Mother's Day

Janice L. Mathis janicelmathis@ncnw.org	5/6/21 8:55 PM

As sometimes happens when the two of us engage in casual conversation, we indulge in the sweet treat of reminiscing about Mary Frances Lewis Betsch and Kittie Mae Avery Mathis, the women who “raised us up.”  Like most Black mothers, they were prone to certain common sense “sayings”. Mary Frances Lewis Betsch was known to remark to teen-aged Johnnetta Betsch Cole, “a woman is known by the company she keeps.”  And Kittie Mae Avery Mathis would quip, “if you act as well as you look you will be alright.”  These admonitions were administered to us with a sprinkling of irony and wry humor. 

 

No doubt, if you are a Black woman, you have heard or used these or similar sayings yourself because they are deeply rooted in African tradition.  The poet Maya Angelou described them as “mother wit”, the “collective wisdom of generations.”  The first African women who came to these shores 402 years ago brought with them a treasure trove of common sense that has been a source of strength and endurance in our quest to survive as a people.   

 

Now you must understand that “mother wit” is practiced by mothers, but also by grandmothers, aunts, cousins and ”play mamas” whether they have birthed children or simply and lovingly cared for them.  Today, we think about not just our own mothers but mothers across space and time who have an irrepressible commitment to taking care of their children, other folk's children, partners and husbands, if they have one. And then there is all that other business we take care of that has to do with earning a living and calling for and working in the interest of the rights of our people – indeed of all people.

 

What we think of today as Black Girl Magic is not really magic at all, but is the stored up wisdom of hundreds of years of experience and common sense distilled from determination, love and toil and sacrifice and devotion.  Our fondest desire is that every little girl and boy and every grownup person would have their own generous portion of “mother wit.” There is an African proverb that says this: "A mother is like a kernel, crushed by problems but strong enough to overcome them." Today, and throughout the year, we salute the mothers and all of the women in NCNW, in our communities, in our nation and our world who have the tenacity, the wisdom, and the faith not to be crushed by problems, but to overcome them.

 

Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D., President and National Chair

 and

Janice L. Mathis, Esq. Executive Director

The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.

633 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20004

Office:  (202) 737-0120 Direct:  (202) 383-9155

Cell:     (404) 394-1500

 

Women’s Equality is Elusive

Janicelmathis

Aug 26 · 4 min read

NCNW joins the nation in celebrating Women’s Equality Day. On this day, in 1920, one hundred years ago, women were written into the U.S. Constitution with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. But in reality, the struggle goes back much further and continues even today.

In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, “I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

It took another 144 years for Abigail Adams “rebellion” to become law. Herstory records that an amendment giving women the right to vote was first introduced in 1848, 72 years before it was finally ratified. And still, the victory was imperfect. As a practical matter, the 19th Amendment did not result in universal suffrage for Black women, due to a coordinated and well-documented campaign of intimidation, poll taxes, so-called literacy tests and state sanctioned statutes and customs. My own mother, who was born in 1920, did not vote until 1948 when the Whites only primary in our home state of South Carolina was finally outlawed.

During the 1970s and 80s there was an effort to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment as a way to strengthen the effect of the 19th Amendment. After all, the point of voting is not just to be admitted to the polling place. The end result of voting should be public policy that facilitates access to life, liberty and happiness or as political scientists sometimes say, the allocation of scarce goods and resources. The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. The ERO has so far failed to achieve ratification by 2/3 of the states.

It should not surprising that those states that have failed to ratify ERA are many of the same states that enslaved Black people and were covered for mandatory “pre-clearance” of all proposed changes in voting laws, practices and procedures under the Section V of the Voting Rights Act: Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi. There is remarkable consistency between discrimination n based on race and discrimination based on sex.

The nation has made progress in many areas of sex discrimination. The nomination of Kamala Harris to be Vice President of the United States is surely a sign that many Americans are ready for equality. A couple of examples make the point that there is still work to be accomplished. According to the American Bar Association, the percentage of U.S. Lawyers who are women steadily rose from 31% in 2010, to 37% in 2020. In other words, representation of women among lawyers rose 25% over the decade since 2010. By comparison, the percentage of lawyers who are Black remained steady at 5%, showing no increase at all. But perhaps most telling is what is missing from the ABA statistical report. It does not indicate how Black women are represented in the profession.

