Some Thoughts About Mask Mandates

Regarding the early encouragement to wear masks -- and then, a bit later, the start of the mask mandates -- it seemed good to ask myself "why are they doing this?" A respected and very knowledgeable friend very early on told me that this really was a matter, not of health, but of control. I filed away his words but tried to see some supposed good, at least in motivation.

The closest I could come to finding that was by accepting the common credo that it is better to do something than to do nothing.

But life has taught me that credo is in fact wrong. History shows more harm is often done from social scheme "trying" -- at least in the larger sphere -- than just letting people experiment and perhaps find something truly effective, if not universally, than for themselves.

But the real revealer was the opening up by some about the "Great Reset." -Part and parcel to the new world order among the Devos gang. Put that in with what anyone can see -- the total hypocrisy of the application of the mask mandates, the insane and contradictory rulings on to whom and when it applies. And to that the smaller example of what the numbers above show. That those who broke the rules -- the homeless camps, the BLM/Antifa rioters -- for all their organizes mayhem did not bring on a deadly number of cases. It was just statistical noise.

Then see who is getting rich by the mandates. Whose lives are being destroyed. (The hard working middle class - today's Kulaks) and it all then makes sense.

Add the benefit of separating people and making them feel vulnerable and cut off and it all fits together. Right in there with all the other crap people are today accepting. Re society, re history, re Christian faith, re family structure, re schools, re even basic truths such as there being two genders determined by the basic genetic coding.

We are in the world of madness. Mask mandates are only a very small part of it -- but part nonetheless.

Can wearing a mask do any good? Under certain circumstances, yes. Surgeons wear them. But they also, and with equal weight, wear sterile gowns and shoe coverings -- and these only while in a sterile environment. -If they leave that, even for a moment, all of that is gear is removed and replaced.

Beyond that, no. And if they are being exposed to an actual known deadly infection even more is needed. Sealed suits and a controlled filtered air supply.

The masks are at best symbolic.

Wear 'em if you wish. Wear 'em, maybe, just because you're asked to. But believe the mask mandate crapolla? No. It just doesn't hold up under scrutiny. -

A Thought for and about our times. Our Day. Our Hour

 

Where do we stand as a nation? As a world of people still yearning to be free?  The answer is ON THE BRINK.

Yes, on the brink of losing our hope, our dreams. Even those already struggled for and accomplished.

No, not from Covid 19.  There have been many, many worse plagues throughout human history. Worse in their leatheality. Worse in myriad ways.  But none so intentionally made destructive to the lives and livelihood of millions upon millions of well people.

Not from "climate change."  At most a chimera fear brought to our attention with grave life-changing demands. Demands that those who push the fear themselves do absolutely nothing about, except making their own lives richer, fuller and, yes, noticeably exempt from any of the supposed 'costs of repair."

No, the threat we face is to something far more basic:  That to human independence. Thought. Ideas. Opportunity.  A threat being brought about by, on one hand, an intentional breakdown of the basic rules of conduct that have until recently opened up those very ideals to a greater and greater number of people across the globe. Ideals once beautifully and pithily phrased as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And a threat that on the other hand is being brought about by corruption and institutionally supported lies. Darkness. Fakery. Falsehood.

Right now -- today! this very moment! -- all of that negative power is being brought to bear by a fake and stolen election.  One carefully planned to be invisible, but one that was so close to being overwhelmed by the support of the common man for the good being done by America's first 'above the political Parties' president in at least decades (actually, I think, much longer) that the established powers had to go out on a limb to pull that faked election off. And thus, at least as to secrecy, they have not.

In short: WE KNOW.

Now it is up to us to do something about it. 

Yes! To be willing to pay any necessary price to protect hundreds of years  (some would say thousands) of human struggle. Struggle toward those basic ideals:  Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness.

For us.

For all.

For future generations.

Don't buy the lies, friends.  Don't subscribe to fear -- or to hopelessness.

Ignore the media propaganda.  See their "fact checking" for what it actually is -- and isn't.

See their quest to silence us, too, for what it represents: Their own fear of light and truth.

We the people have the power. We have the tools. We even, by the grace of God, have the leader.

In God we trust.  

Upward! Onward! Dethrone the self imposing monarchs of wealth and greed.

Now is our time. 

Now is our day. 

Now is our hour.



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We Must Keep Speaking the Truth About the Election Fraud!

 

Those in "authority" can call Joseph Biden what they choose, but Joe Biden was not "elected" by the American people. He therefor will never actually be the nation's elected president.

The how of this is out there, just not being made upfront. (YouTube has publicly announced that no video that even mentions the election fraud will be allowed to be posted.)

