Many years ago, I coined myself the Accidental Buddhist because at the time, I considered my finding the spiritual path to Buddhism an “accident”, a “fluke”.

Of course once I began to follow the Path, I realized that my spiritual journey was no fluke at all — it was my destiny. Today, I see it as my rock.

Buddhism did for me what all spiritual paths are intended to do — it saved me from myself. Does it make me perfect? No. Does it make life trouble-free? No. However it does make me forever conscious of my impact to those [and things] around me and aware of my accountability to mankind in both large and small ways.

I am thankful. The Path is the only source capable of calming the fire of rage I’ve often felt in respect oppression, racism and suffering. The Path is the only comfort allowing me to rise each day as my heart is challenged with watching more and more of Mom transition away due to Alzheimer’s Disease.

After all these years, I am still working on accepting that I am, right now FREE. I am happy. There is much good in this season because Mom is still here, right now and there are lessons for me to learn in the present. I am working on accepting reality (or the illusion that looks like it) with grace, peace and ease.

So you should know, following the June 19th FreedomTweet event, I will be taking an indefinite hiatus from the genea-space to just… well, be.

There are other needs calling my name. I need to connect with a Sangha so that I continue learning the Teachings I’ve vowed to. I am committed to investing more time in helping to alleviate suffering and hardship wherever I find it. I want to read books again — I haven’t read Walker’s Temple of My Familiar in ages, it’s time. I want to roller skate with my children again and just be in the moment.

What this means for the genealogy community is that the Carnival of African-American Genealogy definitely and possibly, A Friend of Friends will *pause* with me. Likewise, my presence among the Twitter GeneaBloggers will also be vacationing. Our Georgia Roots and Our Alabama Roots will both remain up as a resource to fellow researchers and a connector to me. I vowed NEVER to pull my sites offline again, I’m keeping my word.

There will be some of you relieved to see me absent (smile) but take no comfort because you don’t physically see my presence.  Like my Great Grandmother Annie used to say “every shut eye ain’t sleep, and every goodbye ain’t gone“!

The Genea-community is my Family too and I always protect Family.

While researching and planning for FREEDOMTweet 2010, I discovered the Road To Freedom Exhibit currently at the Bronx Museum. I plan to visit this too and take my kids with me. I don’t know they REALLY grasp what’s been sacrificed so that they today could continue the Liberation Fight.

I encourage you to support FreedomTweet 2010. Not for Luckie Daniels and not just for CoAAG.

Be you black, brown, red, yellow or white — there is a Liberation Fight for you too.  We are all in this together and there are MORE than enough social, civil and environmental causes to go around.

Lastly, I leave you with this. Just because you have the right to make a choice,  doesn’t remove your obligation to choose what’s right; what’s just. There has been sacrifice lent to afford us a choice. It was not and is not FREE.

We are put on this planet to evolve and to make life better — both for ourselves and others.

Dare to stand-up and accept the gift [and challenge] of loving and being accountable for each other. It is the only hope we have.

I truly love you,

Luckie.

Sometime before 1865 in Washington-Wilkes, my 4th Grandfather Philip CARTER, a slave, returned at the end of the day from working the fields to find his Wife and Children sold away.

Oral history says that when Grandpa Phil thought to question his owner’s actions, he received a stern warning to “let things be”, being told he could choose another wife and make more babies.

Grandpa Phil did just that — “let things be” and in 1869 married my 4th Grandmother Annie FAVER CARTER and yes, they had many babies.

Fast-forward 20 years.  In 1885 in Washington-Wilkes, my other 4th Grandfather, James WINGFIELD, an emancipated slave, returns from harvesting his land and heads to town to cash in his crops. Family history says that he purchased a pair of “brogans” and pick-up needed supplies for his pregnant Wife, Grandma Catie DICKEY WINGFIELD and their children, before heading to church to pray.

At some point between Downtown Washington-Wilkes, church and home something happened.

