Ferguson Says Forget Due Process--A Secret Jury Trial is More "Cop-Aesthetic."

Mike Brown, "the demon."

The grand jury proceeding in Ferguson Missouri is a metaphor for the country's continued biased [mis]application of the rule of law where both Black American victims and/or perpetrators are concerned: the hell with due process--the facts are more important.

Nowadays, it is the facts that prevail--no matter the procedure used to draw them out.

The Supreme Court has long since destroyed the 4th Amendment, the erstwhile rule to prohibit unlawful search and seizure.  So the principle of protecting citizens from an out-of-control police is gone. Now it's a "rules-be-damned-I-know-you-did-something-wrong," legal system. It might appear that I want criminal perpetrators to get away with their conduct, but that could not be further from the truth. 


So, lest you think me a hater of government and the police, my work history is my disclaimer: I worked for law enforcement for 11 years, first as a federal immigration attorney, then as an ivory tower international criminal law attorney. I was never in the court room. I worked with U.S. prosecutors and foreign governments to bring fugitives to their nations' courtrooms for trial. I helped the Secret Service and the FBI bring criminals "to justice," in the United States.

Furthermore, I detest criminals in general. For instance:

I don't like drug dealers.

I don't like white collar fraudsters.

Let me also declare that I really, really, really, don't like pedophiles (a subplot of my upcoming novel) and in a parallel universe I wish we could burn them alive; but on this earth in the here and now, I am a pacifist and don't believe in the death penalty.

We learned about grand jury proceedings in law school, and I remember my shock at how flimsy the process appeared to be.  Basically, it's just a way to make sure the police aren't too crazy when they bring criminal cases to their superiors. They put a panel together to look at evidence and confirm that the prosecutor has or does not have probable cause--in essence, a legitimate reason to move forward with a case.

They decide whether there is enough evidence to bring forward a case.

Let me say it another way to let this sink in:  the grand jury is supposed to look at the evidence and answer the following question put to them by the prosecutor, "Do you think this police officer's or detective's case is strong enough for me, as an attorney, to go forward, to bring charges against this defendant--FOR A JURY TO DECIDE his guilt or innocence?

Let me break it down even more:   Let's say you're making a cake. What are the ingredients to determine whether one can make a cake: flour, eggs, milk, baking powder/soda, sugar...  is that enough to make a cake? Ta-da! That's probable cause.

Now, nobody knows if the cake is truly going to taste good, but... it's the ingredients that count. Is that enough to make a cake? Again, it is the trial jury who will decide if it tastes any good.

Grand jury proceedings are usually pro forma:  the prosecutor presents his case, brought by the police (or detective) who created the case, and the grand jury says, yes or no, we think you have enough evidence to prosecute - to take the case to a full criminal proceeding.  To indict is to charge.  Not try the case.  That's what a full criminal proceeding is about.  A criminal proceeding is when the lawyers sit on opposite sides of the courtroom and they get to make their client's case. In the case of the police, they are supposed to make the case for the PEOPLE of the jurisdiction in which they work, in this case, Ferguson, Missouri, a city that happens to have a Black majority. In Missouri, a grand jury of 9 must agree to put forward an indictment -- NOT TO CONVICT. TO INDICT.  We won't address the implications of the serendipitous (for Officer Wilson) make up of the jury right now.... there were 9 Whites and 3 Blacks. Do the math. 

In Ferguson, however, something different happened than happens in most grand juries:  the prosecutor was going to prosecute one of his friends, a fellow member of law enforcement. So, instead of deciding whether there was enough evidence to go forward, the grand jury proceeding turned into an investigation into why Michael Brown deserved to die. The prosecutor explained why it was perfectly all right to kill the teenager:

1. Mike Brown stole some cigars from a liquor store.
2. Mike Brown was big like Hulk Hogan.
3. Mike Brown looked like a demon.

Those are reasons for disliking someone.  Not killing him.

There's only one person who, conceivably, may have had a right to kill Mike Brown: the liquor store owner, to protect his property. Yes, the owner backed down, too, on the video, when Mike turned to him, using his girth to prevent him from doing anything to stop Brown from leaving the store with his cigarette contraband.  But the police officer, who might have had a right to shoot, had no right to kill.  Period. He had a right to maim, a right to impede; he could have shot him in the shoulders, in the knee caps, in the pelvis, or even in the foot. But he had no right to kill--considering that his menacing assailant was unarmed.

Unarmed.
UN-armed.


But, in the case of the Ferguson prosecutor, the standard changed because his "brother," a police  officer, Darren Wilson, was the one being scrutinized like a criminal.  Where the mythical police officer that should have arrested Darren Wilson would have said to the prosecutor, "I think we need to arrest this police officer because he's going around shooting people that he fears are a physical threat to him."

That didn't happen.  It was okay to shoot Mike Brown, because in the eyes of law enforcement, Mike Brown represents everything wrong with Black American youth: they wear their pants down, walk around like they own the joint, and are petty thieves. Of course, Wall Street got bailed out $700 billion dollars for bilking Americans out of their hard-earned money, and what happens to them?
They get a raise.

Had I met Mike Brown, I might have thought he was a jerk for taking those cigarillos, but I would never wish him death.  But a lot of hateful Americans feel otherwise: he deserved to die and got his comeuppance because he was a "bad person. " Imagine how many people would "deserve to die" for being bad people:  at the risk of being investigated for my opinions, let's just say that many politicians would not be holding office today if being a good person were the standard for whether they continued to live on this earth.

The United States legal system is derived from the British, who devised a system whereby the King could keep people "in check" in their communities by granting grand juries the right to assemble and decide to file charges against criminal wrong-doers far from the King's or Queen's watchful eyes. These people supported the Crown, obviously. Nothing has changed in the purpose of the grand jury here, in the U.S., except that we don't have Kings and Queens. We have authority in the form of the local police, who are supposed to be the stewards of peace and tranquility in our communities.  The grand jury generally supports the police.

Police who prosecute.

The grand jury is supposed to rubber stamp the police's abilities to go after a criminal suspect, and arm them with the power to arrest and bring them to justice.  The British system acknowledged this fact. In an article entitled, "Abolition of the Grand Jury in England," Chief Clerk of the Bow Street Magistrates, Albert Lieck, explained:

Originally the grand jury, in criminal procedure, were the informants.  They told the King's judges what crimes had been committed in their venue, or neighborhood as the better Saxon word has it. In exceptional times and places their refusal to find true bill defeated tyrannous prosecution, but if history instead of vague sentiment be our guide we shall realize that such happenings were exceptional, and that to talk of the loss of a great safeguard of personal liberty is to talk nonsense.

