EASTER

Patricia Liverpool © April 29-2019

 

                          EASTER

In North America, Easter is a holiday that often involves a church service at sunrise, a feast which includes an "Easter Ham," decorated eggs and stories about rabbits. The history of Easter as celebrated today seems to be a mix of the Christian faith and some related practices of the early pagan religions. Easter history and traditions that are practiced today in North America evolved from pagan symbols, from the ancient goddesses to Easter eggs, the Easter bunny and cross buns. Although Easter is supposed to be a Christian holiday, the Easter bunny has no connection to Christianity. The history of Easter as celebrated today seems to be a mix of the Christian faith and some related practices of the early pagan religions.

The word “Easter” is also pagan, supposedly from the pagan fertility goddess Ishtar (Babylonian) or Eastre (Anglo-Saxon). There are actually several goddesses from various nations who are credited with lending their names to the Easter celebration as we know it in North America. In some countries, Easter is a time for people to attend church and Good Friday is the holiest day of the year when everything is closed. It is a time when Christians commemorate the period when Jesus was crucified and arose from the dead and has nothing to do with decorated eggs, chocolate eggs, rabbits and ham.

The pagan goddesses Ishtar, Eastre, Eoestre, Oestre and Ostara are connected with the modern day North American Easter celebrations/observances. Or they might be the same goddess with different names. Ishtar was the goddess of romance, procreation and war in ancient Babylon while a similar Saxon goddess was known as Oestre or Eastre and in Germany there was Ostara. Signalling the end of winter after the vernal equinox with the days growing longer and brighter, Ostara’s presence was credited for the flowering of plants and the birth of babies, both animal and human. Ostara was also a goddess of the dawn and the spring and words for dawn, the shining light arising from the east are also derivatives of her name. Since these were fertility goddesses naturally there would be some eggs involved. Eoestre is also considered the origin of the word estrogen, the female hormone. Her symbol is a rabbit which has a connection to the modern-day Easter bunny. The pagans worshipped the goddess Eostre by serving tiny cakes, often decorated with a cross at their annual spring festival; maybe a forerunner of cross buns.

The rabbit was supposedly the sacred animal of Ostara. Given their ability to produce up to 42 offspring each spring, it is not surprising that rabbits are a symbol of fertility. Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny featured in the spring festivals of Ostara which were also held during the feasts of the goddess Ishtar. In appreciation of Ostara's gift of rejuvenated life brightly coloured eggs, chicks and bunnies were all used during the spring festivals. The history of Easter Eggs as a symbol of new life should come as no surprise.

Easter, the most important of the Christian holidays, celebrates Christ's resurrection from the dead following his death on Good Friday and a rebirth that is commemorated around the vernal equinox, historically a time of pagan celebration that coincides with the arrival of spring and symbolizes the arrival of light and the awakening of life around us.

In ancient times in Northern Europe, eggs were a potent symbol of fertility and often used in rituals to guarantee a woman's ability to bear children. Dyed eggs are given as gifts in many cultures. Decorated eggs were used as a wish for prosperity and abundance during the coming year. In anticipation that the arrival of spring with its emerging plants and wildlife would provide them with fresh food in abundance, it was customary for many pagans to begin fasting at the time of the vernal equinox, clearing the "poisons" (and excess weight) produced by the heavier winter meals that had been stored in their bodies over the winter. This practice of fasting is probably a forerunner of "giving up" foods during the Lenten season.

Patricia Liverpool © April 29-2019

I LOVE CALYPSO MUSIC

Patricia Liverpool © April 23-2019

I LOVE CALYPSO MUSIC

Calypso was developed on the island of Trinidad by enslaved Africans who were taken from mostly Central Africa and West Africa to work on plantations owned by Europeans. The enslaved Africans were forbidden to speak their languages or practice their culture. A creole culture developed, combining elements of several African ethnic groups and their enslavers. The Spanish originally occupied the island in 1532, bringing Africans they had kidnapped and enslaved. In 1783, the French began to immigrate in large numbers due to a Spanish rule encouraging Roman Catholics to relocate to the Caribbean islands. The British ruled from 1802 when they gained the island under the Treaty of Amiens which temporarily ended hostilities between France and the Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars. On October 20-1898, the British Government made Tobago a ward of Trinidad.

