The Road Less Traveled | The Daily Post

On February 21, 2016 By dancingpalmtreesIn 101st Airborne Division, 569th PSC, Army, The Road Less Traveled | The Daily Post, U.S. Army, Uncategorized, United States Army6 Comments

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/the-road-less-traveled/

Feb 21, 2016

The Road Less Traveled

Pinpoint a moment in your past where you had to make a big decision. Write about that other alternate life that could have unfolded.

Major Decision #1

November 1977 to November 1981 when I joined the United States Army. This gave me the opportunity to not only serve my country but travel to Europe and meet people from all over the United States. I did my Basic and AIT at Ft. Jackson, SC. I was posted at the 569th PSC in Augsburg, Germany and at the 101st Airborne Division located at Ft. Campbell, KY. During my four years in the Army I also went TDY (temporary duty) at various bases inside and outside the U.S.

The Army reinforced the sense of discipline, accountability and responsibility that my parents Edward and Mable Palmer had already implanted within me. I received an Honorable Discharge and am very proud to be a U.S. Army Veteran.

1978 Augsburg, Germany

Deborah Ann Palmer U.S. Army 1977-1981

Major Decision #2

September 1995 when I decided to move forward in earning my BA at Marymount Manhattan College. My Dad Edward G. Palmer had just passed away that year May 13, 1995 at age 65 and I then became responsible for both my mother Mable Palmer and my brother Stephen Palmer. I felt I needed to get my BA as being a College graduate was both my Dad’s desire and mine but I was just too busy running around living free and easy. Once my Father died I inherited his responsibilities and I felt that college would give me an up in terms of critical thinking and advancing my then career.

Being a student was both exhilarating and challenging. At that time Marymount Manhattan College was a private Women’s Catholic college which had just begun to admit men on a limited scale. Therefore the classes were small and the professors took a personal interest in the intellectual and educational development of each student. By the time I went to MMC all the instructors were secular not the Nuns that had preceded them many years before. The professors and the Dean were dedicated to helping Ladies succeeded especially returning Women students like myself.

At that time I was 36 years old definitely not a teenager but an adult who worked full-time and a caregiver. I did briefly attend Marymount Manhattan College around 1987/88 but being in my 20s was my wild & crazy period so I did not stick it out even though I was doing very well in school. Not to say the professors were easy on the students in terms of work load. There were tons of novels and other books to read and 25 page research papers to write on a bi-weekly basis. I suppose it was stressful but a positive stress. An intellectual challenge and I rose to the occasion.

Entering college as an adult I knew that I wanted to major in English literature unlike an 18 year old who is inexperienced with the world in general and probably has very little work experience. At age 36 I had already served my country as a soldier in the United States Army and had many years in the workplace. Many people including some relatives kept asking me “Why are you majoring in English? Are you going to become a teacher?” My answer then as now is I Love English literature and I knew I could pass and no I had no intentions of becoming a teacher.

My Mom who was still living at the time never asked me any ridiculous questions. She was happy that I cared for her, went to work, studied hard in school and went to church. Mom was proud of me and my accomplishments. Sadly my mother followed my Dad into the hereafter August 1998 at age 68. Neither she nor my Dad ever got to see me graduate from Marymount Manhattan College May 2002 when I was 43 however their spirits spurred me on to successfully complete a difficult year long course called Women in Urban Leadership, make the Deans List in 1999 and graduate Cum Laude. Both my parents were born in 1930 at a time when racism, lynchings, discrimination and Jim Crow ruled America. They felt that my generation as the first generation to benefit from the Civil Rights Movement could and should uplift the race through education. My accomplishments were not just for me but for my parents, grandparents, aunts and great-uncles who never had those opportunities.

Marymount Manhattan College opened up a new world to me, helped develop my writing skills and gave me confidence in those writing skills. During this time the then Dean Joan Brookshire said to me that I had a gift for writing. My professors male and female built me up and I felt a sense of accomplishment. So for me returning to college was probably the best decision of my adult life.

Marymount Manhattan College 2002 Graduation photo

Say Your Name ~~ The Daily Post

On February 8, 2016 By dancingpalmtreesIn 23andMe, Africa, African American Queen, African Goddess, African King, DeBorah, DeBorah Ann Palmer, Edward G. Palmer, Edward Gordon Palmer, Edward Palmer, Mable Elizabeth Palmer, Mable Palmer, Say Your Name, Uncategorized5 Comments

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/say-your-name/

THEDAILYPOST

Feb 8, 2016

DAILY PROMPT

Say Your Name

Write about your first name: Are you named after someone or something? Are there any stories or associations attached to it? If you had the choice, would you rename yourself?

The name Deborah is a Hebrew baby name. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Deborah is: Bee. Deborah was the Biblical prophetess who summoned Barak to battle against an army of invaders. After the battle she wrote a victory song which is part of the Book of Judges.

http://www.behindthename.com/name/deborah

You may read about the heroic exploits of DeBorah (Judges) in my previous post. The Song of Deborah is Judges Chapter 5.

