Keddist Sellassie's Blog

Be merciful to the poor

Keddist from Oakland, CA — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:51:42 EDT

Understand that it is God who gives you positions of power over the poor and it is God who will judge you sternly that He may give mercy and pardon the poor. (Wisdom 6)

Our senseless and wicked thoughts mislead us. Recognize that we are punished by the very things through which we sin (Wisdom 11:15,16). The war on poverty was not successful! Ghettoes and slums still exist which is of course second class housing, schools and healthcare at best. A job paying $25 an hour cannot overcome imposed poverty. Why not put resources into these areas to make them model communities?

So ease up and wise up to what Jesus says in Matthew 7:9-12:
9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

George Washington's Father

Keddist from Oakland, CA — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:00:30 EDT

George Washington's mother, Mary Washington "was strong-minded and domineering and bullied people until she got her way." She demanded to know why George Washington "was neglecting her so."

We see Washington's father less clearly. He seems to have been competent enough at business, but nothing more. Significantly, there is extraordinarily little in Washington's own voluminous writings about his father. There is instead a blank, a show of neither hostility nor affection.

When he was eleven his father died. His older half-brothers inherited the major portion of the estate, and George was left with a small plantation worked by ten slaves..." pg. 48-49 Decision in Philadelphia 1986

Need I say more.

A Sense of Superiority Over Other Humans

Keddist from Oakland, CA — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:50:44 EDT

“Not to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse.”

~ Nigerian Proverb

But even those southerners who were made uneasy by slavery were not sure that anything could be done about it. Washington, who wanted to manumit his slaves, had a great deal of difficulty finding ways to set them free without throwing them out into a world that made no place for them. Southerners, by and large, believed that if slavery was abolished, their economy would collapse. Moreover they had subtle and complex emotional ties to slavery. Not only those who owned slaves but those who did not could get from slavery a host of psychic rewards−a sense of superiority over other humans, the wielding of command, which many of them would not otherwise enjoy, and for males, an endless supply of irresponsible sex…pg. 188 Decision in Philadelphia by Collier 1986

“Children need your presence more than your presents.”

~Jesse Jackson

Strengthen, Rectify and Heal

Keddist from Oakland, CA — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:40:36 EDT

Refrain from the conduct of any hostile propaganda campaign directed against any group of people, and to acknowledge that the problems in the United States of America are problems of the whole society. In good faith we should acknowledge that families all over America are having problems to say the least and not just black families. For instance in the article Obama Says Too Many Black Fathers 'MIA'" removing the term black and just say fathers would go far to remove many of the causes of friction which have from time to time impaired so-called racial relations which in the past have done much damage instead of strengthening the country.