At One
When I veered off topic and segued from a Christopher Nance discussion into a Michael "the Maintenance Man" Burton discussion, I was reminded of a sound bite that Kevin and Bean were fond of playing. The text below is from a transcript of Minister Louis Farrakhan's remarks at the Million Man March.

I want to take one last look at the word atonement.

The first four letters of the word form the foundation; "a-t-o-n". . . "a-ton", "a-ton". Since this obelisk in front of us is representative of Egypt. In the 18th dynasty, a Pharaoh named Akhenaton, was the first man of this history period to destroy the pantheon of many gods and bring the people to the worship of one god. And that one god was symbolized by a sun disk with 19 rays coming out of that sun with hands holding the Egyptian Ankh - the cross of life. A-ton. The name for the one god in ancient Egypt. A- ton, the one god. 19 rays. Look at your scripture.

A woman, remember the nine, means somebody pregnant, with an idea. But, in this case, its a woman pregnant with a male child destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. God is standing over her womb, and this child will be like the day sun, and he will say "I am the light of the world." Hands coming out of that sun, come unto me all ye that are heavy laden. I'm gonna give you rest, but I'm gonna give you life, because I am the resurrection and the life and if you believe in me, though you are dead, yet shall you live again.

You're dead, Black man. But if you believe in the god who created this sun of truth and of light with 19 rays, meaning he's pregnant with God's spirit, God's life, God's wisdom. Abraham Lincoln's statue, 19 feet high, 19 feet wide. Jefferson, 19 feet high, 16 (OFF-MIKE) and the third president, 19. Standing on the steps of the Capitol, in the light of the sun. Offering life to a people who are dead.

Black man, the a-ton represents the one God. In the Koran, Muhammad is called a light giving son. So if you look at the aton, add an "e" to it, and separate the "a" from the next four letters and you get the word a tone.

Atone means sound. And "a", the first letter of the alphabet and the first letter of the numerical system is one. So "a" equals one. So "a" sound means when you hear the "a" tone, you will hear the right sound. And when you hear the right sound from the one God calling you to divine life, you will respond. So what is the "a" tone? In music, a equals 440 vibrations. How long have we been in America? Four hundred and forty years.

Well, in the 440th year, from the one God, the Aton will come the a tone and all of us got to tune up our lives by the sound of the a tone. Because we've got to atone for all that we have done wrong. And when you atone, if you take the "t" and couple it with the "a" and hyphenate it, you get at one. So when you atone you become at one. At one with who? The Aton or the one God. Because you heard the a tone and you tuned up your life and now you're ready to make a new beginning.

Well, now that I'm quoting Louis Farrakhan's views on atonement on the afternoon before Yom Kippur, I should close with this: