To Be A Spiritual Being

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakes.” — Carl Jung

[Note: The more I read and write, the more I am becoming a spiritual being. I read my e-mails every night and I find myself drawn more and more to teachings of the spiritual realm. On Sunday morning, Holland’s search for authenticity, the ebb and flow and oscillation of American identity, struck a cord with me. I recognized parts of me in an American of Irish descent. And this evening, I read another listing of timeless truths to live by on the Substack Starfire Codes. What were the odds I would read the words of a distant Twyman cousin on Starfire Codes? One in a thousand? One in 10,000? The odds did not matter. Cousin James Twyman was there and he spoke to me “The Only One Who Needs to Awaken from the Dream is You.”

Sometimes the universe has a purpose. Things happen for a reason. The following essay is about Reparations, Allison and Me. I speak plainly with Allison from the inside. I am awake.]

MEME DROP #48: Quantum Physics Is Where They Hide

For today, I wanted to offer my thought on the reparations debate sweeping the country. None of my Twyman uncles would be surprised with my position. And, if they were alive, we would all gather around in Grandma's living room or Uncle Robert Daniel's living room and have a raucus debate. Twymans -- we can disagree without being disagreeable.

Why I Oppose Reparations -- A Letter to Allison

Wink,

BTW - I failed to mention that I encourage you to submit your treatise here on reparations to a proper channel to be published - such as Quillette - WSJ - and would love for the public at large and of course our miscreant Congress (at least the majority of them) to have it be required reading. Oh what I would give to see you read aloud your reasons at that Congressional hearing!

For some fun I’m partaking in Hillsdale college’s on-line course of Aristotle’s Ethics as a refresher and I’d love for this to be required curriculum in elementary school at the least - so common sense, so guiding, and sadly so missing in today’s education, parenting and society - sadly replaced with a governmental/tyrannical form of ‘woke ethics/social justice’ that as we know are mostly anathema to their supposed virtues. Particularly telling is the chapter on Character and why everything we do/become is because of our freedom to choose…it’s our human nature - take away the consequences for bad choices as ’not your fault’ but rather society’s or some other group and it’s no wonder we have a lot of unethical people as well as those incapable it would seem of developing good character…

Was very reminiscent of your fine examples of the different choices/characters among your own family in spite of the same genetics/lineage/environments - true of course of all humans - as one often contemplates between one’s siblings at times; ‘how did we come from the same parents’ ;-)…

Enjoy your weekend

Allison

On Jun 22, 2019, at 10:39 AM, Allison wrote:

Wink,

Now I am the one quite remised for failing to provide you with a proper reply to your excellent arguments below - and in the midst of these troubling Congressional hearings - of course I thought Coleman Hughes was terrific and pray he won’t be excoriated by the mobs - I only wish your testimony was part of what should be a civil discourse on the issue. We are currently installed in our summer abode on Shelter Island NY where I will at last be able to catch my breath and respond in kind. Spring was rather hectic with my own kids and my husband’s mom (almost 95) starting to really go down health wise…always so hard to witness life’s decline.

In the meantime I wish you and your family well - I can only imagine there are some interesting discussions at home - or I hope there are as my husband’s kids have become so indoctrinated at ivy league schools that they are unwilling to even have a discussion and avoid all the current hot topics - which my libertarian and quite brilliant husband loves to provoke and debate.

I pray there are enough cool & rational minds left to prevail but of course I’m very troubled for our future and our children’s future due to this walling off of the mind.

More to come & of course hoping we’ll have opportunity for a proper crossing of paths in Virginia.

Warm regards,

Allison

On Apr 13, 2019, at 1:57 PM, Winkfield Twyman wrote:

Allison,

My sincere apologies for taking so long to respond. We were out two weeks ago in New England visiting colleges for my daughter. When I returned home and as is often the case, I was met with reams of paperwork at my office. I'm only now catching up with my e-mails. Thanks for writing me back and bringing the op-ed piece and Quillette essay to my attention. I absolutely love Quillette! I read it every day for welcomed fresh thought. I can't say enough good thing about Coleman Hughes. He is logical, lucid and precise in his argument. I so appreciate his crisp thinking about race. He's a godsend for free thinking.

