Being from New Orleans, one of my joys growing up was to have grits for breakfast.
When my eyes opened enough to speak I called downstairs to say – “grits momma, grits.”
In those days, my favorite breakfast was “drits and liba.” However, unbeknownst to be as to why – for years after I left home I couldn’t stand to eat liver. My grandmother made grits with chicken livers for breakfast when I insisted and it is only today that I have begun to be able to again eat that combination. Don’t know why, it just happened.
We don’t have liver very often, however, because grits in the Greater Boston food stores is practically non-existent, especially if you eat only organic foods. You can sometimes find grits, but it is guaranteed to be the ugly white mushy kind and it is usually labeled “polenta.”.
Looking for the grits of my youth, I came across The Congaree Milling Company in Columbia, South Carolina. Their grits is made with whole kernel organic corn and it is exceptional.
When I discovered them I also discovered the farming communities around the country, which are taking growing foods which are nutritionally excellent, with the taste still intact, which have not been poisoned by the sprays and are not near tasteless because they are grown in depleted soil.
What is special about these farming communities is the way they interact with and help one another. One grows the food; another will have uses for the food tied to a restaurant; or they produce foods for sale which are not overly processed and bland combining basic ingredients together in new ways. All organic – all grown in very rich soil – all making delicious meals and contributing to long-lived and healthy people.
I am still, however, working on that chicken liver. Although some mornings when she didn’t feel flush with money it was beef liver and occasionally calves liver. Can’t cook it the way my grandmother did – and since I didn’t pay attention to the cooking but only to the eating, with my grandmother dead for many years I have no way to recover that breakfast.
The hangover I have from her upbringing is waking up at 3:30 to 4am in the mornings needing that cup of coffee one can only get in New Orleans. I was up at that hour because she woke with the birds and went to bed with the birds and would bring me a cup of warm milk and while sitting on the side of the bed would deliberately pour a little coffee into the milk so we shared a cup of coffee (however mine was ‘sort of” coffee), but I still I became addicted even without the caffeine.
With grits there are all kinds of combinations. Grits and sausages is one substitute. Grits and shrimp is also good. A concoction I discovered needing a quick meal and not having the energy to do substantial cooking follows: (it has no name)
Put one cup of Congaree Coarse Yellow Grits into a sauce pan to which you add two cups organic milk, salt to taste and butter to taste. Let this cook, stirring occasionally until it has that consistency like nothing else.
To accompany the grits:
Put butter in a sauce pan to melt; add mushrooms; crab meat; turmeric; thyme; tabasco sauce; soy sauce; and cook for a few minutes. To this add a packet of organic cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese melts. Add three well beaten eggs and stir to incorporate the eggs. Add milk to get the taste and consistency you like best. The Cream Cheese will thicken this dish and the milk will help thin it out to the consistency you like best. The milk and eggs will mitigate the strong taste from the seasonings. We like that strong taste, however, many are accustomed to a more bland concoction.
The above on one side of the plate with grits on the other makes a fantastic breakfast.
If your budget is tight you might find “imitation crab meat (the kind cut into squares and add that instead of the real crab meat.) The cost difference is dramatic. $30.00 for the crab meat and $3.99 for the imitation. Unlike grits, you can find the imitation crab meat in just about every grocery store in a plastic bag screaming with its colors as to what the bag contains.
Served with your homemade biscuits you have a breakfast to keep you going for days.
To find The Congaree Milling Company – 1629 Bluff Road – Columbia, South Carolina 29201 –
orders via email to – sales@TheCongareeMillingCompany.com
questions at – info@The Congaree Milling Company.com
Their produce is certified organic by Clemson University
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We are living in a very racist/sexist society which is changing from majority white northern european male in charge of everything; better than everybody; all accolades go to them and etc.
That is changing and the society is becoming more “diverse”. There are women and minorities coming along who don’t take kindly to living in a society which oppresses them and they are beginning to have the tools and opportunities to change this way of organizing society. They see another vision and have started to work towards it.
When Harvard University – that trend setting lifestyle of a place – is apologizing and beginning to make amends for having used human beings as slaves to build its institution you know basic change is happening.
Society itself is changing its makeup to the point where it will soon be majority-minority. In other words there will be more folks we now class as “minority” than there will be white northern european “upper class” males.
We elect Barack Obama and the United States goes crazy. We still are out there melting down showing where we really are by making sure Obama does not have influence after his presidency. We elected Donald Trump to make a statement and to keep this society from turning “black.”
Women are beginning to show their mettle. You see women in many areas which were just male not too many years ago. What you also see is that in many of these areas the women are “outshining” the men. That means women will be out there taking over more top jobs; making inroads into places they were excluded from and took upon themselves the burden of self-exclusion and blocking other women who did not see being feminine as thew goal, but being feminist as a better way to go.
The political and other efforts in this society today are to keep that from happening. Roe v Wade is the one in front of us today deflecting us from the job we need to do and we are allowing that to happen. Our signs read as though Roe v Wade is about babies being aborted when it is really about bringing back the extreme oppression of women.
We took a big step in that direction when we appointed the current Supreme Court with decades before that happened somehow ignoring and moving on to things other than codifying Roe v Wade into our laws. Those who participated in that major move are just as guilty as today’s Supreme Court in making sure women are and will remain for generations seriously oppressed at the beck and call of the ‘master.’
Todays Supreme Court is ready to roll back everything which grants equality to the wrong groups of people. Roe v Wade was responsible for a good deal of the movement we have seen in women today, which is why.the big discussion and fight today is over Roe v Wade. When that fight has been won, where to go next – Brown v Board of Education? You can see the groundwork for reversing Brown being put in place today with several states putting in place very racist educational agendas. The fight against those agendas will produce the ground on which this Supreme Court will very casually overturn Brown v Board of Education.
We need to fight for what is right and put the reasons out front. We are not doing that with Roe V Wade. We are talking about the “lives of babies not yet born”; we are talking about “murdering the unborn; we are talking about that kind of thing when that is really not the issue. Keeping women barefoot, bare breast and pregnant has been a joke for many decades. That is what the fight is about to overturn and wipe away any possibility of women having abortions. Life and death is not the issue in Roe v Wads; the unborn child is the least of our concern.. Keeping women oppressed is what it is all about. Especially when you look at and hear those who want to make sure there are NO exclusions – not rape, not incest, not anything. That is the only way to block women from continuing on the road they are now traveling. Throw blocks and rocks on that road and the biggest block of all is “no access to abortion for anyone.”
Now – lets move on to overturning Brown v Board of Education. I think that will happen – if we continue on this road – in about 2024.
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Chase Bank recently came to Boston and set up offices around the area. They organized and internalized what they needed to succeed in this New England area. That includes internalizing the extreme racism of the area.
What is it like to be African American in these United States? We talk about addressing racism and wanting to eliminate it in this country. In fact, most of the people I know could not survive without their wrap of “better than” which helps them get up in the mornings and get through their day.
Keep reading and you will understand the day to day horribleness of being African American in the United States. For this article, in the New England area. Everyone dumps because they need to feel “better than”. After the dumping comes the denials. You – African American Male and/or Female – are not supposed to understand that system. If you do, you should keep your mouth shut because the only thing that will come of speaking up – speaking out – asking for change – demanding change when the ask is ignored and you are being viciously treated, is more horribleness.
Chase, in the deep south, was our bank. We used other banks in New England before Chase moved in and had horrible experiences. We came to Chase because we decided to go where we were known – into the deep south – and open our accounts in that part of the world. We were doing business there so we were able to open bank accounts there.
All of the banking problems we were experiencing in New England stopped when we took our banking business down south. We had a reprieve of a decade or more until Chase Bank decided to open branches in this New England area.
All the problems plus a few more, which initially caused us to take our banking to our old home town, re-surfaced when Chase moved into New England.
This article outlines one of the problems. Articles which follow will outline others – “Banking while Black” should be the title of this series.
Chase Bank, for whatever reason, stopped sending us our monthly corporate bank statements with copies of cancelled checks. That service was supposed to be a normal part of the banking relationship.
They stopped sending us statements for 2 1/2 years.
We called and called and the response was always the same – when you give us a new address that shows you moved, we will start sending your bank statements again.
Being persistent, we went back and forth for months trying to get our corporate bank statements. Finally, we filed a complaint with the Banking Commissioner. They notified Chase of the complaint and told them to send our statements from the month they stopped to the current month.