Translation in American English: grand jury prosecutions were almost, without a fault, in favor of the police, allowing a case to go to trial, and the exception was very rare. 

Now, take away Darren Wilson's uniform, and Mike Brown's menace to car-driving society (he drew Officer Wilson's attention because he had the audacity to be walking down the middle of the street).

That didn't happen here. A man who should have been given a public audience to publicly make his case for why he killed a Black teenager--was spared the embarrassment of being made accountable, to look jurors in the eye, instead of a sympathetic grand jury. 

The British abolished the grand jury in 1933.  Always late to the party, the U.S., might need to do the same. Why should we  countenance a system of secrecy, of laissez-faire evience-gathering, which ultimately impacts upon the liberties of Black accused and Black victims who are allowed to be killed with police impunity, by officers like Darren Wilson, who said he would kill Mike Brown again if he had to. 

RIP Mike Brown.  You may have stolen a pack of cigarillos, but your life was stolen from you, in a heinous way. And the world knows now that our democracy has grave flaws--with headstones for Black people.  I'm not sure when things will ever change.  Will it be once there are no more Black people to arrest, because the grand jury will put us all in jail, or will it be once we are all killed by grand juries like the one that justified Mike Brown's murder?

This is why I will always support the existence of the federal government.  The Department of Justice must come forward and address this horrible wrong.

This is not a Happy Thanksgiving, America.

Speaking Black...Statistically, that is... Do the Numbers Speak for Themselves?

What do our stats say about Black America?

--> So, all you mathematicians and statisticians out there: what do the facts and figures below tell you about the quality of life for Black Americans in American cities?
This information is not meant to be cited for its accuracy. It is culled, cut, and pasted from different sources, one of them: http://blackdemographics.com/ -- the brainchild of Akim Deshay. This brother has done an amazing job and even the White House used his information to learn more about Black demographics in America.

Another site is listed here:  http://www.statisticbrain.com/african-american-black-statistics/

What do you see when you look at the information below? Do you have any Eureka thoughts about the economic state of Black America?

Share what you think in the comments section. I don't have answers, but I do have lots of questions:

1) What is it like to be a young Black teenager or young adult in our American cities?
2) What happened to Black American households, and why have they dwindled to 1/3 of our population?
3) Why do Black people spend so much time in front of the television (74 hours per week)?
4) Are Black Americans suffering disproportionate health problems, such as high blood pressure and obesity, due to our economic circumstances?
5) If Black Americans contribute almost 1.2 Trillion dollars to the American economy, why is so little of it trickling down to our communities?
6) Are Black businesses truly "black businesses" if they don't contribute to Black economic life in a meaningful way?

Share your thoughts; I share my opinions a lot; but now wish to listen.

http://www.dol.gov/_Sec/media/reports/blacklaborforce/

http://www.dol.gov/_Sec/media/reports/blacklaborforce/

Total number of Americans on welfare	12,800,000
Total number of Americans on food stamps	46,700,000
Total number of Americans on unemployment insurance	5,600,000
Percent of the US population on welfare	4.1 %
Total government spending on welfare annually (not including food stamps or unemployment)	$131.9 billion
Welfare Demographics
Percent of recipients who are white	38.8 %
Percent of recipients who are black	39.8 %
Percent of recipients who are Hispanic	15.7 %
Percent of recipients who are Asian	2.4 %
Percent of recipients who are Other	3.3 %
Welfare Statistics
Total amount of money you can make monthly and still receive Welfare	$1000
Total Number of U.S. States where Welfare pays more than an $8 per hour job	39
Number of U.S. States where Welfare pays more than a $12 per hour job	6
Number of U.S. States where Welfare pays more than the average salary of a U.S. Teacher	8

Number of African Americans in the US in 2000	36,400,000
Number of black households there are in the US	12,000,000
African American region concentration	Percent of Black Population
South	54.8 %
Midwest	18.8 %
Northeast	17.6 %
West	8.9 %
Number of African Americans who live in suburban neighborhoods	14,000,000
African American Education Levels	Percent
High School Graduates	77.6 %
Bachelor’s degree or higher	14.6 %
Advanced degree	4.3 %
African American Financial Statistics	Data
Average income of African Americans	$32,436
Annual spending power for African Americans	$1.2 Trillion
Percent of African American households with incomes of $50,000 or more	27.4 %
Percent of African Americans living in poverty	23.5 %
Percent of African Americans that are homeowners	49 %
African American Business Statistics
Number of African American owned businesses	800,000
Revenue generated by African American owned businesses	$71,200,000,000
Number of African American fortune 500 CEOs	3
Top Five Expenditures of African-American consumers	Spending
Housing	$121.6 billion
Food	$59.2 billion
Cars	$32.1 billion
Clothing	$27.7 billion
Health Care	$17.8 billion

The "Case" Against Reparations (And Not for the Reasons You Think)

Dr. Martha Stephens fought for "dignity" back in 1972

While doing legal research, I came across a case that I didn't really want to read, but because it related to the subject I was researching, I was forced to slog through it.  Being a lawyer is both an asset and a curse: I can pretty much decipher most legal documents; however, on a practical level, much of what I read doesn't make sense in application, and that premise explains the inherent bipolarity of our legal system:

1.  We believe in separation of Church and State, but fight for the 10 Commandments to be on state property.

2.  All men were created equal.

3.  We espouse the principle of "one man, one vote," but then try to prevent certain people from voting, and the Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, basically said, "nah.... you can stop counting...give it to Bush."

4. We call ourselves civilized, but kill people for killing other people, something most of the civilized world doesn't do.

5. We believe in equal rights for women, but not equal pay to that of their male equivalent.

6. We all pledge allegiance to the flag, but a Congressman in a hallowed building can shout that our President is a "liar." 

7. We allege to love our country, but want our President to fail.

8. We have a democratically elected President take office, and when it's time to symbolically unite at the White House, one political party is missing: the one that boasts how much it loved President Lincoln, who freed the slaves, but which hates his Black successor.

I have come to realize that our country is inherently schizophrenic, especially, for those who have benefited the most from America's bounty, like the legacy kids of Ivy League schools, who can go to the best schools in the country because their parents attended or were donors, then bemoan when Black kids get an opportunity to go (who have to work hard to graduate) without their parents' connections.

