Mother Se’May Sayer: The ARC of Time
Season Two: Episode Three: The Cost of Leadership: The Salvation of a Nation
Prologue:
(Mother is still electrified and also mystified that the Timer granted her an audience. Clearly hoping that the encounter would continue, she has resigned herself to accepting the possibility that it was a one time deal. I still need information about how slavery lasted over 200 years from the early 1600s to the time Abraham Lincoln was elected President and issued his Emancipation Proclamation. How did he persuade other white men of questionable character to pass the 13thAmendment through Congress and he sign it? Slaves still wouldn’t be officially free until it was ratified by two-thirds of the states in existence then.
How did President Lincoln convince these men to even write such an amendment? See, that is the problem with history written from a single point of view. It provides little or no context at all to the thinking of the people creating the laws of the land in that monumental period in America. Let me be clear on this as well, it wasn’t because they were members of a political party that moved their conscience to do the right thing. I’ve read that President Lincoln relied on his faith to line up his beliefs with what he saw being done to his fellow man. Black people were scattered and treated based on zip code. If you lived in the seceded states of the Confederacy you were basically screwed. They had their economic structure established and God help them if there was a better way of making money. It was ludicrous to think they would from one day to the next give it all up, this economic system of exploitation for the good of the country.
God I pray that you send the Timer to me again. I want to know more about slavery. Why build a system that treated the slaves, Black people, differently? Why the denials out of the mouths of anybody that has ancestors in America that these systems of racism don’t exist? Can’t people understand that even the ground they walk over is stained with the blood of innocent people for no other reasons than making some people falsely wealthy? I need to speak to him again. I must know more.).
Mother Sayer: (I asked for this. I have questions that I’m going to get answers to. Slavery didn’t just keep Black people excluded from full participation in the country they almost single handedly built. These white men essentially committed subversion against America by eliminating or somehow making invisible the contribution of a large population of its’ residents.). Let’s get this day started. Children are you ready for school?
Justus I. Order: I’m ready Mother. Be right there.
Doyenne: I’m coming, just finishing up my look.
Mother Sayer: Alright. Your driver is waiting for you. (Mother knows when she says that the children will speed up their activity and hurry up because she doesn’t like children keeping grown folks waiting.).
——————-1st Interlude——————-
(The children are taken to school and Mother arrives at work on Monday ready to inform her team of the projects that she has approved. The ‘SAFE ROAD’ project she believes can be ready in a few weeks. It involves using existing systems set up to alert communities of lost children and like a public service announcement over the vehicles’ entertainment platform to warn drivers of police, ambulance or emergency traffic on specific roads. Therefore the driver has options to avoid collisions and injury. Also, there is a chance that the stop lights can be integrated with a pattern that means dangerous conditions exist and drivers should beware of activity in their vicinity.).
Sarah W. Certainty: Good morning Mother.
Mother Sayer: Good morning Sarah. I’ve made my decisions on the files I took over the weekend. Are you free for a few minutes to go over them with me?
Sarah W. Certainty: Sure.
Mother Sayer: The ‘SAFE ROAD’ project I believe could be accomplished within a short time period of say a few weeks. The entertainment project is a top priority as well. The mentoring software program is good because I believe it can focus a lot of direction and much needed support in the right way to at risk children. The ‘FIRST BORN’ software database is interesting. I’m curious about it and having my own ideas about how a family structure is fulfilled. That one I want to be included in its’ development at each stage. (Mother gives Sarah the last three she approved and closes her office door.).
Sarah W. Certainty: I will tell them to come up right away and inform them on how you want these projects handled.
——————-2nd Interlude——————-
(The morning has turned into early afternoon and Mother is about to open her office door when she senses that her visitor is about to reveal himself again. She tells herself to remain calm as no one has appeared yet. Then her body feels heavier once again. The Timer has returned.).
Mother Sayer: Timer? Do I have the name correct?
The Timer: It is I Mother Sayer.