Chase did the minimum. They sent the statements without copies of the cancelled checks, which we needed for our corporate records. After several calls and another complaint to the Banking Commission we finally received the complete corporate statements which we should have been receiving over the past 2 1/2 years.
We spent lots of time trying to get these statements. We lost a lot. I could go on for another page about the damages, but you can imagine that part. Chase’s response – not even an apology. No one could find a reason as to why this happened. It struck me that we live in a neighborhood which has been redlined for decades. When the persons we spoke to trying to get our statements sent to us all said “when you send us a new address we will start sending your statements again”. That resonated on a very racist level. That is the kind of ‘policy’ which resonates in the deep south, but this is New England.
Of course, the bank person who responded to us first read a statement which said in affect “Chase does not discriminate on any level for any reason.” We laughed about that because it was so ridiculous.
Institutional racism plagues corporate America. To read such a statement and make such a blatant claim and to expect us to believe that was beyond ridiculous. It was mean, evil and meant to maintain institutional racism. If they are so perfect and do not discriminate then anyone who makes a complaint has lost before the ink on the complaint is dry. It is the ultimate denial. It says – to paraphrase – don’t tell us about the claimed discrimination you think you experienced because we will not address it we are perfect in that respect and this statement attests to that fact.
What is institutional racism? One definition is – there is personal racism experienced by minorities from someone white who feels better than. If that person does the discriminating within a bank from the perch of their job it is still personal racism. When a complaint is made and there has been discrimination and the institution backs its employees instead of addressing the discrimination – that makes it racism with the institution responsible – a form of institutional racism. There is more to the definition than that, however, that is one part of it.
That is one incident. There are many more. Too many for your emotions to take in one reading. We will add the rest one at a time as the Bettina Network journal goes out.
All timed to make sure huge dumps on them happened at the same time. It is the same kind of “dump” which happens to many of the elderly when their assets are being targeted by those who want to lock them up and have access to those assets before the next generation is helped by such.
The Donaldson/Bennetts’ have filed joint tax returns from the first year of their marriage until now. I think that is over 30 years.
Several things happened with their tax returns when Rev. Dr. Bennett was being hauled out of his home by the Cambridge police and the attempt to take over his life happened by the Cambridge Elder and Protective Services for no reason except maybe greed?
A tax return was filed by someone within the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue in the name of Robert Bennett. It was an individual tax return about which he knew nothing and which was a total disgrace. It is still sitting within the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue and they are still trying to collect taxes not due. In fact, more than one years tax return was so filed and that happened even after both Dr. Bennett and Marceline Donaldson contacted the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue to say this is some kind of mistake. So, there are two tax returns filed for the same year with identical social security numbers – one the joint return filed by Dr. Bennett with his wife; the other this individual tax return which the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue is still trying to collect even though they know it is fake. They know about the joint tax returns. In fact, even the joint tax return which is the same year as the fake returns had massive inaccuracies. Those inaccuracies happened after the returns were filed and were within the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue system. One was corrected when they contacted the taxpayer advocate and when an investigation happened it was discovered that someone working for the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue entered a loss as a gain and a gain as a loss – by mistake.
Some other time the “mistake” might ring true. When all of this is happening at the same time we do not believe this was a “mistake.” The good news is it was corrected. Other “mistakes” remain and apparently there is no intention to correct them, just ruin the Donaldson/Bennett’s credit to help prevent them from being able to obtain a mortgage on their home.
Taxes are one way used to attempt to destroy an African American family living in a “redlined’ area. The goal when they are buying is to keep them out. The goal when they are selling is to keep the price as low as possible to give the white family moving in a “steal.”
The above refers to three related happenings, which we do not connect.
There is much talk today, on the major media sites, about the horrible shooting in Akron, Ohio. It was a horrible shooting, but we talk about it as though it stands apart from Ukraine and Highland Park, Illinois. It is not separate from, it is a part of. All three and many more are talked about as though they are not related.
When the list of horrible shootings is given, they exclude the brutality and shootings which have given the green light to those doing the Highland Park shooting. The day before many in Highland Park settled down along the parade route to watch the July 4th parade, some 60 bullets were pumped into one man’s body by the police who are hired and paid to protect the society. Want a shock to your system? Look up the history of the police. Why were they founded. What for were they organized, etc.
It was, apparently a traffic stop and the man so shot was unarmed when he was shot. He was running away from the police for reasons only he now knows because he was killed.
The anger against African Americans is so intense in this society that whatever happened at the scene of that shooting raised that anger to a level which brought the many police, at the scene, into harmony on what they should do immediately to remove a threat to their identity.
What happened in Akron, Ohio is not equated to what happened in Highland Park, but the Highland Park type shootings will not stop, no matter what kind of laws are passed or not passed until we admit where the violence is coming from in this country. You cannot stop and correct that which you refuse to acknowledge as truth.
The day before Highland Park happened the green light was flashed into the eyes of and all over whoever did those shootings and all over those who saw what that person did as good. That green light – that huge spotlight was turned on and flashed across the country by the police who put those 60 plus bullets into the body of one African American. Someone saw that green light and acted on it in Highland Park, Illinois.
Is there something about African Americans which requires such massive violence? Are African Americans so strong, powerful, evil and such a danger that they have to be exterminated as quickly as possible and that extermination is allowed by all of us?
In America, we don’t need Concentration Camps – we have our signals that go out to those paying attention, giving them messages on what they have to do. The Highland Park killings came after the Akron Ohio killing gave the ‘go ahead’ signal.
We don’t want to deal on that level. We want to list the killings that come from places like Highland Park and others as different from those that come from Akron, Ohio and all similar places. They are all the same and instead of concentrating and lamenting our lack of laws controlling the weapons of mass destruction – as those used in these killings – we need to highlight and remove the police killings which are giving the go ahead sign to those who then come along into Highland Park and feel totally in the right as they do their thing with dozens shot and many killed.
Open our eyes, God, that we may see our contribution to such violence. Help us to put out in public, constantly, the history which has led to what is happening today. Mostly, Lord, help us to see that connection so the possibility for change can come.
We are trying to cover all of that up and in some places are even trying to make exposing such history a crime. Help us, O God, to see our own involvement and our own guilt as we go about our daily lives. Ukraine, Russia, Highland Park, Akron Ohio are all caused by the same people. They are all caused because some of us let out the evil we all share and the rest of us turn a blind eye to some, condemn others and refuse to speak the truth.
Those of us who let out our evil by condemning some acts of violence and reduce others to a foot note are just as guilty as those who pull the trigger resulting in children and so many others being killed. Help us in at least this one instance to understand the connection between the police turning a street into a bowling alley where the bowling balls are bullets and the target is a young African American man who is killed – and after we play with stories to get the one which makes the police look less guilty and shove the real guilt onto the victim, intervene in all of this dear God or we are all condemned.
What a topic! We are now a society which has to manage its trash. We should be ashamed that we have put together and are living a lifestyle where our trash can hurt us and others; takes up much of the world as we export it to other countries to let them handle what we throw away; think nothing about it – just dump wherever, whenever.
Household trash costs us a lot of money to manage. Just think – some companies have a John Doe working for them who is Vice President of Trash. CEO of Junk Removal. President of Trash Collection – all because we don’t want to have to live a more prudent, clean, thoughtful life.
Your trash collection program starts at the grocery store. PLASTICS. I heard, sometime ago, don’t know where I was at the time, that the plastics industry originated and is now owned and managed by the mafia. Don’t know which one. Maybe there is a mafia community group made up of representatives of the Irish, Italian, Black, Indian, Asian, Mafia. They get together periodically to decide how to split the enormous profits generated by the plastics industry. Could be just a rumor.
At the grocery store you decide during each trip what to buy. Your decision on what to buy, hopefully, is colored by what the containers are like that encase the food you choose. Minimus containers are what we choose. Somehow, we will find what is in those incredible creations of plastic someplace else is some covering which is easy to dispose.
Baked cakes, etc. are big violators of the environment. They now come in plastic boxes with big tops to keep those who handle the cakes from crushing their product before it reaches your hands.
Try disposing of those containers. We wash every container before throwing it out. Sometimes you have to soak the “plate” part of the cake containers before throwing them out. When you do that you will find that sometimes there are three and four layers of cardboard, plastic and paper that have to be washed. Cake pieces, especially icing, will get between those layers and make your job more difficult. And then you have to dispose of those tall tops – shaped like the tops of elegant buildings. We even find that many cookies and other flat pastries now come with such tops. To give the cookies room to breathe? How are we supposed to dispose of such – and once we do, will it take several lifetimes for the plastic domes to disintegrate or do they last forever!
