First, there is the recognition of greed. In some circles it is defined as the following: intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. 

“mercenaries who had allowed greed to overtake their principles” 

So, if the definition is fool-proof, a greedy person, has the ethics of a mercenary, making money at the expense of others. Rapper Kanye West made millions in a song identifying some female mercenaries as “gold diggers”; leaving some to exclaim, what did you marry Kanye? 

 There is a progression in the greed factor; it inevitably leads to the acquisition of power. This recloaking of the human being, follows the small take-overs that ferment that human psychology, to want more. Subsequently, the self-interest becomes self-absorbing. Now, it is not just the car, but several, not just money in the bank, but own a few banks, not just women, but a harem, own a country, build an empire, rule the world, where humans are disposable, and the PROTAGONIST, shrouded with glory by the guileless human zombies, though highly certified by prestigious universities on the planet!..lives on. 

Greed is human, and what is chillingly frightening, is based on LOVE. But genuine love is based on empathy, quite a stark contrast. 

Did Hitler love Germany? What about El Cid of Spain? Did Louis 14^th, love Haiti and Toussiant Louverture? 

History is full of examples of greed. All the greedy ones die ignominiously. Consider this: when the certified thief cried out, “you truly are the Son of God, remember me!”, with no prerequisites, with no demand to be loyal, The MAN on the stake, happily said, “Truly, you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) 

In 2020 (AD) Anno Domini, we had a fully defined and unquestionable synonym to greed, with the exact number of letters, 5: T.R.U.M.P

It is probably not what you may have in mind, if you thought of going to see this movie without looking it up. 

The world including those of us in Baltimore MD., are looking at the ups and downs, of emotions of friends and others, as the pandemic forces us to look internally, and even live in bubbles for safety. Digital communication, is reigning supreme! 

There is a longing for outdoors, to do something familiar, watch a movie that is not on Netflix or YouTube. Yeah, THE EMPTY MAN, why not? 

It is about the youth, college age students attending university to expand their minds, create, explore, question and create a new world. This exploratory, led some to follow the philosophy of “THE EMPTY MAN”. The appeal led to dominating the world, based on philosophical thought. But there is a downside: once you are “in” leaving is difficult, your own friends can be motivated to kill you for revealing the secrets of “THE EMPTY MAN.” 

After the show, I got to thinking, is that just fantasy, or could that be reality? Do we have an “EMPTY MAN” in our midst today? Do we have many following a man based on his philosophical thought? Do we have some who would kill for him? 

David Karesh had a religious movement, where his followers confronted federal authorities, and later died as martyrs for him, in Texas. 

Rev. Jim Jones led his followers from San Francisco, USA to the hinterlands of Guyana South America, where they demised in death. Jim Jones as well as David Koresh, wanted revenge for not getting their way. So, did THE EMPTY MAN. 

DAVID KORESH, JIM JONES, and THE EMPTY MAN

In 2020, an equivalent is on the horizon, TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Supporters of this philosophy, have bought guns and ammunition, issued threats, intimidated minorities, for revenge.  How dare an African American, insult me, as occurred at the Correspondence dinner in 2011-THE WHITE HOUSE! If America is going to get health care, it will not be in the name of a black man! 

The actions, the countenance, spoke loud and clear.

THE EMPTY MAN in this case is obviously not fictional as in the movie, he is real. He has overcome Covid-19; “You’re fired!” has been his mantra, and he is awaiting a “wave of red” (people who are not of African descent) to take his prejudicial reign, to 2025. 

Butterflies are aplenty, but they are not butterflies at procreation, they are, eggs, larvae, pupae, the stages of metamorphosis, before the world beholds their beauty and magnificence, as adults. Many die during the process. Almost a simile for some babies born in the bellies of poverty- laden cities and towns, throughout the world.

The Baltimore Center Stage theater group has begun an artistic series, categorizing Baltimore as a “Butterfly”. I do not know which one is associated, but I believe THE ADMIRAL, would be appropriate. It has black wings, red bands and white spots. (Baltimore City, a truly multicolored community). 

The idea of the theater group is to foster togetherness, and this group believes, the arts community is uniquely qualified to create such a reality; to influence, politicians, businesses, and clergy. 

I watched the October 5^th, 2020 presentation, featuring actress Nia June, Lisa McCray of Baltimore Beat, and musical artiste, Darius Christian. 

Several butterflies from all parts of Baltimore, including Howard County, read texts from famous writers and the many ways they experienced Baltimore.

The Red Admiral is one of the strongest butterflies; this human butterfly, a.k.a, composite butterfly, (Baltimore City) needs the right environment, and nutrition to reach its glory. 

Baltimore needs industries, business ownership, not only for some;- change of legislators and legislation,- for all the butterflies to survive, and live in a state of reasonable contentment. 

Images from the current BMA exhibition, A PERFECT POWER, Motherhood and African Art.

It has long been symbols of fertility, so much so that such  pictures became symbols of the African diaspora, birthing the phrase “mother Africa”. 

“Sweet mother I no go forget you” (Prince Nico Mbarga) 

European women visiting the continent, became jealous of the sinuous African women’s bodies, walking along the popular African beaches. They wanted to look tanned and shirtless, like the natives. 

The French went “buck wild” on the Caribbean beaches, and rudely envied the body population of Brazilian beaches, like “Ipanema”. 

One is not left aghast, in looking at an African woman with the bulge in her pregnant belly, or nursing her baby in public. In fact, in the industrial world, it became a landmark of independence, or revolution, when female celebrities began taking pictures of their naked bodies while pregnant, for the world to see. 

These everyday depictions of MOTHERHOOD have finally come to the Balitmore Museum of Art, in an exhibition entitled A PERFECT POWER. 

