Who Am I? The Search for Roots

By Sara Niles

Humans are the only beings on earth that remember both their ancestors and descendants, and store memories, ideas, and images, building upon them to dream bigger and better dreams of a better world for future generations.

‘Who Am I’ is a question that is asked many times in a lifetime by introspective individuals, and the answer changes each step along the journey of life. While the basic inner core of our being remains fairly stable over time, relationships, jobs, habitats, and opinions change as we evolve and are honed by life experiences. One thing that does not change is who we are as people and as members of families with distinct roots and beginnings. Our fathers and mothers are forever our fathers and mothers, as are our extended biological families and our ancestors. Ancestry tells a tale of who we are by tracking our original and unique descent from whence we came. Knowing from whence we came by becoming familiar with the long lines of our ancestry gives us roots from out past. Like the strong and deeply imbedded roots of an oak tree, we stand in a place in time that was marked just for us and no other. Each one of us are unique in our existence and we owe it to those who came before us, be they good or bad, outstanding or lackluster, they are the reason why we are here.

“A wise woman once said to me that there are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these she said is roots, the other, wings “

Hodding Carter (1953) winner of Pulitzer and Guggenheim

The absence of roots may account for the lack of wings that plagues the youth of American Culture, for it is this grounded feeling of having roots that makes us know we can truly fly. I was not raised in a traditional home by traditional parents, but by two octogenarians who were likened to Sarah and Abraham because they had accepted the burden of raising a 3 ½ year-old little girl during their waning years. My Great-Great Uncle and Aunt were my caretakers and root givers for over a decade before their earthy lives came to an end, and I was sent on a new life adventure. 

My Great-Great Uncle was Robert Howard, the son of Henderson and Charlotte Howard, my Great-Great Grandparents who were born around the middle of the 19^th century, and my uncle was born in 1881. I spent my childhood around a walking history book, a living keeper of the family record, but as children often do, I asked all the wrong questions and not many of the right ones, thus much of the  detail of my early roots was lost….or at least I thought it was lost.

While venturing onto the world wide web in search of any tidbit of data, I found a long lost relative who served as the eighty year-old family historian and keeper of the records. I was overwhelmed with excitement when I spoke to him via phone and found he remembered not only the things I knew to be true as a small child over half a century ago, but he knew far more than I could have ever hoped for. I found true treasure as I listened to the stories he recounted with accuracy, as my ancestors came to life. I learned of their life experiences, their hopes and dreams, and their trials and tribulations, and all the quirks of personality that make us truly human. I came face to face with my roots through my emotional connection to the people that made me possible. I am them- and they are now me, as they live through my memories and connectedness to them. I felt invigorated with a shot of immortality that comes when you continue to live through those that come after you, even long after you are gone.

I have roots that grew deep and I have wings that fly high. Thank you Cousin Howard, and God bless.

The Duggars 19 Kids and Counting: Family Scandal

By Sara Niles

Reality television has brought the everyday lives of regular people, as well as not so ‘regular’ people into our living rooms, and along with the reality shows, we are faced with true realities that are bringing popular culture face to face with issues that have been diluted and avoided in the past. It is uncomfortable to face culturally based ideas about religion, and social issues such as sexual abuse of children, so society has avoided direct confrontation whenever possible. In the case of The Duggars of the television reality show 19 Kids and Counting, recent information about what People Magazine  has called The Duggars Dark Secrets   has transformed an adoring public in a virtual lynch mob. The Duggars were amazing and popular people three weeks ago, and two weeks ago when the story of Josh Duggar's childhood sexual molestation of five female children  that occurred when he was fourteen years old leaked to the public, the societal view of the Duggars changed overnight. Trolls on popular discussion sites called the Duggars ‘crazy’ and ‘hypocrites’ while supporters said Josh 'made a mistake and God can forgive it'. Although neither view represents the middle view, but only a section of the left and right-to-middle, there is truth in both points of view. In order to be fair and impartial, it belies justice if both sides are not examined and the whole picture of the Duggar Family is presented. In order to do that, religion, cultural bias, and sexual abuse must all be examined in light of the Duggar Family Scandal.

The  Duggar Family and The Bates Family  are members of religions that adhere to the Quiverfull movement in which children are considered blessings and gifts from God, leading to the belief that the use of contraception would be a lack of faith; therefore the Quiverfull faithful have ten, fifteen and twenty children, like the Duggars and  the Bates. Although Michelle Duggar denies they are officially members of the Quiverfull movement, they certainly are in practice. The lack of power allowed females within patriarchal Christian religions is a dangerous sign that something is unhealthy afoot.   The view of females as perpetual ‘givers’ and males as the entitled ‘takers', provides a conditioned view that children absorb as members within the family culture.  Most children learn to be happy believing what they are taught by their parents because it is all they know... but is the teaching provided by their parents healthy for them when they join mainstream society. No loving parent will deliberately harm their children, but will give them the best of what they have. The Duggars appear to firmly believe they are giving their children the best they have, in belief and action as they provide a life model by example.