The details are unclear but it has been said my Grandpa James was accused of “talking back” to a white man. As a penalty, he was removed from his home on Whitehall Street, never to be seen again.

Grandma Catie was 7 months pregnant, with 4 small children at home at the time James disappeared. A year or so later, relatives found my Grandfather’s brogans and boots in the woods, at the bottom of a hanging tree.

Two Grandfathers and two instances that totally shifted my Family’s destiny. Both men defenseless; one a slave who dare not speak-up;  one a free man, murdered because he dared to speak-up.

What Does FREEDOM Mean To Me?

Freedom means that not only do I have the RIGHT to advocate for fairness and justice ~ I have a RESPONSIBILITY to do so!

When I speak-up, my Grandfathers and all the other Ancestors who sacrificed that I might know FREEDOM, are assured their sacrifice was not in vein.

My community advocacy says, that I REFUSE to shame their memory and FREEDOM gift with complacency and idleness.

There are MANY days I am startled, saddened and angered by the reality of just how fragile our civil liberties are in this Democracy we live in.

When Congressman John Lewis can be spat upon and called nigger in 2010 Washington, DC  — something is WRONG. When discrimination can be passed into law in 2010 Arizona — something is WRONG. When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is still being debated on Capital Hill in 2010 – something is WRONG.

I’m honest in saying I’ve lost patience with prejudice and resent having to burden my children with the skill of navigating around its constant presence.

And for the record, I am completely comfortable with my ability to make folks [begrudgingly] shed their blinders — if even temporarily — to see that there is more to living up to the premise of equality than just speaking it.

No you will not find silence here. No, you will not be able to take comfort in my complacency. No, I will not allow you to make me invisible or my considerations unimportant.

I have the right — the FREEDOM — to demand as much from society as it demands of me.

To answer the blogger’s question ~ What does diversity matter?

EVERYTHING when you live in a culture that doesn’t offer it freely. EVERYTHING when to abide by it laws must be passed, sanctions invoked. EVERYTHING when as a consequence of silence and diminished action, one witnesses the very liberties her Ancestors have fought and died for, fade away.

Diversity, as does FREEDOM matters because there are those who believe it doesn’t matter. There are those that don’t face the challenge of its lack — DAILY, as I do.

So long as these people have a voice (or blog), God willing, so will I.

~ Luckie.
FreedomTweet2010 Blog | Twitter.com/Juneteenth2010

As I *tweeted* this morning, the folks at MyHeritage.com asked if I would consider publishing their responses to the emails I posted yesterday. My reply was an immediate ABSOLUTELY!

In truth, I’ve enjoyed our dialogue. I tend to be fine with folks expressing various opinions and found the relatively transparent exchange with MH, somewhat refreshing.

We’re all grown folk (and friends) here, so there is no need to publish the Luckie Disclaimer. If I have one thing to add, before we dive into the email exchange, it would be this.

Yesterday, over 200 genealogists read the Open Letter To My Heritage post, yet only 4 of you responded — 1 with a correction; 3 with thank yous for including them on my genea-blogger list. If you clicked on that link, you had interest and if you read the post, you certainly had an opinion.

Please agree or disagree — just don’t opt to be silent and/or invisible.  Many black, white, red and brown people have died to offer us the precious right to voice our opinion.

There is no controversy to be found here folks — just conversations.

Luckie.

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

[Note: the FIRST email from me on 05.13.10 that  initiated the MH dialogue, was published yesterday -- Open Letter To My Heritage]

o5.14.10

Hi Luckie,

Thanks for taking the time to write.

We do appreciate your comments.

We know inherently that by creating list there is some great material we will miss. This is an unfortunate part about any compilation made, there is always something that slips through the cracks.

Our goal was to include ethnically neutral sites in our search, as you can see from the list , it runs the gambit of social backgrounds, nationalities, and even sites of mixed heritage. We have also developed top lists for multiple different countries, covering a myriad of different blogs in each.