It sounds like you have had a crazy time and I've had a crazy time at the office, so we're both in the same place roughly speaking. Once again, we're seeing things from the same perspective if you love Quillette and Hughes. As an aside, I think Coates has done more to weaken the black spirit than any other black writer in this century but that's fodder for another e-mail.

Why I Oppose Reparations

Yesterday morning while having breakfast, I read that the students at Georgetown University voted in support of a reparations fee. The idea is to atone for the college's selling of 277 or so slaves in the 1830s. This did not sit well with me, particularly coming on the heels of the reparations bill in the U.S. Senate a day earlier. The reparations ball is gathering speed and I cringe inside.

1. No one living is to blame for the sins of the dead. As a moral principle, the world is for the living, not the dead. We do not choose our parents or grandparents but we choose our paths going forward in life with choices made every day. Why should my white Twyman cousins be held accountable for the actions of a 5xgreatgrandfather, George Twyman III, born in 1731 and buried in 1818? Why should I be held accountable for the actions of George Twyman III in 2019? Generational sin inherited through the ages would transform us into a place like the Balkans, the Middle East and Rwanda, a country cursed with the pathological expression of ancient hatred between tribes and religions persisting for centuries. That's not who we are as Americans. We remember the sins of the past and leave the sins of the past in the past. And we move on beyond resentment and grudges to a more perfect union.

2. As Professor Jason Hill has noted in An Open Letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Dream is Real in Commentary (September 2017) and We Have Overcome: An Immigrant's Letter to the American People (2018), no self-respecting black American should crave reparations. It is about self respect and pride. Japanese Americans did not push for reparations due to ethnic group pride. This week's push for reparations is a serious wound to black American pride. Pride rejects handouts, a lottery mentality. Pride aims for high achievement in school, in family life, and in career life.

3. Even if there was a moral and equitable argument for reparations, the time for the debate was 1865, or, the lifetime of a former slave. Not now. My wife's 3xgreatgrandfather, Edward Rainey, was born a slave. Rainey purchased the freedom of his family in 1846 in Georgetown, South Carolina. He would open up a barber shop and become the wealthiest black man in town. There is no evidence he pressed for reparations. To the contrary, he paid for his freedom and, through ambition, self-confidence and enterprise, acquired $5,000 in wealth in a slave society. His son, Joseph, lived for 14 years as a slave. Once freed, he developed skills as a barber and would become the first black congressman. Once again, there is no evidence Joseph pressed for reparations for himself or family members or blacks in general. If black men who knew slavery and became free in the 1840s never pressed for reparations, why are we having a reparations debate in 2019 to benefit Joseph's 2x and 3x greatgrandchildren living the life in sunny San Diego? It is all ridiculous to me.

4. Consider my own slave ancestor, Daniel Brown. Daniel was born a slave in 1833 in Charlotte County, Virginia. He acquired a large sum of money from his white slave master father. Daniel moved to Richmond and, through enterprise, perseverance and vision, acquired over 500 acres of land in Chesterfield and Charlotte Counties. Portions of this estate remain in the family to this day. There is no evidence Daniel pressed for reparations in his lifetime. He made good choices and acquired land. Why should his great great grandchildren press for reparations 180 years later? Daniel was born a slave and acquired land without the need for reparations. I consider reparations to be an affront to the memory of my slave ancestor who demonstrated the power of self-reliance.

5. Sometimes there is this assumption that whites benefited from great wealth earned on the backs of slaves. This assumption doesn't acknowledge that fortunes ebb and wane. George Twyman III owned over 40 slaves and 1,000 acres of land at Oak Land in the 1790s. Sounds great, huh? A family dynasty in the making. Well, the reality is the Civil War wiped out the white Twymans living at Oak Lawn. Even General George Custer couldn't find food for his men in the empty cupboards. During Reconstruction, the family home was lost due to non-payment of taxes. In-laws permitted Twymans to live in the home but the descendants grew more and more impoverished over the decades. By the 1960s, the last white Twymans living at Oak Lawn had no running water, no electricity and no cars. The black descendants of George Twyman III on Twyman Road were all living in red brick homes with cars, running water, electricity and a certain business reputation. If the effects of American slavery were so horrible, why were the white Twymans shivering in the cold at Oak Lawn while the black Twymans were running businesses and living on property inherited from their 2xgreatgrandfather, Daniel Brown? This chestnut about the lingering effects of slavery breaks down among the descendants of George Twyman III.