And then there are the water bottles. Water, water, everywhere and none to drink. Tens of thousands of water bottles – all plastic – everywhere you look. In the mornings, as I leave the house I have to pick up two or three such bottles which have been thrown in my garden. What am I supposed to do with other folks garbage?
We are really old. So old that we remember decades ago when water in bottles that you would carry with you first became a “thing”. In those days there were still warnings about drinking water in plastic bottles. Enough of the plastic would melt into the water making it dangerous if we drank too much water from those plastic bottles. Later came warnings about drinking water from plastic bottles which sat out in the sun too long. Today, those warnings are about destroying the earth with all of those plastic bottles.
We started drinking Mountain Valley Water at that point. It was the only bottled water we could find in glass bottles. That works fantastically well if you drink one or two bottles a month. Otherwise, other kinds of problems crop up. When we returned the Mountain Valley Water bottles to the store to get our deposit back we felt really good. We felt as though we were doing our part to save the environment. And then we learned they did not go back to the manufacturer to be washed and refilled with water to be put out for sale again. They just got picked up by the hauling company that picked up the grocers garbage and thrown out just like the plastic bottles.
And then there are the newspapers. Only here begains a solution to the “trash” problem. As your newspapers collect, keep them very clean and neatly stacked and when you go out take a stack with you to be dropped off at Estate Sales. They are in everybody’s neighborhood and are always looking for wrapping papers for the fragile items they sell. You can look up the estate sale locations – try “estate sales.net”, go a little out of your way and drop them at the closest place having a sale. You can do the same in spring, summer and fall at your neighborhood “garage sale” or other kind of related sales. They will be most grateful. What you have done is passed on to those who buy items wrapped in your newspapers the problem of disposing of the old, now crushed papers they have from their purchases. Of course, another way to do this is to save your newspapers and drop them off at the home of one of your neighbors who frequents estate sales.
Food waste, of course, goes down the disposal, except for those items for which your disposal is not rated to accept and then you have to look around and find other ways to dispose of that waste.
This gets really complicated. And then there is the waste from corporations and manufacturing companies and energy companies and, O God how did we get here? Can’t we find another way to live without such waste problems, which are increasing exponentially by the hour?
How do you dispose of your waste? Let us know. We are looking – and so are others – to turn our waste into something usable instead of throwing out so much. Do we need major lifestyle changes? Our ethical base updated? Our caring for others re-upped? What!
Because of the business we were in, we spent many years closely aligned with the real estate community. During that time our discoveries were shocking and as we try to sell our house all the lessons we learned and tried to address are incorporated in that attempt.
The racism in the real estate industry is well known. We should say – the bigotry – since these actions include more than African Americans. The fact that it has been impossible to eradicate or even mitigate is also well known. Attempts to end/change the structure and how realtors, developers, contractors and all those others aligned with the real estate community, have been notoriously unsuccessful.
Decades ago, there was one big attempt – which everyone thought was brilliant and would make major changes in the apartheid engaged in by the real estate community – it did not.
For a time, if you wanted to rent an apartment, condo, house, etc. and you were turned down or games were played with you so you would not be able to gain the home you wanted, there was recourse. Once you made a complaint to your local or federal Human Rights office they would start the investigation by sending a white family behind the minority family that felt discriminated against in the rejection of their offer to rent or buy the house of their dreams (or the house which fit their pocketbook). Many such cases, after that kind of test, were won and damages paid. However, that did not even put a dent into changing the way racism is institutionalized in the real estate industry.
Neighborhoods and so therefore schools, remain segregated; churches were the most segregated of all and all the trappings that went with the kind of racism maintained by this real estate community remained in place for all to experience.
Today, that bigotry is still practiced. It is more sophisticated, but still in existence and tightly controlled.
Working with realtors in maintaining this system are banks and other lending institutions. After banks fail to maintain residential bigotry it is the turn of the employers of the people trying to rent or buy in what today are still redlined houses and/or neighborhoods.
How does this happen so consistently:
We live in a very racist, sexist, etc. society. From birth we are trained in how to be a bigot. Some of us take to that training like a duck takes to water. Others have some brakes applied and are never quite comfortable, but the everyday things one has to do to maintain a sense of being “better than” infects us all – white, black, latinx, LGBTQ+, muslim, etc. Some fight against the need to be superior to and others just accept their unearned status and do what is necessary to keep it going.
2. What does that include? Well, the first line of defense against ‘diverse neighborhoods” is with the home-owner and/or the real estate agent showing the property. The wrong person shows up and that person experiences foot dragging, obfuscation, excuses, everything that can be thrown up to keep them from wanting to move ahead with the sale or rental of that particular property. Real Estate Agents have been known to bring up another property – supposedly a better buy and one more suited for the client – and in a more acceptable neighborhood for that particular person. When all else fails, the property is taken off the market until a better time to list it for sale. After that particular minority has moved on? Before others get the same idea and start to look at that house? Whatever the reason given the house comes back on the market after a time and we start all over again.
3. f the person looking for housing perseveres and somehow gets past that first obstacle, It is then up to the financial institutions. Banks are better at this than others, but they all come together for the same result. Keep people in neighborhoods with their own kind and especially keep them out of the most prestigious white northern european neighborhoods. Even in those neighborhoods an occasional minority can buy as long as it is not one of the houses really off-limits to non-whites.
Banks have myriad ways they block the sale of houses which were “redlined”, but today not called such. The understanding is there anyway. Not a relevant word need be spoken – which allows for denial. Always make sure there is the ability to deny what you are actually doing.
4. If a minority through some miracle makes it past the financial institutions, the employer is next up to keep the societal segregation. We have seen this happen over and over again. It is a perfect set-up for denial. The person who has been so successful is making it past society’s barriers to ‘diversity’ in housing hits his/her employer and gets fired. The quicker the firing to the date of purchasing the new house the better.
Once fired, it is all downhill from there and the new employee or older employee who moved into the ‘wrong’ house very seldom connects his/her firing to the home purchase. A few have made that connection immediately because they are conscious of the barriers they have crossed and have an understanding of institutional racism. Those who have ‘smoked the pipe’ even when told what has happened and why are too dazed to pick it up.
The person so fired just picks up, gathers up, does whatever is necessary to survive financially and moves on.
Employers have far more ways to accomplish getting a non-white person out of a house they should not have been allowed to buy in the first place and they use them all when necessary.
5. After this comes the time for a minority who has managed to stay in a house so “redlined” to sell and move on. Then the fun starts because the end result changes. It is not to keep other minorities out of the neighborhood and out of that house. They have probably lived there many years. Uncomfortably with lots of racist happenings, but this is a new game.
The goal of this game is to make sure that minority leaves the neighborhood he/she should not have been allowed to inhabit in the first place with as little wealth as possible.
That is a game which would make an intensely interesting game of chess pale by comparison and that is for another article.
Two decisions came down from the Supreme Court – one day apart.
Looking at those decisions what strikes us is the fact that they show the Supreme Court of the United States is showing it is deep into “Situational Ethics.” Given that, they can overturn anything, make any ruling and they don’t have to hold to the Constitution or anything else except the convictions of those who support or supported their appointment to the Court.
Situational Ethics is what was the foundation of Hitlers Germany. We are now one step closer.
Trump brought us many steps closer with his extreme White Nationalist attitude and events. We are now moving along in that direction on our own. Many other decisions will be reversed before they tackle “Loving”, but it is clearly in their site.
We write and talk a lot about the bigotry of racism, sexism and so much more. We keep that talk on an institutional level. Very seldom do we write and talk with individual, real -true-to-life examples. That would interfere with our ability to deny – which is the foundation of what allows those structures to continue to exist. Start to talk about your real, true-to-life example of having experienced racism, sexism and all the rest and denial will immediately pop-up to explain away your real life experience. It is the most potent way we have of continuing bigotry’s existence. Raw, unwashed, in-your-face bigotry, maintained, continued, developed through denial.
We see denial being institutionalized in our educational system. Florida and the laws it is passing is an example. Those laws parallel the laws of old which made it a crime to teach slaves to read and write. Why criminalize something so seemingly harmless as teaching reading, writing and arithmetic? Because that was the beginnings of an effective way out of slavery. Today, we are trying to re-instituionalize a modernization of those criminal laws. Why? To maintain the “better than” in this society of white male northern-europeans peoples. And even to make a difference within that group of those who believe one way as against those who believe another. Bringing culture, religious beliefs and more into that “better than” equation.
