WELCOME TO THE NEW "ILLUMINATING SOLUTIONS" NEWSLETTER
APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2021
APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2021
Positive, inspiring, and uplifting messages provided by the BPOS Foundation founder, Elizabeth J. Rice.
AUTOCRACY OR DEMOCRACY IN 2021?
For a total of 80 years, I have lived in the United States of America, an
established Democracy. Even with its many flaws, there is no other place I would rather be. I have been a civil rights activist since the 1960’s and continue to have a voice. Many of my family members were activists long before that time. They were civic-minded as well and pushed the democratic envelope for freedom and justice in order to keep and gain certain unalienable rights for themselves, for their people and for me. Jim Crow laws were persistently trying to take our rights from us then and are still even more active in 2021 with the new Jim Crow blatantly making a concerted effort to push back past laws preserving our freedoms. So many people of color and white brothers and sisters have died fighting with us, for these freedoms. Especially now during the Coronavirus Pandemic, we have seen voting rights, human rights, educational and economic rights, healthcare rights and so many more rights that were denied and hidden from us and never activated, suddenly brought to obvious awareness as the death toll among people of color in the hundreds or thousands were occurring at alarming rates daily.
Trump's people have made denial of these rights a political issue. As the newly elected President, Joseph Biden so truthfully put it, “Jim is no longer a Crow, he thinks he is an Eagle, Jim Eagle”. We know too well he is still a Crow. The bulldozers are waiting in the field, ready to cut down so much progress people of color have made. We can’t be complicit about the bulldozer with its engine on waiting in the field, ready to cut down so much progress people of color have made. Now is the time to push against this obviously collaborated corruption. We must say something, write something, do something. As John Lewis said, “Get into Good Trouble”. Use your brains, pen to paper, your voice in speaking, song, poetry, acting, dance. Use your gift for good in a nonviolent way. It’s time for those courageous men and women who used to step up, to do it now. Show love, honor, truth, forgiveness. Snap out of the “Trump trance” by showing real patriotism, not just for some of the white founders of the Constitution who wanted to enslave us. Become inclusive of every human being, giving them the opportunity to fulfill God’s plan for humanity.
Autocracy is the system of government by one person with absolute power, such as one always dominating, having the rule of control shifting between good and evil, choosing the latter. To further explain an autocratic government, in which one person possesses unlimited power, it is the supreme power over a state concentrated in the hands of one person whose decisions are subject to neither their external leader restraints, nor regular mechanism of popular control except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup or other forms of rebellion.
Democracy on the other hand is a system of government by the whole population of all the eligible members of a state (questionable on who is determining who is deemed eligible), typically through elected representatives who are voted for in free elections. The 14 principles of Democracy I would like to share with you, as simplified by an android app on my phone, which I thought were concise and truthful are: Accountability, Bill of Rights, Citizen Participation, Control of the Abuse of Power, Economic Freedom, Equality, Human Rights, Independent Judiciary, Multi-party Systems, Political Tolerance, Regular Free and Fair Elections, The Rule of Law, and Transparency.
In Trump's time in office, he exemplified the destruction of much that people of color had been fighting for all their lives. With the precision of a surgeon, he was emboldened and deliberately stoked the fires of racism and hate and divisiveness and had for the last four years lived like a king in office, ignoring his accountability to his staff, the government officials and workers and the millions
of people he was to serve within the laws of this nation. He used his office like a dictator by executing his power in any way he chose with none of his party members being able to stop him. They became terrified of him and hypnotically followed him, assisting him in some of his abominable deeds. Trump was in office, assuming that role of an autocratic or authoritarian leader, as we the United States of America lost our respect as a nation around the world. The last newsletter I shared left you with the question regarding who would be the next President of the United States. Would it be a continuation of four more years with President Trump or would a new President Biden with new leadership as a president for all the people be elected? Well, after a long fight with mayhem active on every hand, the November 2020 election was held and President Biden was fairly elected and later inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. The election was not stolen as former President Trump and most of his followers claim, but was one of the most transparent and honest elections previously held for a president. Even the blatant lies are believed in order to secure and maintain their political power, with the fear of being thrown under the bus by Trump for any opposing view.
We know what happened on January 6, 2021. We are aware of lies that were spun and believed and followed with horrible results. When President Biden was elected, politicians did not acknowledge his win. One of the worst insurrections in this country occurred with a goal to take over the U.S, Capitol, invalidate the votes from the Electoral College, get rid of politicians and declare our Democracy as we know it invalid. Thank God, Democracy withstood this outrageous assault.
Yes, here we are surviving it all, putting the pieces to our broken puzzle together. What has saved us? What has brought us this far? Was there a bigger plan in effect that saved all of us? I say “Yes”. You have to decide for yourself what that plan was and where it is located. If your answer is “No,” this is also acceptable.