We can -- we should -- we MUST -- keep saying this over and over again. Not just saying it, but bringing forth the evidence; the proof.

The other side cannot allow a hearing of the evidence because that evidence is so strong, so instead they -- those who rigged the election and those who hope to benifit from its having been rigged -- demand silence.

Ridicule of that evidence and those who insist on revealiing it will follow.

CNN watchers, NPR listeners, readers of the NY Times and all the rest, will shake their heads. But they also will carefully avoid the evidence itself -- that because they must. For if heard this past election has to be seen for what it was and what it is: A fraud.

So I, and many others, will post the evidence. We will call out the fraud and the fraudsters. And, yes, we will no doubt get dumped on (and worse) for doing so.

What a small price that will be in comparison to what others have paid for truth and freedom. -Both of which are now being lost. Tossed away to be replaced by what?

That, I fear, the greater number will soon be finding out.

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"President by Theft, Joe Biden"

I find fascinating the numerous columns and social media comments being shared that suggest Pres. Trump's fighting the election's officially sanctioned "outcome" is solely personal.

That he has intense feelings about it I do not doubt. But so do some 70,000,000 or more Americans. And that for the very same reason.

This "election" appears to in fact be an appointment being made by those who see themselves above the common man. With the media and corporate world acting as their handmaidens and abetters.

To hell with them all. -That about sums up my own feelings.

Such have always existed. Serfdom for the greater number has always been their goal. (Just look at their personal lives and see the evidence for that -- forget their oh, so "noble" words.)

For four years these same people and institutions tried to undo the people's choice of 2016. With every sort of lie and machination.

The President resisted them then -- and so did we the people.

And still. No matter what the outcome. For might does not make right. Now now. Not ever.

"President by Theft, Joe Biden." That, should he and they pull the off, will be the only title I will call him.

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My Thought for the Day -- Thanksgiving, 2020

 

I expect that all of my readers here know that I am a very strong and appreciative advocate of and for President Trump. Some may not know that I was not so at the beginning. Indeed I wrote and saw published articles strongly urging that he not be the Republican candidate back in 2016.

I later posted a mea culpa and apology, simply saying "I was wrong."

Why? Because I was.

The truth is -- and one can go on for pages on the "why" of this -- Donald Trump is without question the most consequential president of my (all of our?) lifetime.

I shan't repeat that lengthy list here this morning. But I will share just two things that matter greatly -- things that would not have happened if Pres. Trump was not the feisty, never-say-die, person that made and makes so many -- and yes, that once included me! -- dislike him so.

Point one. His insistence on his right and duty as president to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

The pressure on him not to do so was intense. The Democrats, their lock-step medis sycophants, the TV talking heads, the entire military/university complex -- all were shouting out "No! No! No!!"

Yet if he hadn't last night's protection of religious freedom simply would not have happened. The three court liberals, joined by the never-to-be-trusted pretty boy Chief Justice -- would have ensured that. Gone. Wiped out. And for that alone the President deserves our unending thanks.

Would ANYONE else -- would those that I myself had wanted to see elected president in Donald Trump's place -- have had the cojones to get Amy Coney Barrett sitting where she ought sit at this critical time? In one word: No.

And maybe of even greater import, now, is D.J. Trump's willingness to stand and fight what is now more and more clearly seen to be what it is: A total phonying -- the total fraud -- that was not just the election itself, but the entire election plan of the Democratic Party. -The putting into office by totally corrupt means a man of limited mental faculties -- that so he could and would be used to totally change the character of our nation. To turn it into a kleptocracy instead of a free republic.

Can you think of and name a single other man who could have, and would have, effectively resisted what these 'kleptos' had in mind for us ? And, yes, still have in mind (for this battle has not yet been won).

Yes, all of this is a reason, not only to be truly thankful -- to celebrate this grand national holiday just as President Lincoln had in mind for us as a people -- but to see it -- to see ourselves as a people -- as both truly blessed, and saved, by God.

Yes! "In God we trust" -

'Preyed' or the 'preyed upon' -- which are we?

 

I find it interesting that past president Barack Obama focused on our current president's resistance to very apparent corruption of the vote as “one more step in delegitimizing, not just the incoming Biden administration, but democracy generally" and thought that to be "a dangerous path.” That while he had not a word about the very real and apparent corruption of this oddly ongoing election itself hurting our democracy -- destroying any remaining trust of the very people its government is supposed to be 'of, by and for.'

But then again, Barack Obama is from Chicago. And there such corruption -- and a general acceptance of it -- has long been seen as the norm.

I suppose that in a real sense these two presidents, one who followed the other, well represent the divide in our nation.