So....

Reparations, anyone?

I'm all for it. And if you want the seminal history of why the reparations debate is timely, read this.  Ta-Nehisi Coates certainly deserves a Pulitzer for his in-depth, exhaustive analysis of the economic experience of Black Americans in this country.  I cannot even bear to read all of it, honestly, as it hurts me to the core. I can read it only in doses.

I don't dare try to match literary wits with Mr. Coates, but rhetorically, I ask myself -- will reparations happen?

I doubt it.

Here's why:

In all of our greatness as a country, throughout all of the strides we have made, post-slavery, in all of our flag-waving and belief in so-called fundamental constitutional rights, there is one prize that many alleged "lesser" countries around the world espouse that we do not:  the right to human dignity.

Let's define the word dignity:

dignity |ˈdignitē|

noun ( pl. dignities )

the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect:

  
Where the post-Nuremburg European powers have announced their respect for human dignity, no where is it enshrined in American law. The U.S. courts have said as much in the very small progeny of cases that succeeded the In re Cincinnati Radiation Litigation, a case decided in the United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Western Division, in 1995.  Although the question of human dignity was not a part of the Cincinnati case, the implications of the case brought up the specter of Hitler's experimentation on Jews.

I won't dwell on the obvious horrors of the story - horror because this didn't happen during the "get- over it-that-was-so-long-ago (slavery) - but only forty years ago, during the heralded post Civil-Rights era. Basically, Black Americans were experimented on [like the 3/5s of a human being they once were believed to be] in a municipal hospital in Cincinnati, under the financial oversight of the Department of Defense. The experiments were done between 1960 and 1972, at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati General Hospital, on at least 87 people. The subjects of the experiments were exposed to total or partial body irradiation.  All this was done without the permission of the patients, a majority of whom were Black Americans, who believed that they were being treated for cancer. 

Let that sink in.  

The judge in the case couldn't contain her own disgust at the facts: "The allegations of the Complaint make out an outrageous tale of government perfidy in dealing with some of its most vulnerable citizens. The allegations are inflammatory and compelling." That being said, the law is the law, and the judge had to deal with the procedural and legalistic matters that superseded questions of "dignity" and "humanity," not to mention shock that a democratic government would even think to do this to its own "alleged" citizens.  

Despite that judicial admission of the factual horrors of the case, even the name of the actual lawsuit caption doesn't go far enough. The caption, itself, "In re Cincinnati Radiation Litigation," protects the defendants so as not to ascribe a "name" or identify the malfeasants.  Usually case captions name the parties, but in this case, as it was, in effect, a class action of numerous plaintiffs, and the defendant was the "government," and its employees, the individuals who performed the experiments are spared the embarrassment of being named. I'll do so here, however (excerpted verbatim from the judge's lengthy opinion):

The individual Defendants are denominated as follows: Eugene L. Saenger, M.D. was employed by the Department of Radiology of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and was the lead researcher conducting the Human Radiation Experiments at Cincinnati General Hospital. Dr. Saenger is alleged to have designed, supervised and conducted the experiments that are the subject of this Complaint.

Edward B. Silberstein, M.D.; Bernard S. Aron, M.D., Harry Horwitz, M.D., James G. Kereiakes, PhD, Harold Perry, M.D., Ben I. Friedman, M.D., Thomas L. Wright, M.D., I-Wen Chen, Ph.D., Robert L. Kunkel, M.D., Louis A. Gottschalk, M.D., Theodore H. Wold, PhD, and Goldine C. Gleser, Ph.D. also were employed by the University of Cincinnati and are alleged to have assisted Dr. Saenger in the Human Radiation Experiments.

Warren O. Kessler, M.D., and Myron I. Varon, M.D., were medical officers in the United States Navy and are alleged to have been the Project Officers charged with providing federal oversight of the Human Radiation Experiments. Because Drs. Kessler and Varon were federal officials, their conduct will be examined along with that of the other individual Defendants under the doctrine of qualified immunity and as regards Section 1985 and the Price-Anderson statute. However, the claims against Drs. Kessler and Varon will also be analyzed separately under the Bivens doctrine, which specifically permits claims against federal employees who violate constitutional law.⁶
The City, a municipality in Hamilton County, Ohio, is also a Defendant. The Complaint alleges that the City sanctioned, funded, and actively participated in the Human Radiation Experiments.

Finally, the University of Cincinnati ("University"), including its constituent College of Medicine and University Hospital (formerly Cincinnati General Hospital) is also named as a Defendant.

None of the individuals listed above were criminally prosecuted. Thanks to a thinking judge, Sandra Beckwith, a Republican appointee, at least the Defendants weren't allowed to escape from the tentacles of the legal system via the heralded concept of jurisdiction. They were under the clutches of the court, at a minimum, which was a Herculean feat, given the various arguments they raised to avoid the court's ability to decide the case. In a nutshell, this is what the defendants claimed in their defense:

1. You can't sue us for our atrocities, because... we're in another state.
2. Some of us were merely Project Officers, not real supervisors of the experiments.
3. We were government officials only doing our delegated jobs.
4. The radiation subjects weren't prisoners--they came to the hospital of their own volition and could have left the hospital whenever they wanted to (have you ever told your doctors during an examination to "go to hell?")


Notwithstanding that prosecutorial mistake in judgment for not putting them all in jail for at least the equivalent number of years that they committed these indignities against these human "guinea pigs," this discussion is less about the radiation litigation, and more about the settlement, and the implications for reparations.

When the case settled (because of course, who wants to sit in a witness chair in a public trial to defend the indefensible?), the Defendants, after alleging that they could bring a private cause of action against individual defendants, changed their minds about whether Plaintiffs could opt out. As most Americans know when they are advised of a class action against a corporation, individuals are allowed to "opt out," and bring their own personal cause of action, with a private attorney.  Most of us accept the $1.00 coupon awarded at the end of a class action settlement, and skip merrily along while the attorneys divide the millions of dollars in fees, the spoils of litigating and [almost always] settling.