Our world was rocked when we saw and got to know many of the victims of the bigotry against the elderly. We had seen bits and pieces of it pop-up, but to really experience the bigotry the elderly must live with, ignore and end their lives living in the most humiliating and vicious way – usually very broke after everything they worked all their lives to acquire – is an earth-shattering experience.
Society is structuring itself to maintain the elderly totally apart from the rest of world. That allows grifting, theft, physical – mental – medical – legal abuse to come to the forefront and happen with everyone looking on while denying what they are seeing and turning it into something positive. What is most annoying is that those doing this as the leaders of this pact are just like you and me. They look normal, talk normal, participate in their part of the world just like you and me with no one the wiser. They, however, begin to acquire wealth we don’t even give a thought as to from whence it has come.
We have published several articles on what happened to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and Marceline Donaldson. African Americans – Elderly – with fairly substantial assets. Mostly, what we published has been ignored except by those who experienced the same thing. We were surprised at how many elderly are experiencing this “putting the elderly into poverty” and then, let us use a small percentage of what is taken to keep them barely surviving and right under the nose of and with the approval of their families. Or, I should say because of the neglect of their families who are very, very busy. That is one real-life example which has uncovered many more. What we saw is that you don’t know when something like that will hit you. As a society we are taught “denial”. I am not my brother or sisters keeper – let them work it out on their own. That is our attitude towards bigotry of all kind. That is why it is so prevalent, long lasting and horrific in this society and in this world.
Guardianship is one evil in this society which has been practiced mostly against Jews, but is beginning to spread to other minorities as the wealth of different groups increases.
Murder of the youngest generation of minorities is happening because the numbers of minorities in this society are increasing and those who we refer to today as minorities are predicted to be the largest functioning group within a decade or so. How to cope and reverse that? Kill the children of these minorities. Well, you will get a few children of the majority group, but then Hitler targeted and killed Jews, but also included non-Jews to be most efficient and effective in his goal to remove Jews from the world. And the result of this killing of the children? When the oldest working group of minorities retires or dies there will be far fewer minorities to replace them, effectively re-establishing the inequality that currently exists. Those who would replace them have been murdered by the hundreds.
Corporate America has long had a very high wall, to protect those at the top, which they have built over time and are now re-enforcing so that wall will last many more generations. The wealthiest people in this society are those who have developed businesses, new ideas, etc. Those are all white-male-mostly Northern European types who are the world’s billionaires – or working very hard to become such with support of their cultural, racial, ethnic brothers.
How has that happened and how has that line been kept so free of minorities crossing into the land of entrepreneurial opportunity? From our perch, we have seen the ideas and hard work and success of minorities and women in the entrepreneurial area stolen by this group of white male, etc. There has been a re-definition of things like “theft” and more so this group of white males have a smoother road as they cruise down to reach that billionaire status on someone else’s back. Take a look at the history of Silicon Valley – only don’t leave out the minority businesses stolen; the women-owned businesses stolen; the refusal of investors to support and invest only in business brought to them by their “own kind”. Don’t leave out the young white males who raced through Cambridge and places like MIT, Harvard and more to see who was doing what that they could steal and take to investors who would look at the ideas with a cover to induce blindness against those from whom those businesses were stolen.
What has most disturbed us, because it is going unnoticed, supported by the extremely wealthy few, and within this group “theft” re-defined to make the actual theft going on constantly a non-event. If you break into my house and steal one of my artifacts, jewelry, furniture – even food, you are subject to arrest and jail for that theft. If you break into my computer and or corporate location, steal my business plan, take all of the ideas, structure, customers, experience I acquired while building a substantial business, etc. and at the same time do everything you can to destroy my business so I will be busy just trying to survive while you develop the model you coveted, that is not considered theft and subjects you to no criminal action. It also does not disqualify you from being considered for funding for the ideas and businesses you stole from others.
Every day, we come across people who have been crushed by such theft after 20 to 30 years of working to build a business with ideas all their own and have been successful in the process as they introduced to society a new way of doing something or a new product or something not out there before. We also see the people who crushed them and tried to leave them and their business by the wayside because they decided to set in place a copy of their business and because the people so crushed tend to be minorities and/or women the white males used to succeed. They have access to capital to grow their business, which the minorities and women don’t have; they have access to partners, those who have worked at the top of large white-male owned businesses which take an interest and the kind of theft and destruction which took down the business they copied is ignored. Unfortunately for all of us the ethics of such businesses are in the gutter, however, most of us go along with the growth of this stolen business as it becomes an intrinsic part of this society with which the rest of us have to live.
Real Estate is a biggy! The structure, wealth, schools in the geographic location of where you live depends upon your culture, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual choice, etc. and that institutionally racist structure was put in place eons ago. It began in slavery and was intensified when we changed our economic structures from “in your face” slavery to a more modified form with which we live today.
The importance of the geographic location where you live and work and have your being increased dramatically and became entrenched and unchangeable during separate and unequal days and today is becoming even more bigoted than it was generations ago. It is now easier to discriminate on such a level without anyone noticing or those who notice and complain being crushed and blamed for their plight after that drastic crushing.
As the world moved forward, that structure moved with it and has been kept in place by realtors, the real estate industry and its cousins. They maintain geographical bigotry in your living accommodations very effectively and much easier than a few generations ago, which in turn maintains racially divided schools which maintains racially divided businesses which occupy the retail spaces in those racially divided neighborhoods with the result that some of such businesses thrive and become very successful and some, in the minority neighborhoods, hang on by their fingernails for a lifetime.
These are some of the areas we will research and write about going forward with actual examples.
We have lots out there in the literature which talks about structural racism and how society separates unequally, but individual examples seem to be the most threatening and the least written about – especially in books used in schools of higher learning where to examine such things might cause a great disruption in this society. It is the area that many will read about and immediately engage in denial and denigration of those doing the writing.
We, at Bettina’s, have lived long enough that such denigration will not deter us. You are encouraged to join us with your stories. After all, we must all experience denial to understand how vicious it is.
In Scripture you will read: “Do you think I come to bring peace on earth. No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other; three against two and two against three”…….Luke 12:51-52.
We talk and sing a lot about “peace”. We knock those who we claim bring “divisiveness’. But when we do that what happens to such passages in Scripture? We think there is nothing wrong with “divisiveness”. We need to look at good and evil and separate those concepts instead of making divisiveness substitute for evil and coming together substitute for good.
I remember when Emmett Till was murdered. The horror of what happened to him didn’t strike me until I saw him in his open casket. Once you saw the reality of the brutal way he was murdered; once you saw his face which was unrecognizable; once you came close to the reality of the side of human nature which could do such a thing to another human there was no turning back.
I was very young at the time and good and evil were concepts I learned about in Church. They were not real for me although I mouthed the words, until I saw Emmett Till in his casket.
Image is the stuff on which this society is built. Emmett Till’s mother ignored maintaining her son’s image and opted to have him on display in an open casket. Much talk circulated about that decision – mostly negative about Emmett Till’s mother with the comments basically asking “hasn’t he suffered enoough” – “do we have to put his body through such a public display” “why can’t she grieve in private and keep those images away from the rest of us, it is enough to have to deal with what happened to him”.
Once the wake and funeral started there was little to no disagreement about her decision because the affect of seeing just what a few humans did to one child was overwhelming. To see Emmett Till’s open casket brought up such pain and agony in those who looked at him – for me it brought up the reality of who we really are as human beings and what evil we can wrought. Her decision brought about major change.
It is time for the world to see the evil, wrought by guns in the hands of people who are sometimes good and sometimes evil. It is time to see what human beings can do to their children. It is time for the world to see the physical evil done to the children of Uvalde Texas. It is time for the world to feel what anger, rage, jealousy, bigotry, hatred can do when it is supported by guns of war. Once you have seen that there is no turning back. You will see those images repeatedly for quite some time and the world needs to see with their eyes what guns in the hands of evil has done and will do again.
The pictures of the children and their teachers need to be made public for all to see. Their caskets need to be open when the time for viewing arrives so all of us will bear some of the guilt of their death. All of us need to share the pain that parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends have been carrying since that massacre happened. We all need to see what the guns used will do and has done to hundreds of children and their human body. We all need to be aware that there are humans amongst us who can do such and walk away. To talk about how awful that can be; to discuss what happened to hundreds of children will not have the deterrent affect that actually seeing the children dead – shot to death with guns that make them so unrecognizable tests have to be taken to identify your own child.