Blacks live in racial innocence of their white cousins. And this ignorance allows a false narrative about wealthy, privileged descendants of slave holders to flourish.

6. Four Generations of Free Black Slave Owners

Racial innocence shows up in another truth from the past -- free black slave owners.

Life is short and, if one suppresses the truth, what have we gained in our writing. George Orwell once said he wrote to expose some lie, some fact to which he wanted to draw attention. See Why I Write by George Orwell, Summer 1946. My family finds racial innocence in ignorance of their free black past. Let me set the record straight. My daughter lauds the oppression of her slave forebears to acclaim and remains silent about her free black ancestors in the public square. That is wrong. In fact, I would wager the majority of my daughter's maternal ancestors were not slaves at all.

Born in 1758 in London, England, James Mitchell was my daughter's maternal 7xgreatgrandfather. Mitchell, a free black, immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina and created an enduring legacy for himself and his community. He worked as a carpenter and a notary public. He would have four wives, his first wife being Diana Caywood according to an affidavit filed in Charleston by two elderly white gentlemen. Diana was of Native American heritage. Together, James and Diana had one daughter, Elizabeth Mitchell, born on July 10, 1785.

When a local white church refused to bury black parishioners in a church graveyard, Mitchell saw a need for free blacks to solve the problem of burial. Mitchell took the lead in founding the Brown Fellowship Society, the first black self-help group in the New World. Mitchell was clearly the driving force as monthly meetings were held at his workshop on Beaufort Street in Charleston. Began in 1790, the Brown Fellowship Society over time would become the dominant association for free blacks of reputation and note. Membership would be limited to 50 free blacks and membership dues were high. As a reflection of the times, membership was limited to those of fair complexion whose hair blew in the wind or whose hair could be combed with ease. These were prejudicial conditions set on membership. And yet the society became an important sign one had arrived in free black society,. A cemetery was developed and maintained for free blacks and the dignity of a proper burial was assured throughout the 1800s.

Mitchel was recognized as a leader in the free black community. One of his lasting contributions was his mentorship of his son-in-law, Richard Holloway, Sr., as a carpenter. Richard Sr. would marry into the Mitchell family by marrying Elizabeth Mitchell.

When Mitchell died, it was the passing of an era for the Brown Fellowship Society and for the free black community. Mitchell was buried in the Society burial plot. His epitaph read "He was an affectionate companion, a tender parent, and indulgent master." In 1790, Mitchell owned four slaves.

My daughter's maternal 6xgreatgrandfather was Richard Holloway, Sr. Born in 1776, Richard Sr. married Elizabeth Mitchell on January 19, 1803. Together, Richard Sr. and Elizabeth would have fourteen children, including a son, Richard Holloway, Jr. born in 1807. Of the fourteen children, thirteen were sons and one was a daughter. Richard Sr. would become a prosperous free black maker of harnesses in Charleston. He became a member of the Brown Fellowship Society and an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Sr. accumulated property at a prodigious pace, owning six slaves in 1820, eight slaves in 1830, selling a black woman named Jinnie for $450.00 in 1834 and, Sarah and her children Edward and Annette for $945.00 in 1837. By the mid-1840s, Richard Sr. owned 14 houses in Charleston and was one of the most affluent free blacks around town. In a fitting remembrance, his portrait is the earliest surviving portrait of a Black American from Charleston. His portrait hangs on my office wall. He passed away on June 27, 1845 and was buried in the Society cemetery.

The next generation carried on the mantle of achievement. My daughter's maternal 5xgreatgrandfather, Richard Holloway, Jr., married Muriel (?) and together had a daughter, Georgiana Mary Holloway in 1837. Richard Jr. through enterprise became one of Charleston's wealthiest free blacks before the Civil War. He owned $7,900 in real estate, one slave in 1850 and one slave in 1859. Like his father and grandfather, Richard Jr. was a member of the Brown Fellowship Society. After the Civil War was over, he broke several racial barriers as he was the first black to serve on a grand jury in South Carolina and the Charleston Board of Alderman in 1868. In 1871, he paid taxes on $8,208 in real estate. Richard Jr. passed away in 1888.