In the Cincinnati case, the government, essentially alleging that it would exhaust its funds in settling the case, argued that all of the plaintiffs would have to accept the settlement.  There would be no opportunity for the plaintiffs to bring private causes of action against the defendants. Instead, they were to be pooled together, in a class action of faceless litigants, like the nameless slaves on a slave ship bound for the New World.  Only after Public Justice filed a "friend of the court" brief against disallowing opt-outs was this argument shelved.  The settlement awarded the 87 victims $50,000 each.  Sure, that's not small change, especially since the awards were made in 1998.  As I explained in an earlier blog, Black farmers got the same settlement amount from the government: $50,000. For 12 years of a terrible practice, of being experimented on as human beings - some of whom actually died during the experimental period--all they got was $50,000.


My people were separated from our heritage.
We were stripped of our native language and the familial and social bonds that go with it.
My people were beaten.
My ancestors were likely raped, and the women sired children born into slavery.
When my people were supposed to be freed, some of us weren't told about it.
When we were freed, we were not allowed to go to school in many instances, forced to work in menial jobs.
After we were freed, we were forced to sit in the backs of buses and take our lunch while traveling (to avoid being turned away in restaurants).
After we were freed, we were denied opportunities to flourish as full-fledged human beings with talent, except for a preponderance of entertainers who had to "shuck and jive," to be able to use their crafts.
After we were "freed," we were forced to fight for the freedom of other people while, we, ourselves, were not free.
Now we are sent to school, only to be ushered into prison for infractions for which Whites are rarely or barely punished.
And you want to give me $50,000?

Japanese-Americans were herded into concentration camps (without being declared subhuman; they were full-fledged citizens!) and received $20,000--50 years later. On the whole, the Japanese do not show any bitterness, openly, at least:  they don't call people racists, likely for fear of being sent back to those camps, because the Supreme Court case that said it was okay to treat them as second-class citizens, Korematsu v. U.S., is still good law.


The point is that, though made up of individuals, the government is an omnipotent monolith, a monster that can crush all of us and then argue against the individual actor's fault. Changing the mantra of finding the enemy and the enemy is us, instead, for legal purposes, we refuse to sue ourselves: "We are the government and the government is us," making individuals not responsible for their collective acts of heinous government policy.  I am an unlikely ally with the libertarians who eschew government intrusion in our lives, but I echo their sentiment, under a different theory: if the government overseas horrific medical practices that jeopardize the lives of individuals with the "perfidy"  that the government has shown over the centuries, what is the likelihood that we can ever  expect the government--made up of [some] truly horrible people who can exert their power over the most vulnerable--to do the right thing and redress their wrongs?

Germany did.

According to Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Germany ultimately agreed to pay Israel 3.45 billion deutsche marks, or more than $7 billion in today’s dollars. Individual reparations claims followed—for psychological trauma, for offense to Jewish honor, for halting law careers, for life insurance, for time spent in concentration camps. 

I do not wish to draw comparisons between the tragedy of the respective Jewish and Black diasporas. My point in bringing up Germany's reparations (the story of the signing ceremony is riveting reading in Mr. Coates's article), is to show how one "bad" government came to terms with its actions, while another, allegedly "good" government--did and does nothing.

If the past is prologue, it don't look too good, my brothers and sisters, and I'm not sure we Americans have what it takes to do what Germany did after WWII.  The Declaration of Helsinki and the Nuremberg Code declared that persons could bring a  private right of action for violation of international law for the protection of human research subjects, under principles invoking the right to human dignity.  The U.S. courts said, instead, "we don't need to 'steenking' international law concepts to do our job," finding that the legal standards for conducting research on human subjects contained in the United States Code of Federal Regulations should suffice.

There goes our chance at asserting our right to dignity, Black America.

The solution?

I'm not sure.

Will it take another Republican appointee to redress so grievous a wrong? Because the Democrats aren't likely to step up to the plate (their Dixie masks are still in their closets, and many have proven to be traitors to their own Black President). Generations from now, Americans will be too far removed from making this an issue, as even some of today's youth consider Rosa Parks' place in history too old to respect; and views of race have changed so much that hip-hop and interracial dating has turned everybody fashionably "light brown."  

What happens, in the meantime?

Our country, 'tis of thee.... the State of Ferguson

More of Ferguson, an inherent parodox explained by writer Bob Cesca's recent portrait of our schizophrenia -- the glimpse into what we truly fear.

Should Black America ask the United Nations or some other international body for support, like Mike Brown's parents?

America will continue to live in a quiet state of Ferguson, of perennial doubt and distrust, of guilt, rage, and hatred of self, that will spin Blacks and Whites out of control, while more perfidious forces (everyone should adopt "perfidy" as a new vocabulary word) take over our so-called democracy.  Race is sport in America. As long as the lines are drawn, we'll always have something to fight over, raise money over, and justify our respective positions as the powerful and the powerless.

Our Founding Fathers said that it's all about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Imagine how much different history might have been had they added the word, "dignity" to that political canon. And how tragic for Black America, that even as recent as 2008, the U.S. determined that "there is no universal agreement on the meaning of the term, human dignity."

Black America's "French Connection"

Yearning to Breathe Free

I dropped out of my beginner's French class in college because the professor picked on me a lot for reasons I don't understand to this day. I had a B+ average in the class, and he had actually suggested that I take a more advanced class because my aptitude was quite good, without serious effort.  Still in my teens, I didn't have the fight in me to take him on. In fact, I transferred to another school altogether to finish my university studies. My French professor's attitude toward me wasn't the reason I transferred, however.  There was a lot of racial strife on campus, and, having earlier determined that I couldn't apply to film school, I decided to study international relations and journeyed to Washington, D.C., finishing my last two years in college there.

Monsieur Charles Boyer

My first roommate, an Italian-American and big Anglophile, spoke French and Russian, and we would often-times speak French. I credit her with keeping the language alive in me. Besides its being a romantic-sounding language, I also grew up watching Charles Boyer movies, and loved his accent. I had memorized parts of the opera, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, in high school, taking the album (which I had bought for my birthday) to my friend's home to play, as we didn't have a stereo.  I would date a Haitian man, decades later, who had Boyer's same deeply-French accent, and I loved speaking French with him.  However, as punishment for not electing to be a member in his stable of other women (he would flip through photographs of all the women who wanted to be with him, as if that should somehow convince me to do the same), he would only speak English with me.  That relationship didn't last too long, although we are still friends.