Calypso music as the iconic calypsonian “The Mighty Sparrow” acknowledges in “Slave”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RqIiF2Sx1Q)  was born from the protests of enslaved Africans.

“We had to chant and sing to express our feelings

To dat wicked and cruel man

That was the only medicine to make him listen

And is so calypso began.”

Calypsonians are griots like their West African ancestors. Their political and social commentary are legendary. The lyrics of skilled calypsonians like “The Mighty Sparrow,” “Lord Kitchener” and “Mighty Chalkdust” archives the collective memories of the community. The lyrics, for instance, of “The Mighty Sparrow” singing his famous “If dey know dey didn’t want Federation, if dey know dey didn’t want to unite as one, tell de Doctah yuh not in fayvah, don’t behave like a blasted traytah!!” about the controversial “West Indian Federation” is a history lesson in song. Listening to some of the calypsoes is like going back in time to revisit political, economic and social issues from the time the calypsoes were composed/released. The political and social commentary of calypso are invaluable because of the accessibility of the language used in calypso. “The Mighty Sparrow” sang about the Russian satellite “Sputnik” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZOLAoOskk) garnering the interest of the “ordinary man in the street” of the Caribbean who otherwise may not have paid any attention to the shenanigans of the Russians.

Calypso is a genre that has travelled internationally from Trinidad and Tobago. The celebrated author and poet Maya Angelou, the granddaughter of a Trinidadian (her mother’s father) sang calypso (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2lALEmcUl4)  before she was a famous author. 

Patricia Liverpool © April 23-2019

ONA JUDGE STAINES NEVER CAUGHT

 Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019

ONA JUDGE STAINES NEVER CAUGHT

Ona Maria Judge was the child of an enslaved woman known as "Mulatto Betty" and a white man who was an indentured servant from England working as a tailor at Mount Vernon. "Mulatto Betty" was a skilled seamstress in the presidential household when Ona was born. Betty had been among the 285 enslaved Africans that Martha Washington had inherited from her first husband Daniel Parke Custis when he died in 1757. When Martha Custis married George Washington in 1759, she took her "property" including Betty, to Mount Vernon. When Ona was born 14 years later Martha Washington owned Ona in spite of the fact that Ona's father was a free white man because children inherited the status of their enslaved mothers regardless of the father's race or position. Ona was a 10 year old child when she became Martha Washington's  personal slave, which included washing Martha Washington’s underwear, brushing her hair, washing and preparing her clothes, drawing her bath, bathing her, tending to her when she was (often) sick and depressed.  

When George Washington became president on April 30, 1789 the Washington household took seven enslaved Africans, including 16 year old Ona Judge to New York City which was then the nation's capital. Ona's mother Betty was left behind at Mount Vernon to worry about her child. The following year 1790 the national capital was transferred to Philadelphia and as the personal slave of the First Lady, Ona Judge was one of nine enslaved persons that moved to Philadelphia with the Presidential household. The Gradual Abolition Act of 1890 meant that any enslaved African living in Philadelphia for more than 6 months was automatically free. George Washington very cleverly bypassed this law by claiming that he only lived in Philadelphia because it was the seat of the federal government but he really was a resident of Virginia the site of his plantation. He moved the enslaved Africans of his household every six months between Philadelphia and Virginia. 

On May 21, 1796 after overhearing that she was going to be a wedding gift to Martha Washington's granddaughter Eliza Custis Law, Ona Judge decided to escape. While the Washington household was planning to take the enslaved Africans from Philadelphia to Virginia Ona fled. In an interview in 1845, Ona said: "Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn't know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty. I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington's house while they were eating dinner."