We agree there is a mountain of quality material in the African-American community and we would like to respond to any shortcoming in this area with  an exclusive Blog about African-American Genealogy Blogs. I would love if we could speak further to perhaps collect some of your thoughts to put it in the article.

If you would like to be involved with this, either myself or my colleague ___________, will be in touch with you early next week.

Thanks __________ for getting back with me.

I think an article highlighting the genea-community’s African-American contributors is an excellent idea. These researchers more than deserve this! Researching Slave Ancestry is a science unto itself, given the manner in which African-American Ancestors were recorded and/or not recorded, prior to the Civil War period.

However I would like to make some points clear in respect to your comments below:

1. An “ethnically neutral” genealogy blog does not exist. Ethnicity plays a KEY factor in how, what and where a descendant researches. European descendants have a broader range of data to draw from — both in terms of the resources and time periods available. It’s not uncommon for European researchers to identify Ancestry as far back as the 1500s. On the other hand, African-American descendants may be able to successfully trace an Ancestor back to 1865. Any time prior to that — unless the Ancestor was a Free Person of Color — information will have to be sought by identifying the respective slave owner to determine if slave data was recorded and/or preserved. My point? Research paths vary greatly depending upon your specific genetic-ethnic-cultural variables.

2. In your list of the Top 100 Genealogy Blogs, I did not see the mix of “social backgrounds, nationalities, and even sites of mixed heritage” you reference. How can you have both an “ethnically neutral” list and also one that is representative of the diversity your description summarizes?

3. It appears with your reference to the multinational lists you’ve developed, consideration was given to [most] every ethnicity/culture except African-Americans. Why is that?

4. While I do feel an article highlighting African-American blogs is a kind gesture, the truth is the blogs I referenced are not separate from the community of bloggers you listed in your Top 100 — they are a VITAL part of that community and deserve recognition as such.

5. A title of the Top 100 Genealogy Sites implies that you are actually identifying sites based on genealogy/research criteria that would allow them to be deemed as superior in their craft. Being “ethnically neutral” does not factor into being an excellent researcher, nor a viable community contributor. That distinction is and should always be — colorless.

I am more than happy to assist with the effort of the article — just let me know what’s needed.

I do hope in the future My Heritage will invest more effort in presenting a full-view of the online genealogy community. African-American contributors in the genea-space, participate and invest much (myself included). There should be no excuse for their omission when recognition is given.

Best,

Luckie.

Hi Luckie,

Just to follow up on a few of these points (___________ may well have some thoughts too)

We were already interested in doing some posts to highlight specific genealogy sub-groups, and I think doing something on African-American genealogy would be a great way to begin this. One of our ideas was to feature a set of sites dealing with area of African-American genealogy, so we might well be able to showcase a number of the sites you flagged up.

To me, sub-groups in the community are simultaneously part of the community as a whole and part of their own sub-communities (if that makes sense). So African-American genealogy, Jewish genealogy, Latin American genealogy, Americo-Irish genealogy etc all comprise part of the community as a whole, but at the same time face their own specific challenges and feature a particular approach to research and study. This would be the approach our series is taking, rather than to say that these sub-groups are in some way separate to the community as a whole.

We could definitely do with a hand when it comes to covering the African-American article(s) on this, so we’ll no doubt be in touch about that. Thanks for your offer of assistance here.

To respond to a few of your points very quickly (it’s Friday night in the UK and I’m about to go out!)

- I think there’s been some misunderstanding on our part in the terminology we’ve used here, and it probably wasn’t explained adequately by us. When we say ‘ethnicity-neutral’, we mean that was the approach we took in our research, and not that we were looking for blogs that took a non-ethnicity standpoint. So I think we’re actually on the same page here in saying that any selection should be ‘colourless’ – it shouldn’t be a modifying factor. And in my view almost every blog will be (consciously or unconsciously) approaching their work from a particular ethnicity/nationality standpoint – it’s hard to avoid it, the only difference is some are aware of it, and others aren’t!