I have had no connection with France other than when I took my short trailer to the Cannes Film Festival, trying to raise money for a feature film. I enjoyed my stay there, but it was all work and no play, honestly. After eating baguettes, hot chocolate, and Orangina throughout the day, I would treat myself to a first class meal at night.  I had a pizza with the first Robocop, at the time. He was normal. Nice. So un-Hollywood.  My sister's best friend, Darice, joined me there. Darice was a world traveler in her own right, and died several years ago of cancer, something my family and I cannot get over.  Years prior to her death, Darice had a birthday celebration in Louisiana,  as her family, like many others from Southern California, hailed from there. I joined my sister, and Darice's other friends to party, in New Orleans, planning to continue my travels to the northwestern part of the state to continue to research my novel.

Louisiana is a state unlike the other 49, and we have the French to thank for that, for better or for worse. That state's legal system is based upon French Napoleonic codes, as opposed to the English- based stare decisis (legal decisions born of earlier judicial precedent).  The mix of the races is legendary, spawning Creoles, Cajuns -- a melange of European, African, and Native American blood.  But the plantation system was also legendary, too. Under the yoke of American slavery, Black Americans were chattel, told where they could go, what they could do, whom they could marry. They were considered 3/5ths of a human being.  Notwithstanding France's contribution to American slavery, there were abolitionists.  Indeed, in a brilliant stroke of subliminal indoctrination, the French abolitionists gave America the Statue of Liberty, to protest against slavery, and send a colossal physical reminder of what America claimed to be: a beacon of hope for people around the world.


Fifty years later, after World War II, the French still embraced Black Americans' ability to create joy notwithstanding the degradation of its people, and France embraced Black culture.  The love affair was mutual, especially after the War. An excerpt told by Barbara "Aisha" Johnson, daughter of a Black American transplant to France:

My father Howard Tuck would often talk about the war. He was in France and in Germany during WWII. There was a lot of hardship, the countryside, all bombed out, was desolate. Combat was hard and stressing, but they got breaks in between. African American bands would come to France to entertain the troops. The French loved jazz. They would come to some of the shows. And if the French could play, they would join in. There was dancing. No one lifted an eyebrow if an African American soldier danced with a French woman. While there was discrimination in France at that time, the racism was nowhere near what we experienced here. The Negroes were received as human beings, as individuals.

On the other hand, African Americans liked the sharp way the French dressed. They started to knot a silk scarf around their neck the way the French did, to wear tweed blazers, and the beret of course! They brought that fashion back to Harlem. It became a trade mark for African Americans who wanted to show they were smart and educated.

http://africanamericansandthefrench.com/Your_stories.html

The reception by the French to Black Americans is excerpted from this blog:

African-Americans also had another benefit when moving to France in that their skin color actually helped them, rather than provided a burden. Many Parisians, when meeting an African-American in Paris would assume that the person was an artist, writer, or performer of some sort. As Parisians have a profound respect for those involved in some form of artistic and/or creative expression, they were treated with the upmost respect.

Although slavery was abolished, and some progress has been made to redress its scourge, economically, Blacks still suffer under policies that move at Paleozoic speeds of government restitution to this day.  One need only read the vitriolic comments against American Indians in 2009, who were slated to receive restitution or reparations for intentional injustices against them by the federal government. The government, of course, is made up of people, many of whom are conflicted in their duties as public servants, and who can keep the wheels of justice from moving, to a standstill, because of their prejudice and bias. 

It is easy to romanticize the French, who profess, as an official maxim, not to care about race.  France has no census, and on government forms there is no check box for one to mark next to one's color or ethnicity. Imagine that! Not to be categorized by color.  It is fair to say that Black Africans in France don't have the same experiences as Black Americans once had, as their collective entry on France's shores from Africa were not as part of a liberating force, like those of the Black American soldiers who fought with the US military.  The Black communities of France are also in banlieues, or far-flung, isolated communities of "otherness" that suggest their identity and plight as refugees, is ignored.  But don't call their low-income communities ghettos:

Several social scientists in France reject any conflation of French housing projects with black ghettos in the US. Sophie Body-Gendrot (2007) argues that US history is marked by a founding racial conflict relegating those deemed inferior to a stigmatized realm. She takes up US sociologist Douglas Massey’s term, “soft apartheid”, to describe a system institutionalized over the course of several centuries that is still more inclined to wall in the ghettos than call them into question. Unlike the US, however, France has been spared such systemic racial segregation, in which the identity of the self and the other hinges chiefly on the colour of one’s skin. Body-Gendrot finds that, ultimately, the French republican ideal eschews the racialization of social relations, favouring unity over heterogeneity.

Similarly, Loic Wacquant (2005; 2006) notes significant disparities between French housing projects and the American black ghetto. First of all, he points up the gap in size and scale between US ghettos and French urban renewal zones. He then observes functional and ecological contrasts: unlike American ghettos, French social housing projects are “residential islets” that are not cut off from other urban areas. Wacquant, a Bourdieusian sociologist, also underscores the fact that US ghettos are entirely and exclusively black, whereas poor French suburbs exhibit considerable ethnic diversity. He also points out that US ghettos are plagued by levels of poverty and indigence and forms of violence unequalled in France. Finally, according to the author, many American black ghettos are in a state of utter dereliction unknown in France.

Hmm... um...

President Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration awakened minority populations in France to demand more attention about their socio-economic condition, a difficult proposition if there are truly no statistics to shed insight into their plight as minorities. I champion their cause; but I, daresay, the strides of some Black Americans in this country does not mitigate the malaise that regular, non-famous, Black Americans feel for being enfants terribles in their own country. Both Black peoples within each others' nations could learn from one another.

I still might take up French again.














 

Why I Love "Mad Men."

For reasons that won't become apparent until after my novel is published, and I can speak more freely, I will confess here, that I don't watch much television.  I wish I could say that I am immersed in reading lots of books, but that's not the case because I've been working on this novel forever and ever.  In the last ten years, I have slogged through watching really bad reality television; when I tired of that, I "elevated" my viewing habits to political news shows of revolving talking-head pundits. Finally, I stopped watching television altogether.

There is one exception.

Don Draper: The Great White Hope

I always watched "Mad Men." Live. Meaning, when it aired on Sundays, I was there, sitting. Transfixed. Not via DVR, or TIVO, or whatever television playback devices people use nowadays.

For the television ignoranti reading this, Mad Men is an American Movie Classics (AMC) television series about advertising executives in the United States in the 1950s. The protagonist is a handsome, womanizing advertising executive with the Midas touch. He's able to almost single-handedly keep a whole company afloat with his winning jingles, creative ads, and cool demeanor. He's the Muhammad Ali of advertising.  Not quite. Ali is Black American. I should say, the Joe DiMaggio of advertising. Oops. He's Italian-American. Let's try again:  he's the Clark Gable of Advertising (Oops. Gable apparently was part Black and Indian.)

