DDR: Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie

 

xii + 497 = 509 pages

I'm not 100% sure that this is my next DDR, but just in case I started reading the end notes as I went along. Don't eant to get stuck the way I did with TIE. 

Day 1 (DDRD 3,099) April 26, 2026

Read to page 20.

An American definition of freedom: the right to inflict tyranny on others.

Yep.

Day 2 (DDRD 3,100) April 27, 2026

Read to page 60. Interesting, sure, but it hasn't caught me up yet.

DDR: The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart

Well, this has been quite the challenge. I had open heart surgery on the 15th. I have read every day since my last DDR (1st, 2nd, and today the 3rd), but it's been pretty meager...one day only a paragraph. But I'm feeling a bit better today, so I'm hoping to knock out some pages. Let's see how that goes.

xxvii + 290= 317,

Day 4 (DDRD 3,090) April 17, 2026 

Read to page 15. Which makes 42 pages in ...the physical world--matter itself--4 days. Pmindretty puny, but hey...I HAD OPEN HEART SURGERY!

Day 5 (DDRD 3,091) April 18, 2026

Read to page 45 (30 pages!).

"Things no longer should be seen to exist in and of themselves, but like a quantum particle, exist only in relationship.  ...the physical world-- matter itself--appears to be malleable, susceptible to influence from the outside." (17)

😱Albert 

Y'know,  I can understand why people would be dismissive of the thesis of this book if you just gave them a one or two sentence summation, but reading the details, I get a different idea. The work on these concepts involved. Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winners, and equipment that cost hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars. That doesn't sound like a scam to me.

Day 7 (DDRD 3,092) April 19, 2026

Read to page 58. Yeah. Fucked up day. Plus I took a shower. You can't believe how strenuous that is after you've had open heart surgery.

Thinking about this book has got me thinking about other related things. For instance, this morning I was thinking, I know the words to heal, and I try to speak them as often as I can. And often I can see that it makes a difference to people. One incident I'm thinking of occurred several years ago. I was in Barnes & Noble, and I saw this young girl, an odd looking girl, and an older woman had come up to her and asked some impertinent question, and the girl reacted with such sweetness and kindness that I couldn't stop myself. When the older woman walked away, I went up to the girl and said, "You know, sometimes I think there's no hope left for this world. But when I see people like you who are just so kind for no particular reason, I know that we're going to make it. I'm so glad that you exist." And we both started to cry. I have to say I have not always used words of kindness. I've spoken in anger. I've spoken in fear. I've said some dreadful things, and I wish I could go back and change that. Maybe one of the gifts of old age is that you slowly begin to really know that this life is not much about yourself. In fact, it's not really about yourself at all. It's about how you interact with other people. How you establish relationships, how you treat other people. And isn't that really what this book is about?

Day 8 (DDRD 3,093) April 20, 2026

Read to page 70. Short day...Hospital Release Day.

Quote from Walt Whitman: "Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." (63)

Who needs scientists...we've got poets.

I was just watching some highlights from the NBA playoffs (which seemed much less intense than the WNBA games I've watched), and I thought, "My next DDR should be Foul! The Connie Hawkins Story by David Wolf. It's too expensive to buy--$100 or more on most websites--but guess what?  https://archive.org/details/foulconniehawkin0000davi_b5g7/mode/1up

Some scientists were measuring brain waves of monks while meditating; this part struck me: "When Davidson and his colleague Antoine Lutz wrote up their study, they realized that they were reporting the highest measures of gamma activity ever recorded among people who were not insane." (71)

Day 9 (DDRD 3,094) April 21, 2026

Read to page 105.

My interest in Catholicism has been steadily growing since late 1980, when I began at My Studies at Bellarmine College (now Iniversity). Since there was a requirement for 9 hours of theology for any major, I decided to get it over with at the get-go and signed up for an introductory class. I had had no interest in Catholicism previously, but the priest who taught this class, Eugene Zoller, was so dynamic, so enigmatic, that when it was time for second semester sign ups, I sought out his name and signed up for another theology class with him. That was a pattern that continued for all three of my years at the college  (Catonsville Community College  plus CLEP tests taken in the military made up for the other year of my English major), so I ended up graduating with my major in English and a minor in theology. I also ended up married to a Catholic girl.  I had met her in a theology class, admired her from afar for awhile, and finally worked up the courage to ask her out. She acceded, we began to date, and about 6 months later we got married. I can't remember if I attended mass with her at that time, but when she was offered a scholarship to Notre Dame we moved up there. I read lots of her textbooks so that I could be of some use to her, and after she had graduated we returned to Louisville. Not long after that we had our first child. He was baptized and I began going to mass. I was fascinated by the Catholic church. It was so different from the Lutheran church I had grown up in. The Lutheran church was very plain and dull. The Catholic church was elaborate, fascinating...full of mystical implications. I liked it. So much so that when my Catholic  Girl and I divorced I continued to take our children to mass on the weekends when it was my turn to do so Long story short I fell deeper and deeper into the embrace of Catholicism over the years in the past year or so I have taken to reciting the rosary on a daily basis I like the sense of having a physical implement to anchor me to my prayers I have not always found it easy to pray I also like the sense of the repetition the mantra like nature of it. At any rate, I have been saying the rosary every day for over a year now.

