Hidden Figures: The Story of Terry Lee Hamilton

  On Christmas of 2016 the film Hidden Figures was released in limited theaters domestically and then worldwide on January 6^th, 2017. With a production budget of only $25 million, as of Wednesday March 7^th Hidden Figures has grossed $195 million worldwide. Based upon the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures tells the story of African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA in 1961. Although NASA’s first American astronaut in orbit and two-time US senator John Glenn is the one who became a national hero, the mathematicians who helped put him in space, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan, were virtually unknown until Hidden Figures revealed them to the world.

The more that I’ve researched the back story of many national heroes, sheroes, inventions and historical landmarks, the more I began to see this narrative of hidden figures a fundamental part of American History and its establishment of wealth. For example, consider how the Patent Act of 1793 and 1836 restricted enslaved blacks from obtaining patents because we were not citizens. Because we were the property of others, whatever we invented was also the property of the slave masters who owned us. Although the U.S. government passed a patent law giving all American men, including Blacks, the right to patent their inventions, the lack of non-disclosure agreements, legal protection and basic capital to invent still created a scenario where blacks become hidden uncompensated figures behind some of America’s greatest heroes, sheroes, inventions and historical landmarks. I recently had the privilege of interviewing one of our more contemporary hidden figures by the name of Terry Lee Hamilton; a self-taught Scientist/Inventor from Western New York who designed the antennae and coupler interface system for Stico Industries that resolved Homeland Security's communications issues on 9/11 and was used during Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy and other disasters in the U.S. While employed at a company named Nanodynamics he was also responsible for helping design the fuel cell technology to sustain and stabilize jet propulsion packs. I had the pleasure of having Terry Lee Hamilton on Atlantis Build Talk Radio and you can check out both episodes here: Episode 41 and Episode 42.

Hamilton was born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY and began his formal journey into science at Trott Vocational High School in the electronics trade. I say “formal” because his earliest memories of scientific investigation began at  the age of 4 and continued through adolescence. He recalled an experience with his father teaching him to tell the time and him realizing a sequence in the numbers that added up to twelve. For example is one plus eleven equals twelve, two plus ten equals twelve, three plus nine equals twelve and so on. Hamilton also shared that he would often ask his father questions such as, “If a car is driving at sixty miles per hour and a fly is flying around inside of the car while it’s moving why doesn’t it hit the walls?” Once he entered high school he was able to direct his sense of curiosity into a vocational program that often him an opportunity to grow and develop. After graduation Hamilton continued his education at various institutions of higher learning such as the Ohio Institute of Technology, Niagara University, Erie Community College and the University of Buffalo where he studied everything from electrical and mechanical engineering, biochemistry, physics and chemistry. It was after this formal journey that Hamilton became employed with the above tech companies where he made his initial mark as a hidden figure. Although Stico Industries and Nanodynamics gave him an opportunity to share his knowledge and gain experience, upon accepting employment Hamilton signed a non-disclosure agreement similar to a rap artist record contract where the label owns his masters. Like other hidden figures of the past and present, his contributions to science and technology are the property of the companies he worked for. While many would be discouraged by this, Hamilton continued in his journey and founded Hamilton & Eades; a genetic research and development company.

Through Hamilton & Eades, Hamilton has developed reliable methods to analyze nutrients, other dietary components and their metabolites in foods, body fluids and tissues. This involves the latest tools in nano-technology, biochemistry, physics, computer software development and electronics. Most recently, Hamilton has developed a series of serums designed from a molecular level for removing wrinkles, reversing the aging process, hair growth, balding, skin rashes, herpes 1 and 2 and shingles. In partnership with him I distribute them as the Anusha product line through my company Quanaah Herbal Accents.

Hamilton, like many others who came before him and present today, are some of the greatest stories never told. At a time when youth were taught by American parents that college or the military were their only options towards living a successful life, Hamilton chose an uncharted path by not finishing his formal college career. Yes he experienced challenges and adversity be a self taught scientist with experience credentials, yet he also represents the morning star of a millennial movement that no longer views college and the military as its narrow options. With the proliferation of technology and the expansion of the World Wide Web via social media, now more than ever before we are seeing young people seeking entrepreneurialism, skilled trades, professional development and company branding as a means to control their intellectual property and creative rights. If it wasn’t for the sacrifices and lessons learned by trailblazers like Hamilton, the paved way that we see today would still be uncharted. If you’re interested in learning more about the Anusha serums, you can email me at: atlantisbuild@gmail.com.     

Peace,

Saladin   

How To Invent Mini Sex Offenders

   Technology is moving at such a fast rate that state and federal laws are often years behind addressing some of the new problems that come up based upon new technological advances. One such problem are laws surrounding sex offender status, sext messaging and child pornography.