Don Draper is, for the purposes of the series, only White.

I am not so biased and "racially-centric" as to not recognize beauty in so-called "white" characters.  Good looks are good looks, and handsome and beautiful people come in all shapes and sizes. Don Draper cuts a nice figure, alright, but what I like about his character is that with all his debonair and sophisticated dress (he looks quite ravishing in a suit), our man has a secret: he's a total fake.  I am giving away no spoilers here, however, as it becomes apparent in the first couple of episodes that Don Draper is not whom he claims to be.

I like this character because he is a metaphor for how I believe White men have been taught to behave in this country.  They are in charge.  And society and Hollywood (which shapes our country's ethos) has told them as much. Who argues with Hollywood? Hollywood has spawned
Presidents, Governors, Mayors, Ambassadors, Congressmen, and even a Senator who liked Hollywood so much better than reality that he defected from being a public servant, preferring to feed his super ego.

Mad Men shows what it's like when a man is by himself in the dark, with nobody looking, as he tries to hold onto his charade. He is the American equivalent of Marcello Mastroianni, in  La Dolce Vita, reincarnated with an American twist.

Marcello: Italy's original Draper

The series is actually tragic, for lack of a better word. Draper is human, vulnerable, lost, searching. He's looking for a place to call home even while he lives in one with a beautiful wife and White picture-perfect kids.

His secret that he's assuming someone else's identity is a big burden that he wants to unload. It weighs on him, heavily, making him pick up the bottle too much (although he does make being an alcoholic look pretty sexy because he's always in a shirt and tie, if not suit). When he wakes up, however, in whatever woman's bed, with his beard stubble and hangover, and displays anxiety at having to leave the comfort of a woman's arms, he's his most pathetic.

What is redeeming about Don Draper is that in all of his vainglory he is also empathic. He is, deep down, a mensch.  Where he has many opportunities to play a "role" created by the post-World War II macho know-it-all-ness and White male testosterone greatness, he is tested over and over again in episodes that require him to finagle his way through a post-war society in transition. America's winning the war and fighting the good fight made white men heroes to, seemingly, everyone, except critics in their own land who harangued against their superiority over Black men who were second-class citizens with menial jobs and segregated lives (where a Black man didn't have the luxury of being considered his equal).

The irony about my liking this show so much is that there are very few Black Americans or other ethnic groups in the series, and, as a writer, I've been haranguing Hollywood for decades about this phenomenon in my own screen and television writing.  What is fascinating about Mad Men is that, in a sense, the series is all about race relations without ever having to say so: because there are no Blacks in it. America likes to live the myth that it built America, and it did, but only with the contributions of both Black ingenuity and Black labor. Too often, Blacks are pilloried when we exclaim our contributions are overlooked. Well, they are--as we're still learning who kept their race hidden, or who acquired wealth from which Black originator or creator. And we are told to be Americans, not Black Americans, as if identity and history don't matter. It doesn't matter to those in power, but identity is essential on the way up toward power. You must know where you're from -- facts which have been intentionally kept from us for centuries.

In my own novel I write about race, but this blog is much more topical than the novel will be. My characters will navigate through their days, dealing with race without ever confronting it, as that's how it is here in the U.S. Race is uppermost in most of our minds when Whites and non-Whites interact with each other - as we dance around, sizing each other up as to whether or not the other can be trusted, spoken to, served, hugged, kissed, and loved.

Mad Men will resume in Spring 2015. I encourage everyone to watch the series before it begins again--and ends. It is one of the best television series ever on television, and there may never be another like it.

The Immaculate Conception of Birthing Characters in a Novel.

When my novel comes out, it will have been in gestation for 14 years. I daresay, raising an infant to the age of 14 would have been a lot easier than writing this novel, but you can't close the chapter on raising children, so I won't complain.

Here's the number one reason why it has taken me so long to finish the novel:

I didn't listen to my characters.

Bad move.

There is no such thing as writing.  Writing is channeling.  I have been fighting it for years, and it's taken at least 4 versions of my novel for me to get it right, or as right as its ever going to be.

We are in the Age of Aquarius, and are experiencing leaps and bounds of information-gathering from diverse sources, some far out there, and others through social media. I wrote earlier about how my research ended up presaging actual events, or prognosticated other facts, as I was gathering the information to write my novel.

The dilemma for me was how much should I listen to the characters begging for attention? Because, trust me, there was a battle going on, especially in a mystery full of potential suspects.

In my mystery, whichever character told the most compelling story got my attention. Amidst the din of the voices of adults in my novel, I heard the nagging voice in my ear of a teenager who wanted to belong in my story. As I don't have any children, I ignored it.  But as the years wore on, in the different iterations of my story, the teenager became more pronounced. He really wanted in.

So Melvyn was born.

www.blackyouthproject.com

Melvyn is in transition from being a Black American child to a teenager. He is navigating his life, trying to decide how he will comport himself in a country that sees him as a statistic, an ambassador for trouble: big clothing, hanging with his homeboys in the Louisiana suburbs (upper-middle-class, mind you). As far as anyone in the U.S. would see him, he's likely to be considered trouble. He does well in school, but tries to keep his street cred.  Apparently, there's a problem in some parts of Black culture that being intelligent is for nerds. Hopefully, he'll live long enough to accept that you can be both intelligent and fashionable. He's the product of a nasty divorce, but his father, a professional, is heavily involved in his life. Melvyn spends time with his father and respects him. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle, however, as both his parents work, and his yard work for a pair of male Hollywood types ensconced in the northwestern Louisiana university town will complicate his life.

I think Melvyn found me because, though I am childless, I feel for young Black boys who don't have the luxury of being multidimensional. They must be grown before their White peers, who only play-act at being rude-boys. I wonder if a Black kid ever gets to truly be a kid. Or does he or she have to stay grown?  To be vigilant? Don't trust. Don't show weakness. Be firm. Strong. Life is a struggle.

The following Daily Kos blog is worth reading as it says so much in fewer words than I would have used. And the Louis C.K. video is also worth viewing. He gets it: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/21/1338191/-One-of-the-Best-Statements-of-White-Privilege-and-Entitlement-That-I-Have-Ever-Read

My hope is that Louis C.K.'s progeny won't have the same luxury as he has, to be "better" than others by virtue of his skin color.

