I Know What Bro Don’t Know
Dedicated to James Loewen, author of Lies Across America and Lies My Teacher Told Me. I am now very sorry that I didn’t allow him to join us at OneDance: The People’s Summit (http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02102004.html) in 2004.
by Richard Oxman

Very few people know or care that John Brown — of Harpers Ferry fame — only wore a beard during the last months of his life. Not that many people, for that matter, know who John Brown was in any detail, or if they do… that he had as much to do with the Emancipation Proclamation as Lincoln. And, arguably, was more of a factor in establishing/forcing through Negro suffrage than Abe. Lincoln “freed” only a small portion of U.S. slaves with his edict, and his political stroke had little to do with giving African-Americans the vote.

There’s a lot more. About Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman, et. al. Many, many others. And to get a huge hit on what I’m screaming about here… if you have spell check in place… simply type in Harriet Tubman, and explain to me why her last name is underscored with a wiggly red line, indicating that her last name is not acceptable.

Back to Mr. Brown.

Popular renderings of John Brown depict him as insanely violent. Someone to push under the frayed carpet of history, if possible. The same kind of misrepresentation goes on ad infinitum in our textbooks, and with our monuments and plaques throughout the nation. So that ignorance is compounded with ignorance, and truthful beauty which doesn’t serve the interests of the powers-that-be is murdered. Shoved down the Memory Hole.

Anyone who doesn’t see this as enough of a reason for me to recoil in horror, for me to keep my youngest child far away from our schools is in a sad state, indeed.

All is arranged — without conspiracy — to serve the interests of someone other than you.

John Steuart Curry’s portrait of John Brown, the dominant figure in his “Bleeding Kansas” mural, in the Kansas State Capitol, is pictured with blood on his hands, his biblical beard (not kempt like Lincoln’s!) radically blowing to the right (toward his rifle), whilst a tornado rages in the background and his feet trample on fallen bodies. His facial expression is such that if you encountered the man on a street corner asking for the time of day… you’d — like as not — run across the the street, red light or not. Hot, horrible fare, an unforgivable blot for anyone… until it is removed, and replaced with a more appropriate tribute to the man who lived perhaps the most integrated life of any white man in the nineteenth century.

Martin Delaney, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman (there we go again!) all knew and respected him. He lost not only his life, but the lives of three of his sons in the struggle for racial equality. But before that, he lived with The People.

Help me, God, to help my friends understand.

There is slavery today*. And there is something we can do about it. Without the sacrifice made by John Brown. Without violence.

*And it is no more merely “the slaves’ problem” than 19th-century bondage was something the rich or the general public could afford to ignore.

But the first step, it seems to me, is for people who are musicians, electricians, medical practitioners and basketball players to acknowledge that while they were learning/mastering their basics, while they were taking time off to relax, and while they browsed through this or that… people were immersing themselves in the study of history… without career concerns, risking their lives.

Not relying on bathroom reading or past school instruction or Oprah’s recent favorite. Or The Times’ or National Review’s latest recommendation. Or this or that online insight.

There are understandable reasons why I can only make so many three-pointers, why I can’t play the keyboard like Elton John. Ditto for why Elton Brand and Sir Elton couldn’t come into contact with — let alone absorb — this or that historical tidbit, essential fare, angle.

John Brown was not a madman. I am not a madman. But it is maddening to see citizens accepting modern day slavery, contributing to it.

And worse is their not knowing about what they’re doing, etc. Or not caring.

Which is the difference between ignorance and stupidity, by the way.

Richard Oxman can be reached at headburg@yahoo.com. He begs, on bended knee, for readers to contact him… to join hands… effortlessly (if you insist)… in a campaign which will cost zero money and few heartbeats… and nonviolently change the world by 2010*. Previously posted articles on this site flesh out that claim a bit. But there is no substitute for immediate direct contact.

*When Edison destroyed Night with his Light, there were many who stood in his way… relating to him as a kind of (wrong-in-the-head) Wright Brother (ahead of time), if you will. One must not be swayed by popular resistance to one’s personal dreams at a given moment. Yes, Darwin made a dent in Unity, Jeanne d’Arc inspired Witch Hunts, Marx muddled up much, and Freud drove people crazy for decades. But they also put something valuable on the table, made a positive contribution of sorts. Who is to say what is worthy? What is genius? What is possible?

It’s funny, but I was going to add something next to the explanatory words attached to the very first asterisk above. My hesitancy to do so has something to do with wanting to not lose readers who have a wall-like window that descends upon any mention of God. Well, now I’m figuring that if people plug in their God in the following statement… I’ll corral enough well-intentioned, sensitive souls to make a difference. The line tweaked something from Gerard Manley Hopkins: For the world is charged with the grandeur of God, and its fire begs to flame out for the benefit of all living creatures, no exceptions. For all to take part in it… to the fullest. Which has zero to do with insisting upon another… contrivance.