Data USA reports that 51.7% of engineering degrees were earned by White men in 2012. By 2017, white men earned 46.3% of engineering degrees. White women earned 10.9% of engineering degrees in 2012, a number that increased to 11.7% by 2017. Black men earned 2.8% of engineering degrees in 2012 and in 2017, with no increase or decrease. Black women were the only demographic group that saw a decline in engineering degrees earned — from 1.04% in 2012 to .93% in 2017.

Lean In, whose mission is to “help women achieve their ambitions and work to create an equal world” reports that “Black women are paid less than white men — and white women. On average, Black women in the U.S. are paid 38% less than white men and 21% less than white women.” To paraphrase Frederick Douglass’ famous 4th of July speech, what does Women’s Equality Day mean to Black women? Celebration of the 19th Amendment should spur us to continue to work assiduously to close the remaining opportunity gaps — not only to improve the quality of individual lives, but to form a more perfect union, where all talent is recognized and rewarded.

States Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice

Senator  Sessions,  Massive  Resistance  and States' Rights

Senator Jeff Sessions' nomination to become the next U.S. Attorney General has been broadly criticized by civil and human rights advocates. Criticism has focused on Sessions' attitudes toward blacks, and to a lesser degree, toward the LGBTQ community. Mr. Brooks and NAACP officials voluntarily went to jail in protest. Vida Johnson who teaches at Georgetown has organized a letter from 1400 law professors in opposition to Sessions. As despicable as racism is, there is another reason - perhaps just as compelling - to carefully scrutinize  Senator  Sessions' public record.

In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954  decision outlawing government-sanctioned racial segregation,  parts of the South  mounted  a campaign of massive resistance to federal law. "If we can organize the Southern States for massive resistance to this order I think that in time the  rest  of  the  country will realize that racial integration is not going to  be  accepted  in  the  South." With these words, Virginia U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd  launched  Massive Resistance, a deliberate campaign to  delay  and obfuscate  compliance with federal  law.

Opponents of the Brown ruling and integration used the doctrine of interposition, which argued that the state could "interpose" between an unconstitutional federal mandate and local authorities based on State Sovereignty. The General Assembly adopted a resolution of interposition in 1956 that clearly defied the authority of the federal courts.

Fortunately, after more than a decade of massive resistance, the south slowly but surely accommodated itself to open public accommodations. The schools desegregated, the parks integrated, city and county councils adopted single member district plans permitting the first wave of black  elected  officials, segregation academies  lost their luster.

Some Southerners never were reconstructed after the legal and social civil war that changed America in the middle of the 20th century.

As Attorney General Mr. Sessions will become the nation's prosecutor in chief. The massive resistance took the form of closed public schools, erection of memorials to confederate heroes, hoisting of Confederate battle flags, and in my hometown turning a public swimming pool over to seals, rather than permit black children access.

Over the past decade, Mr. Sessions offered legislation that would require states and cities to accept surplus military equipment. He offered to permit states to impose criminal penalties for violation of immigration law. He would  permit states to defy and delay federal enforcement of the Clean Air Act. He authored legislation excluding drinking water quality from fracking rules. Mr. Sessions' ideas are so extreme that most of these measures never made it out of committee and never became law. His states' rights positions are so extreme that his fellow conservatives could not support them in the Senate.

One of the main tenets of massive resistance and interposition was the notion that federal government had no role to play in state and local policy. The most visible symbol of massive resistance was Wallace statement in support of segregation now, tomorrow and forever. Massive resistance was fought out on the battlefield of race relations, but its philosophical underpinning was always broader.

It is useful to consider that we struggle today, more than 150 years later, with whether the civil war was fought over slavery, or states' rights to fashion their own economies. The great achievement of Dr. Martin Luther King and his followers was to make it inappropriate to discriminate based on race. But that momentous struggle for civil rights did not settle the question of states' rights.