O God, do you also bear the pain of the children, their parents, their friends, those who barely know them but who have suffered much because they have and live within a human spirit capable of such horror. You show us daily the good and the bad of which we are capable. If we can stick spears into the side of Jesus. If we can give him vinegar to drink when he calls out in thirst. If we can torture and kill in the most horrible way the son of God, how much more can we do to each other. Eons of time pass and we show just how much terror we can inflict on one another. Eons of time pass and we show just how little love and caring we have for one another. We can see another human being living on the street in minus 20 degree weather and mumble ugly words denigrating that human as we pass by with no feelings about that person and the situation in which they find themselves. How long, O God, will we be in such a place living with such a spirit as inhabits us all.
When we have to debate whether or not the pictures of the recent massacre of children should be shown to the public; when we have to decide what would be too much for others to see; when we protect those who need to be given a look at who they could become, what are we doing? Protecting others from the rawness, the pain, the horribleness of those acts or are we protecting ourselves and setting others up for another time when some one with our human spirit gets wrapped in the evil of which we are all capable and acts out the destruction of life in a most egregious way.
Open the doors, open the windows, open the caskets, publish the pictures, let the world see who we could all be if set down in the right circumstances for such to develop.
Bettina Lifestyle Community is many things. One is a private selection of wonderful homes where members can choose to stay when they are traveling.
The homes in this collection vary dramatically from one another. Some are exquisitely beautiful, some are works of art, historical, interesting, primitive, farms, businesses where you can learn and participate in what they do and they are located in the best places. The owners or those living in the homes, as hosts to those visiting, are interesting, learned in many areas, artists, musicians, intellectual leaders and more. We do not have homes that are unoccupied or unhosted where you find the key under the mat. Bettina Homes in this collection are only open to members of the Bettina Lifestyle Community.
We invite you to join Bettina Lifestyle Community so you are able to travel with us. If you made reservations and stayed in one of our homes previously, you are already a member. Otherwise the cost to join is $25.00 and an application for membership follows:
Just like you we are trying to wrap our heads, hearts and understanding around what happened. How could anyone slaughter young children in such a cold blooded way. How could anyone slaughter……
Interesting is the fact that the massacre at the TOPS Market in Buffalo had headlines screaming about African Americans shot…… In UVALDE, where most of the young students and teachers who were shot were Latinx, the silence on that fact is deafening.
We are becoming a country which Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany would recognize and understand immediately. Instead of individual concentration camps in different areas where Jews and those who objected to their treatment were kept and where they were killed, the entire United States of America has become a concentration camp.
Not that long ago, Jews were killed. Not long after that there were the Mother Emanuel Church killings. Not long after that there was the George Floyd killing and many others who did not get the news media coverage that his killing received. And then there was the TOPS killing of African Americans and now the killing of so many Latinx and other children.
No, we have not forgotten the killings of white children which preceded all of this. We just wonder if those were not the examples which the White Supremacists took to heart and saw the possibilities to do what has happened over these past years. After all, where and who paid for those killings? What changed in this society because of them – to stop or at least mitigate the killings? No price to pay, the slaughter becomes unbearable to most of us and something to celebrate to others. Those who celebrate grow over time and the rest of us pay a very high price./
We are not dealing with this level of carnage at all. and we don’t see any signs that we will begin to deal with this. We are, however, dealing with what allows it, encourages it and sets the stage for all of what is happening in the killing fields.
As you move ahead in business what you discover is the lack of ethics and integrity which faces you on every level and at every turn. You discover how bigotry has infected the institutional structure of this country and you see this group of people who feel as though they have the right to be “better than” and anything that even hints at destroying that right gets run over. As it gets run over, those who are not on the front line with the White Supremacists are contributing to the success of their movement by the constant all powerful denials which come whenever you try to raise up and talk about the racism, sexism, and all the other -isms allowed and encouraged. That denial is the ground out of which these weeds grow.
Most encouraging are the steps being taken by institutions to bring about change. You can see in their efforts, however, that they realize real change will only come when the structures which were created by slavery, the genocide of American Indians and the destruction of several generations of immigrants who have a very hard time until some are recognized as “real Americans’ – if they came from Northern European countries – and others just struggle.
The National Rifle Association – which is doing much to generate this carnage seems to have its leadership and membership deep into the muck with Russia and Putin. Looking at the timing of some of these massacres, it goes along with something happening from that part of the world to distract from the media covering what Russia is doing. This time, it totally distracted the media away from the war against Ukraine which Russia is now fighting with the same level of ethics that this war in the United States, totally and furiously causing unbelievable evil, is being fought against its “minorities.”
To stop this, truth telling is desperately needed. Not excuse making, not denials, not ignoring of the signs of trouble around the corner, not encouraging young people who are already problematic to do some of what has happened, not passing the buck.
Those doing wrong know who they are. Those making excuses so they can collect millions of dollars for their political campaigns know why they are. Those encouraging the young men who caused this massacre instead of helping them know who they are.
We are a country with a lot of evil in its history and it needs to be seriously and truthfully addressed and changed.
When, O God, will we see ourselves as we are and not as we project ourselves to be -hiding behind images. Help us to have the courage to step out on our convictions and to uphold your truth, your way, your love. The cost to continue getting mired in all of this sin is very high. Clear our eyes so we can see with accuracy the joy, the happiness, the greatness of goodness.
*When we get a wonderful photographer, these types of articles will be shown with pictures. Until then, your imagination or your actual trying of the recipe will have to suffice.
Bake or buy large cookies
Heat them in the oven until just warmed
Top with ice cream to complement the kind of cookies you are using. Several scoops to look great.
Serve.
What could be simpler. The surprise of those eating this dessert was palpable because the warm cookies added just the right and unexpected touch.
Your feedback?
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We have published this somewhere in this blog on a previous date. Recently, however, we have been besieged with requests on what is it she does to look the way she does at 84 years old. We decided to republish -and it took quite a bit to get her acquiescence because she does not like to see her name in public places.
Firstly, she uses no soap. I can hear the scandalized cries on that one. She believes that soap dries out and strips you of everything natural to your body. Yes, that includes showers and baths.
Take a soak in the tub in organic apple cider vinegar. The next time take a soak in the tub in Epsom Salt.
Once upon a time she could afford a massage with Aloe Vera Whole Leaf Gel. Today, it is what she puts on her face after rinsing it those required ten times in plain water. Let the Gel (organic, of course) stay the morning until you are going out and then rinse it off and go your way. Yes – no make up.
Sometimes mix Organic Aloe Vera Whole Leaf Gel with organic powdered milk and put that on your face in the mornings. You will feel your skin tightening and that is a good thing.
Realize – none of this works overnight. It is a natural way to keep away wrinkles as long as possible so it takes a few weeks to see any really good results.
When you have time, after rinsing your face with whatever tightening agent you used, clip open a Vitamin A capsule and rub that on your skin. If you have lots of time, clip open a Vitamin E capsule and put that over the Vitamin A – it acts as a preservative and makes the Vitamin A last longer.
Rinse your face required 10 times before drying and going out.
No lipstick, ever. She believes lipstick has dangerous ingredients that can, overtime, possibly cause cancer. She also believes it looks horrible. Once upon a time only prostitutes wore lipstick and other kinds of make-up until the marketeers discovered they could sell billions of dollars of product convincing women they looked incredibly great wearing chemicals.
That’s it – with the addition of the occasional foot soak in warm water and Epsom Salts or Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. Except for the hair – controllable with Organic Avocado Oil. Daily put a small amount of the oil in the palm of your hand and massage it through your hair. Brush the oil into your hair and out the door you go.
Several years ago, Rev. Bennett and his wife tried to help a woman who was recently homeless and together with her brother they were able to get housing and a different kind of life for this person.
Marceline and Rev. Bennett would pick her up on Saturdays and take her to lunch. They shopped the estate sales and tried to make sure she was just fine. She was very unhappy with her then current housing and the people around her so they helped her find new housing, where she lives currently.
She became involved in far right wing politics – with which the people who carried out this life shattering action against the Donaldson/Bennett’s were also involved.
Ms. Nora Al WetAid, who was head of Protective Services swore out the affidavit which was used to have the police pick up Rev. Bennett first claiming a Section 12 against him – the one that allows the police to pick up and put into a psych unit of a hospital someone who has had too much to drink, or is on drugs or in other ways is a public threat. The hospital immediately released him because it clearly was a very questionable action by the state agency.