I greatly admire the physical and emotional work Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have obviously poured into their families, as well as the level of success they have had  handling a super-size family of 19 children. It takes a lot of work to maintain a household and feed and clothe three or four children, and it takes a monumental effort to get most children safely through childhood and successfully into adulthood. The idea of being responsible for the physical care and emotional nurturing of 19 children is overwhelming, which leads to the obvious question: is having as many children as humanly possible a wise thing?

This is where religion comes into the picture: Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar believe it is God’s will that they have as many children as possible and that they have them as long as possible. In addition, Michelle Duggar professes to believe in submission to the will of the husband even to the point of being available whenever he needs sexual servicing and to do so with a smile. Michelle is definitely not a feminist. Michelle and Jim Bob also espouse the idea of females having the responsibility of covering themselves fully so as not to tempt a man. I noticed Michelle wears cotton T-shirts under her blouses, no doubt to make certain a button does not pop or a blouse pucker and reveal a hint of cleavage.

There is nothing wrong with adhering to a philosophy that others find illogical as long as it is a personal choice made without the pressure of religious group-think and repeated conditioning that amounts to brainwashing away healthy self-direction only to replace it with the will of another. The Duggars religion is the foundation of their belief system in everything that they do, from how they wear their hair to how they educate their children. The logical expectation is that a strong religious foundation, along with hard work and vigilant parenting would result in a loving and cohesive family free of the sins of the outer world. The homeschooling, controlled isolation from public school, and worldly contacts who do not share the Duggars pure ideals should have prevented the Duggar Scandal that occurred from within the home; at least that was probably the expected outcome. This is doubtless why the scandal  is so shocking: if a sexual scandal can happen within the wholesome Duggar home, then is no one safe? Why did the protective cover of religion not protect them, could it be because there is a flaw in the logic? Could it be that extreme religious views along with unquestioning allegiance to a belief system make people more vulnerable to harm? The idea of hiding within the safety of religion is a myth. The act of isolating children from mainstream society is usually driven by an unreasonable fear that society will harm them and make the children harder to control and protect. In the case of the Duggars who obviously love their children, the act of isolating their children as obedient followers of Bill Gothard teaching and life principles. Isolation is not protection, especially when it comes to sexual abuse. Bill Gothard taught solid principles but evidently did not live by them, but used his status to sexually abuse young girls in his flock of followers.

Sexual abuse occurs within the context of religion and in the ‘safety’ of religious insulation possibly more than in the general public. The scandals of the Catholic Church should be proof of that, and if it is not, then consider the case of Warren Jeffs, the polygamist FLDS cult leader convicted of sexual abuse of children and sentenced to  life in prison Life in prison in 2010.

Watch Documentary about Warren Jeffs: YouTube documentary: Mormon Cult

The loyal followers of Jeffs are still under his control while he remains in prison, because they believe what he tells them in the name of ‘religion’ to be the word of God. It is the belief system that opens the followers up to harm, and the context of religion provides a subset of society in which its  rules run counter to that of  mainstream society. Religion is like salt, too much can kill you while just enough can be good for you. Religion is prominent in the Duggar story, both as a guide that is behind their whole behavior and as an impetus in their need to control their children.

There are three elements of religious control that the Duggars have presented through their family blog and reality television show that may have created a climate in which Josh Duggar was able to  sexually molest younger children:  the attitude toward females fostered by religious beliefs, belief in the male entitlement to power, and  the drive to become isolated and insulated from the ‘outside’ world, or mainstream society.The responsibility placed upon an older child to become a parent to younger siblings gives them too much power, the power of a 'parent' when the older sibling is still a child. The older child that habitually is expected to take care of  younger siblings may secretly resent sacrificing their personal freedom and play-time, but  repress that anger  while plastering on a smile. The mantra of always smiling appears to be a Duggar creed, which is good if it is genuine. The child needs to feel authentic feelings in order to be genuine, not act happy in order to please. While older children in every home are expected to help out with younger children occasionally the older child should not be expected to parent a sibling on a regular basis.