Mother Sayer: (Okay, I’m taken aback that he is using my required name. It could be that I’ve either earned his respect in some way or that he is respecting my title at work.). I was hoping I would have an audience with you again. Am I allowed to know more about slavery and the young country that used it to gain the prominence in the world it has today because of it?
The Timer: Let’s talk about a President.
Mother Sayer: A President? Which President should we talk about?
The Timer: President Abraham Lincoln. How this man solely decided whether Black people would be free of the scourge of slavery.
Mother Sayer: Okay I’m listening. What acts did President Lincoln perform that freed my people?
The Timer: I sense you are looking to pour indignation onto the architects of your country. Please, if you will bear with me for a moment in time; I will show you the forces at play in maintaining the status quo. Nothing can ever be done in the realm of humanity for good without a cost.
Mother Sayer: Yes I know. (Mother knows he is right. In order to truly hear what he has to say she must control her emotions. Don’t be a child that still needs her mother’s milk to survive. Be a fully grown woman able to eat and digest meat.).
The Timer: (She’s realized a truth. Don’t assign her the mantel of one that asks ‘WHY’ yet. Keep testing her.). Let’s take a look at what was a new party at the time President Lincoln was in office. The Republican Party.
Mother Sayer: I’m aware of them in this day.
The Timer: Did you know there were many in the Republican Party that wanted slavery abolished?
Mother Sayer: Please continue.
The Timer: President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. It served a crucial purpose none the less. It put his party on notice that whatever America would become she had to be moral. Lincoln’s faith and his judgment would rest on that. President Lincoln knew he would take the blame for allowing slaves to be seen as human beings.
Mother Sayer: Wait. Wait. Wait. Are you saying President Lincoln gave cover to the members of his party by taking all the responsibility for ending slavery?
The Timer: Yes.
Mother Sayer: Please continue.
The Timer: President Lincoln supported the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution that ended slavery in America. Nothing happens unless somebody stacks all they own to accomplishing their task. President Lincoln knew his life would be forfeited.
Mother Sayer: Wait. Are you saying President Lincoln knew by supporting the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that he was giving away his life and liberty?
The Timer: Does this surprise you? (The Timer sharply observes Mother Sayer for any reaction deemed to be inappropriate to this revelation.).
Mother Sayer: It wouldn’t change any minds outside of the capital. Why do it? I mean why put your life on the line for slaves.
The Timer: Good question. Leadership has many requirements wouldn’t you agree?
Mother Sayer: Yes it does. I know where you’re going with this and the understanding is that you consider all possibilities when you’re at the top and decide on what’s necessary and best in the moment and how your decision could impact your country going forward. You not only represent the strong but the weak as well.
The Timer: Ah, the military doctrine has influenced your response hasn’t it. What would you say if I told you that there is a level in life where decisions must be righteous. Only one answer is possible. Would you believe such a place existed?
Mother Sayer: (Mother ponders her answer and somehow she knows what the Timer has stated has always existed.). I know it has always existed because human beings need the certainty of right and wrong to govern their decisions.
The Timer: Quite right about the reality that a choice never had more than two options. What I speak of is the reality, realm, and spiritual forces that can be released from such a phenomenal decision. Life changes for good or evil in the hands of those chosen to wield it. May I show you something?
Mother Sayer: (I asked for this. Do not waver is what she thinks even if it slams against your senses.). It is what I have asked of you. Show me.
The Timer: (The Timer immediately cuts the room in front of her as if he is peeling back the covers from a cold bed.). Do you see the streams of energy? They dance like lightning strikes announcing a coming rain storm do they not?
Mother Sayer: I am feeling the heat like a blanket. It reminds me of standing outside in Birmingham, Alabama at the height of summer. At 12 midnight. I also acknowledge the electrical charge going through my clothes.
The Timer: The electrical power of this realm has granted you safe passage at my request. This energy is fed by spiritual decisions.
Mother Sayer: Wait, spiritual decisions meaning the actions we take after the choices we make good or evil feed this realm?