"A study at the university of Pavia in Italy and John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford showed that saying the rosary had the same effect on the body as reciting a mantra. Both were able to create a 'striking, powerful and synchronous increase' in cardiovascular rhythms when recited at 6 times a minute." (71 - 72)

In fact, there is research  (Lazar) which indicates that "meditation causes permanent alterations in brain structure." (74) And if saying the rosary is essentially meditation, then....

Day 10 (DDRD 3,095) April 22, 2026

Read to page 135.

"The strange, almost unbelievable events occurring during Tiller's experiments made me wonder whether setting aside a particular room for carrying out intention might be an important consideration. Perhaps we each need our own 'temple' to which we return...." (123)

Day 11 (DDRD 3,096) April 23, 2026

Read to page 165.

Reference the pleasure that is derived from curiosity / hunting, "What actually feels good is the activation of the seeking portion of the brain." (137) Which makes me think that a part of the great pleasure I derive from reading is because for me that is seeking. Seeking the truth, man.

After discussing self-healing etc, "These cases of spontaneous remission suggested to me that casual thoughts that run through our minds every day together become our life's intention." (142)

Well, that seems very important.

Day 12 (DDRD 3,097) April 24, 2026

Read to 195.

Meanwhile,  back at my heart...

The vertical cuts at the bottom had tubes hanging out of them. Yuch.

I usually read all the notes, the. Bibliography, and the Index for the books that have them. But when the notes come at the back of the book, it creates a bit of a reading strain for me. I don't like to keep flipping back and forth. But I usually do it, even though it makes it harder to concentrate on the text. This time, however, I was too caught up in the reading to do do diligence. Which means this: I have 40 more pages of text here. Then 26 pages of notes, 22 pages of Bibliography,  and 16 pages of Index. That's a lot...and I'm thinking about skipping it. Which would mean that I "lose" 64 pages of reading--two days' worth. I'm pretty focused on knocking back pages, and I would guess that I could read the 64 pages in a single day given their nature. But it wouldn't be any fun. So we'll see how it goes. But I am anxious to move on to whatever comes next.

"We can no longer view ourselves as isolated from our environment, and our thoughts as the private, self-contained workings of an individual brain. ...Every thought we have, every judgment we hold, however unconscious, is having an effect. With every moment that it notices, the conscious mind is sending an intention." (194)

Day 13 (DDRD 3,098) April 25, 2026

Read to page 230.

Reference preparation for meditation, one of the suggestions is "prayer, as with a rosary, since the repetitive sounds still the mind." (202) Score another one for rosries!

Couldn't face the Notes, etc. Bro out.

My favorite context-free quote of the week.

 

"...even the virtues of opium have their limit."

DDR: The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States by David J. Silverman

Day 1 (DDRD 3,074) April 1, 2026)

Read to page 27. 

I had my doubts about going to this book next. Was I really prepared to read about the ignominious treatment of native Americans? Not a head in the sand reaction, but a keeping my head above water one. But it's a library book, and I knew that if I didn't start it now, it would go back unread. So....

x + 501 = 601 pages.

Go.

"...behind the American celebration of the self-made man is the reality that too many of those figures were and are mere hucksters and blowhards." (2)

Reference American Indians adapting to life after the invasion of whites by becoming ranchers, etc., Silverman says that "White civilization had no room for actual Indians adapting to modernity. Therefore, the White public either ignored them or dismissed them as inauthentic. Recognition as real Indians required playing to the stereotype." (4)

"...scholars no longer view race as real in a biological sense. Rather, they see it as a product of history, of human beings categorizing one another as discrete descent groups and giving those categories social, cultural, economic, and political meaning based on struggles for power. That is to say, scholars agree that race is not a matter of skin color, blood, or some other physical essence, but is purely a human construct for human purposes." (25)

Day 2 (DDRD 3,075) April 2, 2026)

Read to page 60.

I think I'm up the first person to read this book.  The "received" stamp is for February 18th 2026, which is pretty close to the date I picked it up from the library. Also, there's this:

https://youtube.com/shohttps://youtube.com/shorts/KOYi82Y6uPQ?feature=sharerts/KOYi82Y6uPQ?feature=share

Is that a These Pages Have Not Been Turned Previously sound, or what?

Reference the deaths of many Native Americans from smallpox in the early 17th century, Governor John Winthrop said, "...so the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess." (35) How's that for a Good Christian Man?

