Where does it hurt?

 Civil rights legend Ruby Sales learned to ask “Where does it hurt?” because it’s a question that drives to the heart of the matter — and a question we scarcely know how to ask in public life now. Sales says we must be as clear about what we love as about what we hate if we want to make change. And even as she unsettles some of what we think we know about the force of religion in civil rights history, she names a “spiritual crisis of white America” as a calling of today. "

Dying of Whiteness 

With the rise of the Tea Party and the election of Donald Trump, many middle- and lower-income white Americans threw their support behind conservative politicians who pledged to make life great again for people like them. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the right-wing policies that resulted from this white backlash put these voters’ very health at risk—and in the end, threaten everyone’s well-being. 

​

Physician and sociologist Jonathan M. Metzl travels across America’s heartland seeking to better understand the politics of racial resentment and its impact on public health. Interviewing a range of Americans, he uncovers how racial anxieties led to the repeal of gun control laws in Missouri, stymied the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and fueled massive cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. Although such measures promised to restore greatness to white America, Metzl’s systematic analysis of health data dramatically reveals they did just the opposite: these policies made life sicker, harder, and shorter in the very populations they purported to aid.  Thus, white gun suicides soared, life expectancies fell, and school dropout rates rose. 

The Foundation of the House of Justice 

The various Assemblies, local and national, constitute today the bedrock upon the strength of which the Universal House is in future to be firmly established and raised. Not until these function vigorously and harmoniously can the hope for the termination of this period of transition be realized. It devolves upon us whose dearest wish is to see the Cause enter upon that promised era of universal recognition and world achievements, to do all in our power to consolidate the foundations of these Assemblies, promoting at the same time a fuller understanding of their purpose and more harmonious cooperation for their maintenance and success. 

Let us also remember that at the very root of the Cause lies the principle of the undoubted right of the individual to self-expression, his freedom to declare his conscience and set forth his views. If certain instructions of the Master are today particularly emphasized and scrupulously adhered to, let us be sure that they are but provisional measures designed to guard and protect the Cause in its present state of infancy and growth until the day when this tender and precious plant shall have sufficiently grown to be able to withstand the unwisdom of its friends and the attacks of its enemies.

Let us also bear in mind that the keynote of the Cause of God is not dictatorial authority but humble fellowship, not arbitrary power, but the spirit of frank and loving consultation. Nothing short of the spirit of a true Bahá’í can hope to reconcile the principles of mercy and justice, of freedom and submission, of the sanctity of the right of the individual and of self-surrender, of vigilance, discretion and prudence on the one hand, and fellowship, candor, and courage on the other.

Bahai Administration, Shoghi Effendi, US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974 edition, Pages:196

Dr. Derik Smith offered these extra resources:

 A History of Slavery and Emancipation in Iran, 1800-1929  By Behnaz A. Mirzai 

"In the 28 December message, the House of Justice explained that 

“A small community, whose members are united by their shared beliefs, characterized by their high ideals, proficient in managing their affairs and tending to their needs, and perhaps engaged in several humanitarian projects—a community such as this, prospering but at a comfortable distance from the reality

experienced by the masses of humanity, can never hope to serve as a pattern for restructuring the whole of society.” 

Even if such a community were to focus the entirety of its resources on the problem of racial prejudice, even if it were able to heal itself to some extent of that cancerous

affliction, in the face of such a monumental social challenge the impact would be inconsequential.

Therefore, the friends must effectively assess the forces at work in their society and, beginning in neighborhoods and clusters, contribute their share to the process of learning and systematization which, as their numbers, knowledge, and influence grow, will transform their lives, families, and communities. Only if the efforts to eradicate the bane of prejudice are coherent with the full range of the community’s affairs, only if they arise naturally within the systematic pattern of expansion, community building, and involvement with society, will the American believers expand their capacity, year after year and decade after decade, to make their mark on their community and society and contribute to the high aim set for the Bahá’ís by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to eliminate racial prejudice from the face of the earth."

