CANAAN U.S.P.

                             "Out of Egypt have I called my son"

USA........Most people when they hear or see the word Canaan they are reminded of the Biblical Hebrew account of the land promised by God to Abraham. Eventually, God delivers - the land flowing with milk and honey - to the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites.  

Canaan was a region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. Typically, Western biblical scholarship has included ancient Canaan as part of a so called Middle East.

However, the ancient authors of the Bible had no such racial bias against Africa and ancient Canaan was generally understood in antiquity to be an extension of the continent of Africa.

(There was no Suez Canal artificially separating Africa from those lands to the East).

So, when the parents of Yeshua(Jesus) The Christ were in fear for the life of their son, it was only natural for them to take the well-traveled route of escape to Egypt in Africa.

To this day the biblical history has become increasingly problematic as the archaeological, linguistic, and textual evidence supports and interprets the idea that the early Israelites were in fact themselves Canaanites. The Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah represented a subset of Canaanite culture.

During the Atlantic slave trade, many Christians began teaching that black Africans were descendants of Canaan Land and used the Curse of Ham to justify enslaving black Africans.

Up until 1978, The Mormon Church continued to deny access to their priesthood to Africans, because of the so-called curse.

Presently, according to the Mormon Church, the curse is no longer valid, the curse against people of color has been lifted. 

Well, the curse may have been lifted in theory but not in practice.

Today, over 1,500 hundred, mostly black and Hispanic men, are on a 23-hour a day lock-down at Canaan United States Penitentiary, in Canaan Township, Wayne County, near Waymart, Pennsylvania.

How ironic that Canaan....instead of becoming heaven has become hell......on earth for people of color.

All visiting and phone communication at the high security prison has been suspended until further notice. Sources confirm that all the inmates are currently confined in a 13x7 feet - two man cells. The prison was designed to occupy 1,088 prisoners but the count is well above that limit and growing. The state of Pennsylvania has a total of three high security federal prisons while some states, such as Missouri, don't have any federal prisons. Yet, in Missouri, they have over 20 state prisons. Apparently, - the show me state - wants to keep full control over operations of their prisons and prisoners.

The high rate of incarceration in this country, combined with the reports of cruel and unusual punishment taking place inside modern prisons may not mean anything to most people. There are those that feel that if you are in prison.....you did something wrong to get there. You deserve it.

Not necessarily so.

According, to a report published by the National Registry of Exoneration, a record number of people were exonerated in 2015 for crimes they didn't commit. Countless numbers of men and women, separated and removed from their loved ones, many, for nothing other than being the right color at the wrong time. Those cleared last year, had an average of 14.5 years spent in prison on false charges. Some on death row. Some were younger than 18 when they were convicted. Others had intellectual disabilities.

For a person that has never been incarcerated it's difficult to wrap your mind around the madness that occurs in prison but try, if you will, to envision this:

Can you imagine all the rape, murder, drugs, gambling, extortion, perversion, religion, gangs, politics, corruption, and abuse that we witness first hand, or are shown happening in this country through media outlets, all unfolding on your block and in your neighborhood..........with no police protection present?

Can you imagine, living, all day and all night, in a space not much bigger than a bathroom, with an individual that cant stand the sight of you, and you cant stand the sight of them either?

Try to imagine laying down with your head being 12 inches from a shared toilet in a prison built in the early 1900's? Or vision having a child while incarcerated and the stress associated with that?

How about adding some extreme heat, or bitter cold?

How about an infestation of roaches, rats, bed bugs, lice, crabs, unknown viruses, mold, unrecognizable food items, and top it all off with overt displays of racism by the prison staff and life has just gotten really, really serious for you.

In fact, it has become so serious, you have daily thoughts of homicide or suicide.

America has a serious problem.......systemic racism is at the root.

The current US Attorney General is positioned to deploy federal troops into the inner-cities to stem the violence while prisons are already busting at the seams. The present nucleus of oppressed people in this country are being pushed into a corner.

Poor people have no options but to fight back.

No amount of money, prestige, culture, or friendships will be able to protect the masses when the pendulum begins to swing.

If you don't have an active, personal, relationship with the Most High God right now.......I suggest you get one..........soon.

In the 1930's, POTUS Franklin D. Roosevelt introduce to this country a domestic agenda called the "New Deal."  In 1964, POTUS Lyndon B. Johnson promised us a "Great Society."  POTUS Donald Trump has promised to "Make America Great Again."

All of them have made claims to eliminate poverty and racial injustice, address education, provide medical care, and terminate oppression and depression.

It appears that the more things change.....the more they stay the same. And the worse is yet to come.

Marvel not; ye must be born again.

                                                                     TG4RG

                                "HARVEST FOR THE WORLD".......The Isley Brothers