In choosing a husband and life partner, Georgiana Mary Holloway chose well in marrying George Shrewsbury, my daughter's maternal 4xgreatgrandfather. Shrewsbury was born free in 1819. He was literate and a mulatto. He embarked upon a trade of butchering and achieved a notable level of success remembered by historians to this day, Historian Eric Foner has described Shrewsbury as "[a] wealthy free black butcher and realtor in antebellum Charleston..." See Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Office Holders During Reconstruction, p. 194. Shrewsbury's membership in the Brown Fellowship Society was a foregone conclusion.

During the Civil War, the Episcopal Church in Charleston faced financial distress. The future of the Church was uncertain until Shrewsbury dug into his own pocket and gave the Church sufficient money to stay afloat until the War's end. When the Was was over, a church official approached Shrewsbury about repayment but Shrewsbury refused to accept repayment from the Church. Survival of the Church was repayment enough.

After the Civil War, local residents from both parties recognized Shrewsbury's leadership. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1872 as a Democrat. In 1873, he was elected as a Republican to the Charleston City Council. The City awarded Shrewsbury two city contracts for the provision of meat which only added to Shrewsbury's wealth. He died on March 7, 1875 in Charleston with a sizable estate which continued to grow after his death for years to come.

Shrewsbury's widow's second marriage prompted legal steps to assure proper execution of Shrewsbury's will. Shrewsbury only had one daughter, Eliza. Eliza married Edward A. Lawrence. Son-in-law Edward directly benefitted from the labor of slaves to the extent Shrewsbury assets and properties were acquired with slave labor and descended to the Lawrence family. The inherited assets were real estate properties (owned and rental) and cash holdings. It is an in interesting angle from a Black American perspective when the discussion of reparations for past slavery is raised in the public square.

Shrewsbury is not remembered in the family because he owned slaves. He owned twelve slaves in 1860, according to the U.S. Census. He was the fourth largest free black owner of slaves in Charleston. On September 27, 1844, Shrewsbury purchased two slaves named Cyrus and Isaac from G.W. Cooper. The slaves were tailors by trade. In the same year, Shrewsbury sold five slaves for $1,100. On September 5, 1845, Shrewsbury filed a Petition against another free man of color, James Norris. Shrewsbury sought to quiet title in three slaves Shrewsbury had acquire in a gambling transaction. Shrewsbury's slaves were hired out to the Charleston Work House.

Are my children as the descendants of four generations of free black slave owners on the hook for reparations? Does their culpability make moral sense? What are the lingering effects, if any, of slave holding on my daughter? Why can my black daughter be mind blind to black slave holders in her family's past but her white Twyman cousins are tainted with implicit stain for white slave owners in our family past? Is this logical? Is this fair? Is this equitable? Should my children pay direct reparations to the descendants of slaves Jinnie, Sarah, Edward, Annette, Cryus, Isaac and unnamed others? Do we want to live in a backwards looking country?

I want to live in a forward looking nation.

[Part 2 in my next e-mail. You inspired me to write, Allison/smile]

Wink

On Saturday, March 23, 2019, 7:17:03 AM PDT, Allison wrote:

Wink,

Long overdue greetings! I have been wanting to reply with multiple queries and conversation topics and yet as you know - the relentless pace of outrageous craziness makes it hard to respond even by the hour let alone daily/weekly…that aside - I found 2 pieces of commentary just these past few days that I would appreciate your opinion and insight - particularly given the context of our discussions. One is a simple yet heartfelt commentary on racism in America today (or the waning thereof) in an op-ed letter to the editor of the Richmond Times Dispatch that I find to be very accurate based on my own observations/family blending,…the other a very interesting article published on the website “Quillette” which was founded for free thought & ideas - and a introspective article on Coates & the latest calls for reparations.

While I’m plugged into the mayhem in our country - I do try to keep my head above water and ensure I come up for oxygenated air - which the talking heads of media & DC are in dire need of in my opinion. ;-)…whew it’s been breathless these past few months - I pray sanity, truth & real justice will finally prevail.