However, he was picked up again the next day with the claim that he had to be removed from his home because his wife was medically abusive of him. Since they had seen doctors that year several times and he was just out of a different hospital; this action seems to have been done by a rival hospital trying to set up a psych unit; and more. This time he was kept for five week for no medical reason in a locked ward and not released until Marceline put the story on MGH’s Facebook Page. All of a sudden Dr. Bennett’s family was told to come and get him. MGH, however, collected $125,000 which they should not have invoiced, let alone collected from Dr. Bennett’s insurance after both Dr. Bennett and Marceline sent a statement to the hospital refusing them the right to charge him, especially since he was kept by the hospital against his will and after having made several attempts to leave.
Our question has been about the woman from Protective Services’ Saudi connections, given the strong stance the Donaldson/Bennett’s have taken writing about Donald Trump and company. We are still doing that research and it is still ongoing until we get answers to many questions. We are moving in that direction because the affidavit is so full of untruths and the woman who is at the center of this is known by the state agency to do things like this – we think the Nora Al WetAids of the world took advantage of the fact that she is mentally unstable, regularly sees a psychiatrist, and has had serious problems with schizophrenia for decades. Knowing that, to use such a person to start the process of what was started against Rev. Bennett and Marceline speaks volumes to us about what this is really about.
The affidavit sworn to by Ms. Nora Al-Wetaid is not true; was not investigated before it was written, sworn to and used by the attorney for the state agency, who knew or should have known the document he presented to the Court to start this horribleness was purgery.
Many people are now talking to Rev. Bennett and Marceline about their very similar problems. What is common to all and was also common to what happened to Rev. Bennett and Marceline is the very secretive nature of the origination of what happened to them and what subsequently became an ongoing nightmare.
Clearly, there are reasons those very beginnings have been hidden. It allows what follows to happen with the people targeted not having the ability to properly respond because the facts of how it all began are hidden from them. – and, unfortunately, also from their attorneys.
Peoples lives and assets have been taken under such circumstances – in violation of much including the Court process and procedures, because of the way Guardianship laws are being abused with what we see as the ultimate goal of removing a person whose politics we don’t like, destroying the qualify of their lives and possibly life itself, and helping oneself to their assets. We also see the racist side to this which is the elimination of generational wealth of minorities, including Jews and women.
Now that the Donaldson/Bennetts know how this all got started it is up to them what next steps they will take. This clearly had a goal of relieving them of their assets and putting those assets and probably the people themselves under Guardianship. It is amazing that this happens in a country which values freedom and individual rights.
It is time for this to change.
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Now, Chris Rock is intervening in the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp law suit with his “comedic” comments. Apparently, the notoriety and exposure he received after pushing Will Smith over the line by insulting his wife for comedic effect emboldened him to go further. He is now “joking” at the expense of Amber Heard.
Demean and embarrass women and minorities has a long history in this society – remember Amos and Andy? How is Chris Rock any different? How are other ‘comedians’ any different when their content is meant to demean, oppress, embarrass women and/or minorities? Why do you laugh at such ‘jokes’ and not call the presenter into question and ask for his removal?
It is time for this to stop and for others to raise their voices. Comedians make sexist comments constantly and we all laugh. Well, it is time for the laughter to die out and genuinely funny comedians to come to the forefront, not those trained and steeped in this society’s sexism and other -isms. Chris Rock clearly is one of those who needs to be retrained. The easy way to get audience response is to appeal to their baser instincts – well, Rock does that beautifully with women and the audience responds.
Where are the voices raised in objection to this? Where are the hiring venues who will cancel or refuse to hire and promote Chris Rock and others like him? Jokes have been made and “enjoyed” by those who benefit from the negativity and extreme bigotry laced into many comedians’ jokes.
Chris Rock heads our list of fowl, unwanted comedians. We will not attend any of his appearances nor promote him nor let his appearances go without raising up the mud and slime out of which he and others like him comes.
A talented comedian does not need to oppress minorities; to insult women; to make a subtle slap at someone using bigotry to get the audience to side with a friend for very sexist reasons. Talent will out and clearly Chris Rock needs this kind of ‘comedic bigotry’ in his appearances.
Let your voices be heard.
Don’t let this slide.
Wherever and whenever you can, make known thatyou do not want to hear, see or smell Chris Rock.
Because he is African American does not give him the right to practice sexism against women or any other kind of bigotry against others because he lacks the talent to stand on the stage as a comedian without this prop.
Comedy is an art for to be respected, not to be used in one’s fight for superiority over others because you are so insecure and so lacking in talent that you have to use the bigotry, as a comedian, to get others to laugh.
It is truly amazing how loose this world has become with the truth. It is particularly notable since the appearance on the political scene of Donald Trump. Truth to him and his followers has no meaning and whatever is said, defined, discussed is whatever and however they can twist truth to their advantage.
Vladimir Putin has the same syndrome, as evidenced by his announcement at the beginning of the war he started against Ukraine.
Nazi in the 1930’s and beyond – until the 2020’s was defined as “a member of a German fascist party controlling Germany from 1933 to 1945. A harshly domineering, dictatorial or intolerant person.” The history that is associated with the term, traditionally used, is one of genocide against Jews and those supporting them.
Random killings of Jews by this German fascist party is known by just about everyone on planet earth. Nazism has a history of having killed, without cause, over 6 million Jews, viciously, after depriving them of food, shelter, etc. – by burning them alive – putting them into gas chambers by the hundreds and so much more. I could go on and on, but it would only be reiterating history known by all.
Today, Vladimir Putin has given a very different definition of Nazi – anti-Nazification – and more centered around the German model.
He claims he went into Ukraine to remove the Nazi leader and replace him with his own chosen leader. He also claimed the war he started was for the anti-Nazification of Ukraine.
He can’t be talking about the traditional definition of “Nazi” because what Putin actually did was to go into Ukraine to attempt to remove its duly elected Jewish president. He continued in his quest by going ahead and attempting to exterminate the Ukrainians because they voted to install this Jew as their president.
The result is an attempted extermination of an entire country in retribution for having elected a Jew as its president. That can be seen from the extreme anger, the viciousness, the attempt to destroy the country leaving nothing behind. Transporting Ukrainians to hold those Ukrainian citizens in “pens” in Russia; killing those in Ukraine at random, including in ways we can recognize that were used to kill Jews in Germany during the reign of Adolph Hitler and to do that killing as viciously as possible. He has ordered the holding of Ukrainian citizens in Ukraine under the most inhumane circumstances possible. It is totally reminiscent of what happened in Germany in the 1930’s and beyond. And – by the way – isn’t Selensky the only Jew to head a country in this world? – except maybe in Israel? Certainly, the United States has never been accused of having a Jewish president.
Vladimir Putin totally recalls and forces the rest of the world to recall this incredible atrocity, from the 1930’s through the 1940’s that he is recreating on a daily basis. He is walking in the footsteps of Adolph Hitler and burning people alive; starving them; knowing they are dying of thirst with no access to water or liquids of any kind; cutting off any and all humane assistance to the people he is so treating. Putin, by his own admission to the press in Russia and other places apparently intends to continue doing this same thing for as long as necessary until he has removed the “Nazi” president of Ukraine and replaced him with one who will, no doubt, make this current president of Ukraine look like a saint by comparison.
Putin sees it to his advantage to call a spade a shovel. The rest of the world clearly sees that he has redefined the term Nazi for his Russian citizens and whoever else comes under his sway. Nazi in 2022 has had its ugly meaning cleansed by Vladimir Putin. Clearly, the “Nazi” president of Ukraine has shown himself to be a “Mensch”. He is totally capable of leading at this moment in history and doing so in the most humane way possible – given the circumstances created for this world by Putin.
The world stood by in the 1930’s and did not move against Germany until totally forced. Many Jews and those who objected to the slaughter happening in the 1930’s were viciously killed while those who could have stopped the carnage talked and talked and did some things to bring it to an end, but mostly they talked and talked while Adolph Hitler killed and destroyed and burned people alive and killed as many children as possible so there would not be a next generation of Jews.
Are we seeing the same thing happening today?
It is curious to us that in spite of the clear parallel to what happened in Germany, the national press is not calling what Putin is doing for what it is. They talk about the reasons he gave for going into Ukraine and almost gloat over the fact that his attempt and expectation for success in a few days failed. There is no talk about the extreme bigotry against Jews which has motivated Putin and continues to do so.
