About 3.3 Million Years Ago -- And 43 Years Ago, Today...

At some point, somewhere between 3.3 and 4.0 million years ago, possibly on a morning not unlike this, an exquisitely bi-pedal hominid fell from a height of at least 40 feet (most likely falling from a tree) -- and shattered both her forearms, and her leg. She died there, some hours later, of these injuries. [That we know, from her unhealed fractures.]

Which is supremely ironic, given that the bone structure in her foot clearly indicates she walked upright (as does the connection of her spine to her skull), and so, she no longer had the closer to simian "tree gripping feet" of her far more distant forebears.

Yes -- though she walked upright, she was barely a three and a half feet tall. And perhaps she fell from the tree, while sleeping there, in the relative safety it afforded. We will never know. What we do know is that 43 years ago today, paleontologists working in the Afar region of central Ethiopia found her fossilized remains, including portions of her skull, and both broken arms.

They immediately knew: she was special. She was unlike any we'd ever previously known -- and in a very visceral sense -- speaking about common DNA at least, she is the mother of us all. We are all Africans. We all originated there, somewhere along the Olduvai Gorge, it seems. We are truly from one people, under these outward appearances of difference. Our DNA tells the truth of it. We are more alike than we are not alike, my friend.

. . . .We are more alike than we are not alike, my friend. . . .

-- Maya Angelou

So -- despite Mr. Trump's howlingly primitive rhetoric -- we should all take a moment, and thank our collective, universal, shared mother. Our African mother. Likely brown of skin. Likely stronger than most elite oarsmen, in her arms and thighs. . . likely from whence we all come. . . . these, the shards of DNA that she shared with us, to this day -- they run along all our genomes -- they make us what it is to be. . . human. That make us literally -- from many -- one. Try to have a better day than 45 would want you to. Do not let fear divide us -- we are more alike, than not alike, my friends.

नमस्ते