The States Rights philosophy lives on. There is a theme that runs through Senator Sessions' public life that is more profound and more disqualifying than his racial attitudes, which  he has learned,with the  rest of the South to   euphemize.

Mr. Sessions' extreme strain of massive resistance to federal  law is compounded by the harm done to his own constituents. Alabama consistently ranks  in the  bottom quintile on every quality of life scale ...income, jobs, education, wealth, health. After decades of establishing a record in opposition to  all  federal  "intrusion", Senator Sessions' constituents are some of the nation's most disadvantaged.    A  review of his legislative record seems to support the view   that

Senator Sessions bears a grudge against the federal government, despite the fact that Alabama is perennially a net recipient of federal aid.

The Attorney General is the nation's chief prosecutor . Every prosecutor has immense power...to choose which cases to bring, which defendants to negotiate with, which laws to prioritize for enforcement. Just as in the states, where the Attorney General represents the State, the U.S. Attorney General represents the United States. The United States is his client. Every lawyer knows that you cannot represent a client if personal, philosophical, professional or economic interests conflict with the client's to the extent that you cannot present the  merits of the client's case. It is worth examining the extent to which Mr. Sessions' long defiance of the role of federal government, and his apparent allegiance to State Sovereignty, disqualify him from representing the United States.

King Legacy Weekend Greenville SC 2016

Confederate Flag Leaves the State Capitol in Columbia

 

The people’s representatives have spoken – early Thursday morning the SC House agreed that the Confederate battle flag will leave its place of prominence on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol and take up residence in the Relic Room of the state museum in Columbia.  The victorious state representatives did not seem to be in a mood for celebration at the end of a very long day of sometimes passionate debate.   By 1:00 a.m. this morning they were tired, but any exuberance was certainly supressed by the price paid in blood by Clementa Pinckney and the eight souls massacred at Mother Emmanuel exactly two weeks ago in Charleston.  

The fact that the debate occurred at all is proof that unearned suffering has the power to redeem.  South Carolina.  First to leave the Union.  Instigators of the Civil War.  Last to be reconstructed.  One of the poorest states.  First to leave the Democratic  Party under the leadership of Strom Thurmond in 1948.  Home of Bob Jones University, famous for refusing federal aid rather than integrate. 

At 8:00 p.m. they took a break to “stand at ease” until 8:30 p.m.  I called Rep. Wendell Gilliard’s cell phone.  I could see him on the screen – he did not reach for his phone.  Next, I called  Rep. Joseph Neal, who frequently advises Rev. Jackson on S.C. issues.  He called me back few seconds later.  I mumbled some incomprehensible words of encouragement.  Fifteen minutes later he was speaking at the well.  Echoing President Obama’s eulogy of Senator Pinckney, Rep. Joseph Neal implored God’s grace.  “Grace is not earned. Grace should include all of us. Not just one way grace, but universal grace. This body should give a moment of grace to the suffering families in Charleston who are still alive. All of SC needs grace because we've got some hard decisions to make and the whole world is watching us. Will SC change, or will it hide behind heritage as an excuse to hate?"

In one of the more callous moments of the evening, in response to bi-partisan calls for “grace”, GOP Majority Leader and Charleston State Rep. James H. Merrill, an avowed Catholic  PR guy, said “I don’t know shinola about grace.”   His amendments were aimed, he said, at giving  “a little bit of solace to both sides.” He also proposed that the Confederate Relic Room get a state budget appropriation in 2016.

The black legislators acquitted themselves as statesmen.  Joe Neal gave a brief history lesson about the  one million enslaved Africans in South Carolina at the time of the Civil War. He also refuted amendments calling for memorials to blacks who fought for the Confederacy with the fact that there were very few black Confederates, because the measure was not approved until one month before Appomattox.   

According to Rep. John King, “People have threatened that I won't be re-elected. The seat does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of District 49.  I am not proud to be a South Carolinian. Make SC an inviting place...for all people.