Most children raised in homes in which normal parent and child roles keep the boundaries of sibling relationships within healthy ranges would think of sexual acts with a sibling as disgusting and 'yucky' even as a thought.  Josh Duggar was a child of 14 when the sexual offenses reportedly occurred, albeit he was old enough to have developed healthy sexual attitudes toward his sisters and other younger children when he molested the younger children. The majority of sexual offenses enacted by children and young teens are a result of having learned to violate boundaries from someone who violated their boundaries, as sexual molestation of children by adults often ruins the child’s healthy sense of sexual boundaries. There is no way to know if Josh was abused by an older teen or adult unless he admits to it; so this is mere speculation based upon the statistics of juvenile sexual offenders. The parental training that is exhibited by the Duggar parents via their family blog and reality show is filled with love, character development, and religious devotion. The obvious presentation is that of loving, humble parents doing their best under a tremendous heft of responsibility, who trusted in the religious guidance of their church instead of availing themselves of the resources within mainstream society. Josh Duggar needed serious counseling by professionals, as did the victims of abuse, as well as the Duggar family and the victim’s families. The root cause of the problem that led to Josh viewing his own sisters as sexual objects instead of people should have been uncovered and examined, resolved and corrected. Josh should not have been simply forgiven, but ‘fixed’, so the problem did not get repressed instead of eradicated. Perhaps this was accomplished, hopefully, it was.

Is the Duggar family now a ‘bad’ example for everyone, or is this a time to learn from what happened to them.  The issues of too much religious control, a view of women as mere baby making machines and work mules, and female children as sexually toxic time bombs that have to be covered up at all times, are part of the Duggar scandal. The Duggar Culture contains all of the beliefs that make them healthy and unhealthy. The Duggars do not profess to be perfect and we should not expect perfection from them, but we can learn from them. The fact that a man and woman can have twenty or more children, with the woman giving birth every year or so for two decades, is not proof that Quiverfull family ideals are the most healthy alternatives to family planning. It takes time out of every day for a parent to touch bases with the children in the home, and if only one child is in need of more attention, but can’t access it due to parental limitations, that child becomes emotionally endangered.

In supersize families the older children are usually required to help parent the younger children which  limits each child's emotional freedom to ‘just be a kid’.  I honor the Duggars as tremendous positive influences in their children’s lives, yet there is only so much time in a day, and so much parent in a parent... sometimes less is more.

The Dangerous Power of Religion: from mainstream to cults

By Sara Niles

Religion has been a powerful force throughout history and it remains a powerful force in the lives of billions around the world today. Religion can be a force for good that tilts the moral compass in the right direction, or it can be both good and bad, or even mostly bad. In order for religion to help individuals remain spiritually and mentally healthy, there has to be a balance. Life is about finding and keeping a healthy balance in relationships, responsibilities, and in behaviors toward self and others. Religion can help an individual balance life’s responsibilities while maintaining good personal well –being while taking care to respect the rights and wishes of others as a socially aware individual. The application of solid religious principles often means acting in good will toward others and using the Golden Rule as a measuring stick with the once popular WWJD or What Would Jesus Do, as an internal mantra that guides one’s actions. The flip side of the positive power of religion is the dangerous amount of influence many religious sects and groups hold over the faithful.  The power of bad can sometimes become concealed within the power of good, as in the case of sects and cults that deviate from the mainstream religions to form small microcosms. It is within the confines of respectability that some religious groups entertain single focused leaders with hidden agendas, some of whom are sociopaths seeking to control large numbers of vulnerable people. In other cases the religious group contains dogma within its code of operation that teaches obedience without question, and total and absolute devotion to the religious teachings that is disguised as the direct edits of God, or his representative. The power that a religion holds over its converts becomes dangerous when there is no room allowed for free thought or to question.

There are approximately 19 major world religions which are divided into 270 large religious groups, according to David Barrett, et al., the editors of the World Christian Enclyclopedia

 There are, however, many smaller branches of each religion as a result of various leaders breaking free to form subgroups. In America, the Christian religions dominate the religious climate, with mainstream Christian religions grouped into over 217 denominations. The Roman Catholic Church is indisputably the largest Christian religion in the United States Fast Facts

If one aspires to the Christian faith there are many choices to select from, although once selected, some do not allow for a change of mind. I was a Jehovah’s Witness for almost thirty years, my devotion was forged during my childhood, and it stood solidly, unchallenged and unquestioned until one day when  I was shocked into awareness. Although the Jehovah’s Witness religion fosters good among its faithful, the cultish requirement  of obedience without question and the unspoken creed that prohibits ever ‘leaving’ the faith under  the threat of being banned from contact with family and friends for life, is in fact too much control to be healthy. In spite of the subtle cult-like features, Jehovah’s Witnesses operate as a mainstream religion with over  8 million members worldwide

 With most of its members content with the rules and regulations that they voluntarily choose to live by, and with  most being family oriented and morally pure in practices, the threat ratio is not great.  I simply outgrew the limitations imposed upon me by the Jehovah’s Witness creed, and as a result of leaving, I have no substantial contact with former friends and family. Jehovah’s Witnesses are primarily  virtual ‘sheep’ that willingly give up control in order to feel protected and safe in the ‘fold’, while living in the world, but separate from the world, as they practice isolationism from all things worldly. Jehovah’s Witnesses are on the lower tier of cultish religions, and although the religion shares a few traits with cults, they are definitely not comparable to hardcore cults.