And as for Melvyn's story, will he ever be heard? I hope so. Let's start with one of his real-life teenage role models, Aaron, who suggests that Black youth should not be ignored, and the organization where his blog was posted, www.blackyouthproject.com which is helping to give Black youth, like my fictional character, Melvyn, a voice.

The Black American Musical Journey Viewed Through a Classical Lens [Handel's Messiah]

For classical music purists reading this blog post, I suggest you run for the hills, because what you read may offend your Euro-centric sensibilities. Like those who consider squash a sport for the "upper classes" (in England, it is rugby which is the high brow sport, but Americans don't know that), you might think of European composers as the epitome of culture and taste. For some, it may come as a surprise to learn that Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (ANT-oh-neen DVOR-zhahk), a European composer who spent time in the United States, in the late 19th Century, credited Negro spirituals as the foundation of American music.  Tasked with helping to divine an American aesthetic in music, Dvorak was invited by the National Conservatory of Music to help create the sound we now know as quintessentially American, in compositions by Aaron Copeland,  George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington, all indirect beneficiaries of Dvorak's teachings.

Dvorak is quoted as saying: 

I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called "Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States. When I first came here last year I was impressed by this idea, and it has developed into a settled conviction. I was led to take this view partly by the fact that the so-called plantation songs are indeed the most striking and appealing melodies that have yet been found on this side of the water, but largely by the observation that this seems to be recognized, though often unconsciously, by most Americans.

Dvorak's New World Symphony: All About Negro Spirituals

Black Americans give each other knowing glances when we see Eminem, Britney Spears, Josh Stone and other white singers do darn-good great imitations of Black soul. And we don't bat our eyelashes when rumors abound that Beethoven was a mulatto of mixed race heritage, or that our Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, was literally father to his Black mistress's children, making the last name Jefferson a mainly Black last name.  Like many things about the United States, Black contributions to our country's greatness are dwarfed by the White-washed stories that literally erase us from history (even Paul Revere's lithograph of the revolutionary war deleted the image of a Black man who worked in his printing press).  White historians have tended to gloss over or ignore American history that shows Black ingenuity, and our contributions die on the vine.  Lewis and Clarke would have died early on were it not for their black slave, York, who helped the explorers navigate through the Midwestern Indian territories "discovering" America. Granted, York, didn't have the resources to go exploring on his own, but, he would likely have preferred to be free to travel as he pleased instead of how his masters pleased.

All that to introduce "Handel's Messiah," Black American style.

As much as it can be commercialized and imitated by very talented and famous white singers--when it’s all said and done, your heart will feel Aretha, Whitney, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, and Mary J. Blige, when you hear true “soul.” It is first a Black thing, then an American thing.

Black American singing and dancing is born of a deep suffering, a pain, an ancestral cry that is
incomprehensible, even to themselves, unless it is somehow deciphered and explained. Mervyn Warren, composer and arranger, executive produced and co-produced, with Quincy Jones, one of the most revolutionary adaptations of a classical piece ever--and not likely possible of imitation--that attempts to explain the black music phenomenon. In true fashion, the composer re-arranged a great classical masterpiece into “Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration,” producing a definitive anthology of black music, while at the same time carrying the European and Western tradition that is antithetical to the African origins of Black American music.

The black life of “adaptation” is certainly evident in the black majority and united belief in Christianity, a belief that my ancestors' succumbed to after their own modes of worship were  forcefully eviscerated once they were transplanted to American soil. Separated from the family social fabric that creates traditional forms of worship, the Black American has had to find religion on his own, and Christianity won out, as it did with most initial waves of our country’s immigrant transplants.

Music and history are combined in this compact disc that celebrates George Frideric Handel’s original “Messiah, an Oratorio for Four-Part Chorus of Mixed Voices, Soprano, Alto Tenor and Bass Soli and Orchestra or Organ." Mr. Warren combines the Black R&B tradition, heavily steeped in gospel and “making a joyful noise” -- gospel-based religious overtones--and very successfully foists them on a European musical masterpiece.

A European Who Loved Negro Spirituals and Music

How is Handel’s “Messiah” the pretext through which to understand Black music? This statement exposes an inherent paradox. Whereas there have been claims that Beethoven was a mulatto of mixed African ancestry, I have heard no claims that Handel was anything but a German who transplanted himself to England where he was welcomed as a composer for the Royal family. This German/English music could hardly have an African undercurrent to it. So, how can Mervyn Warren and Quincy Jones actually translate Handel for Black or other R & B music lovers?

To speak of Handel is to think of rarefied settings of choirs and orchestras somberly participating in a song-fest, usually in a Church or Music Hall, during Christmas or Easter, rejoicing in “the Messiah,” otherwise known as “Jesus Christ.” According to Schirmer’s Editions of Oratorios and Cantatas, the original composition reflected the limited talents of the musicians and choirs who were to perform the work. In 1741, Handel was in Dublin, Ireland when he composed the masterpiece, in twenty-four days. The Schirmer introduction to the oratorio cites that: “in his choruses [Handel] did not go beyond four-part writing, and kept his orchestra within the most modest limits, so that no instrument except violin and trumpet plays a solo part, and oboe and bassoon do not appear at all in the score…”
Messieurs Warren and Jones eschew the supposed limitations of Handel’s original work, bringing synthesized music, marimbas, tambourines, and the music of rhythm and blues to lift Handel’s Messiah to “funkdom;” remaining supremely reverential and in keeping with the original music.

Handel’s Messiah is a boastful yet contemplative piece of masterful proportions--one of the great

musical wonders of the world. Mr. Warren takes a great piece and “funkdafies” it for you. He takes a

European musical sensibility and raises it to levels so strat-o-spheric that you spontaneously want to “rock hard” to Handel. It is very hard to sit still while listening to his CD. In fact, if you have any soul in you (and you should, if you’re an American, black, white, yellow, brown, red, or any other

[stupidly-named] persuasion, because chances are, even if you weren’t born with it, you inherited some of it over the years listening to American commercials) you will be moved by the music. And if you’re religious, you’ll feel it even more deeply, because it will affirm everything you take on faith. But if you’re like me, a wandering doubter looking for a spiritual resting place, you’ll begin to think that maybe Jesus has something going for him, after all. At least while you’re listening to the music. For me it works because I have a decided classical sensibility (more romantic than classical, actually) and I also like to groove to R & B, hip-hop and even rap (as my earlier blog about rap attests).