“You cannot serve two masters...you cannot wave two flags. It is our flag - the flag of the United States of America. Put the Confederate banner it its proper place in the relic room,” said Rep. Cezar McKnight.

Blacks and whites in South Carolina are as genetically intertwined as they are politically estranged.  Young African American Mr. Bamberg from Bamberg  worried from the well that the  KKK will celebrate in front of the flag if the bill is amended.  There has got be an interesting story about the ancestry of black Mr. Bamberg from Bamberg.  And of course, Strom Thurmond’s son and bi-racial granddaughter championed the change all week on national media. 

The media star of the debate was pretty blonde, passionate Jenny Horne from Charleston.  Her voice steadily rising, “I’m sorry, I have heard enough about heritage.  I am a descendant of Jefferson Davis.  But that does not matter.  It is about the people of South Carolina.  I will tell you that I have it on good authority that the world is watching this debate.”  Indeed we were.  FB was on fire with quotes, comments, questions, opinions.  Jenny continued, “We need to follow the example of the Senate and remove this flag today because this issue is not getting any better with age.  Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, this flag offends my friends…I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful.”

Jenny was not without opposition.  Her fellow Charlestonian, James Merrill, sarcastically referred to appreciating colleagues who were"treading (sic) on emotion".

Rep. Jenny Horne and House Majority Leader Rep. James Merrill went at it - both from Charleston, both GOP.  Fascinating. He insisted on attempting to amend the Senate version of the bill to delay removal of the flag, while Jenny kept her promise to attempt to table the amendment, but she lost.   So they begin to debate the substance of the amendment. "Doing the right thing is the hardest thing to do. Find the courage to do the right thing for the people of SC," Jenny Horne.  It is not clear to me that Rep. Horne’s comments changed the course of the debate.  Each of the 60-something amendments were ultimately tabled .   Still, it was thrilling political theater. 

Rep. Bedenfield proposed new SC state flag that would honor veterans who fought to defend this state against an "over oppressive federal government..." I could not help wondering how he feels about THIS federal government. There were a few moments of levity.  As the night wore on, Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter (long-time fighter in the flag war) asked for order, then scolded the speaker, "with this crowd at this hour, you are going to have to bang that gavel harder, baby." Rep. David Mack told his colleagues, “slavery was a perfect business model – free labor.  But it only works if you don’t have a moral compass.”

The black legislators seemed to be running the show.  Rep. Lonnie Hosey spoke quietly but directly to Rep.  Quinn, “I need you to be a hero.”  Mr. Quinn represents Lexington, SC, the district that the assassin lived in. He is one of those tall square-jawed guys that Southerners typically elect as governor.  Quinn verbally bristled when someone suggested that he did not understand the plight of the families who lost loved ones in the massacre.  In college, he was President of Young Republicans and got elected to the legislature at 23.  Other than color, he and Senator Clement Pinckney probably had a lot in common.  Finally, at the end of the evening, Mr. Quinn acquiesced and offered his own amendment up to be tabled, opening a path to adoption of a “clean bill” without amendments that would not require a House/Senate conference committee.  Quinn will have hard questions to answer when he returns to Lexington, a mostly white suburb of Columbia.

A turning point had been reached near midnight when Rep. James Smith from Richland took to the podium.  He is that rarest of political species, a white male Southern Democrat elected official under the age of 70.  Smith hinted that a compromise was in the works and added to our understanding of Reconstruction history,  “Flying the flag dishonors General Robert E. Lee and violates the terms of surrender at Appomattox.”   And then he proceeded to outline a new aspect of the debate.   “For nearly 100 years, we got along fine without the Confederate flag.  It was brought out in 1960 as a middle finger to the federal government. ” 

My friend Cheryl said, “I can’t believe I’m watching CSPAN.”  My arch-conservative friend was surprised to realize that there are no ballot initiatives in most Southern states.  He wondered why they didn’t just vote on the flag.  My fried Jim summed it up on Facebook this way, “that flag…was ordered up as an official state government declaration of resistance to giving equal protection of the laws to all of its citizens.”