Hope you are well in California - we were just in Sun Valley ID for a month - my husband’s annual sabbatical/ski/get back to nature retreat - we work and play hard there while the aging joints still allow!

Cheers & look forward to the continued exchange of ideas!

Warm regards,

Allison

https://quillette.com/.../reparations-and-ta-nehisi.../

"Just watched middle-aged black & white men walk past me en route to an airport terminal with bags in tow. Engaged in pleasant conversation, they reminded me what I already know...The overwhelming majority of people of all ethnicities in this great country mostly get along with and respect one another. Go to any store today and watch for 10 minutes as people of all colors, faiths, and political viewpoints go out of their way to greet, smile and hold doors for one another. Slowly, more families are ethnically blended. Mine sure is...however, if you watch some media, you'd be convinced a race war is imminent. I don't for a millisecond buy that. Many money-focused media love to aggressively promote disunity and conflict every opportunity they get. To the contrary, I see more and more young, middle-age and even older diverse groups of people hanging together, having fun, uniting to seek to build a better world. Promote love among all. Race relations are better today than at any other time in our country's history. Satan wants us to argue over nonsense, and many powerful media and politicians also seek to promote racial strife where it is not necessary. Turn off the boob tube, get off angry social media and dial down partisan talking heads. Stay out of each other's business, unless it affects you. God has us each on our own personal journeys. Walk in the park among your brothers and sisters. Worship together. Play together. Life is too short to waste it on hate. Leave those behind who promote hate. Pray God will transform their hearts. Step outside your comfort zone and dare to love where you find it frightening or uncomfortable to do so...we all have room to improve when it comes to loving one another more fully." J. Matthew - Richmond VA

On Feb 1, 2019, at 11:22 PM, Winkfield Twyman wrote:

Allison,

That's great! We're on the same page with regards to the public square. I may be in Richmond this December. I'll give you more details as Christmas time approaches. These are crazy times indeed!

Warm regards,

Wink

On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 5:24:17 AM PST, Allison wrote:

Wink,

Suffice it to say I would be delighted to be on a first name basis! This is just a quick note of overdue response - as you know there has been so much going on these past 3 weeks alone that there is much I’d like to comment on and be in dialogue with you - and I will reply with more thought and detail in the days to come - but whew! The powers of division and trend towards collectivism vs. individualism are certainly at a feverish pitch right now, and that of course is not good for anyone in our nation.

So this is a quick note of thanks for your engagement with me -frankly your manuscript needs to go public as a means for how to conduct civil, honest dialogue.

Please let me know whenever you may travel to Richmond - would love to meet face to face and share a good conversation. We are in town typically from Sept - end of Feb. , March - May and gone during the summer months to Long Island (luckily avoiding the worst of the heat & humidity)…you are blessed with San Diego’s climate.

Warm regards,

Allison

On Jan 13, 2019, at 10:14 PM, Winkfield Twyman wrote:

Allison (If I can call you Allison),

Thank you for a very moving and thoughtful reaction to my manuscript. And like you, I had to digest and fully take in your intuition about spiritual/mental DNA. It is very comforting to know others share the same disaffection for resentments, hatreds, pains, guilts, etc. I feel like I have stayed the same open-minded spirit over the years while voices in the public square have careened to opposite corners of a boxing ring. I like your depiction of kindred spirits on a thought train. I enjoy conversations free of group think and catastrophic impulse. What potential conversations could two kindred spirits have? Until our paths cross between Virginia and California, e-mail is a wonderful substitute for dialogue.

The echo chamber essay appealed to me because I live it. So often, we read about silo thinking between whites and blacks but not so much between blacks and blacks within black families. I love to engage the larger world while my wife burrows into deeper and deeper silos within all-black organizations like Jack and Jill, Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Links. I particularly can't see my way to like the baby echo chamber of Jack and Jill which is really indoctrination of teenagers in the way to be black and to learn of blackness as oppression, as difference, as the other. It is eternal tribalism generation after generation after generation among the black upper class. As a result, the natural forces of assimilation are corrupted by well meaning moms who know no other way to be in the world. When we meet some day, I look forward to hearing about your trip to Freetown, Sierre Leone and Nigeria.