To find an album that uses the classical notes of a great tradition, and then funks it up is to describe the impossible. The closest I can come to doing so is to use the analogy of falling from the sky and finding out that -- you can stay afloat. It is a glorious feeling. When I listen to Rachmaninoff, Elgar, Stravinsky, Mahler, composers who are, to me, the equivalent of Hard Rock classical composers, I usually can’t stay still. I tend to conduct, bop my head up and down, and sing back to them. But rarely do I get a chance to hear them funked up five notches, with a bass rhythm, percussion, and soulful voices as I do here -- well, you just have to groove and actually dance to it.

The songs of the contemporary version sequentially correspond, more or less, to the original oratorio, which is in three parts. The majority of the songs are in Part I of Handel’s original oratorio (often called the Christmas portion), and the titles remain faithful to the original. Overall, Messieurs Warren and Jones put 16 songs on their compact disc, packing it with a fervor that will whip you into a religious fever (whether you’re a believer or not). Here’s a sampling of some of the songs in Handel’s piece that appear in the “sequel.”

Part I
1. Overture
2. Comfort ye my people
3. And the glory of the Lord
4. Thus saith the Lord
5. But who may abide the day of His coming
6. And He shall purify
7. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
8. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
9. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth
10. For unto us a Child is born

The feat of putting classical sounds to R&B is spectacularly achieved. The album's purpose is made known in the Overture, which is aptly titled: “Overture: A Partial History of Black Music.” To hear it is to hear the genesis of the Black American historical experience put to music. The Overture begins with a tribal drum echoing at night and the rattle of a snake, alerting Africans that an enemy has arrived to take them from their sacred shores. You can "see" them running through the brush, as they try to outrun their eventual captors. Next, you feel the moan of the slaves on the ships, in the fields, in the whole diaspora, crying and feeling the pain of separation from their land, their families, and their African heritage, all accompanied by the wail of a mother’s voice humming a melody of pain. From that we segue to Ragtime and Scott Joplin, the blend of horns and piano that herald the eventual big band sound which provided the basis for American Jazz. The brief overture manages to compact several other musical genres in its mix, still staying true to the melody of the original Overture, but adding gospel music, with tambourines, and a slow groove taking us to R&B music, funky sounds, garage music… it is absolutely wild.

The music matches the lyrics of Handel’s original music, word for word, and mixes in “ad lib” where necessary, usually in the form of Rap. The compact disc boasts some of the most celebrated R&B and gospel names: Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Patti Austin, Stevie Wonder, Take 6, The Sounds of Blackness, The Richard Smallwood Singers, The Yellow Jackets, Al Jarreau, the Harlem Boys Choir, and Tevin Campbell. Each accomplishes their solo or chorus with dexterity, perfect pitch and restraint, and bombast as is needed (and there is a lot of it, so you’ve been forewarned). The music will yell at you, scream at you, until you start to believe in its Word!

Mr. Warren’s talents were recently showcased at a 25th Gala Celebration at the nation’s music hall, the Kennedy Center. I don’t know anything about this man and cannot do justice to his biography or musical background, so I’ve taken the liberty of quoting verbatim, the bio of this truly gifted musician, which was printed in the Kennedy Center Honors program. I give due props to Mr. Jones (of whom I will speak more below), but it appears that Mr. Warren’s genius inspired and marshaled this production. I also believe that, as a lesser known composer, he should be given his due credit for a masterful work worthy of wholesale flattery and unadulterated adulation:

"Conductor Mervyn Warren's multiple roles as a record producer, arranger, film composer, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist, have brought him five Grammy Awards, six Dove Awards, and two Gospel Music Workshop of America Awards. He has written songs and arrangements for artists including Quincy Jones, Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Dianne Reeves, and Johnny Mathis, and contributed and scored sound track music for several movies.

Messiah: A Soulful Celebration, an all-star African-American version of the classic work, for Mr. Warren also served as executive producer and producer. He is working on music for the upcoming film The Preacher's Wife (Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington). His classical pieces have been performed by orchestras including the Nashville Symphony, which he has conducted, and he has arranged music for and conducted many orchestral and choral recording sessions."

Written and produced in 1992,  “A Soulful Celebration” was revolutionary. To hear religious themes championed in musical rap-pentameter was a novelty back then. In most of the songs, Mervyn Warren, throughout the album, takes a traditional first couple notes of Handel’s oratorio, and then turns the remaining notes on their axis, wheeling and spinning them around to make a variation on the melody’s theme. My absolute favorite song [to blast at full volume] is “He Shall Purify,” a chorus-dominated song that is so inspirational that you’re likely to start flying by virtue of the crescendos. If you can listen to this song and still stand still, I’ll nail your coffin shut for you – because you must already be dead. “He Shall Purify,” sung by Tramaine Hawkins, is one of the most moving songs on the album. For anyone who is a believer, this should send you to heaven. A clear soulful soprano sings a beautiful solo, backed by a choir that crescendos in ever higher and louder tones, with male voices giving strength and adding volume to the religious theme of purification and cleansing (although I can’t say what it means to be “purified” – who cares, I wanted it just by listening to the song. Throw me some bubble bath this way!).

Patti Austin's lovely dulcet tones are very evident when she sings “But Who Shall Abide the Day of His Coming,” a song which starts simply enough but becomes a very poignant song of growing momentum that makes you feel you’ve discovered Him. Another beautiful rendition is vin Campbell’s melodious tenor voice singing, “My Redeemer, I know he liveth.”

Although I have purposefully highlighted Mr. Mervyn Warren’s genius, it almost goes without saying that Quincy Jones’ name carried much weight in making this the seminal masterpiece that it is. This man is a living legend. I have taken him too much for granted, even as a film enthusiast, unaware of the breadth of his role as a contemporary film composer. I have listed the number of films he’s scored, to allow you to witness his epic role in the film industry.

**************

I wrote the article about the Messiah for epinions.com in 2001(titled, "Another 'Handle' on G.F. Handel's 'Messiah' - Funk-da-fied? A GIFT FOR THE HOLIDAYS), but as that site is now defunct, I have resurrected it, with updated information. I cannot sing this album's praises enough, obviously, and am submitting this blog because I hope that people might purchase the CD for the upcoming holidays. I do not know anyone remotely affiliated with the composers, producers, marketers, or affiliates of the album, so I'm not publicizing this for any royalties. I just want to share my opinion about this [great and] controversial (to some) musical work of art.