Elizabeth Johnson Rice, Founder
BPOS Foundation Inc. (Be Part of the Solution)
May the blessings be.
established Democracy. Even with its many flaws, there is no other place I would rather be. I have been a civil rights activist since the 1960’s and continue to have a voice. Many of my family members were activists long before that time. They were civic-minded as well and pushed the democratic envelope for freedom and justice in order to keep and gain certain unalienable rights for themselves, for their people and for me. Jim Crow laws were persistently trying to take our rights from us then and are still even more active in 2021 with the new Jim Crow blatantly making a concerted effort to push back past laws preserving our freedoms. So many people of color and white brothers and sisters have died fighting with us, for these freedoms. Especially now during the Coronavirus Pandemic, we have seen voting rights, human rights, educational and economic rights, healthcare rights and so many more rights that were denied and hidden from us and never activated, suddenly brought to obvious awareness as the death toll among people of color in the hundreds or thousands were occurring at alarming rates daily.
Trump's people have made denial of these rights a political issue. As the newly elected President, Joseph Biden so truthfully put it, “Jim is no longer a Crow, he thinks he is an Eagle, Jim Eagle”. We know too well he is still a Crow. The bulldozers are waiting in the field, ready to cut down so much progress people of color have made. We can’t be complicit about the bulldozer with its engine on waiting in the field, ready to cut down so much progress people of color have made. Now is the time to push against this obviously collaborated corruption. We must say something, write something, do something. As John Lewis said, “Get into Good Trouble”. Use your brains, pen to paper, your voice in speaking, song, poetry, acting, dance. Use your gift for good in a nonviolent way. It’s time for those courageous men and women who used to step up, to do it now. Show love, honor, truth, forgiveness. Snap out of the “Trump trance” by showing real patriotism, not just for some of the white founders of the Constitution who wanted to enslave us. Become inclusive of every human being, giving them the opportunity to fulfill God’s plan for humanity.
Autocracy is the system of government by one person with absolute power, such as one always dominating, having the rule of control shifting between good and evil, choosing the latter. To further explain an autocratic government, in which one person possesses unlimited power, it is the supreme power over a state concentrated in the hands of one person whose decisions are subject to neither their external leader restraints, nor regular mechanism of popular control except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup or other forms of rebellion.
Democracy on the other hand is a system of government by the whole population of all the eligible members of a state (questionable on who is determining who is deemed eligible), typically through elected representatives who are voted for in free elections. The 14 principles of Democracy I would like to share with you, as simplified by an android app on my phone, which I thought were concise and truthful are: Accountability, Bill of Rights, Citizen Participation, Control of the Abuse of Power, Economic Freedom, Equality, Human Rights, Independent Judiciary, Multi-party Systems, Political Tolerance, Regular Free and Fair Elections, The Rule of Law, and Transparency.
In Trump's time in office, he exemplified the destruction of much that people of color had been fighting for all their lives. With the precision of a surgeon, he was emboldened and deliberately stoked the fires of racism and hate and divisiveness and had for the last four years lived like a king in office, ignoring his accountability to his staff, the government officials and workers and the millions
of people he was to serve within the laws of this nation. He used his office like a dictator by executing his power in any way he chose with none of his party members being able to stop him. They became terrified of him and hypnotically followed him, assisting him in some of his abominable deeds. Trump was in office, assuming that role of an autocratic or authoritarian leader, as we the United States of America lost our respect as a nation around the world. The last newsletter I shared left you with the question regarding who would be the next President of the United States. Would it be a continuation of four more years with President Trump or would a new President Biden with new leadership as a president for all the people be elected? Well, after a long fight with mayhem active on every hand, the November 2020 election was held and President Biden was fairly elected and later inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. The election was not stolen as former President Trump and most of his followers claim, but was one of the most transparent and honest elections previously held for a president. Even the blatant lies are believed in order to secure and maintain their political power, with the fear of being thrown under the bus by Trump for any opposing view.
We know what happened on January 6, 2021. We are aware of lies that were spun and believed and followed with horrible results. When President Biden was elected, politicians did not acknowledge his win. One of the worst insurrections in this country occurred with a goal to take over the U.S, Capitol, invalidate the votes from the Electoral College, get rid of politicians and declare our Democracy as we know it invalid. Thank God, Democracy withstood this outrageous assault.
Yes, here we are surviving it all, putting the pieces to our broken puzzle together. What has saved us? What has brought us this far? Was there a bigger plan in effect that saved all of us? I say “Yes”. You have to decide for yourself what that plan was and where it is located. If your answer is “No,” this is also acceptable.
Elizabeth Johnson Rice, Founder
BPOS Foundation Inc. (Be Part of the Solution)
May the blessings be.