The Least Of These

On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, "Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask Him, "When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?" And Jesus will answer them, "Whatever you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!"


Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Opening statement given at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC Thur, 3 Feb 94






Please don't think that you have to put this behind you. This will be an issue that you will continue to speak of until you hit your grave.

In my eyes, it's nice that somewhere around 32 million more Americans will have access to healthcare, and that most Americans (if they want) can have federal subsidies pay for healthcare. It's also not all gloom and doom that there is a mandate requiring all to have at least a minimum of catastrophic health insurance or one has to pay into a pool which would be used to pay for the massive healthcare overhaul whenever the president sings the bill into law. We have used our military, intellectual and diplomatic might to help put other countries in a similar position over the past 100 or so years. All of the countries we assisted in tearing down (Germany, Japan, France to name some of the major players) we also suggested and constructed their version of universal healthcare as well as ways of government.

I urge all of you that haven't taken the time and don't know to check out Roosevelt's Second Bill Of Rights. While this never came into existence, it would have shut down any conversation we're having now about what is a right versus what is privilege. Our country has taken a hard turn downward and to the right since FDR passed.

This leads me to my belief that the passage of HR 3590 is one of the most important bill passages in civil rights history.

See, most of that 32 million that will have access to healthcare when that bill gets signed are some form of brown skinned person. Access and affordability when it comes to healthcare has been one of the most pressing issues along with obtaining a proper and equal education, the unbalanced bias of the justice system, overall freedoms of citizenship and access to resources that are readily available to all Americans.

It's not that this is overly complicated. It's not that it wasn't explained properly and thoroughly. In repeated attempts to marginalize, discredit and slander the African American president over suggesting a very tattered and used policy that we've seen before (even with the kickbacks, payoffs and back room deals) and his administration as well as the politicians and civilians that assisted the crafting of the 2010 bill, a certain group of Americans chose not to understand and have been and will continue to use hatred, racism and nationalism to paint the process and continued actions in a negative light.

They purposely misinterpreted the words and actions. They lied and slandered their way to an argumentative point with no real counter. They rallied millions against their own personal interests in continued efforts to marginalize, undervalue and underestimate the president, and those that would receive access once healthcare would be overhauled using the excuse of overtaxation and the emergence of a welfare state.

Racism by way of nationalism and white privilege. There, I said it.

Now of course, it ain't everybody, just that fringe 15% that has the power to infect the masses. The fringe has done well. Whereas the internet, newspapers, television and plain old word of mouth have worked out well in informing the masses and giving us access to research we can do on our own accord, it was a certain fringe that flooded the airwaves and reading periodicals, the internet and spread lies and gossip about a certain 'so-called' communist, Marxist, socialist, Muslim's evil agenda.

They taught me as a kid (in those old history books that still had MLK alive and under terror watch by JEH) that we were a nation of a mixed beautiful mass, hellbent on helping our fellow citizen thus forming a more perfect union. Unless you're brown skinned, of course. I live with the overstanding that in this country, our cultural conditioning teaches us to consider all things African American inferior and all things Caucasian superior and based on our cultural conditioning, African Americans are marginalized, undervalued and underestimated.

So mad some folks are over this black man at the helm of our country and that policy has been raised, voted on and enacted so that more folk that look like him will be able to remain healthy due to access to the same freedoms that they have been since the establishment of this union...

I urge you to not put this behind you. I beg of you to not forget these moments. I can tell you with all certainty that they will not.

Wealth's True Joy

One of the greatest joys we can experience is that of knowing that we are secure enough in our resources to do our part to ensure that others can enjoy blessings similar to our own. There is a sense of impotence that comes with being unable to share our limited wealth with people in need. When we achieve a level of abundance that allows us to make use of the richness of our lives in a charitable and selfless manner, we come to understand that money and possessions have little value beyond what they are used for. Used philanthropically, our resources become a blessing more profound than any we’ve enjoyed in the past because we understand that we are not the only ones positively impacted by them. As you use your resources to do good in life, you will feel, for the first time, truly appreciative of your abundance.


- Djehuty Ma'at-Ra