With the "harmonies of liberty" from last week's centenary tribute concert for Sylvia Olden Lee at Carnegie Hall still echoing in the streets of Manhattan, we celebrate the anniversary of our independence from the British by rededicating ourselves to achieving a final victory in the fight for the liberation of all mankind from the slavery of poverty and underdevelopment. As the Belt and Road Initiative becomes the dominant economic dynamic on this planet, the old order indeed is beginning to pass away and a new era has begun. However, the consolidation of that new paradigm hangs in the balance. As the potential for a US-Russia-China alliance comes ever closer with the bilateral meetings planned for this weekend's G-20 in Germany, dangerous and destructive provocations are being perpetrated in a nefarious attempt to sabotage and derail that emerging Trump-Putin-Xi Jinping alliance. It is crucial that those attempts be thwarted, and the United States rather join this new paradigm of win-win development and cooperation. As New York State Senator Jesse Hamilton said of Sylvia Olden Lee, her enduring life-long passion and commitment was to the future of mankind, to lift the human spirit through music, and cause us to realize that "we are all one human race" and that "universal harmony is the natural condition of humanity." So, as we commemorate her immortal soul, and celebrate the anniversary of our nation's independence, let us truly "lift every voice and sing" in that universal harmony as we continue to march on, 'til victory is won!