The more sinister religious cults operate under the control of men like Warren Jeffs, David Koresh, and Jim Jones. Warren Jeffs was the leader of the fundamentalist sect of the Church of Mormon, or the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FDLS), an offshoot from mainstream Mormonism in which men took plural wives, even allowing old men to illegally ‘marry’young girls who were merely children. Jeffs was convicted of sexual abuse of children and sentenced to Life in Prison in 2007.

YouTube Prophet’s Prey: Warren Jeffs

David Koresh and Jim Jones were not only after the souls of the unwary and vulnerable, they wanted their money, and eventually took their lives. David Koresh  was a violent misfit armed with charisma and a nearly photographic memory of the Bible, which became tools he used to manipulate the members of a religious sect called the  Branch Davidians located in Waco, Texas.

Koresh gained control of the sect when the prophetess died, and eventually became the voice of God to his followers as he set rules that were not to be questioned or challenged. Koresh decreed it his right to have sex with whoever he chose, including children because God spoke to him. The violent nature of Koresh led to the accumulation of thousands of firearms within the walls of the Branch Davidian compound and a showdown with the ATF in 1993 after a 51-day siege. David Koresh and 75 others were burned as the compound went up in flames.Waco Siege

Many of the children who were held hostage within the compound before the inferno, were interviewed later by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, the chairman of research for Baylor University, revealing the degree of extreme abuse and trauma suffered under the cult leader who ran the paramilitary religious community using “sex, violence, fear, love and religion…all intertwined”New York Times: 1993

Jim Jones ruled the Guyana religious cult using the same tactics, and led his followers to the same end, only Jones used guns and poison Kool-Aid to kill 913 of his followers , resulting in the infamous 1978 Guyana TragedyNew York Times: The Story of Jim Jones

In all of these cases, religion lost it force for good when individuals were deprived of free thought and were totally controlled by an individual or an entity with bad motives. The follower becomes the victim of the leader when individual will is denied. The fear to question was implanted within the mind of the followers so that questioning was equated with being unfaithful, and being unfaithful was equated with being damned by God himself. The problem with such thinking is God was not the arbiter of the beliefs, men were.

Religion power over people can be exploited to the point of creating monsters, such as in the case of ISIS, in which the power of the group feeds off misdirected religious zeal and huge chunks of land and oil worth billions of dollars. Much like the American religious cults that are breakaways from mainstream, peaceful religions, ISIS is supposedly ISLAMIC which is the peaceful religion practiced by over one billion Muslims; however, with a twist-ISIS is ISLAMIC but in no way are they peaceful.

ISIS has become an international super-threat that has boldly claimed via its leader that ISIS is a ‘Religion of War’ not a ‘Religion of Peace’.  ISIS has all of the deviance of David Koresh and Jim Jones with a thousand times the power, a thousand times over.

ISIS is a religion of War

CNN: Everything you need to know about ISIS

Prince's Rally for Peace: 'The system is broken'Prince Promotes Peace at Baltimore Show: 'The System Is Broken'

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/live-reviews/prince-promotes-peace-at-baltimore-show-the-system-is-broken-20150511#ixzz3ZqnvQHfj
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Who Killed Jimmy Lee Jackson: From Selma to Baltimore, what have we learned?

By Sara Niles

America is a dynamic nation that adjusts to meet the needs of the people. During the 1960's the turmoil and conflict of war and civil unrest provoked enormous changes in American Culture. We are now at a new crossroads: Racial Justice.as the killing of Freddy Gray evokes a look back in the past.

The events leading up to the killing of Freddy Gray that inspired the marches and riots of Baltimore are eerily similar to the events that led up to Bloody Sunday of 1965 in which peaceful Black protesters led by Martin Luther King were brutally attacked and bludgeoned during the Selma to Montgomery march. The death of an unarmed Black man preceded both the famous Selma march and the Baltimore marches and riots.  Jimmy Lee Jackson was a 26 year-old Army veteran , father, and activist, who was  also a revered church deacon whose only agenda had been to break down the voting barriers for Blacks living in the south, before he was murdered by an Alabama state Trooper while trying to protect his mother and grandfather. 