After discussing the atrocities committed by Nathaniel Bacon and his followers, we're told that even after "Bacon was long dead...the fear, hatred, and greed that drove his movement continued to animate the colony's vicious exploitation of Native people for decades to come." (50)

Which makes me wonder.

Day 3 (DDRD 3,076) April 3, 2026)

Read to page 90. According to Silverman, the governments of some of the colonies offered bounties for the scalps of "Indians." They went as high as the equivalent of today's $80,000. Can that possibly be true? Well...AI Overview says $30,000. But still...Holy shit!

Day 4 (DDRD 3,077) April 4, 2026)

Read to page 120.

As I was reading about the American Revolution today, Jacqueline found a Schoolhouse Rock segment on the same topic. (Coincidence, I suppose, though sometimes that's hard to believe.) I stopped to watch. It was an innocuous bit set to bouncy music, and there was only one appearance of Indians --in which they peered at the White folks and then disappeared again. Apparently, they weren't part of the action according to 🏫 🪨. Which I understand, of course: the target audience is a little young for the subject of genocide. But why include the Indians at all? To make them skittish spectators does not honor history.

By the way, I have taken to using the term Indians without even the small solace of quotation marks because according to the author of this book, who is a Native American, The People prefer this term to others. Apparently, it's liberal White folks (🙄) who try to force feed the Native American nomenclature.

They don't teach you this in history class: Indians refered to George Washington as Conotocarious, which meant Town Destroyer. (120) 

Holy shit.

Another American hero, George Rogers Clark, said, "to excel [Indians] in barbarity was and is the only way to make war upon...and gain a name among them." To this, he added, "for his part, he would never spare Man woman or child of them on whom he could lay his hands." (120)

I have no words for this.

Day 5 (DDRD 3,078) April 5, 2026)

Read to page 130. I got sucked into The Moonstone  and couldn't pull out. In fact, I'm going back now to finish it off. 

Day 6 (DDRD 3,079) April 6, 2026)

Read to page 140. Another short day, but a better excuse this time: I was at the hospital from 7 am until 2 pm for a heart catheterization, then went home with a directive not to use my right hand for 24 hours. 😒

Day 7 (DDRD 3,080) April 7, 2026)

Read to page 170.

Said of the White treatment of Indians, but still works today: "The real issue was the number of White Americans whose ideology and interests made them blind to the obvious truth, or willing to lie about it bald-facedly." (167)

Andrew Jackson as the Great Father. (Satire)
Public Domain

Day 8 (DDRD 3,081) April 8, 2026)

Read to page 200.

In his discussion of the government's moving the Seminole Indians out of Florida, Silverman says, "...for every four Seminoles deported, the United States killed one person, lost three soldiers, and spent thirty-two thousand dollars. In today's money, that would be equivalent to about $8.5 million for every deportee." (181) 

And once again, this sounds very familiar. 

I suspect that no commentary is necessary regarding this...

...but just in case: The Latin phrase says "Civilization Replaces Barbarism," and it certainly appears as if that White dude is chasing the Indian out with his plow and horses.

Day 9 (DDRD 3,082) April 9, 2026)

Read to page 235.

An Indian named Smohalla

https://alchetron.com/Smohalla

said, "Men who work cannot dream and wisdom comes to us in dreams." (233)

That's what I'm talking about.

😴 ✨️ ✨️ ✨️ ✨️ ✨️ ✨️ 

Day 10 (DDRD 3,083) April 10, 2026)

Read to page 254.

Day 11 (DDRD 3,084) April 11, 2026

Read to page 267. References to Indian boarding schools reminded me of the scenes in 1923 which showed the cruel and inhuman treatment children endured there. AI told me these other shows dealt with this: Sugarcane (Disney+), Anne With an E (Netflix), and Reservation Dogs (Disney+? HBO?) 

I have 113 pages to go in this book. Counting today (since I'm not finished reading for today), I have 3 days before I go to the hospital. Can I pump it up to 40 pages per day and finish before then? I think so. Let's see.

BTW, the pictures in this book are just AWful...small and dark and blurry. Check this one out:

And that's not even the worst of them.

Meanwhile...

Read to page 307. 🚂I think I can I think I can.🚂

Day 12 (DDRD 3,085) April 12, 2026

Read to page 354. 28 text pages to go. In the immortal words of Barry Manilow, Looks Like We Made It. 🎇

If this doesn't break your heart, nothing will.

Sarah Deer

Day 13 (DDRD 3,086) April 13, 2026

Read to page 501, The End.

"Honest, evidence-based, resolute historical perspective is necessary to combat White supremacy in the present and future...." (377)

Which explains the conservative determination to sanitize history.

A good book, well worth reading. 

Sherlock

"Don't appall me when I'm high."

Sherlock Season 3 Episode 3 ∙ His Last Vow