- The comment on multinational lists refers to the sites we awarded in other countries. Some of these are not yet live, although we have compiled lists of winners for (among other languages) French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. So when we say ‘multinational’ in this sense we mean we were covering a number of different genealogy countries, although our language capabilities only took us so far here!

Personally, I do agree that there are great sites out there from many perspectives and viewpoints, and that’s what we aimed to encompass in these lists. We did include some African-American blogs in the list, and we also tried to represent diversity more broadly. We had competing concerns such as nationality (we wanted to feature not only American sites, but Canadian, English, Scottish, Irish, Australian), as well as sites dealing with different subject matter (not only blogs but family sites, one-name studies, tools/resources, and so on). In the end there were only a limited number of sites we could include, but we tried to make the list representative all the same. Perhaps we could have done better, but this isn’t something we neglected, and I want to reassure you that we do always try to be as inclusive as possible in our work. It’s an important part of what we do, since our site encompasses so many different cultures, as does our company as a whole.

There are definitely other great African-American sites out there, however, and I agree it would be a shame not to showcase the talent and effort that’s gone into them. So hopefully you’ll appreciate our offer to write up some new pieces showcasing African-American genealogy, and to showcase some of the sites you’ve mentioned. Our new blog is now one of the most subscribed in the geneasphere, so we should be able to get these sites some great coverage, and it’d be a nice way to give some depth to the area – to look at the detail rather than just to name them as sites.

Please let us know your thoughts on this. This is an important area to us, otherwise I wouldn’t be getting back to you at 9.30pm on a Friday (UK time)!

Anyhow, have a great weekend and hopefully we can work together on this future African-American genealogy project!

Take care,

__________

Luckie,

I think __________ touched on most of your points but wanted to touch base to let you know i’ll be available this weekend if you have any further questions!

Please excuse my poor phrasing of ‘ethically-neutral’, ___________ correctly addressed this as our decision to allow all micro genealogical elements to exist as body constituent of genealogy, the focus was on genealogy as whole, not particular to any sub groups.

Again, we appreciate your feedback as it helps us learn as we go forward.
Have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to working with you and help give some much deserved attention to these blogs by drilling down in depth on some of the great sites we missed in the community .

Be well,

05.15.10

Good Morning! I am forwarding a communication that I received from ________________ at My Heritage. My apologies, I intended to get it to you yesterday but got pulled away with CoAAG events and such.

The dialogue is healthy and necessary. I do think some aspects of the discussion could be attributed to a difference in culture — US vs. UK. However that said, I do believe if you are doing business in the US Market, you must also be sensitive to its cultural nuances.

_________ — Being considered a “sub-group” is EXACTLY our historical issue in the United States. African-Americans have fought not to be a “sub-group” of US Culture but to be acknowledged as the valuable contributors we are — and have always been — to the whole.

As you can gauge from the feedback — and there is more — we are in agreement that the aspect of identifying “ethnically neutral” blogs has negative connotations that don’t rest well with any of us.

What’s the solution? I don’t know. While no one is against the crafting of an article featuring African-American genealogy contributors we all share the same sentiment — inclusion should have been made in the initial blog list.

I would ask that you go a step further in addressing this private dialogue in the public forum, because the message that our exclusion sends — for whatever reason — is not one that I am comfortable leaving as is. It should be addressed — either by My Heritage and/or one of the contributors expressing concern via this communication.

As I said, the dialogue is good and you have my support for the dedicated feature, but let’s find a means of putting this discussion to rest first before we proceed in that direction.

Best,

Luckie.

Hi Luckie (and others!),

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

I agree that this dialogue is healthy and important. I just wanted to clarify a couple of points, which perhaps I should have made clearer in my initial email. I’ll be able to offer a fuller response to anybody on Monday, but this should take us forward for now. I don’t normally work on Saturdays, but I wanted to get back to you all on this since it’s an important matter to me.

