children to educate and many stories to tell about their faith, hopes and love of others many would like to know. With some seven million inhabitants, they are perhaps the lesser numbers of "the least of us" and speak some 850 different languages in cultures that essentially have not traveled or urbanized. But, mothers and potential mothers like the native pictured on left have given or will give birth to a new generation of believers up from a fractured past like others among "the least of us."

Email: Editors, More Mary Matters bradyenterpriseassociation@gmail.com

with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2010 Brady Enterprise Association, Inc.
Last modified: 12/29/16

Email: Editors, More Mary Matters bradyenterpriseassociation@gmail.com

with questions or comments about this web site.Copyright © 2010 Brady Enterprise Association, Inc.Last modified: 12/29/16

with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2010 Brady Enterprise Association, Inc.
Last modified: 12/29/16