HARVARD IMPLICIT BIAS TEST

Dr. Smith's Reference to 'Some Answered Questions' on Love and Unity and

 Equity and Justice

Likewise in this marvelous cycle the earth will be transformed, and the world of humanity arrayed in tranquillity and beauty. Disputes, quarrels and murders will be replaced by peace, truth and concord; among the nations, peoples, races and countries, love and amity will appear. Cooperation and union will be established, and finally war will be entirely suppressed. When the laws of the Most Holy Book are enforced, contentions and disputes will find a final sentence of absolute justice before a general tribunal of the nations and kingdoms, and the difficulties that appear will be solved. The five continents of the world will form but one, the numerous nations will become one, the surface of the earth will become one land, and mankind will be a single community. The relations between the countries -- the mingling, union and friendship of the peoples and communities -- will reach to such a degree that the human race will be like one family and kindred. The light of heavenly love will shine, and the darkness of enmity and hatred will be dispelled from the world. Universal peace will raise its tent in the center of the earth, and the blessed Tree of Life will grow and spread to such an extent that it will overshadow the East and the West. Strong and weak, rich and poor, antagonistic sects and hostile nations -- which are like the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and kid, the lion and the calf -- will act toward each other with the most complete love, friendship, justice and equity. The world will be filled with science, with the knowledge of the reality of the mysteries of beings, and with the knowledge of God.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 62)

by / on behalf of Universal House of Justice

 " ...Therefore there is no need for the Iránian friends to congregate in one place. Often such a congregation creates problems. For example, should the number of Iránians exceed the number of native believers in a community, they would inadvertently bring about such difficulties as might hamper the progress of the Cause of God, and the world-conquering religion of the Abhá Beauty might appear to others as a religion which is limited and peculiar to Iránians. This could but lead to a waste of time and the disenchantment of both Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís. Under such circumstances the dear Iránian friends would neither enjoy their stay in that place nor would they be able to serve the Faith in a befitting manner...."

1996-01-31 

" There are so many areas of the world, even within the borders of the United States, where the Faith needs to be taught, that there is always a call for Bahá'ís to pioneer for this purpose from those areas where there are dense concentrations of active believers to those where help is needed. However, the response to this call is a matter for the personal decision of each believer in light of his or her own circumstances, responsibilities and possibilities.

"..The United-Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept (“The Compensatory Code”) is a term that means, when expressed in practice, the sum total of everything that is thought, said, or done by one individual Non-White person, who is a Victim of Racism [Victim of White Supremacy] that is effective in helping to eliminate Racism (White Supremacy), and/or in helping to “make up” for the lack of justice and correctness, in any one or more areas of activity, including Economics, Education, Entertainment, Labor, Law, Politics, Religion, Sex, and/or War/Counter-War.

from here: https://producejustice.com/

"Dispersed"-  Sadie Oglesby's story in 

Lights of the Spirit"

X:1, 21 March 1919, page 16

Three kinds of martyrdom

Martyrdom has many explanations, of which the first is to stand bravely and meet death unflinchingly in the path of God, as those wonderful souls have recently done in Persia without wavering for an instant in constancy, nor, under the hands of torture, denying for a single moment their faith.

The second is to, little by little, detach one's heart entirely from this world, laying aside, deliberately and voluntarily, all vanities, worldly seductions, and devoting one's self to the Vineyard of God in whatsoever capacity he is fitted to serve, letting every action, word and deed become a telling monument, a fitting praise and an everlasting glory for His Holy Name!

The third consists in doing the hardest and most difficult things with such willingness and self-sacrifice that all behold it as your pleasure. To seek and accept poverty with the same smile as you seek and receive fortune. To make the sad and sorrowful your associates, instead of frequenting the society of the careless and gay. To dress in such a simple, plain manner that your appearance becomes a comfort to the poor and an example to the rich. "To yield to the decree of God and to be rejoiced at the most violent calamities, even when the suffering is beyond endurance." And he who can fulfil these last conditions becomes a martyr indeed. Then your good deeds will be your garments, your words of praise to God will be your jewels, and your purity of spirit will be your riches.

A portion of a letter from one of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's daughters, Munavvar Khánum, to a Paris believer.