First of all, I certainly do not see African-American genealogy simply as a ’sub-group’, but rather as part of the whole genealogy community. I should have perhaps made this clearer in my email, but I tried to emphasize that while there are many ways to make subdivisions which we can use for descriptive purposes (e.g. Jewish genealogy, Anglo-Irish genealogy), these are all ultimately part of the same community. These categorizations are useful in the sense that they highlight shared experience, but they should not divide us. This is the point I was trying to make in the second paragraph of my email (see below for those not initial recipients). Basically, I think we’re on the same page here.

I can understand your more general concerns, but I want to re-emphasize that our list was created with the idea of wide representation in mind. That’s why we included African-American authors in our list, as well as blogs and sites from many nationalities and many backgrounds, and sites of different types (not only blogs but family sites, one-name studies, informational sites, and more). That’s also why we extended the search beyond the English-speaking community, and towards those in German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Czech, Dutch, and more! This was not some one-size-fits-all competition, and our search was intended to be as inclusive as possible. We absolutely do not approach these things from an exclusive mindset, and as a company we place a strong emphasis on inclusivity, and try to make genealogy available and enjoyable for people of all backgrounds. Was it a perfect process? Perhaps not. But we certainly did try.

Having said that, I’m definitely in favor of giving the African-American genealogy community the exposure it deserves, and that’s why I’m pushing to run this series of articles on it. I hope this will offer a great showcase for some of the fantastic sites that are out there, and will also give substantial depth in its coverage – allowing others to see the work you’re doing in a detailed way, and actually in a way that a mere listing might not provide. I’m more than happy to collaborate with any and all of you on this.

Basically, I think we’re on the same side in this. I’ve taken your points on board, and I’d like to offer these articles as a way to showcase some of the great work you’re doing. At the same time, I do want to make it clear that as a company we always have diversity and representation close to heart, and that even if some would argue the list is imperfect in this regard, it is not a concern we neglected. We’ve had emails in from many corners querying aspects of the selection, and when all is said and done we could not showcase all of the great sites that were out there in the list – there are simply too many sites and not enough space. What we can do is try and offer the best exposure to sites where it matters going forward, and I hope our articles on the African-American genealogy community will help to do this.

It’s certainly an interesting topic and discussion for me, since as an Englishman I’m learning more and more about many of the complexities of the American genealogy community every day.

Have a great rest of the weekend folks. The weather’s actually good in England right now (not a common occurrence!), so I’m going to go and enjoy it.

Best wishes,

____________

[Note: the LAST email from me on 05.17.10 was published yesterday -- Open Letter To My Heritage]

Here’s the skinny — I was not happy with the My Heritage Top 100 Genealogy Sites list and not for the reason you would think — because Our Georgia Roots wasn’t on it.

Truth is, I’m at the top of my own list — representing my Ancestors with pride. I have maintained a genealogy site for OGR since 1998 and will continue to do so, with and/or without recognition from the broader genealogy community.

While I do appreciate the support — it does make this labor of love so much more enjoyable — it is not the motivation for why I write or research. Family research is my responsibility and the Ancestors give me NO peace when I [selfishly] stop!:-)

I was unhappy with MH’s selections because for me, it lacked diversity in respect to African-American genealogy contributors. 2 African-American blogger mentions out of 100 blogs did not make it for me, so that said, I began a dialogue with the team at My Heritage.

Let me say that MH has been very responsive and open in the exchange. I appreciate that.

So below, is both my last (this morning) and first communication to My Heritage regarding the question of whether the 100 Best Genealogy site list was in fact, diverse and fair to all of the genealogy contributors in our RAWKING community.

As always, the *Luckie Disclaimer* is in effect — please respect the HOUSE and your fellow community members in your comments.

Luckie.

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

05.17.10

Good Morning My Heritage,

Thanks for your reply and for carving time out of your weekend to respond to the discussion points. I dare say, we could debate the particulars for ages but truly believe ours will be a difficult (next to impossible actually) task to understand without personally living in a culture where you are impacted — DAILY — by the color of your skin. What’s the saying — until you walk in my shoes…?

