I was flipping through a book by Umoja entitled ” Black Love Is A Revolutionary Act” and I came across these, what I’ll call, Universal Laws of Relationships.

I’m sharing this with all of you but it’s especially for these kids who, like me, didn’t come into this world wanted by all my relatives because my father was married to another woman besides my mom.

I never realized until fairly recently that some of my siblings hold that against me until this day and that I still have siblings I’ve never met and at least one who I will never meet because he died after a hard life.

When you are carried for nine months and born into that kind of resentment, shame, and secrecy, it affects your self valuation.

You simply don’t know that the treatment you are used to receiving isn’t what you are intrinsically worth. So you don’t know when people don’t value you, much less, love you.

It also brings you into the world as an enemy of the state. Think about it.

My dad and his wife Mildred, who was a beautiful and kind woman, entered into a marriage contract WITH THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.

When my dad got my mom pregnant, he broke that contract with his wife and the state and he broke the law. The state of N.C. doesn’t allow people to break contracts without retaliation.

To compound matters, when you illegally get something the state confiscates the ill-gotten goods as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” That would be me and some of y’all reading this who never knew that our origin was held against us by the state and even by some we love and would still give our lives for, like my older sister.

Is it our fault that we came in through the side door?

Anyway, here is Umoja’s bottom line. Apply it to Family, Friends, and agents such as lawyers and others who you have a fiduciary relationship with. The truth hurts but being misled into a life sentence or worse because you don’t have proper boundaries hurts a lot worse.

THE DANIEL GREEN REMIX OF UMOJA’S BOTTOM LINE APPLIED TO THOSE WHO ARE FOR YOU: (FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND AGENTS SUCH AS LAWYERS, DOCTORS, CLERGY, POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES, AND ANYONE WHO YOU EMPOWER TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR YOU THAT BIND YOU TO THE CONSEQUENCES OF THOSE DECISIONS):

1. Anyone who allows or condones your mistreatment is NOT for you;

2. Anyone who allows or condones your mistreatment should NEVER be viewed or treated by you as someone who is for you;

3. Anyone who allows or condones your mistreatment CANNOT be trusted;

4.If you are literally or metaphorically sleeping with and breaking bread with those who allow or condone your mistreatment, you are sleeping with, and breaking bread with, the “enemy” NOT your real Family, Friend, or Agent and you are your own worst enemy because you don’t LOVE yourself, value yourself, nor have enough faith in yourself to demand authenticity from yourself and those whom you decide to populate your life with!

That’s all folks! If most people in prison are honest with you and themselves they will confess that their ignorance and decision not to follow these universal laws is why they are in prison.

The only thing more important than avoiding reliance on those who aren’t really for us is making sure you’re not the type of person who isn’t for your FAM, Friends, and your fiduciaries who place their trust in you.

Oh yeah, just for the record, my mom didn’t know my dad had a wife when she got pregnant and when she later married him. My dad has been a self described “outlaw” all of his life and probably figured he didn’t Need government permission to dictate where, how and in whom he planted his seed.

For those who feel the same, don’t sign a marriage contract with the state and with people who want monogamy!

ONE LOVE UNIVERSAL!

Daniel