Please welcome some of our newest members like @Chevelle Bethel @lilt2077 @Michaël Foe @diamondlife by following them!
Some of you don't have the book yet! So go to the "File Share" to access the first chapter. The first question is:
1. Do you feel Henry is a hero or a villain and why?
2. Have you completed chapter 1?
In the context of his times, so soon after the abolition of the institution of slavery, Henry Raison showed his strength of character by rejecting the everyday assaults against human dignity that he saw everyone else (including his own familial role models!) meekly accept. Even after his mother beat him as a child for expressing his unwillingness to submit to the status quo, he only doubled-down in his determination to create a more respected life for himself. Henry had no strong role models! But he succeeded in becoming a quiet role model for others. He took the first steps, without any guidance from people or books or sermons or whatever, toward decolonizing his own mind. That is remarkable.
Was he a saint? Were all of his actions just and honorable? Were all of his decisions the "right" decisions? Are all of mine? Are all of yours? I don't expect perfection out of anyone. It's the struggle, the unrelentling striving, for Right Action--even after making inevitable mistakes--that define a woman or a man as a hero in my book.
Henry aspired to a life of courage, honor and integrity. That aspiration is noble.
Yes, I've completed chapter one. I like Henry because he reacts to injustice, makes a plan for a better life for himself, sticks to trying to make it happen.