Make no mistake, I love who I am. I love my community, heritage and Ancestors. I am merely being realistic — race/ethnicity are ALWAYS a part of our equation.

Each of the blogs I recommended stands on its own merit. Aside from being of African descent, the genealogists are each phenomenal researchers and valuable contributors to the online genealogy community. I learn from them daily.

I would also beg to differ that 2 out of 100 blogs is a fair representation of the African-American genea-community and a nod to diversity. It is what we consider a token, albeit great ones. Both Taneya and Craig would have been on my list had they not already been represented in yours.

Looking forward…

I am certainly on board with assisting in the effort to bring the Bloggers I recommended to light via My Heritage. I am not quite sure what you need from me — I’ve recommended who I believe to be deserving and as I said, their work stands for itself. Nevertheless, I am here.

Until this weekend, I did not realize that so many fellow community bloggers took issue with the My Heritage selection process in question. I had not read the comments to the MH blog nor looked at the assorted posts from both recipients and those not included.

In full transparency, I intend to publish on OGR my initial letter to My Heritage. I do believe the continued need for diversity is a conversation that should extend to the broader community and would not want it to appear that I have been lobbying for African-Americans “behind the scenes”.

Out of respect for you, I will not publish your communications to me however you are more than welcome to state your peace via OGR’s comments section. You have every right to.

Again, I do appreciate the dialogue. Progress cannot be accomplished without it.

All the best,

Luckie.

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

05.14.10

Hi My Heritage,

Thanks for getting back to me regarding my query of the MyHeritage.com “100 Best Blogs” selection process.

Here’s my Luckie Disclaimer – I am not THE VOICE for the online African-American genea-community HOWEVER, I do tend to be the most vocal and opinionated.

That said, I arrived home yesterday to find several emails (5 in total) regarding the announcement of My Heritage’s 100 Best Blogs. The communications were from both white and black genea-bloggers, they all expressed frustration of the lack of African-American representation among the selected 100 genea-bloggers and each wanted to hear my opinion.

Here’s my opinion, I can appreciate your vantage point of wanting to offer visibility to the “less exposed” genealogy sites. However, I agree the absence of some of our most committed African-American genea-bloggers feels like at the least, an oversight that could read like a slight.

Because I am one of the most vocal online African-American genealogy contributors and active in the technology space — both professionally and personally — I do receive my fair-share of attention from the community. However, there are several other less vocal, yet equally dedicated genea-bloggers who continue to make significant contributions to the genea-blogging community as a whole, and whose research is to be commended.

While I am a friend and follower of both Taneya and Craig, can you really say that of 100 blogs selected, there are only two African-American genea-bloggers deserving recognition? Additionally, are not Taneya and Craig two of the most recognized African-American genea-bloggers online? I certainly don’t consider them among the less visible. Here are just a few of the contributors that continue to amaze me with their dedication:

www.INeverKnewMyFather.com
www.EchoesOfMyNolaPast.com
www.GeorgiaBlackCrackers.blogspot.com
www.BlackandRedJournal.blogspot.com
www.GederGenealogy.com
www.ReclaimingKin.com
www.MariahsZepher.blogspot.com
www.MyAncestorsName.blogspot.com
www.TheFamilyGriot.blogspot.com
www.MyColoredRoots.blogspot.com
www.DionneFord.wordpress.com (Finding Josephine)
www.j-macsjourney.blogspot.com
www.tgarnett.posterous.com (the youngest in the bunch — 19 years old!:-)
www.ReconnectedRoots.com

At the end of the day, My Heritage has every right to select who you want to receive the Best Blogger award — I cannot deny you that. However I would encourage you to broaden your vantage point to be inclusive (and supportive) of the genea-community as a whole.

I hope that with the online presence you currently maintain, representation of diversity is not an issue.