What can we learn from the turmoil in South Carolina?   Somehow Governor Haley and the legislature found enough common ground in the sorrow over the blood of those slaughtered in the massacre to achieve a symbolic, yet significant change.  Facebook offered a neutral platform where all were welcome – black, white, GOP, Dems, male, female, old, young, straight, other.  If we want to influence government, we have to be willing to pay attention to it.  We must learn to act together for the good of the country without bloodshed.  The nation won’t crumble into dust under black leadership now, any more than it did in 1865.  If there is any way to have a trans-racial action plan that aspires to truth and reconciliation, someone has to be willing to be a hero. 

 

MLK Day Speech in Elberton, GA

I want to thank Mary Clark for inviting me to be here tonight.  You can tell how much Mary cares about justice and this community by the amount of effort and creativity she puts into this event year after year.  Mary is a great teacher, a wonderful wife and mother and a true community hero.  You are so blessed to have her here.  She is what God calls us to be – faith without work is dead.

Our father’s God to Thee, Author of Liberty.  To thee we sing.  Long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light.  Protect us by thy might.  Great God our King.

You have heard the expression, It is always darkest just before dawn.   According to one source it means, There is hope, even in the worst of circumstances.  No one seems to know where the proverb came from.  It has been around at least since 1650 when it appeared in a travelogue written by English theologian and historian Thomas Fuller.

There are some examples in history of our people of darkness before dawn.

Suppose Frederick Douglass and the abolitionists had given up when the Dred Scot decision was rendered in 1857, three years before the Civil War?  That was a dark time.   March 1857 Supreme Courts issues Dred Scott Decision which declares unconstitutional the Missouri Compromise of 1820. was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court.

Suppose the women’s suffrage movement had given up.  We just celebrated 100 years of Delta Sigma Theta.  Did you know that all the red and white hoopla got started because 22 young ladies at Howard University wanted the right to vote?  They marched down Pennsylvania Avenue with white women.  It took seven more years for them to get the right to vote.  You can’t let darkness hold you back from doing what is right. Women voted in New Zealand in 1893, in Australia in 1895;  in Russia in 1907 and in Finland in 1913. 

Suppose we had given up trying to get the King Holiday.  When I was a student at UGA we marched around the law school every year from 1977 to 1980, protesting for the King Holiday.  It finally became a holiday in 1983 when Ronald Reagan signed the bill.  But that was after 6 million Americans signed a petition in favor of the holiday.  South Carolina was the last state to make it an official holiday – in 2000.  Thousands of people marched in Greenville – making Greenville County the last county in the last state.  And we had to cross over and vote in the Republican primary to defeat anti-King Holiday county commissioners. 

And there is plenty of darkness in our world today.  John Conyers, Congressman from Michigan, is still fighting for same day onsite voter registration.  He started the fight back in the 1980’s.  And if he doesn’t finish it, then one of you will have to pick up the baton and run your leg of the race.  Adjusted for inflation, the average Georgia family in effect makes $6000 less than the average family did ten years ago. That’s a real pay cut.”

According to a recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau, Georgia has the sixth highest poverty rate in the country. More than one in four Georgia families with children under the age of five live below the poverty line. Rural Georgians have been hit particularly hard – twenty-seven percent live below the poverty line.

On Deal’s watch, classroom sizes have swelled as a result of 9,000 teachers losing their jobs. Eighty percent of Georgia’s school districts have now exceeded class-size caps. Eighty percent of Georgia school districts will furlough teachers this year due to cuts in state funding. Thirty-eight percent of districts have been forced to make cuts on programs that help low-performing students. Seventy-one percent of Georgia’s school districts have cut their school calendar to fewer than 180 days. Before Nathan Deal took office, Ninety percent of students in Georgia attended school 180 days or more.

Some of you know that my father was a hall of fame high school football coach during the days of segregation in Greenville, SC.  We grew up with football.  We had x’s and o’s at the dinner table.  We had the portable tv in the dining room for Sunday dinner so he could watch the nfl game of the week.  He had a favorite saying.  Don’t get in the give up formation.  Get in the Shotgun formation.  Get in the I.  But don’t get in the give up formation. 