   According to statistics gathered by Impact Justice a national innovation and research center, in 75% of the states, there are laws that still exist that “require children as young as 8 years old to be placed on sex offender registries, often for life, when adjudicated of what the courts deem sexual crimes.” This pre-adolescent to sex registry pipeline began in the mid 90’s, corresponding to budding growth and development of the World Wide Wide, smart phone technology, text messaging and social media. Keep in mind that many of these children are not registrants because of a sexual crime they actually committed, many of them are registered sex offenders based upon doing something as silly as pulling student’s pants down at school, public urination, sending a nude photo or sext messaging someone who happened to be underage. Even more problematic is the fact that many of these children are disproportionately people of color from impoverished urban environments without the finances to fight legal cases like this.

   Consider the case of Bobby Garza who was registered as a sex offender when he was 11 years old for indecent exposure to a child. His crime? He and his brother were urinating outside, a girl saw them and reported that they exposed themselves to her. Bobby was placed in foster care and escaped until he was placed in a youth detention facility for the next 6 years. Upon his release when he was 17 he had to register as a sex offender until he was 27 years old. Feeling that this was unfair he refused to register and was sentenced to prison for 5 years. Another example is Cormega Copening who was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and making child porn in 2014 for sharing nude photos with his girlfriend Brianna Benson when they were both 16 years old. They were arrested in 2015. A standout quarterback for his high school football team, Copening was benched by his team pending further investigation missing a critical time of his athletic career, facing nationwide public humiliation and the frightening possibility of becoming a registered sex offender. While awaiting trial, Copening was put on probation for a year when five felony charges of making and possessing child pornography were reduced to two misdemeanors in a plea bargain. It wasn’t until he competed his probation did County District Court Judge dismiss the two remaining charges, yet the damage was already done. According to North Carolina law, Copening and Benson were considered adults and children at the same time; when people 16 and older commit crimes they are prosecuted as adults, but if they are under age 18, and crime victims, they are considered minors. When Benson made and possessed nude photos of herself, North Carolina law treated her as if she were an adult pornographer who was victimizing her minor self. Thus charging her with two counts of felony sexual exploitation of a minor. Copening faced 4 charges for making and possessing nude photos of himself and 1 charge for possessing a nude photo that Benson sent to him. It’s outdated laws such as this in many states, which consider a teen both a victim and perpetrator, that are one of problematic reasons we see miscarriages of justice like this. These are just two cases involving young people of color who have found themselves punished for unreasonably defined so-called crimes. Another issue is the fact that while the identity of juveniles involved in a crime are kept private, a juvenile convicted as a sex offender is publicly registered.

   One of the other growing concerns are recent cases involving hundreds of students posting and sharing nude photos in Facebook groups, on other social media networks such as Twitter and Snapchat and on the file sharing site Dropbox. One such case is a child porn scandal involving an unnamed 17 year old student at Davidson Senior High School in Davidson, Michigan. Police learned that this student gathered over 100 nude photos of students posted to Snapchat, saved them to Dropbox and shared them around the school. Pending a full investigation, this student could be charged as an adult and according to Michigan law, nude photos of a person under the age of 18 is considered child sexual abusive material. The Prosecutor in this case can not only charge this student with the dissemination of child pornography but any student that posted these images to Snapchat in the first place. This is not even considering those youth who do not attend Davidson High School that may have downloaded those images from Dropbox and disseminated them.

   From the above examples I am sure you can see the magnitude of this issue surrounding sex offender registry status, sext messaging and child pornography and how there is usually no legal precedence of how cases like this should be handled. Historically speaking, as with most legal precedence's in this country, people of color from impoverished urban environments without the finances to fight these legal cases become the face of these often unfair judgments. Every quarter of the year technology advances to create and update tools we use that many state and federal laws are far behind. Advocacy groups such as Impact Justice and the Center on Youth Registration Reform are leading the charge to not only end youth sex offender registration but educate the public about its link to suicide, juvenile delinquency, homelessness, mental health issues, alcoholism and drug abuse. I encourage you to talk to the youth and look into workshops and information about internet and social media safety. Check out Impact Justice and the Center on Youth Registration Reform online to find our more about the legal cases and statistics involving youth sex registry. If we’re not on top of this and playing an active role to insure that we inform and protect our children, this system of creating mini sex offenders could be the next preschool to prison pipeline.

Peace,

Saladin

Thoughtforms

www.quanaah-publishing.com/our-products

Thoughtforms

By S. Quanaah



This weekend, November 7th, I chose to publish my fourteenth book "Thoughtforms." The purpose of this book is to share a conceptual-based cultural framework of Knowledge of Self [KOS].

One of the definitions of a thoughtform is derived from the Tibetan tradition called "Tulpa" which means to build [construct] with the Mind. As a writer, I am a scribe constructing and communicating a view of the world through words. To some, this profession is a form of mysticism: magical formations forged through powerful concentration. I wouldn't consider myself a mystic. Well.., maybe a natural mystic, yet writing does require a great degree of discipline and focus on a consistent basis. This book is another contribution of my contemplative life, written to inspire, empower and educate those who are considering and/or on the path of growth and development.

Thoughtforms encompasses ideas about society, psychological/social behavior, power dynamics, social structure and the science of everything in life from the cultural perspective of a Five Percenter. It's now available globally via Amazon, Amazon Kindle and my website Quanaah Publishing.