   Freddy Gray was arrested in April of 2015 after having been chased down and charged with carrying an illegal ‘switchblade’, or what some consider a pocket knife. During the police's  apprehension of Gray, serious injuries were suffered that resulted in his death. Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot by a state trooper, and Freddy Gray was killed by lethal force by the direct and indirect acts of six officers of the law, in both cases two young Black men were killed, sparking a national reaction.

Both Gray and Jackson became catalysts of change during a time when the climate was ripe: the civil unrest of the 1960’s due to racial inequality, was building to a climax, just as in the case of Freddy Gray. The  Rodney King Beating of 1992 Ignited protest and riots, leading to the trial and later acquittal of the officers responsible. See Video of Rodney King Beating

The killing of Freddy Gray was the last straw for many who were fed up with killings of unarmed Black men by members of law enforcement without any serious recourse. It is as though an unspoken creed was in place, based upon cultural biases: the general culture within law enforcement is a reflection of the larger culture, and as such, the devaluation of young Black men in America has become an implicit bias that is acted out more than it is openly expressed. The long history of American injustice toward Blacks goes back to slavery, and with the ending of slavery came hundreds of years of prejudice and bias that prevented the unimpeded Black vote as recently as 1965 when the violence against peaceful Selma marchers led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act   signed by Lyndon B Johnson which removed the multiple 'legal' barriers to the Black Vote.  The culture of the South was so infused with prejudice and a sense of White supremacy that a special act of congress was needed to overcome it.  In the case of Freddy Gray, culture hides implicit bias that protects ‘legal’ murder by police officers only when the victims are Black. If a police officer was seen on video firing several shots into the back of an unarmed, Rich Young White Man, for a minor offense or no offense at all, the outcry would be horrendous and the repercussions swift. But What If, What If the treatment or young White Men and young Black Men was reversed and young white men were killed in the streets by police? The value of the lives of white men would be changed and this would be especially true if such behavior became so routine that mothers and fathers of young, rich, White men would be uneasy and fearful that a police officer may murder their son under some pretense of just authority or cause. It would be especially unjust if the officers routinely 'got away with it', to the point they were no longer in fear of losing jobs or freedom if they carelessly fired upon unarmed, rich, White men. Pause for thought.

The truth that is borne out by an accumulation of facts,and that truth it is the fact that unarmed, young, poor, Black men are unequally targeted and unequally treated by police as part of police culture. The 'Blue Wall' of protection and false allegiance that exists within police culture is part of the larger 'Blue Culture', or the accepted norms and attitudes that exist within police departments across the country. Many of these attitudes are unspoken, not a part of written policy, but are in 'the air' as part of the belief systems that build police rapport. The unquestioning support of officers for each other allows room for the few police violators to exist as bullies within the force. Little by little values are eroded and the norms change until the 'good cops' stand quietly by while the few bad apples corrupt the badges they swore to honor. 

The police culture operates within the larger culture in which similar attitudes exist within juries and within the courts that allow too much leeway in the 'discretion' of an individual police officer. The boundaries should be the same for all, 'justice for all' includes holding police officers to the same standard as we are all held to. When courts routinely fail to indict and routinely acquit police officers for crimes they routinely indict and convict others for, it is an injustice.

Since the Rodney King case that ended in acquittal, the cases of police murder and unlawful killings that have received national attention are increasing:  Police Murder and Killings, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and Walter Scott are just a few of the well-known cases. The Killing of Young Black Men has reached epidemic proportions, it is almost like open hunting season has been declared and innocent blood is being shed. Justice is not being served and the patience of Lady Justice is running short, as evidenced by the enraged moral consciences of the Million Mother's March held this Mother's Day, 2015.

Justice involves the act of balancing the scales when a wrong is committed, an act that is integral to keeping a morally and judicially balanced structure within civilized society. When justice is lacking, or when it is only paid lip service to, the society as a whole suffers in the long run. Things are out of balance when Black men are murdered by those entrusted with the vested power of the law behind them, and especially when the scales of justice are tilted against the victims

The health of society demands the scales of justice become balanced. The killing of Jimmy Lee Jackson and Freddy Gray are loud cries that must be heard; otherwise there will continue to be growing civil unrest as injustice tears apart the fabric of society.  America was built upon the principles of justice and equality, as the Pledge of Allegiance states, we will have “ Justice for All”. Until there is justice for all, America will remain unbalanced. Jimmy Lee Jackson died seeking justice. Freddie Gray still awaits justice. Let there be "Justice for All".

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