The Lioness of Judah Reigns

I’m not really sure who or what my Dad had in mind when he named me. Perhaps he was a fan of Deborah Kerr who was a popular actress during the 1950s. Once he told me that he wanted to avoid the traditional Palmer female family names and name me something different, a name he thought would be unique. However when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade there were about five (5) Deborahs, Debras, Debbies in my class!! So much for unique. Like most African-Americans born during the 40s, 50s, and 60s pretty much you either had a passed down family name or a Bible name. Later in the 1970s and thereafter African and Muslim names became popular I believe in an attempt for African-Americans to reconnect to the Mother Land.

About six or seven years ago I did a Free DNA screening given by 23andMe. Here are the results copied from an old document.

Through my maternal line my ancestors were from Mozambique. I belong to the maternal haplogroup I also probably have some Nigerian ancestors. My maternal genetic

makeup is 85% Africa, 12% Europe and 3% Asia.

Our ancestry and genealogy are traced through mitochondrial DNA which

is only passed down from mother to child. This is fascinating information.

By the way the study affiliated with Dr. Henry Louis Gates was free and they

were targeting African Americans mainly to ascertain my African Americans have such high levels of high blood pressure and diabetes. I wanted to have my DNA traced for

several years and when I saw the ad in Ebony or was it Essence along with

the word Free, I immediately signed up. I was so thrilled to find out this

news. Now along with my African co-workers feel a more direct connection

to the Motherland.

Naturally, I’ll never be connected to Mother Africa the way in which my co-

workers from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali are

since they were born there and have a direction connection with the

culture, language and respective tribes, I feel now more of a blood tie. Now

I can plan for my pilgrimage to this country of my ancestors in the next 20 years.

In a way I envy my fellow bloggers who were born and raised in Africa and who had the opportunity to retain their traditional African names, perhaps some indigenous belief system, culture and language. Sadly when my ancestors were kidnapped and brought here on slave ships all of that was stolen from them. Even when I do visit Mozambique or Nigeria I will never know my tribe and cannot speak any of the tribal languages. However I do feel a very strong spiritual connection to my African ancestors especially those who came here during the Middle Passage. This may sound strange to some people but from time to time they speak to me as do some of my family members long deceased some as long ago as from the Civil War. My paternal Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead served in the Civil War. Their voices rise up from ages past beckoning to me as a 21st Century Scribe to write about them so that they are not forgotten.

William H. Halstead name as inscribed on the Colored Soldiers Monument in Washington, DC

William Henry Halstead Headstone ~ Sleepy Hollow

In December of 1863 my Great Great Grandfather, William Henry Halstead, who

lived in Tarrytown, New York, traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to join the

29th Connecticut Colored Infantry. On his Volunteer Enlistment papers it notes

his occupation as a farmer. He enlisted for three years and was discharged on the

24th day of October 1865. He married and had five children. William Henry

Halstead passed away in 1888 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in

Tarrytown, New York. His wife moved to New York City with her five children.

Her children grew up in Harlem and belonged to various organizations such as Odd

Fellows, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Daughters of New

York.

The same goes for my Native American ancestry.

Several years I wrote a blog post about that dilemma also called “The Cruelty of Christianity” basically when the Europeans first invaded America in 1492 or thereabouts the Native Americans had the land and the Europeans had the Bible. Now the Europeans have the Land and the Native Americans have the Bible. Perhaps their revenge are the casinos and tax-free cigarettes.

https://dancingpalmtrees.com/2012/05/05/the-cruelty-of-christianity/

Sometimes I get the feeling that she is me and I am she.

The Lioness of Judah Reigns

On February 7, 2016February 7, 2016 By dancingpalmtreesIn Amina, DeBorah, DeBorah Ann Palmer, Hattie Banks, Hattie Finney Banks, Judges 4: 4-5, Makeda, Shawnee Sioux War Dance, The Lioness of Judah Reigns, Uncategorized12 Comments

The Lioness of Judah Reigns. The Lioness does not concern Herself with the opinions of a sheep for She is the Alpha Female of the Tribe!! Victory is within her grasp!! Time to Rise and Grind!! For I come from Great Peoples of both African and Native American Ancestors who built a Great Nation!! A Warrior Queen may rest but only to regroup and come back even stronger than before!! The bloods of Nzingha, Queen of Ndongo, Yaa Asantewaa was the queen mother of the Edweso tribe of the Asante (Ashanti) in what is modern Ghana, Candace, Makeda ~ The Queen of Sheba, and Amina flow through me!! I am a Nubian/Native American Queen!!

http://afroetic.com/2011/11/19/who-was-queen-ann-nzingha-of-ndongo/

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/yaa-asantewaa.html

5 Most Powerful African Queens From History

Judges 4 New King James Version (NKJV)

Deborah

4 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of theLord. ²So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth Hagoyim. ³And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. ⁵And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. ⁶Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; ⁷and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”

⁸And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”

⁹So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; he went up with ten thousand men under his command,^[a] and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber the Kenite, of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent near the terebinth tree at Zaanaim, which is beside Kedesh.