We are absolutely on the same page when it comes to the detriment of resentment. Our shared humanity is our strength. Out of many, one. I'm hopeful that, at some point, the fever of victimization will break. And once the fever breaks, people will remember why tradition matters. The long arc of history bends towards the individual. The Founding Fathers understood the power of the mantle passed down from generation to generation. I hope our shared humanity proves longer lasting than divided tribalism.

Anyway, thanks again for letting me know there are others out there who get it. I try to get out to Richmond once a year. I'll let you know when I'm next in town so that we can chat and I can hear about Freetown from you in person.

Best regards,

Wink Twyman

On Sunday, January 6, 2019, 1:50:35 PM PST, Allison wrote:

Mr. Twyman,

I finally had the time after the holidays to sit down and read your manuscript - incredibly powerful - you are a wonderful writer…I am a bit short of words from being very moved by your work… and while I have no shared DNA to Twymans - I feel the more spiritual/mental DNA if you will of what binds us as the human race - and your thoughts, advocacy could be my own almost verbatim. Of course I come from the side of white female, mid-westerner now living in Virginia - but I always instinctively knew these truths you write of to be inherently so…I would go so far as to say your Twyman reunion is akin to a Rosetta stone - a portal/translator to break through these resentments, hatreds, pains, guilt - all that seems to have increased sadly in the last decade in particular. As your wife described - we may just strangers on a train - but I believe it to be more like kindred spirits on the same thought train. Interestingly enough - last night as I lay thinking - knowing I would read your manuscript today - I imagined potential conversations that we may someday be able to have should our paths cross between Virginia & California - how 2 strangers bound by a thread of shared, intrinsic thought can demonstrate our human capabilities of coming together.

My husband who is also a UVA grad (M of Engineering) finds your writing to be excellent - I especially liked Prof. Nyguyen’s “Echo Chamber” essay - spot on piece for what’s going on today. My husband & I share similar frustrations with our kids - albeit on the other side with the issues of white guilt/privilege and accusals of (we are ’the man’), refusal to accept anything that questions the narrative of today’s ivy-league campuses (and most if not all colleges) and political spectrum. I can no more ‘listen’ to Joy Reid - though I do read her commentary from time to time to hear the other side - though I prefer Jordan Peterson - have given all my kids his book, and have been a decades long reader of Sowell, Williams, Elder and more and concur that Coates is very detrimental and regressive - in fact I found it particularly ironic that in Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer 2” - he requires the young man in his building to read Coates - though his character is superior in every way to his band of special ops ‘white’ brothers - clearly his character moved well past the external ‘impass'…it is tribalism I believe - in all of us to greater/lesser degrees…one of my dear friends is from Nigeria and inhabits the echo-chamber bubble of progressivism/aggrieved - we typically just avoid politics yet I am saddened that I feel it difficult if not impossible to have that open conversation you had in the church. Your reunion dialogues certainly give hope for our collective future. Should we have the good fortune to meet some day - I’ll tell you in detail about my trip to Sierre Leone & Nigeria aboard a cargo ship at age 15 - yes that blond pale girl was quite the site on entering the port of Freetown - the name certainly ironic given the enormous tree at the harbor which still had chains bored into it from the shackling of slaves awaiting passage…

Thank you for sharing your work me - what an incredible experience - I couldn’t agree more that erasing our past does not change our future or make us feel better - it is a detriment - revisionist history/cultural relativism holds us back - we must acknowledge, grieve, process and move forward - there is no future in wallowing in the past - victimhood is the biggest danger to our nation and everything our Founders fought to achieve - as much as political correctness - we must be bigger than that and for no other reason that this is what makes us the human race - there is only one - and yes life is so precious and precariously short to be living in resentment, hate & fear…we are privileged as Americans and losing sight of all the possibilities that are given to us if only we pick up our individual mantles.

How blessed you are to have done your genealogy and to have discovered/accepted all of your relatives with pride - you have quite the lineage from that young man in Kent and Washington himself! Monticello could learn a thing or 2 with the Hemmings descendants - though I can’t wait to see the new Sally Hemmings exhibit/rooms that have been opened - my husband is a big fan of Jefferson - I feel they are trying to do the right thing in telling the whole story…

Feeling grateful and blessed to have heard your story - I do hope our mutual paths cross one day and not just as strangers on a train - could our sharing be another template for moving forward together as a nation?…Absolutely!