It is a collection of art from Central Africa, especially the Congo, and parts of Zambia. 

It is precious art, representing a time, when African men left home for the hunt, and mothers were home to do everything until their men returned. 

For Baltimore, it is the grand re-opening of the museum since the pandemic hit, and all went into lockdown. BLACK LIVES MATTER, is now draped along the front entranceway, and African masks are also what your eyes will behold as part of this exhibition, curated by Kevin Tervala. 

This is a test, especially for my male counterparts, of whether they can see this exhibition and be asexual. 

IT HAS BEEN FULLY DOCUMENTED THAT THERE IS SYSTEMIC RACISM, in America.  

This is not new.  It references to the old tried and true, “divide and conquer”. The most enslaved race, not only in America, but the world, has been, the Noir, Negro, Black, African… with a suffix, i.e. Caribbean, American etc. 

Why was the house slave getting the hand –me-downs, and others, the left overs? The “house slave” was the snitch. (Django Unchained). Hence “black on black” crime has hundreds of years of history. 

In our lifetime here in the United States, Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court Justice) has merged into the tapestry of his master; and as we have to closer to the 2020 General Election, I watched with disgust Herschel Walker and Jim Brown, stand guard for “El Cid”, who occupies the WHITE HOUSE. 

KANYE WEST? Not enough space. 

Baltimore Md. Is primarily a black city, and filled with the two classes of blacks earlier described, but the women have escaped the classification, until now. 

There is a congressional seat to be filled, and a black woman affiliated with “El Cid” wants to occupy that seat. 

Outside of Baltimore are county suburbs, with names like Howard, Carroll, Frederick, Wicomico, where occupants live on large spreads of land with half a mile driveways. Blacks living in such spaces are rare. 

So, I am driving West on route 32, about to leave Howard and enter into Carroll, when sitting at the beginning of one of those driveways, is this massive billboard, with a black woman, as though she is an international model, shoulder length hair flying. WHAT??? 

I DROVE HALF A MILE, then made a U turn. I had to see this for myself, to confirm I was not dreaming. I was not. A picture of KIM KLACIK! 

Okay, we know why the black men sold out, and they are in the derisive bracket, now the women are joining them? 

In the echo of Leslie Bricusse, “Stop the world, I Want to Get Off!” 

Of all the races on earth, the main race to call on their ancestors, incessantly in song, is the African. Why? 

Undoubtedly, the richest continent in the world with raw materials, Africa, with diamonds, gold, manganese, precious stones, oil, cocoa, copper, and human muscle. Then why are the majority inhabitants, so poor? Africa is not that far from the GARDEN OF EDEN, where the first man Adam lived in paradise!

The Arabs and the European nations, have some of those precious materials, but not like Africa, and the African climate made it easier to get. Records show that Africans, like indigenous Indians, are tribal, making them vulnerable to deceit. Leaders dominated the majority (and still do), thus the invaders from other continents, once their fabrications overwhelmed the leadership, tribes were overrun. In pain the tribal followers had no hope but to cry out to their deities for help. The muscle of slavery was the gold, the stock market, exported across the Atlantic. Africans sang for salvation, as they were beaten, and thrown across the bows and sterns of boats; sold by their tribal leaders, four hundred years ago. Now the Chinese are invading. 

In North America, the whaling cry got morphed into commercialized Blues, Jazz, and negro spirituals. In the Caribbean, the additions were Calypso and Reggae. 

Today, John Legend (an African American songwriter/performer) enjoined with the new Black genre, Hip-Hop, as exemplified in Common,( a well-known hip-hopper) have produced “GLORY”. (Best Original Song, 87^th Academy Awards-2015) 

“One day when the glory comes, it will be ours”; the opening words. 

Akua ALLRICH, this week, (9/21/2020) was given the space to make her cry, at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I watched: 

“One day, we’ll cry for glory, …when the war is won,…we’ll cry GLORY, Oh, GLORY”! ..ONE DAYYYYYY!

There is no dispute to the above statement. History has recorded the thousands of homes and families washed away by torrents of rain and water, leaving unbelievable devastation for the annals of history documentarians. Those who suffered most were black and brown people.

When Europeans came to the American continent, their eyes of greed opened up. Land was in abundance, and temperatures were moderate; not as cold with blizzards as in Europe. The indigenous Indians refused to work for “the invaders”, thus the alternative was to import the scum from prisons to work in building wealth for the plantation owners. It did not work. Most of the prisoners could not handle heat and the field work; many got sick and had to be hospitalized. The owners were building “on sand”. 

How were the “white” plantation owners going to get their harvest back to Europe, and the economic capitals of the world? The only human being to fit the task, was the black African. 

So, for 400 years, Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, and treated as farm animals to create wealth for the white plantocracy. The African had a dollar figure, less that “the master’s horse”.  He was America’s ROCK, on which America built its house. The African black, was rock, not sand. 

The African man never got his “40 acres and a mule” promised him by President Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln was assassinated, white America took that away from him. “Plantation owners” who own the stock market, run the Justice Department, the military, the Christian ministry, and the Police, each, had a foot “on the African man’s neck”, preventing him from breathing; and then, one of them died, GEORGE FLOYD. It became the stick that broke the camel’s back. The rock was moving away from the house. The house was losing its foundation!

BLACK LIVES MATTER!  became the cry. The plantation owners’ children joined the protest. I drove through lilly white neiborhood’s, where before now, such signs would never have graced the well-manicured lawns. On Friday August 21, 2020, Baltimore MD., gave permission to paint the 400 block of East Fayette Street, in front of City Hall… BLACK LIVES MATTER. 

IT IS TIME FOR THE BUILDERS OF THE HOUSE TO LIVE AS EQUALS.