¹²And they reported to Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor. ¹³So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.¹⁵And the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled away on foot. ¹⁶But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth Hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.

¹⁷However, Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. ¹⁸And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.” And when he had turned aside with her into the tent, she covered him with a blanket.

¹⁹Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a jug of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him. ²⁰And he said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there any man here?’ you shall say, ‘No.’”

²¹Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. ²²And then, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, “Come, I will show you the man whom you seek.” And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.

²³So on that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan in the presence of the children of Israel. ²⁴And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

Shawnee Sioux War Dance

Grandmother Hattie Banks 12251974_Dayton Ohio — Maternal Grandmother Hattie Finney Banks

You May have Stolen My Land but not my Spirit!! I have been anointed and called by My Eternal Ancestors for a time such as this!!

Ancestor_Dad_Side — Name know only to God. Paternal Woman Ancestor

Philippians 3:13-14 King James Version (KJV)

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

(7) DeBorah and A Better Balance

On January 31, 2016June 11, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn Uncategorized17 Comments

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

― Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

Source: (7) DeBorah Le Raconteur

Me and two Members of my A Better Balance Team helping to get justice and the right to care for my brother Stephen who has Autism!!

Removing the stigma thrust upon caregivers and their disabled relatives by the workplace! Go Team!!

Here is an article from A Better Balance about the Paid Family Leave Rally and my personal fight for Stephen!! Please read and Please support A Better Balance through generous donations. Thank you!

http://www.abetterbalance.org/web/blog/entry/vice-president-biden-and-governor-cuomo-champion-paid-family-leave-at-manhattan-rally

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/triumph/

The Daily Post

Jun 11, 2017

DAILY PROMPT

Triumph

Getting Our Blessing!!

On January 29, 2016June 11, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn A Better Balance, DeBorah Ann Palmer, FMLA, FMLA Inclusion Act, Stephen Vincent Palmer, Uncategorized, Vice President Joe Biden9 Comments

Today at Governor Andrew Cuomo State of the State Address!! Praise God for Divine Favor with Gov. Andrew Cuomo!! Praise God for Vice President Joe Biden. Last year Gov. Cuomo lost his Father Mario Cuomo was a Great Gov. and VP Biden lost his son to cancer. They understand. They care.

My Legal Team at A Better Balance had invited me to attend Governor Andrew Cuomo State of the State Address and at first I declined. Then yesterday at work I saw a 518 number on my cell phone. The Holy Spirit said return that call turns out that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had read the NY Times article about me and Stephen and through his representative I was personally invited to attend. When the Gov. calls you answer!! At first it was planned for me to give remarks but time was short since Vice President Biden was also in attendance and spoke.

Let me include the backstory on my FMLA struggles for those followers who have recently subscribed.

The New York Times on my brother Stephen and me that came to the attention of Gov. Andrew Cuomo!
http://nyti.ms/1BktTeP

Thanks to my Better Balance Team-mates, Thanks to Gov. Cuomo for inviting me and Thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has seen my troubles, heard my prayers and is answering. As the Lord spoke unto Mary He saw the low estate of His Handmaiden and stepped in. Just think me, a guard caught the eye and ear of the Gov. of New York State. Miracles Happen!

After attending the State of the State Address from Gov. Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden A Better Balance interviewed me on how Paid Family Leave would affect my ability to care for Stephen. As soon as the interview goes Live I will give out the link. Meantime please check out the photos from the event!!

Greater is He Who is in Me than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4 King James Version (KJV)

⁴Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Praise Dance Time!!

Mary Mary – Go Get It

It was an Honor to be at this State of the State Address at the McBurney YMCA located on 14th Street across from the Salvation Army church. A church I attended as a young woman. God said He would bring me before Great Men and he did. Jesus said Fear Not for I am with you always. Many Unions under the banner of AFL-CIO were represented and my only disappointment was not seeing anyone from DC 37 however during the continued standing ovations given to Gov. Cuomo and Vice President Biden I shouted out my Union DC 37!! DC 37 Local 1503 I did nothing special that any one of you cannot do. All you have to do is have faith but remember Faith without Works is dead!! There are people who believe in the Working Class!

Photos of me, my Better Balance Team, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Vice President Biden can be seen here.

Tweets by ABetterBalance

The song that has resonated in my spirit was Tasha Cobbs – Break Every Chain (Lyrics) https://youtu.be/-pD2zIuiC2g. I can’t explain the effect of this song and the call from Gov. Cuomo’s office but I actually saw chains breaking in the spirit world. Both speeches from Gov. Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden were heartfelt, uplifting and empowering!! Wow!! The energy in the room was incredible. Like Tasha Cobbs sings in the song, “There’s an Army Rising Up!!” Working people are rising up in the Empire State!! With such outstanding Leadership we will Have Paid Family Leave in New York State for 2016!!