We are in Richmond for about 7 months of the year, Long Island for about 4 and Idaho for 1 if ever you’re in the neighborhood…now I’m wanting to visit Oak Lawn. Wishing you a wonderful New Year for your family and hope that your daughter will one day have a more open point of view…my oldest is 27 and is finally acknowledging that I actually know a thing or 2

...

Best regards,

Allison

On Dec 4, 2018, at 1:53 AM, Winkfield Twyman wrote:

I read Killing England after reading your gracious comment. I thoroughly felt new-found appreciation for this ambitious Tidewater Virginian who braved bullets in the western wilderness as a young militia man and did not die. It is hard to conceive of a military leader with the stoic sense of duty to leave on the very last boat from Brooklyn under cover of a breaking fog, who stormed a raging battlefield days later and stared down 50 British approaching soldiers from 80 yards distance while all around him fled in abject terror, a commander unnerved by exploding cannon fire, threat of kidnapping, loss of support from the Continental Congress. To read the story of the real life man, His Excellency, takes one's breath away.

I could go on and on but, as Abigail Adams said, simple truth is his best, his greatest eulogy.

I recently wrote a short manuscript about my family, race and echo chambers. On the Road to Oak Lawn: Truth, Reconciliation and the Twymans shows how a common ancestor, common blood and a common name can forge a powerful affinity, more powerful than race. That's the imagined better time. I hope you find it interesting.

Regards,

W. F. Twyman, Jr.

On the Road to Oak Lawn[12-01-18].pdf

On ‎Friday‎, ‎September‎ ‎29‎, ‎2017‎ ‎11‎:‎24‎:‎48‎ ‎AM‎ ‎PDT, Allison wrote:

Mr. Twyman,

I just wanted to express my gratitude having read your excellent op/ed “The Turning Point of self-loathing” in today’s RTD paper. Given all the out of control vitriol on display today that is inflamed by frankly arrogant & ignorant rhetoric & revisionist history, where folks have reacted in mob fashion without the ability to stop & think - your article could not be more timely - specifically the essential sentences “An ancestor can be the greatest figure in political history and also a slaveholder. One does not negate the other.” This sir, is both the key point that needs to be addressed and is sadly the battering ram that has been used for to long in public schools, media & culture to create the ‘self-hate’ you describe & decimate our forefather who were imperfect as every man and woman living today.

Sadly students are no longer taught why our forefathers were such great men and frankly some of the most brilliant ever to walk the earth in spite of their human flaws - and what they accomplished! They had the foresight & wherewithal to create a ‘more perfect union’ and to establish a government construct that is timeless and meant to ensure that no branch of government should ever overpower the other and or strip away the essential freedoms of the people - including what would eventually un-do the terrible acceptance of slavery - so too is now the Constitution under dire attack in an effort to render it inappropriate and no longer relevant under the extreme-progressive mantras.

I hope & trust that your daughter may come to learn and realize that she can embrace with great pride her ancestry - particularly in looking/learning through history to see how far we have come as a citizenry - and I lament that this indoctrinated ‘self-hate’ has blinded far too many from realizing the simple truth - slaves built this country and we could never have succeeded without their toil, labor and hardships. Without question slavery is one of the worst constructs in mankind’s history from ancient times to the horrific prevalence still today in other parts of the world.

I hope we can find a way to teach all our children to have pride in all our nations' contributors as a means to stop the self hate, loathing, anger and find the light & perseverance of our forefathers just as George Washington did kneeling at Valley Forge. For what it’s worth, I’m reading O’Reilly’s latest book, “Killing England” - and in spite of being a history major - it is so revealing to what happened during the Revolutionary War and who these men were - warts & all and inspires you as to why, I at least, still believe this is the greatest nation on earth & still has so much promise if people can let go of the nonsense. Perhaps if your daughter was willing to take some time to read even excerpts from this book, I think she would better understand why you were so moved & believe Washington to have been the greatest President ever - teens are tough but smart.

Best regards to you sir!

Sincerely,

Allison