The Washingtons were livid that Ona escaped from them, especially Martha Washington. Three days after Ona escaped on May 24-1796 this advertisement appeared in The Philadelphia Gazette: "Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. She is of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed, about 20 years of age. She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to be described—As there was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone, or fully, what her design is; but as she may attempt to escape by water, all masters of vessels are cautioned against admitting her into them, although it is probable she will attempt to pass for a free woman, and has, it is said, wherewithal to pay her passage. Ten dollars will be paid to any person who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any vessel in the harbour;—and a reasonable additional sum if apprehended at, and brought from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance." FREDERICK KITT, Steward. May 23

Ona Maria Judge was a fugitive always looking over her shoulder. The Washingtons never gave up trying to capture and re-enslave her. With the support of members of the free African American community in Philadelphia Ona Judge made her way to New Hampshire. She was pursued by the Washingtons and attempts were made to kidnap her. On January 8-1797 Ona Maria Judge married Jack Staines but that did not stop attempts by the Washingtons to capture her. In September 1798 as the mother of an infant daughter Ona Judge Staines was again the target of an attempted kidnapping by agents of George and Martha Washington. George Washington died on December 14-1799 and Martha Washington died on May 22-1802 but Ona Judge Staines was part of their estate and "belonged" to their heirs/descendants. When Ona Judge transitioned to the ancestral realm on February 25-1848 she had been living as a fugitive from the Washington clan for 52 years. Ona Judge Staines was never caught.

 Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019

MICHELLE OBAMA FLOTUS 2009 to 2017

Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019

MICHELLE OBAMA FLOTUS 2009 to 2017

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was the first and so far, only, African American First Lady of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17- 1964, in Chicago, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson III (1935–1991) and Marian Shields Robinson (July 30-1937.)

The Robinson and Shields families trace their roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South. On her father's side, she is descended from the Gullah people of South Carolina's Low Country region. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was born into slavery in 1850 on Friendfield Plantation, near Georgetown, South Carolina. Jim Robinson was 15 years old when he was freed at Emancipation in 1865. Her grandfather Fraser Robinson, Jr. built his own house in South Carolina. He and his wife LaVaughn Johnson Robinson returned to the Low Country from Chicago after retirement.

Among her maternal ancestors was her great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia Shields, born into slavery in South Carolina and sold to Henry Walls Shields, who had a 200-acre farm in Clayton County, Georgia near Atlanta. Melvinia's first son, Dolphus T. Shields, was born into slavery about 1860. Based on DNA and other evidence, in 2012 researchers said the father of Dolphus T. Shields was likely 20-year-old Charles Marion Shields, son of Henry Walls Shields who enslaved Melvinia. Melvinia had two other children fathered by Charles Marion Shields. Dolphus Shields with his wife Alice moved to Birmingham, Alabama after the Civil War. They were great-great-grandparents of Michelle Robinson, whose grandparents had moved to Chicago.

During Michelle Obama’s childhood, the family (parents and older brother Craig) lived on the upper floor of 7436 South Euclid Avenue in Chicago's South Shore community area, which her parents rented from her great-aunt, who lived on the first floor. Her elementary school was down the street. She and her family enjoyed playing games such as Monopoly, reading, and frequently saw extended family on both sides. She played piano, learning from her great-aunt who was a piano teacher. She and her older brother Craig skipped the second grade.

Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis, which had a profound emotional effect on her as she was growing up. She was determined to stay out of trouble and be a good student, which was what her father wanted for her. By sixth grade, Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy.) She attended Whitney Young High School, Chicago's first magnet high school, established as a selective enrollment school, where she was a classmate of Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita. The round-trip commute from the Robinsons' South Side home to the Near West Side, where the school was located, took three hours. She was on the honour roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, was a member of the National Honor Society, and served as student council treasurer. She graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class.

Michelle was inspired to follow her brother to Princeton University, which she entered in 1981. She majored in sociology and minored in African-American studies, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.

Some of her teachers in high school tried to dissuade her from applying, and warned against "setting my sights too high." She has stated that she was overwhelmed during her first year, attributing this to the fact that neither of her parents had graduated from college and that she had never spent time on a college campus.

