Trend Series: Part six - History The Unsung Hero

I start this final Trend Series column with a defining quote:

• The distance between official history and lived experience isn’t an accident it is intentional. Jermaine Fowler

The key history sometimes is not the ‘official’ history but the history that is passed down from elders that have lived it in real time. What is called history is sometimes not all of the history! The statement of the victors write the history is one of the most powerful statements in human history. It is one that I always remind myself. I can remember listening a 80 year old when I was 10 years old. That 80 year old was living history. When that 80 year passes away to the next level of existing, we lose that knowledge base forever. When you see or go to a funeral it is history lost for eternity.

In the age of A.I history must be protected! We must understand that certain interests will utilize A.I to debase history! History is our foundation. If your foundation is brittle and debased then you are lost! You have nothing to reference and refer to. The human race is nothing but a reference library of sorts . Each individual is a chunk of history. A specimen of history is when you look in the mirror every morning. Most of us discount that feature of ourselves. Many of us disconnect ourselves from that story we all possess…. that is history.

Myself and a few of my friends growing up called ourselves amateur historians… lol. I always was fascinated by history. How did we get here? What came before me? When I am walking down a street I sometimes ask myself what folks walked these streets before me? When I am on Wall Street I wonder about 1929 and how was the streets that day. Here is a quick personal story… I had an amazing opportunity to go into J.P Morgan’s personal vault at 120 Wall Street! I almost had a opportunity to throw a party/fundraising event at the old J.P Morgan building at 120 Wall street. I stood in that vault for 15 minutes to imagine the history that took place in that space… Where were the bodies that may have jumped out of the windows… When I go to Harlem and walk down the streets, I wonder about the Harlem Renaissance! I wonder what influential people walked down those streets. When I walk down Bleecker street in the Village in Downtown Manhattan, knowing sixty years plus years ago a Bob Dylan was walking down that street before he became Bob Dylan. Walking on Eighth street by Jimmy Hendrix recording studio knowing he use to walk these sidewalks nonchalantly is just so sobering!

Growing up 1/2 a mile from the old Ebbets Field where the Brooklyn Dodgers played baseball. That is where Jackie Robinson made history as the first black baseball player, which is now a housing development. Just knowing that Jackie Robinson use to walk down those streets is amazing. If you could only transport yourself back to those moments! Knowing that the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955 beat the N.Y Yankees in the 1955 World Series and the celebrations that must have taken place on those streets. All of that are apparitions of history.

Also, realizing history is being downgraded in this futuristic A.I driven society. History is not being treated as majestic as it has been in the past! It now seems to be an issue to be banished to the back of the room. History is the thing that keeps our egos in check because it tells you something came before us all. Someone had to pave the way that we all live in nonchalantly.

A prior someone asked me if I had a time machine if I could go to the past or if I could go to the future what would you choose? I said I would go backwards to see how it felt! What was the feeling of a specific moment that we now take for granted as if it was destiny! It wasn’t destiny for me…. It was decisions that were made. For me destiny are human decisions.

———————————- Addendum ——————————————————————— 6/16/25

I am reading a book called #TAKINGMANHATTAN -The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America by Russel Shorto. I am a native New Yorker. I remember grade school and junior high when we did American History. This book made me reflect on that history. Much wasn’t discussed that this book brings out. We only heard about the Pilgrims and Puritans. The Dutch are barely mentioned back then. This book however is discussing the Dutch element of early America in the 1600’s. The Dutch were the ones who Manhattan was allegedly sold to. The Dutch were all in early New York prior to the English. The book explains all of the Indian tribes that Dutch were interfacing with. Manhattan with Dutch was a trading post first. Beaver furs were critical. The Dutch were more tolerant of others than the Puritans. Brooklyn is Dutch name. Harlem is a Dutch name. Wynedance Long Island is Indian. Wappinger Falls is Indian.

The book explains how the Dutch and the Native Americans worked out a great trading relationships. Also discussed that 18 languages was being spoken in the trading post. The book states that Manhattan was a ‘melting pot then! The key Dutch leader was Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant. He has a High school named after him. He has a massive housing development named after him. New Utrecht is a high school named after the city in Netherlands. The name of Manhattan was New Amsterdam. There is Amsterdam avenue. The Dutch remnants are all around us. The NY Knickerbockers the NBA team. It is so embedded.

The author tells the story of key individuals who can be traced back to Netherlands to tell a very personal story. I have only gotten to page 100. But if you go back to the opening quote you see why I placed it in the column. So now with that said how much history is lost? Is it intentional? All I know is in school the Dutch were glossed over and all we heard about was John Smith and Pocohontas. All we heard was how the Puritans had escaped the religious persecution and it was not discussed in school how the Puritans then oppressed everyone else in there colony. I am at the point of where England is sending war ships to get rid of the Dutch in the new world. The perspective I wanted to show just how serious history only will grow in importance as we go into the D.A.I.C aka Digital Artificial Intelligence Complex.

This is the end of the trend series of 2025. I hope you enjoyed the series and you guys took something from the premises touched upon.

• Media Entrepreneur Auteur

• The Voice of the human renewal Framework

• Author of Humanistry July 2024

• Sometime Contributor ‘Emeritus’ to New Jersey’s largest newspaper The Jersey Journal

• Guest columnist in residence at competitive intelligence firm Octopus Intelligence fall 2024. https://octopusintelligence.com

• Founder of Transcendental Osmosis Lifestyle Agency

#ObservationReporter

Disclaimer: There is absolutely no A.I utilized here. Only H.I aka Human Intuitiveness.

There is love and hate…. Your choice. There is freedom and fear…. Your choice.

Now what will your mind allow you to do?