Don’t give up on fighting poverty.

Don’t give up on expanding Medicaid.

Don’t give up on a high quality public education for all children.

Don’t give up on the right to vote.

Because if you think you are beaten you are.

GEORGIA IS CHANGING.  Georgia's 16 electoral votes will be in play over the next decade according to demographers.  In 2012, Georgia was the second most competitive state carried by Mitt Romney (+7.8 percent Romney) -- behind only North Carolina (+2.0 percent Romney).  In 2000, Georgia's population was 63 percent white; as of the 2010 Census the state's population is 56 percent white.  Of the state's 1.5 million new residents between 2000 and 2010, more than 80 percent (1.2 million, or 81 percent) were non-white.  Demographics are destiny" is a political cliché largely because it's true.  But change is not automatic.  We must organize, register and vote.  And we must be prepared to lead.  A steady diet of twerking and marijuana does not leaders make.  Leaders need to think, compute, write standard English.

            And some things are more important than winning.  Rev. Jackson likes to say, leave some footprints on the door.  If you can’t get in….leave some footprints on the door.

I want to say a word about Medicaid.  Some of you can’t remember 1988 and the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.  Jesse Jackson was running for President for the second time.  Michael Dukakis was the frontrunner and the Democratic Party’s nominee.  Jackson won Michigan and South Carolina – so he had a significant number of electoral votes going into the convention.  And the convention was in Atlanta. It was electric. It was the first time that a black man was seriously considered for the Presidency of the United States.  In Atlanta he said something like this…

 

Most poor people are not lazy. Most poor people are not on welfare.

hey catch the early bus. They work every day.

They raise other people's children. They work every day.

They clean the streets. They work every day. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract. They work every day.

No, no, they are not lazy! They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day.

 

Now, 25 years later, we are about to make it possible for them to lie in the bed they make up every day.  Call Nathan Deal at 404 656 1776.  Tell him to expand Medicaid.  Join Moral Monday.

Sometimes dawn takes a long time coming.  Sometimes the darkness lasts a long time. Tyrone Brooks fought to change the Georgia flag for more than ten years before it happened.  Don’t give up the fight.  Don’t get in the give up formation. When it is dark, that is when you have to let your little light shine.

Let it shine

Let it shine

Let it shine

Don’t give up the fight.  The race does not go to the swiftest or to the strong, but to those who endure…until the sun comes up.

The Bible says we have a great cloud of witnesses watching us and cheering us on.  By Faith, Abraham.  By Faith, Moses, By Faith, sarah.  But also, By Faith Martin Luther King.  By Faith, Harriet Tubman.   Who do you think sent the bol weevil to destroy the cotton and the cotton gin to destroy slavery?  Are these any less miracles than the red sea and the manna from heaven because we don’t teach them to our children that way and because these miracles happened only a little less than two hundred years ago.  Do you believe that God is still acting in the affairs of men?

Well, if you believe in a miracle working God, I will tell you something.

If we believe that God is the author of liberty.  Then we should pray that our  land be bright with freedom’s holy light.  And that He will protect us by his might. 

I saw Toyota sign  a 7.8 billion dollar deal to do business with blacks.

I saw Kentucky Fried Chicken commit 20 million dollars to open black franchises.  They did not want to do it, but by the power of the Holy Spirit they did.

I saw the Greenville County Council adopt the King Holiday.  They didn’t want to do it but they did.

I have seen miracles in my life.  I saw George Bush sign the extension of the voting rights act.  He did not want to do it, but he did.  I have seen a lot of things in my life.  You can’t tell me that God is not good, or that miracles don’t exist. I have been punting on the Thames and seen the fjords of Norway.  I saw my mother take her last breath and my grandson take his first step.  I have seen a lot. I flew in airplanes all day on September 10^th and got home just before day and just in time to avoid 911.

I have seen a lot.

But I have never seen the righteous forsaken…or their seed begging bread.

May God continue to bless and keep you.