Square Root Day?

3/3/9 

Hm. Well 3 x 3 = 9.  So the square root of nine would be three. But it's a bit of a stretch to call it Square Root Day. After all, the year is two thousand and nine A.D. 

If Hallmark comes out with a card, I'm going to begin an international protest. But as long as Hallmark stays out of it, I'm as willing to celebrate a fake holiday as the next person. Behold "my" creation!

And in the spirit of the day I'll even do a little advance planning for a year that is actually a square number: 2025 (square root = 45). Let's all get excited on the 45th day of 2025. OK, friends, pencil it in. February 14, 2025. And I've found the perfect location for our celebration. Bring your sweetheart! Who's in?

A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons is a documentary about African American Latter-day Saints. The project is headed by Margaret Young and Darius Gray, authors of several award-winning books and articles about Black Mormons, and by Danor Gerald, a promising new filmmaker.

Few people, Mormon and non-Mormon, are aware that there has been an African American presence in the LDS Church from its earliest days, that the vanguard company of Mormon included three “colored servants” who were baptized Mormons, and whose descendants remained active in the Church for several generations. This documentary talks about that little-known legacy, and confronts the hard issues which surfaced in the most turbulent years of the Civil Rights Movement, when the Church restricted its priesthood from those of African descent. It discusses how that restriction was lifted and what the lives and challenges of the modern Black Mormon pioneers are.

I am thrilled that there will be a showing of "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons" at 10th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival. I have been watching this documentary's progress for some time now and have heard nothing but raves from those who have been lucky enough to see it.

Margaret Young (of BYU fame) and Darius Gray (mentioned in Dean Hughes' Hearts of the Fathers series) have worked long and hard to cover a sensitive topic with testimony and honesty. They will both be available for a question and answer session after the showing on the 14th.

I would not recommend this film for young viewers, as it is intense. Bring your hankies, my friends, and expect to be filled with sorrow for the trials of our brothers and sisters and filled with joy at the mercies of God.