One, Obama, is smooth to the point of being glossy. The other is truly rough-hewn, sometimes even coarse.

One made his way in the greater world and became wealthy by building -- well rewarded for his own hard work. The other also got rich -- he, too, lives in a mansion -- but he did it via political gift giving and its peculiar form of 'reward for services rendered.'

America, too, is so divided. Some see that divide as simply being the difference between givers and takers.

I don't see it that simply. In large part because "giving" is a voluntary act. A good and positive thing. Where what I see is more akin to the 'preyers' and the preyed upon.

Some 'preyers' are people on the bottom -- those made dependent, be it by life's circumstances (often brought about by the dereliction of others) or by simple choice -- having taken the easy way out of life's challenges. Other are people on the top who use and abuse these beneath them. -This later a common trait found in lifetime politicians.

The preyed upon come in to several sorts as well. Those willing to simply take it as it comes, and those who refuse to do so.

Fortunately for humanity none of those states need be permanent. Occasionally a once 'taker' decided that the time for taking is over, and he or she becomes a giver. Some once upon a time willing to simply be someone else's prey simply somehow reaches a breaking point and comes to have had enough of it. (We call that "getting a backbone.")

And there you have the current American divide. Some take, some give.

Some put up with what "is." And others simply have come to think that enough is enough and have determined to be preyed upon no longer.

These later are Trump people. They comprise roughly half of the nation. The others -- be they the 'preying' type -- the takers -- or the accepting preyed upon -- are threatened by this. And there you have America as it exists today. A divided 50/50 nation battling it out for whose way holds sway.

It will not be long before we know who wins and who loses in this very real ongoing conflict. -

A Few Thought on the Ongoing Election Madness

 

*The central thing used to be winning votes.  Now it is winning power.  -Two very different things.

The first is predicated on the idea that ours is to be a government 'of, by and for the people.'  Today the "people" are seen as merely an obstacle to be won over, or equally, bamboozled or ignored.  The goal is no longer reaching them, but getting past them.

-Thus the selective hiding of essential facts and the blatant twisting of stories to those ends.

This has always been so on the margins -- within cities owned and run by a corrupt party apparatus -- but such was looked down upon -- seen as an aberration. Today it's what hired political operatives, many lawyers, and the media see as simply the means to getting what they think they deserve.  More power.

And "the people"?  These matter really not at all except as a means to an end.

And thus making 'the people' easier to bamboozle and easily countable or over-countable at election time is the long-term focus.

Again, such was long so in a few corrupt cities.  Beer barrel voters. But today it is an almost open goal with non citizens increasingly given a voice in the selection of elected (can we even reliably use the phrase "duly elected" any longer?) officials, and, more recently the push to allow convicted felons to vote.

Too the dumbing down of education.  Thus the push for open borders. -The more unlearned the better. The easier comes the bamboozling and, yes, the outright vote buying with government program giveaways -- or so the common understanding has fr some time been.

*The selective silence about some election results along with the loud trumpeting of other results is also a part of this.  As is the timing of such.  

This has been increasingly so as the shift from winning votes to winning power has become the modus vivendi.  But new (it seems to me) this election is the willingness to actually publicly stop counting votes until new ones can be "found."  As is both the handmaiden media's willingness to go along with this, and the poorly educated's seeming willingness to accept both the fact of it and the excuses used to justify it.

*That all the above has not totally succeeded is because of the fundamental truths that underlie our republic -- especially that of the basic equality of man. For while untaught and "deeply  feeling" people have been successfully created  by the system (Check out slang word "Karen"!) the bringing in of supposedly easy to lead and mislead migrants has not  gone entirely according to plan.

Before the present election day debacle is resolved due credit will have to be given to the bulwark that the supposedly easy to lead and mislead hispanic population -- most especially those who came here from Cuba and Venezuela -- has proved to be. They who had been fed the socialist lie and line before and knew the "truth" about it. Such simply were not easily fooled. Thank God for that and them!

I am sure that there are many more lessons to be gleaned from what we currently are experiencing.  But those are a few that have come to my mind this morning.

"In God we trust"


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It's Democrats Who Are Really Being Tested

"October Surprise?"

The Joe and Hunter Biden story is breathtaking in its gross dishonesty, and corruption. Not only of Joe's "trusted" position in the Obama Administration (Do thinking Americans really trust these people, or just pretend?), but now in its total corruption of the media as we have been forced to come to know it.

No, they -- the media -- no longer even pretend. Their corruption is complete.

Yes, there may be some CNN watcher in Terre Haute who doesn't know about all this, but the real pressure is on the bulk of long-term Democratic voters who, despite all the efforts of their party to silence this story, in fact do.