The mother of a white roommate had her daughter reassigned because of Michelle's race. While at Princeton, Michelle became involved with the Third World Center (now known as the Carl A. Fields Center), an academic and cultural group that supported minority students. She ran their day care center, which also offered after school tutoring for older children. She challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational. As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a sociology thesis, entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community. She researched her thesis by sending a questionnaire to African-American graduates, asking that they specify when and how comfortable they were with their race prior to their enrollment at Princeton and how they felt about it when they were a student and since then. Of the 400 alumni to whom she sent the survey, fewer than 90 responded. Her findings did not support her hope that the black alumni would still identify with the African-American community, even though they had attended and graduated from an elite university.

Michelle pursued professional study, earning her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. Her faculty mentor at Harvard Law was Charles Ogletree, who has said that she had answered the question that had plagued her throughout Princeton by the time she arrived at Harvard Law: whether she would remain the product of her parents or keep the identity she had acquired at Princeton; she had concluded she could be "both brilliant and black".

At Harvard, Michelle participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of racialized groups. She worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases. She is the third First Lady with a postgraduate degree, after her two immediate predecessors, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. She later said that her education gave her opportunities beyond what she had ever imagined.

CAREER

Following law school, Michelle Obama became an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley & Austin. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property law. She continues to hold her law license, but as she no longer needs it for her work, she has kept it on a voluntary inactive status since 1993.

In 1991, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies. She worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood 12 years after she left.

In 1996, Michelle Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center. In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs.

She continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the primary campaign of 2008, but cut back to part-time in order to spend time with her daughters as well as work for her husband's election. She subsequently took a leave of absence from her job.

Michelle Robinson met Barack Obama when they were among the few African Americans at their law firm, Sidley Austin LLP. She was assigned to mentor him while he was a summer associate. Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting where he first impressed her. Before meeting Obama, Michelle had told her mother she intended to focus solely on her career. The couple's first date was to Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing (1989). Barack Obama has said that the couple had an "opposites attract" scenario in their initial interest in each other, since Michelle had stability from her two-parent home while he was "adventurous". They married on October 3, 1992 and had two children, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha/Sasha (born 2001.)

The Obama family lived on Chicago's South Side, where Barack taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He was elected to the state senate in 1996, and to the US Senate in 2004. They chose to keep their residence in Chicago after Barack's election rather than to move to Washington, DC, as they felt it was better for their daughters. Throughout her husband's 2008 campaign for US President, Michelle Obama made a "commitment to be away overnight only once a week – to campaign only two days a week and be home by the end of the second day" for their two daughters.

The Obamas' daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school. As a member of the school's board, Michelle fought to maintain diversity in the school when other board members connected with the University of Chicago tried to reserve more slots for children of the university faculty. This resulted in a plan to expand the school to increase enrollment. In Washington, DC, Malia and Sasha attended Sidwell Friends School, after also considering Georgetown Day School. The Obamas received advice from past first ladies Laura Bush, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton about raising children in the White House. Marian Robinson, Michelle's mother, moved into the White House to assist with child care.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. In 2009 First Lady Michelle Obama was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the year. Her memoir, “Becoming” was released in November 2018 and had sold 10 million copies by late March 2019. In her memoir, she describes her four primary initiatives as First Lady: Let's Move!, Reach Higher, Let Girls Learn, and Joining Forces. Some initiatives of First Lady Michelle Obama included advocating on behalf of military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, and promoting the arts and arts education. First Lady Michelle Obama made supporting military families and spouses a personal mission and increasingly bonded with military families. According to her aides, stories of the sacrifice these families make moved her to tears. In April 2012, she and her husband were awarded the Jerald Washington Memorial Founders' Award by the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV). The award is the highest honor given to homeless veterans’ advocates. She was again honored with the award in May 2015, accepting with Jill Biden.

Despite speculation that she would be running for president in 2020, Barack Obama stated during a campaign rally in Nevada that Michelle Obama would not be running for president in 2020. She has previously stated that she has no passion for politics.

 Patricia Liverpool © April 22-2019