One only has to remember how Jews fled Russia – in the not so distant past. Wasn’t that during Putin’s time? They went to Israel and other countries by the thousands because of the oppression and extreme actions being taken in Russia against the Jews. i have yet to hear that history mentioned and connected to what is going on today. Is that because most people alive today are too young to have experienced that or read about it in the news at the time and know very little about history on their own?
A “Nazi” in 2022 is the president of Ukraine. Putin’s anti-Nazification is against the Ukrainian citizens who put this “Nazi” in as president of their country. In reality, these Ukrainians and their president are defending themselves and their country and the rest of the area and consequently the world against the horrible viciousness and blood thirsty Russians trying to kill them, their children, their culture, their language, their everything so they can be replaced by non-Jews who will move in from Russia, claim Ukraine as a “cleansed” country and society which has few to no Jews and probably no to few other minorities. The vision of Hitler’s Germany is clearly the vision of Putin’s Russia. Because Putin has redefined the term Nazi in 2022 does not connect that term in any way to Nazi and Nazism as defined in 1933 through 1945. This is a new day!
It is no accident that the far Right-wing in the United States which have raised the flag of extreme racism and is fighting for a White-supremist country has connected itself to Russia, which is also a White-Nationalist country fighting for the same thing.
That far right-wing group in the United States and the parallel group around the world claims to be “christian”. Their christian theology is followed religiously and almost unconsciously and has at its core value christian relativity – orthodox christianity relativity. It has been in their belief system since the days of slavery and before. It is the definition of morality in the faith system of Nazi Germany and as outlined in Communism. It is the belief in morality as relative. The belief that there is no absolute right and wrong – that depends on the circumstances. Putin’s definition of christian morality and his orthodox belief system is clearly relative and he is putting that relativity into practice with his marketing and public relations people spreading the doctrine far and wide. Relative truth and relative morality is what is core to the far-right wing Americans who proclaim their christianity and hold it to justify whatever they do. In their belief system their is no such thing as truth – morality is relative. There is no absolute right and wrong. It all depends on the circumstances.
The relativity of the definition of faith, truth, ethics, morality these are what the believer holds up to themselves to justify their actions. What they hold up to others is their religious belief system and they go out and proselytize to attempt to convert as many people as possible to their belief system and to the fact that it will change abruptly depending upon the needs of their power, greed, self-image of superiority – all of the trappings to support their belief in themselves as “better than.” The only rock-solid impenetrable, permanent non-relative part of this relative belief system. This is what makes its core and what keeps them going. This is the face of evil and it is clearly strong in the world today. As strong as it was during the time of Hitler and Nazism.
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I discovered a shrimp salad that I loved at Whole Foods in Fresh Pond in Massachusetts.
I went to the store several times to buy “my salad”, but sometimes the buffet area where it was sold for $9.99/pound would be empty. The same salad would be available at the deli counter with someone helping me behind the counter, but the cost was $17.99/pound so I decided I should develop my own – based on the tastes from that salad so I could have it whenever my taste demanded.
A Bettina Original
All ingredients should be organic. The shrimp should be “wild caught”. Freshly caught shrimp is preferable, but if you can’t find that, frozen shrimp will do if the shrimp are “as out of the water” – which means with shell on and have not been tampered with in any way as folks try to make using shrimp “easier” for you. It takes nothing to slit and devein shrimp. Lets take the “lazy” out of cooking and go for a great resulting dish.
You will need –
salt (himalayan preferred): Cayenne Pepper or if you prefer a bit of a vinegary taste, you can substitute Tabasco Sauce: Shoyu sauce :Yogurt and Mayonnaise (equal amounts) :Parsley – finely chopped :Onions – 2 kinds add to the taste: Olives – and, of course, shrimp.
Boil the shrimp in a pot of water with the shells on.*** Shrimp turn pink after only a couple minutes so be careful not to overcook them, they will turn tough. Take them out of the water, leaving the water in the pot. Remove the shrimp shells and any veins and put the shells back into the pot in which the shrimp were boiled. Simmer the shrimp water with shells for at least 1/2 hour.
Pour this water into a large jar after you remove the shells. You can drain this water, but you don’t have to. We do too much to make our food as “clean and clear” as possible thus removing great taste and nutrition throwing it down the drain. This gives you shrimp stock for other dishes down the road. It is amazing how many uses you can find for all kinds of stock if you have it on hand. The increase in taste of these dishes and the increase in nutritional value is worth the effort.
Mix all the above ingredients together and put them in the refrigerator overnight. It is important that you give this salad 24 hours for the different ingredients to meld together. The taste changes dramatically.
***We boil shrimp a couple different ways. Both very good, depending upon your taste – or part of the country in which you developed your taste. You can put a goodly amount of crab boil in the water when you boil the shrimp or you can use Old Bay. Both give the shrimp a little “oomph”.
There is and has been a great upheaval about the punch to the face Will Smith delivered to Chris Rock.
Most of the opinions, expressed very publicly, show how deeply entrenched sexism is in this society.
The wrong starts with Will Smith with calls tp “lock him up” from the police; take him down, in one way or another, from everyone else.
What is missing is a clear statement of the wrong that happened. Mostly, that “wrong” violent action is blamed on Will Smith. Let us be clear and truthful without our history of bigotry intervening. This was started not by Will Smith, but by Chris Rock. He is an example of that in which comedians trade – the insults slung at women on a constant basis. The insult is followed by laughter, which re-enforces the sentiment and makes an ugly joke out of most women. Once upon a time this was very prevalent amongst comedians who traded on vicious “jokes” and what were supposed to be “funny” characterizations of African Americans. It is still true whenever there is a group some insecure person wants to take down – like Chris Rock and his attack on Jada Pinkett.
The violence on stage was started by Chris Rock with his vicious joke aimed at Jada Pinkett. The fact that she was sitting in front of him amongst an audience of her peers and could be hurt and diminished and oppressed by this public and ugly joke about her hair is something that the audience reacted to with great hilarity. Will Smith, after a moment spent enjoying this boost to his male ego came to his senses and went to defend his wife.
Chris Rock’s joke was far more deleterious than Will Smith’s punch. Rock will recover quickly and go on to accolades about how “elegantly” he acted in spite of Smith’s crudeness. The real story is that we live in a sexist society in which it is just fine to make crude jokes about women. We have been trained by generations of vicious, oppressive jokes denigrating women that this is “fun”, he meant no harm, don’t you have a sense of humor? The women at whom the jokes are aimed walk away more oppressed, more put down, more discouraged than they were before the joke.
The violence done to women by Chris Rock needs to be held up and dealt with. He is, after all, the one who started this violence. His violence was against women. Will Smith limited his violence to Chris Rock. The comedians who make money and gain fame by doing such are too numerous to mention, but you hear them all the time. The audience’s reaction is always one of hilarious laughter and the woman has been diminished in the sight of her friends and former admirers. She has been “tamed” and now knows a little better, her place.
If punishment is going to come it needs to start with Chris Rock before it moves on to Will Smith. Men are outraged at what happened and have engaged in much talk about Will Smith’s violence – which even his close friends refuse to condone. None of those close friends have commented at all on the violence done to Jada Pinkett by Chris Rock. The rush to punish Will Smith, while raising up Chris Rock because he reacted “like a man” – he was a “mensch” – “how could he keep his composure under such circumstances. All of this belies the extreme bigotry with which we live.
When are we going to see clearly the horribleness of bigotry in this society and how deeply entrenched it is and continues to be? It is time for those who perform on the backs of others to be called to task and with this I am calling Chris Rock to be a better person and apologize for what he did to Will Smith; to call for Will Smith’s punishment to be put on him also because he deserves it; and to make amends to Jada Pinkett for the sexism he sprayed all over her and over women in general, especially over those who suffer from alopecia in a society which judges a woman by her hair.
Every corner of this home bespeaks elegance, history, beauty and invites you to stay awhile. Across the street is a park; two door down on the same side of the street is another park and look out the windows, you will see the Charles River!
49 Hawthorn Street – Cambridge, MA. 02138 – $5,800,000.
What follows, under “House for Sale” describes a house which we would like to bring to your attention. We hope you will consider buying the house – either for yourself, your family or for one of your favorite institutions and/or charities.
A kitchen for those who actually cook with room for everything – your utensils, pots, spices and so much more. Many fantastic meals have come out of this kitchen.
