WADE-IN PUBLISHING.COM Fiction and non-fiction that expounds on topics we all discuss within the comforting tight circles of our closest friends. Topics such as race, children books, family, personal relations, the welfare system, old school child rearing and childcare. E-book publications. Novels that make you ask.... AM I REALLY THE PERSON I CLAIM TO BE?
After obtaining Ms. Williamson's permission to use her quote, I placed
it as the first page of my book. I think of it as the mantra for all who
are portrayed within Beads on a String-America's Racially Intertwined Biographical History book. What do you fear?
"Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...."
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON (born July 8, 1952 in
Houston, Texas) is a spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of the
The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently
before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace. She has been characterized as "an ex-cabaret-singing Jew from Texas", and is
sometimes associated with an urban myth concerning Nelson Mandela's 1994
inauguration speech as president of South Africa.
The press has referred to her as a
modern-day shaman, a Mother Teresa for the '90sand Hollywood's answer to God,
and failed to credit her for working with dying AIDS and cancer patients and
the homeless on L.A.'s streets. Williamson founded the Centers for Living, an
organization dedicated to providing home delivered care for people with
life-threatening diseases and has participated in fund raising activities for
charitable causes.
Williamson's monthly lectures were not
strictly Christian and that has been the central core of her appeal. She
addresses both established Christianity and Judaism in statements such as
"You've committed no sins, just mistakes." She teaches love and
common sense as all religions do, but she does so in the irreverent language of
the Seventies. Her earliest renown was for her talks on A Course in Miracles, a
step-by-step method for choosing love over fear. A passage from Williamson's book, A Return to Love, has become popular as an inspirational quoteand has been used, amongst other places, in the 2005 film, Coach Carter and the 2006 film, Akeelah and the Bee. It is often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela;
Williamson herself is quoted as saying, "As honored as I would be had
President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea
where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has
come to mean so much to so many people."The quote is:
Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our
light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a
child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine,
as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within
us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in
everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear, our
presence automatically liberates others.
It has been brought to my attention that our celebration is not over.
March is the month of the Women. More than just celebrating the
diversity of America, Beads on a String-America's Racially Intertwined Biographical History also celebrates women. After all, without women where would the world be?
For every 'man' you admire a woman had to be there first.
Let's start our tribute with two very notable women through an excerpt from Beads on a String. The Statute of Liberty and the lady who placed her famous insignia upon the statue's base, Emma Lazarus.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me;
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
--The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
Emma Lazarus was an American poet born July 22, 1849 in New York City. She is best known for writing "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883, which is now engraved on a bronze plaque on a wall in the base of the Statue of Liberty. The sonnet was solicited by William Maxwell Evarts as a donation to an auction, conducted by the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" to raise funds to build the pedestal. Her poem was placed on the Statue of Liberty in 1903.
Lazarus was the
fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus and Esther Cardozo, Portuguese Sephardic
Jews. Her uncle was the famous Supreme Court Justice, Benjamin Cardozo. From an
early age, she studied American and European literature, as well as several
languages, including German, French and Italian. Her writings attracted the
attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who corresponded with her up until his death.
She wrote her own original poems and edited
many adaptations of German and Italian poems, notably those of Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Lazarus' latent Judaism was awakened after
reading the George Eliot novel, Daniel Deronda, and this was further
strengthened by the Russian pogroms in the early 1880s. This led Lazarus to
write articles on the subject and to begin translating the works of Jewish
poets into English.
When Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews, expelled in great
numbers from the Russian Pale of Settlement began to appear in destitute
multitudes in New York in the winter of 1882, Miss Lazarus interested herself
actively in providing technical education to make them self-supporting. She
traveled twice to Europe, first in May 1885 after the death of her father in
March and again in September 1887. She returned to New York City seriously ill
after her second trip and died two months later on 19 November 1887, most
likely from Hodgkin's disease. She is known as an important forerunner of the
Zionist movement. In fact, she argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland
thirteen years before Herzl began to use the term Zionism.
Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions. The arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and in New York's Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the World started a drive for donations to complete the project that attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar.
The statue was constructed in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
No members of the general public were permitted on the island during
the
original unveiling ceremonies, which were reserved entirely for
dignitaries. Ironically, though we celebrate this huge lady, during her
unveiling, the only
females granted access were Bartholdi's wife and de Lesseps's
granddaughter; officials stated that they feared women might be injured
in the crush of people. The restriction offended area suffragists,
who chartered a boat and got as close as they could to the island. The
group's leaders made speeches applauding the embodiment of Liberty as a
woman and advocating women's right to vote. A scheduled fireworks display was postponed until November 1 because of poor weather.
Shortly after the dedication, the ClevelandGazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality":
"Liberty enlightening the world," indeed! The expression makes us
sick. This government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect its citizens within its own
borders. Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean
until the "liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for
an inoffensive and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living
for himself and family, without being ku-kluxed, perhaps murdered, his
daughter and wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the
"liberty" of this country "enlightening the world," or even Patagonia,
is ridiculous in the extreme.
At
first, the country was open to every person wishing to make a new start. Many
came to America to escape war, poverty, famine, or religious persecution. Some
came seeking fortune and others were brought against their will to work as
slaves. These and other factors resulted in a large-scale influx of immigrants
to the United States from around the world. America
is a nation of immigrants and that it has always been, and should continue to
be, a safe haven for people seeking a better life. Every day thousands leave
their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the
brave" so
they can begin their own American Dream. They still believe in the inscription
on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. The statue was closed for renovation for much of 1938. In the early 1980s, it was found to have deteriorated to such an extent that a major restoration was required. While the statue was closed from 1984 to 1986, the torch and a large part of the internal structure were replaced. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was closed for reasons of safety and security; the pedestal reopened in 2004 and the statue in 2009, with limits on the number of visitors allowed to ascend to the crown. The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed beginning on October 29, 2011, for up to a year so that a secondary staircase and other safety features can be installed; Liberty Island remains open. Public access to the balcony surrounding the torch has been barred for safety reasons since 1916. At
first, the country was open to every person wishing to make a new start. Many
came to America to escape war, poverty, famine, or religious persecution. Some
came seeking fortune and others were brought against their will to work as
slaves. These and other factors resulted in a large-scale influx of immigrants
to the United States from around the world. America
is a nation of immigrants and that it has always been, and should continue to
be, a safe haven for people seeking a better life. Every day thousands leave
their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the
brave" so
they can begin their own American Dream. They still believe in the inscription
on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
"Within America's history-“I feel that we, as Americans, are all equal and held together by a common thread. Like a treasured beaded necklace of different colors, held together on a string, we are held together by our necessities and our circumstances and our humanity. Every color helps to make the necklace beautiful. We can never be a totally separate entity! Americans of all colors are so integrated that if we hurt one, we hurt all. Just like that necklace of treasured beads- leave one out and the gap is seen. Break the chain and many of us are lost.” What do you believe? Beads on a String-America's Racially Intertwined Biographical History
This is my blog, not a public forum. I don't mind serious discussion, but I will delete your comments for personal attacks (whether on me or my guests), in appropriate language,disrespectful behavior or excessive self-promotion.
The press has referred to her as a
modern-day shaman, a Mother Teresa for the '90sand Hollywood's answer to God,
and failed to credit her for working with dying AIDS and cancer patients and
the homeless on L.A.'s streets. Williamson founded the Centers for Living, an
organization dedicated to providing home delivered care for people with
life-threatening diseases and has participated in fund raising activities for
charitable causes.
The press has referred to her as a
modern-day shaman, a Mother Teresa for the '90sand Hollywood's answer to God,
and failed to credit her for working with dying AIDS and cancer patients and
the homeless on L.A.'s streets. Williamson founded the Centers for Living, an
organization dedicated to providing home delivered care for people with
life-threatening diseases and has participated in fund raising activities for
charitable causes. 