(SOW -Star of the West, Star of the West -  5)

The Story of Stuff

 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada- Letter to the United States and Canada on racism, 1961 by Ruhiyyih Khanum - 1961-03-09

"Bahá'u'lláh said the black people are like the pupil of the eye and sight is in the pupil:

     When Bahá'u'lláh likens the Negro race to the faculty of sight in the human body--the act of perception with all it implies--it is a pretty terrific statement. He never said this of anyone else. I thought the American Negro's humility, his kindness, friendliness, courtesy and hospitableness were something to do with his oppression and the background of slavery. But after spending weeks, day after day in the villages of Africa, seeing literally thousands of Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís, I have wakened up to the fact that the American Negro has these beautiful qualities not because he was enslaved but because he has the characteristics of his race."  (Full letter under Resources)

"... Du Bois and other early twentieth-century black historians who sought to make the memory of slavery into a point of pride rather than a mark of shame ."  Derik Smith

David Hawkins - Power vs Force (chart)

Videos of David Hawkins explaining the chart

Explanation of the Emotions of Power v Force

Derik expounded more on his essay,   Centering the “Pupil of the Eye”: Blackness, Modernity, and the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh 

Joyce Olinga shared these videos about Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga

Ruhiyyih Khanum -1961-03-09 

 It is illogical to suppose that what we have now is either mature or right; it is a phase in the development of the Cause; when peoples of different races are incorporated in the world-wide community (and in local communities) who can doubt that it will possess far greater power and perfection and be something quite different from what we have now? And yet let us ask ourselves frankly if we do not believe that what we North American Bahá'ís have, is the real thing, practically a finished product, and it is up to the rest of the world to accept it? I think this is our mentality; it was mine up until a few years ago...The people of the world are tired of words, words, words. They don't really pay any attention to what we say about "oneness, unity world brotherhood" although many of them agree with this. What they need is to see deeds, to see Bahá'í communities, local and national, full of people of different races working together, in love, for their common belief. "

Derik Smith's Contributions

 Here is the link to the story that has Mr. Nakhjavani's reference to the POTE : https://news.bahai.org/story/246/

Mr. Nakhjavani: "And I said to myself, Ali, why did God make you white? Why didn't God make you black? Why weren't you born in Africa? Why were you born here, in Asia? I am telling you the truth; those were my thoughts when I realized the high, exalted station Baha'u'llah gave the African people.

"His words, dear friends, were not compliments but the truth for the world to see."

There's more about Max Kanyerezi here: https://bahaipedia.org/Max_Kenyerezi

NHC- New History of Capitalism

 "Capitalism scholarship revisits many traditional questions with the tools generated by the innovation of past decades, including the relationship between money and power, commerce and politics, exchange and social status. " 

Book suggested by Celeste D.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix… by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

Blacks as Lab Rats 

"Millions of white people have throughout history, maintained that they are the ‘chosen ones,’ and that blacks are not fully human..." 

EXCERPT: Dr. King's Speech, 'The Other America' added by Barbara T.

 "I want to discuss the race problem tonight and I, want to discuss it very honestly. I still believe that freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And I do not see how we will ever solve the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation, until there is an honest confrontation with it and a willing search for the truth and a willing, a willingness to admit the truth when we discover it. And so I want to use as a title for my lecture tonight, ‘The Other America’. And I use this title because there are literally two Americas. Every city in our country has this kind of dualism, this schizophrenia, split at so many points and so every city ends up being two cities rather than one, there are two Americas.  

... One America is beautiful situations. In this America, millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them.  ,,, But there is another America, and this other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this other America thousands and thousands of people, men in particular, walk the streets and search for jobs that do not exist..."

28 December 2010

To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors

What should be apparent is that, if the Administrative Order is to serve as a pattern for future society, then the community within which it is developing must not only acquire

capacity to address increasingly complex material and spiritual requirements but also become larger and larger in size. How

could it be otherwise. 

A small community, whose members are united by their shared beliefs, characterized by their high ideals,

proficient in managing their affairs and tending to their needs, and perhaps engaged in several humanitarian projects—a community such as this, prospering but at a comfortable distance from the reality experienced by the masses of humanity, can never hope to serve as a pattern for restructuring the whole of society. That the worldwide Bahá’í community has managed

to avert the dangers of complacency is a source of abiding joy to us.

Century of LIght

 The loss of life alone has been beyond counting. The disintegration of basic institutions of social order, the violation—indeed, the abandonment—of standards of decency,... the invention and deployment of monstrous weapons of mass annihilation, the bankrupting of entire nations and the reduction of masses of human beings to hopeless poverty, the reckless destruction of the environment of the planet—such are only the more obvious in a catalogue of horrors unknown to even the darkest of ages past."