The house we are describing was designed and built by an MIT graduate in 1900. She was one of MIT’s first female architectural students.. Her papers are in the MIT Library. She is Lois Lily Howe with her own architectural firm and all the architects working with her were women. Such a history in today’s climate makes quite a statement.
This particular house – at 49 Hawthorn Street – is the only Howe designed house in this area in which the interior has not been stripped and re-built taking away all of the historical design. The only room that needs to be brought back to its original design is the kitchen. It is wonderful as it is, however, to bring it back to Ms. Howe’s design would be special.
A fantastic welcome as the front door is opened to you and/or your guests. It speaks of the elegance which shows up all around the house – from French to Spanish to English to African to South American touches making it an escapee from Old New Orleans.
Marceline and Robert have lived in this house for 40 years and love every corner. Being people who love history (Near Eastern History was the subject of Robert’s Harvard Doctoral thesis) and with Marceline’s educational background in the School of Architecture under Ralph Rapson, they have totally enjoyed living in this house and discovered much in the process. Selling it under duress they want to know it is in the hands of people who would continue in that design preservation route. The area has a penchant for taking beautiful culturally diverse homes and turning them all into a Northern European Scandinavian aesthetic. They look as though they were all designed in the Ikea Showrooms. So sad! There is nothing wrong with the Ikea Designs, however, what is wrong is making them the ultimate, cultural, design touch stone. This house escaped that “remodel”.
Ms. Howe built the house for William Augustus Maynadier – a Harvard Professor who taught “Arthurian Legend.”- the story of King Arthur and the Round Table. It was a required course for all Harvard men. There were no Harvard women in those days.
Being very strong feminists, the Donaldson/Bennetts found that Harvard/MIT combination quite special. While “feminist” was not a term in her day, Ms. Howe clearly was a feminist as we know the term today, stepping out into the world of Architecture the way she did. Prof. Maynadier would be known as an extreme sexist today. He was teaching a class which laid the ground work for the very horrible sexism which most 20th century women have had to deal. And yet, he hired Ms. Lois Lily Howe to build his house.
Arthurian Legend – King Arthur and the Round Table – was a way of teaching men how to treat women in that “on the pedestal and out of the equality” area. The necessity of opening doors and standing on the side as she entered the room and etc. for this weaker sex is what was being taught, although not so specifically – it was wrapped in the Arthurian Legend. All the things women have fought to have removed for decades so they could be treated as equals is what Prof. Maynadier’s class was about. It was totally accepted at the time. Most people don’t know that this originated at Harvard. It was in the general world population at the time, but not to the extent that it became entrenched with Prof. Maynadier at 49 Hawthorn Street.
It was interesting to us that Prof. Maynadier chose Ms. Howe to design and build his home. – which he used to live in and invite paying guests to stay with him. The house has had that use throughout its 100 plus years of existence. It hosted seminars, class sessions, teas and many famous and not so famous people, still while serving as a very private home.
One of four bathrooms in this home – designed with jacuzzi, steam/shower room and separate enclosed toilet. The plumber calls it a “no bad smells” bathroom.
The Donaldson-Bennetts used their home to have what today are called bed & breakfast guests and to build the first network of such private homes working their way across the country and turning a national and an international network of bed and breakfast homes into a commonly known and accepted concept. This house was the beacon. Besides this house, they had homes also in Thailand, England, France and more.
The guys who founded Airbnb stayed with them before those three even thought of such a company. They were sent by Venture Capitalists – particularly the Capital Network in Cambridge – who wanted to fund such a venture, but not one designed, created and being grown by African Americans. So they helped themselves to the Bettina Network, Inc’s business plan and everything else they could find to help them get the same kind of venture off the ground. They sent people to offer their homes to join the Bettina Network, inc. but were really only interested in the process of how that was done – just as they hacked into and used Craig’s List to get their initial clients. The Donaldsons’ believe that when their web site was stolen, locked and offered back to them for enormous sums of money – it had to do with the genesis of Airbnb, although that was not known at the time as Airbnb was just forming.
While the Donaldson/Bennett’s lived and are living in the Lois Lily Howe house, Harvard sent many guests to stay with them, as did MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College and more. Several admin people called regularly to make reservations for guests visiting Harvard and other Universities in the area as well as private corporations calling for guests to whom they wanted to give privacy.. Everyone who stayed loved their time in the house and totally were taken by its history stories and general feeling.
Many institutions and corporations used the house when guests were visiting who they wanted to have privacy without being worried that their guests would be stalked in the lobby of the hotels to pick up information that could be used for media articles. They also liked the fact that guests wouldn’t need so many levels of security when they came to Boston. Guests included such as Ambassador Victor Israelian, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, top management from the State Department, many of the USA’s top families, many scientists – mostly physicists – who loved the quiet and privacy of the house where they could enjoy the patio where squirrels and birds would visit them as they worked on the back porch.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to call. If you or someone you recommend would like to see the house, we are available at their or your convenience.
Call Marceline Donaldson – 617 497 9166 or email bettinanetwork@comcast.net putting 49 Hawthorn St in the subject line.
What follows is a fuller description of the house as it appears in different publications.
HOUSE FOR SALE – Cambridge, MA. 02138
“Marceline and Robert are selling their home. If you don’t want to buy it, please pass this along to those you know who might be interested and/or know someone who would love to step into their shoes. As a private home or as a home with a bit of income so you can live there and do other things. Income can be in the neighborhood of $1,080.00/night, not including income from events, etc..
Marceline and Robert did a wonderful job and are now moving to New Orleans – which is where Marceline grew up. They have not been able to survive the onslaught against them of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the way they treat minority elderly in what was and is an apparent attempt of a group within the state to relieve Jews, African Americans, Latinx and others of any wealth that could be passed on to the next generation. This is the new racism/bigotry that is replacing the separatism that followed slavery.
The house has been newly painted with, among other improvements, a new 75 gallon commercial water heater with a 20 year rating and lots of other elegant restorations which keep the historical design of the house as much as possible..
It is one of the few homes in Cambridge, which gives you views of the Charles River from many of the bedroom windows and it overlooks the Riverbend Park on one side with no other building blocking your view. There is also a second park (the historical Longfellow Park) just two houses down on the same block and the same side of the street as Marceline and Robert’s house. Fantastic and very unusually elegant to have so many parks within the same block the home in which one lives. One of the only homes in the area with such and with a spectacular view.
You would have 9,000 square feet of living space in this house over five floors. 5,400 (apx.) finished into three floors of elegant historical living and 3,500 square feet (apx) of attic and basement which can be finished into fantastic living space.
For a possible future use of the basement take a look at the basement of Harvard University’s Memorial Chapel’s basement.
The attic could be refinished into an exquisite ballroom for entertaining with its 16 foot height (apx) at its apex with no beams going across to obstruct the wonderful height of this room. The architect – Lois Lily Howe, in 1900 was one of the first, (she is credited with being the first), to be able to build such an attic. Most attics are so clogged with structures to keep the roof from falling in on itself you do not have the breathtaking space one finds here. This attic is a full floor. Its footprint is that of the entire length and width of the house. Just think of the elegant entertaining you could do in that attic.
Historically, guests came to events in such houses and went to the second floor living room to leave their coats, etc. and freshen up and then went up another floor or two to the tea, dinner, dance or etc. on the upper floors. Today, we don’t have attics large enough for such events, especially not one replicating the footprint of the other floors of the house.
Lois Lily Howe was the architect. Designed and built in approximately 1900, she was one of MIT’s first female graduates. She established her own architectural firm and the architects she hired were women.
In the process of designing and building this home, Ms. Howe scrounged the area for homes being torn down which had historical touches and she brought that actual history into this house. The mouldings are exquisite and are some 100 years older than the house.
The history of this house includes a psychiatric history – Dr. Lydia Dawes, a well known psychiatrist of yore, was an owner for some 40 plus years before the Donaldson-Bennetts arrived and the house frequently embraced many of her friends who were also famous guests. Sigmund Freud’s daughter stayed often and worked with Dr. Dawes. Together they produced one of the first psychiatric journals in the area from this house. Many local psychiatrists remember a part of their training that happened on the couch by the living room window overlooking the magnolia tree. So much history goes with this house both within its structure and with the people who have passed through.
Marceline and Robert have spent decades trying to preserve and create a garden worthy of Lois Lily Howe who ended her career and life as a landscape architect.
You may have heard of the many outstanding and famous people who stayed under the Donaldson-Bennett’s roof during their time in the house because you were probably one of them. You can now own this magnificent property so beautifully located.
