By Elder Gerald
DeForest Tyler
Well, I pray and trust that God is on the verge of blessing us so that we can celebrate yet another Independence Day (the Fourth of July). It deals with freedom and being free from someone or something as it were. In America’s mindset, no doubt it lends itself to being free from other nations. America, a sovereign nation as such, is thought of as being independent of other nations, certainly to some extent. But are we really and precisely to what extent? Are we free from dependency on other nations? Just something to think about as we approach what we call Independence Day. It’s said that no man is an island unto himself. It’s also said that it takes a village to raise a child. What does all this mean then if we are an independent nation, free from other peoples and other nations? Is it all mostly just rhetoric or are we free and independent?
Why do we celebrate Independence Day if we’re not an independent nation in the very real and true sense of the meaning? Just something to think about going forward.
By Dr. Rebecca R. Rivka
Herman Cain was omitted in my first article on the 2012 Presidential Republican Clowns.
Herman Cain represents a special class of African American Republican clowns seeking the top leadership position.
Cain is a descendant of slaves in this country. Like most of us, Cain was plucked up from his native African soil and transplanted on the alien American continent. During his race for President of the USA, Cain showed a psyche that was “lifted up with pride.” (1 Timothy 3:6). He wore a “Crown of Pride.” (Isaiah 28:11) The Bible states, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) 1 John 2:15 admonishes, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (verse 16) Cain and others like him are a sad commentary to the African American people.
For when the oppressed begins to adopt the ways of the oppressors, the race is in trouble. African Americans are the largest race of people up from slavery and still living in the land of their oppressors.
When our Black leaders whom the Lord has set free, get out of their element, they forget “to look unto the rock out of which they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which they are digged.” (Isaiah 51) They forfeit the dignity of our spiritual and cultural heritage.Woe to Herman Cain, the African American Clown of Pride, ambushed in the Battle set by God.
Contributor of Rebecca’s Well. The Reverend Dr. Rebecca R. Rivka is a retired professor of Psychology, Norfolk State University and former school psychologist of both Portsmouth and Norfolk public school systems and retired professional counselor, Virginia and currently local elder, New Saint John African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Virginia Beach, VA.