FIRE AND LIGHT "Indeed as a result of the outrages perpetrated by the wicked, ... those blessed souls have endured woeful tribulations and have borne dire sufferings and distressing calamities,... By reason of these tragic events 'Abdu'l-Bahá is assailed by despondency and anguish and is beset by bitter sadness and grief. "

THE TABERNACLE OF UNITY

 I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird...”14  Bahaullah

Sean Combs presents

REVOLT Town Hall Meeting on the COVID19: State of Emergency in the Black Community

Nanosilver Video shared by James W.

Below are 3 comprehensive and highly informative websites.

First, visit this one to learn WHY silver-solution is so effective: http://www.silversolutions.org/silver-solution-uses/

Next, for more technical information: http://www.rxsilver.com/index.htm : http://www.lifesilver.com/facts/index.htm :

For ordering, this highly reputable distributor’ site is recommended, for it has proven to be quite reliable over the years (I receive no commissions). : https://www.silversolutionusa.com/

Vitamin C Doses shared by Sue S

Allostatic Load Video shared by Joyce O

Video from Headington Institute on

 Unloading Allostatic Load

Medical Medium: Anthony William

https://www.medicalmedium.com/ 

 We make no medical claims or offer any advice. Seek a competent physician. Links offered were shared by our participants for all to do their own  research.

"Any eye without a pupil is a blind eye."

Helen K. O.

MEANS SHOULD BE CONSISTENT WITH THE ENDS- Universal House of Jusice 

March 2, 2013

"....He has made it clear that it “must be the cause of love and fellowship. Should religion become the cause of contention and enmity, its absence is preferable.” So it is that Bahá’ís do their utmost at all times to heed the counsel of Bahá’u’lláh, “Shut your eyes to estrangement, then fix your gaze upon unity.”

 “That one indeed is a man”, He exhorts His followers, “who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race.” 

 In choosing areas of collaboration, Bahá’ís are to bear in mind the principle, enshrined in their teachings, that means should be consistent with ends; noble goals cannot be achieved through unworthy means. 

Specifically, it is not possible to build enduring unity through endeavours that require contention or assume that an inherent conflict of interests underlies all human interactions, however subtly."  

"Let it now be seen what your endeavors in the path of detachment will reveal. In this wise hath the divine favor been fully vouchsafed unto you and unto them that are in heaven and on earth. All praise to God, the Lord of all Worlds."

(Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words)

W.E.B. Dubois, Souls of Black Folks

 with Abdul-Baha in the Crisis Magazine

The Slave Bible (Museum video)

  The first Slave Bible was published in 1807, three years after the Haitian Revolution ended. That revolution was the only slave revolt in history in which enslaved people successfully drove out their European oppressors to formed a new nation, and it increased American and European paranoia that the people they oppressed would one day rise up against them. 

Anthony Schmidt, associate curator of Bible and Religion in America at the museum, says the first instance of this abridged version titled, Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves, in the British West-India Islands, was published in 1807. 

 book review

WHAT IS RACE VIDEO?

Haiti Forced to Pay France 21 Billion for Freedom

Story of Haiti- The only colony to free itself from colonization

Durham, NC: Black Wall Street

Hayti, NC- A Black Success Story Destroyed

The History of Hayti- The Anchor of Durham's African American 

The Congo- Leopold's Holocaust

King Leopold's Ghost- Amazon Prime Video

Stand Up (Theme from Harriet Tubman) 

Song and Lyrics

Marianne Willliamson Apology to African Americans (Shared by Tanya)

Video of the Apology 

Prayer of Apology to
African Americans

On behalf of myself, and on behalf of my country, to you and all African Americans, from the beginning of our nation's history, in honor of your ancestors and for the sake of your children, please hear this from my heart...
I apologize, please forgive us.

With this prayer I acknowledge the depth of evils that have been perpetrated against black people in America.
From slavery, to lynchings, to white supremacist laws, to the denial of voting rights, to all the ways both large and small, that abuses have occurred — all of them evil, all of them wrong.

--Marianne Williamson

 Click here to register for Deanna's extended session. 

 CDC comprehensive articles on ACES 

ACEs Questionnaire for Measuring Childhood Trauma

Step Inside the Trauma 

Shoghi Effendi, Lights of Guidance, p. 113 

Writings on Materialism

June 14, 2019

My colleagues at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are expanding on studies of the intersection of developmental disabilities and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) by looking at the lives of children from minority populations, who until recently have been significantly under-represented in such research."