True, among the broader genealogy online community, African-American contributors are in the minority. Nonetheless, we are here and work hard to honor our Ancestors, and contribute to the community in many valuable ways.

That too is deserving of recognition — both individually and collectively.

Best,

Luckie.

Original Tuskegee Airman, Mr. LeRoy E. Eley Sr., is nothing short of amazing!

Born May 30, 1927 and the baby of the bunch at almost 83 years young, Mr. Eley is EVERYTHING you would expect a Tuskegee Airman to be — distinguished, proud and fast on his feet!:-) He is disarmingly charming and witty, and easily captivated the attention of some 60+ 4th grade students, teachers, parents and genea-guests.

For every 1 question answered — 10 more hands flew up! I was floored by Mr. Eley’s ability to recount even the most minute historical detail and surprised that right along with the students, I too received an [unexpected] history lesson! I’d never heard of the Red Tail Pilots!

Those blessed to be in the room were provided an insiders view of history, complete with stories and memories that only he and his elite Fraternity of Tuskegee Airmen Brothers can truly recount.

To Justis’ question of which was more challenging — fighting in the war or enduring racism in the military, he responded honestly — BOTH. Mr. Eley shared how when the servicemen traveled abroad to fight, they remained segregated — unable to fight together even in the face of a common enemy!

When asked by a young lady to describe the feeling of flying a plane, Mr. Eley just smiled, responding there was nothing in the world like it!

Indeed, aviation is Mr. Eley’s passion. Since volunteering for the USAAF at the age of 17 (assigned to Class 46-D at Tuskegee AAF) until his retirement in 1990 from the Federal Aviation Administration, Mr. Eley vested his entire professional career doing what he loved most — flying airplanes. He even shared with me that at age 79 years, he earned his Seaplane Rating from the FAA!

When asked to explain how the Tuskegee Airmen were trained, Mr. Eley provided detail after detail — proving that earning the right to be Tuskegee Airmen was no easy task! They were the BEST of the BEST!

I loved looking at the image of the Tuskegee Flight Instructors (a picture I’ve admired many times) and hearing Mr. Eley say pointing, “Archie Smith taught me everything I know about flying” and “Charlie Smallwood taught me how to fly in weather”.

The kids got a kick knowing that Mr. Eley had been friends with Charles “Chief” Anderson, the Airman who flew First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt when she visited the Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941. They did not want to let go of the Congressional Medal of Honor the Tuskegee Airmen were awarded in 2007 by President Bush and Congress!

Mr. Eley’s instruction to the young people landed like words of wisdom from a caring Grandfather. He continued to encourage the students to see life for what it is — an open field of opportunity. He challenged them to become tomorrow’s community leaders, charged with protecting the civil liberties so many of our Ancestors have fought and died for.

In a word, the young people felt EMPOWERED and I nothing but pride. My shoulders were a bit higher, knowing that I share ancestry with African-American men of this caliber. I was puffed-up, learning firsthand about the men who represented us both then and now. I was grateful Justis had the opportunity to be in his presence to benefit from this personal sharing of World War II history.

The plan is to rise early Saturday morning — Justis has been invited by the Atlanta Chapter President, Master Sgt. Floyd Stanfield, to attend the monthly gathering of Tuskegee Airmen! He tells us, “they all will be there!”. Who could pass up such an invitation?

As a single Mother of a black male child, I need him to see these great men. I need him dreaming of one day becoming a part of such a distinguished Fraternity of Life Brothers. He must always understand his accountability to community, family and the Ancestors who came before him.

The Tuskegee Airmen served — and continue to serve — with honor.  Their presence and legacy remind us of the stock we descend from and inspire us to continue to reach higher.

Mr. Eley did this Mother’s heart a TON of good! He joked with me that I was “lucky” to get the Airmen rallied in less than 2 weeks time, given their demanding public schedules.

Nope Mr. Eley, today was no luck ~ it was all just pure blessing.

Luckie.