Dr. M. Blonkanjay Jackson (MsEd, EdM, EdD)
Education Engineer & Development Specialist
August 22, 2024
Thinking Thoughts
In my thinking thoughts I considered how it would soon be August 24th and the small West African nation-state of Liberia would be observing the knitting and hoisting of its patriotic banner dubbed “Lone Star” on national Flag Day.
Flag Day Back in the Day
Back in the day “Flag Day” was a season of pomp and pageantry that we students anticipated with much excitement. Two or more weeks before the day, our cadet corps rehearsed drill tactics including how to take and “get” the eyes right at the Barclay Training Center barracks and the Executive Mansion. On some occasions, the “eyes right” was taken in front of the Ministry of Education on Broad Street.
In addition to the students, the army and other para-military agencies paraded through the streets of Monrovia following the indoor program. One of the attractions was the marching past of the Liberia Immigration Bureau platoon. During those days, as if a requirement, immigration women officers had big buttocks. So, as they marched past, the crowd would shout, “Da tuma for your one? The women would equally reply, “No it for me and your pa” and we would all laugh and clap. The band music was so tantalizing that staying away from flag Day was almost a lifetime regret. Oh, what a refreshing experience it was, to participate in Flag Day parades, back in the day.
Although attending Flag Day parades may have been an option at private schools, at Tubman High school, if your ma or pa did not born you good” then you would stay away from Flag Day parade. As a consequence, we were in our numbers sometimes only because Tubman High being a “hell of a school” mandated 100% compliance to everything including parade attendance. However, the other opportunity that motivated us to attend was to be with our secret sweet hearts whose parents did not take kindly to boys visiting their daughters. Flag Day was therefore an opportunity where we did our foolishness, hold hands with our “jues” and give them passionate wet kisses before they went rushing home before mama started packing the rattans for their little innocent buttocks. We would even our Tubman high status to add “new girlfriends” to our list. I must admit, my friends and I always wished there would be more Flag Days each year. Since the adjustment of the school year and advent of several vices and events the pomp and pageantry that beheld the day have diminished. Albeit the Lone Star Flag continues to float gracefully audaciously.
Audacity to Resist
For the sake of my Brabees. Vicissitude means the different things that can happen one after another, and graciously means to be polite, civil, and diplomatic. Nevertheless, to be audacious is to be bold, daring, overconfident, and brave.
When a group of people are protesting and throwing stones and police goes to stop them with their hands swinging with no riot gears, no hot water truck and no tear gas, that would be a gracious act carried out with audacity. To consistently spew invectives at a sitting president with impunity is as audacious as inciting your partisans across the country to resist the rule of law and hence challenge the power of the president. Audacity is to be declared rotten and corrupt and placed under sanction and still serve in government, or vie for a legislative position, win landslide, and audaciously sit over the same laws you have broken.
You see, when the President of the greatest nation on earth, George Bush, asked Liberia’s little President Taylor to resign and go into exile, he (Taylor) audaciously challenged President Bush saying, “My people, how can the president of another nation ask the sitting president of another nation to resign?” But President Taylor’s answer came quickly as he was escorted out of the country to the Hague and the rest is history. No matter how some individuals attempt to resist the rule of law, the Unity Party led Government has sent out a clear message that it will not despair but will continue to float the Lone Star banner over them without fear; in return, the banner continues to float graciously.
Floated Graciously with Audacity over Vicissitudes
But my Brabees, this is the same gracious audacity with which the Lone Star Flag has floated through the vicissitudes and vagaries of our history. In spite of United States President Trump’s negative characterization of Liberia as a “shit hole” country, and other anti-graft systems as one of the most corrupt nations over the face of the earth, the most underdeveloped, possessing the dirtiest city in the world, the least in sports, and participated in the most uncivil civil war, the Lone Star still graciously floats.
As a matter of fact, the nation state of Liberia was founded on audacity when the freed slaves told the people who brought them to these shores, “get off our face, we don’t need you anymore” Before this decision, several clandestine meetings may have been convened and the risks calculated, before the audacity to severe and mobilize Susannah Lewis and six other ladies to knit the Lone Star Banner. Although the United States was reluctant to recognize the new nation of Liberia, the Lone Star flag still floated, and graciously too.
The Lone Star was audaciously floating when the 14-year civil war raged and thousands of innocent people died. When President Samuel K. Doe executed 13 government officials and was he himself later captured and butchered by the notorious warlord turned pastor, the Lone Star Flag still floated; when the three Catholic nuns were abused and slaughtered by rebel soldiers, with hundred others massacred on Duport Road, our banner, the Lone Star still floated.
No matter what has happened, the Lone Star is not ashamed to float over this gullible nation inundated sycophants and coerced actions led by ineptitude, sycophancy, greed and fanaticism because of the vow to be upheld forever as heralded by the nation’s patriotic song:
The Lone Star Forever, The Lone Star Forever
O long may it float o’er land and o’er sea
Dessert it no never, Uphold it forever
O shout for the Lone Star banner, All Hail!!
The Benediction
On August 24, 2024, the Lone Star banner will not be ashamed to be our flag because it will be graciously but audaciously floating again. It will float over the Armed Forces of Liberia as they march patriotically to hoist our banner at dawn. Despite the current so called “witch hunt” that the Witch Hunter in Chief Joseph Boakai and CSA Jorkei are conducting, the Lone Star will float. Despite former Finance Minister Tweah and FIU Stanley Ford of the erstwhile government delaying appearing to exonerate themselves from corruption charges, despite the incessant threats of protest from the opposition, no matter how viciously the so-called progressive Samuel Jackson turned agitator viciously spew farfetched anti-UP messages on Spoon talk show, the Lone Star will float.
My Brabbees, as we wake up from our beds on August 24, let us rise up with renewed sense of patriotism; let us eschew the “bag boy” politics and fanaticism; let us retrospect and reminisce how much this Lone Star has endured our wicked and selfish ways. We should therefore raise our voices and sing our patriotic song, The Lone Star Forever. Join me.
When Freedom raised her glowing form on Montserrado’s verdant height,
She set within the doom of night, midst lowering skies and thunderstorms, the star of liberty.
And seizing from the waking, its burnished shield of golden frames, she set within her proud name and roused a people long furlong, the star of Liberty.
Chorus
The Lone Star Forever, The Lone Star Forever
O long may it float o’er land and o’er sea
Dessert it no never, Uphold it forever
O shout for the Lone Star banner, All Hail!!
HAPPY FLAG DAY 2024, my Brabees!!!!
Simply Thinking Thoughts
About the author:
The Rivercess man, CEO, and founder of the Diversified Educators Empowerment Project (DEEP), Mwalimu-koh Dr.. Blonkanjay Jackson holds a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Master of Science in Secondary Education (Mathematics) from St. Joseph’s University; he is a Yale University Teachers Initiative Math Fellow, and UPENN Teacher Institute Physics Fellow. Dr. Jackson served the government of Liberia diligently for four years and returned to private practice as Development Specialist and Education Engineer. The Mwalimu-koh can be reached at +231886 681 315 or +6105419114.