The Timer: The Creator of all has made it so. This is what the prayers of countless souls that are wronged produce in this realm.
Mother Sayer: This energy. Is it what the Creator taps to know whether his creation is sincere? Ah. The Creator. The Trinity. The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost can tell whose prayer has fed this realm?
The Timer: (She is a zealous discerner of the truth. Can she handle what she is about to discover?). From such power you see are born of a directive in his words of ‘faith without works is dead.’
Mother Sayer: A prayer without action wouldn’t produce even a spark is that what you’re saying?
The Timer: (Good. She is figuring it out.). Now, President Lincoln’s faith revealed the possible to him. He had to make it happen in the world you live in.
Mother Sayer: Stop. Are you telling me he knew that the economy of the Southern States were wholly dependent on the exploitation of slaves?
The Timer: You’re asking a question in which you already know the answer. Please. I thought you wanted to know why Black folks were never truly freed from the bondage of slavery.
Mother Sayer: (Mother, she tells herself, don’t do that again. Can you handle it? Don’t tell him to send you back before you pee your panties. Otherwise, I’ll slap you myself if you stoop below your upbringing and lived experiences again.). Forgive my ignorance. It won’t happen again. You were saying Black folks were never freed from slavery. What do you mean by that? The economic system deprived us of any meaningful chance of equaling the wealth gap. Well we’ll never see the backpay, loss of savings and investment along with the honor of transferring our wealth to future generations; the freedom we now have to catch up this wealth gap is ludicrous.
It’s like Black folks entered a race that started 200 years ago on foot while White folks were given a head start riding a horse. Black folks weren’t given the rules or the course to follow and told to just start walking knowing they’re the ones that worked for the very money White folks used to buy the horse.
The Timer: Now in order for that to change somebody had to be willing to pay the price. A cost is always expected when evil must be abolished. In the time of President Lincoln, he chose to sacrifice himself for the continuation of his country. By no means should you take this act of his as a run of the mill decision made by a leader.
Mother Sayer: Nothing good comes without sacrifice. Nobody, no country, nothing good survives unless it is fought for with the only true currency you have. Your life.
The Timer: Your understanding has exceeded expectations. I’m glad the 66 books of that Bible aren’t thumped and held up in the air by another village idiot.
Mother Sayer: I know one of the powerful ways to human knowledge and understanding is to learn from examples shown to us. Tell me more. Was President Lincoln shown the potential destruction of America if slavery were allowed to continue?
The Timer: Now, let’s learn about how such a system was created. Slavery, just like any economic system needed support and enforcement to remain the law of the land wouldn’t it?
Mother Sayer: So tell me how did it happen. Who supported keeping slavery as the economic system of the South? Was it baked in, wait, it had to have the weight of law.
The Timer: Now you are truly beginning to understand. Listen to me right now because I’m not going to entertain your righteous indignation again. I’ve revealed some truths to you and excused your anger about the treatment of your people by your country. Forgiveness will not come if you jump to conclusions again. Understanding such a horrible record in all the history of mankind isn’t possible for 99 percent of your country.
Do you wish to know why? I’m asking you first before I reveal the answer as I don’t know if you’re capable of processing the answer.
Mother Sayer: I am able to understand and comprehend your answer.
The Timer: (No turning away this one. She has made her choice.). The majority of human beings that inhabit your country aren’t truth seekers. What doesn’t harm them is of no consequence to them. If a fellow human being is denied dignity and justice, they wouldn’t care because they feel the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity won’t come for them.
Mother Sayer: Like the German citizens that stood by and watched a sadistic madman round-up and slaughter, butcher, and degrade Jews. None of them cared because they didn’t come for them.
The Timer: It starts with what you would call giving cover.
Mother Sayer: No need to explain that one. I got it. Cover is believing that if you support something that fights for the causes you hold dear; it shields you from responsibility of the actions of that organization. Like if I’m a member of a political party and although I vote for their candidate I can claim innocence for the evil that person commits because I only support the good things about that political party I believe in. Just the leader of that party is evil has nothing to do with me.
The Timer: Ah, quite right. What would you say if during that period of time in America when slavery was the only viable option for economic security you had to do some evil things to keep it in place?
Mother Sayer: What evil things?
Waking slaves up in the middle of the night after a long hard hot work day that began at dawn and ended at sunset. Never giving the slaves a moment of peaceful rest. How about putting a collar on them to maintain control of them like a dog. Picking out a male slave in the middle of a cotton field and beating him just for shits and giggles.
Violating and impregnating women and young girls to keep the stables full of labor. Forcing Black men to watch as these violations occurred and killing any Black man that tried to intervene. Oh, this next tactic is good. How about terrorizing slaves randomly and without warning by any white person at any time. This leads to slaves warning their children, friends, family about the violence that could be inflicted upon them at any time.
Mother Sayer: Right. Oh my God. We tell our sons and daughters to beware of interactions with the police because they could kill you for no other reason than they feared for their lives. So, we are inflicting mental harm on our community without even knowing it. This is a time honored method of keeping slaves under control.
The Timer: Are you surprised by this revelation?
Mother Sayer: Yes. It is shameful. I can’t recall an instance where a single person of a different race I call a friend tells their children to be cautious around the police. We’ve done it with good intentions, but I know now that doing something you don’t know the origin of can be self-destructive.
The Timer: Now that is the background I wanted you to fully grasp before you’re granted permission to receive the full truth of slavery.
Mother Sayer: I understand what happened to slaves all too well. I can use my imagination as I know how cruel and sadistic human beings can be and are still.
The Timer: What President Lincoln accomplished required him to put his life on the line. Nothing of value is ever accomplished unless he or she that starts it commits to its’ completion. That is the essence of ‘SALVATION’.
Mother Sayer: He knew by putting his name on it that it would rest in history. Ah! He had advisors that reported back to him how these systems were created. How they remained a viable business model. How you kept your stock or slaves in check. How the laws were created around it were unjust and couldn’t stand the gaze of a righteous God.
The Timer: Yes. You are correct. Now by considering the massive scope of what slavery was and what benefits it held to the Southern States to keep that system in place can you understand the reciprocal and equal pushback to dismantling it.
Mother Sayer: I don’t care if America wishes to hide her filthy and depraved past. I still want to know more detail about the systems of slavery. The economic, oppression of wealth, the mental terror as well as the physical terror that never let up where slaves were concerned.
The Timer: Exactly. All will still be revealed no matter how long it takes. An account of history will never be successfully suppressed. May I continue? Now to dismantle a system you must use like force to replace it. A law that uproots and replaces a law is the only way. President Lincoln knew he couldn’t write something that applied to only a portion of the country. He had to make sure it applied nationwide did he not?
Mother Sayer: We’re talking about the ‘SALVATION’ of a nation now aren’t we?
The Timer: You have satisfied my requirements for this meeting. I commend you for that. Don’t come at me again wanting the conclusion before you hear all of what you must hear.
Mother Sayer: I understand. My apologies Timer. This information. I’m sorry. I must know.
The Timer: We will speak again.
Epilogue:
(With that the Timer returned Mother to her realm. She immediately prepares herself for her next encounter with the Timer. One of the questions she will ask is why descendants of slave owners don’t understand that lineage is akin to history. It’s not disjointed or misplaced. As God created the Earth in Six days, what he created on the 1st day didn’t disappear but was added onto in the 2nd day.
That’s the essence of the argument for reparations for all the stolen wages of slavery. Let’s see you work for 1 year and don’t get paid and see what it does to you physically and mentally not to mention the quality of life you’ll have. Oh right, it’s okay to give a trillion dollars to the already wealthy while claiming money problems for the poor and needy.
One thing is for certain. Looking at what your leader does is the only thing that matters. President Trump wouldn’t come close to the faith of a President like Lincoln because he has never fought for anyone but himself. If anyone believes otherwise they deserve what they get for lying to themselves.).