The spotlight may -- okay, IS -- on Joe Biden. But it is even more on them.

Will they -- average, honest people -- quietly, in their own heart and in the voting booth, just pretend it hasn't happened? -That Bidenesque corruption doesn't matter? That hate for the portrait of Donald Trump that the media has painted for them is justification for 'pulling the lever' (licking the stamp?) -- and thus to actually participate in putting such corruption into the White House?

I do not know how one deals with that type of inner conflict. I have never faced it.

But they must.

Millions and millions of Democrats must.

One at a time, and each time they turn on the networks and see the lying faces. Or when they sign onto Facebook -- knowing in their hearts that they, by going along with the lie and pretending that all this just "isn't so", are making themselves complicit to something that they themselves have to truly loath.

Yes, it is a time of testing.


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Dealing with the Hate that is Everywhere

 

"Hate" is today everywhere. The word there in scare quotes because I am referring to the real thing -- not the supposed sister to today's "racism," "homophobia" and "misogyny" - all of which have their own faked and exaggerated version -- one that is paraded everywhere -- along with, I suppose (never having actually personally seen such), the real things.

No, hate -- true hate -- is real and spreading like a cancer. And it is moving from something felt and openly expressed, to something that is acted upon. -Sometimes by design, sometimes because of uncontrolled and unrestrained anger and rage.

Yes, hate is growing and spreading and leaving its mark -- more and more often a bloodstained one and/or in the form of a chalk outline on the floor -- that of its victim.

We see it everywhere. In part because the media loves to show it, and with phone cameras always on the ready even small occurrences of violent hate, in out of the way places, are now eye bait for the masses.

Crazed people jumping on the counter of a fast food restaurant screaming and threatening. That seems today to be happening everywhere within one demographic. Cars running over "protestors" among another.

Dare a person wear a red Trump hat today? Or put a Trump sign on their lawn?

Dare a person just sit with a few friends in a restaurant without being ready to either go along with, or riskily refuse, to make some idiotic racial/political chant on some angry stranger's threatening demand?

(Have you decided what you'd do if you found yourself in that situation?)

But the political and cause-driven hate is not the only type today being seen. There is also, and increasingly, the outright, old-fashioned, impassioned, type. Even murder.

Yes murder. And not just in the mean urban streets long known for such things, but even in quiet towns and smaller cities such as surround my own still-for-the-moment tranquil semi-rural community.

I man in a town neighboring my own recently murdered another local man who had an affair with his wife. And then he forced his wife to decapitate (yes, you read that right) and bury the murdered man's body.

This morning I read about another murder in yet another neighboring town -- this committed by teen who killed his own father with a hammer and a knife.

These were "headlines" of a sort. But not the sort I often look at. And certainly not the sort I'd have, even a short time ago, expected to read in a local paper.

The various types of violence I mention above are not to my mind unrelated. They each in their own way reflect the same 'demons' having been loosed into the world. -One that here (and elsewhere) had been kept in check by the now "outmoded" idea of religion and basic morality. And in the place of such faith-based self-restraint has come the, yes!, demons of the unrestrained human soul.

I see all the above occuring and I choose to act for self preservation, and as and if needed, in self-protection.

Foremost of my own soul. I will not hate. I will not allow myself to see hate and unrestrained anger as normal. It is, and will remain, of another world inhabited by a different psyche. "Out there," not "in here."

TV and movies. Social media posts. If encouraging hate is their theme I want no part of them. No, none. Not to fill my mind or my heart.

But the second act of self defence is the building up of a perimeter. The "wall" that surrounds my life separating it from what is "out there."

And, with that, the development of a practiced and ready system of defence -- in this case not against an idea, but as needed against quite real and physical forces. To be used against any violent hater that wishes to force their way into the tranquil world that I inhabit with my friends and loved ones.

One does what one must. Such is a fundamental of adulthood.

Yes, It is as simple as that. And the first step toward doing so is being willing to see and recognise what is in fact, no matter how much we may personally dislike it, happening. To avoid childlike denial.

Yes, the threat of growing hate and violence is real. And that sad fact must be faced up to, and as required, dealt with.


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Finally! It's Wake Up Time!

Okay, the polls show a fast growing trend away from Joe Biden towards President Trump's reelection.

The why of this is simple -- and was predicted to occur by many knowing people.

Basically it is that we have reached wake up time. People, including those with at most a passing interest in politics, are now starting to seriously consider the choices in November's election.

Simply put, how can anyone actually support what the Democrats have been favoring? Crime and violence. Rioting and looting. Disintegration of the family. Rewarding irresponsibility. Punishing policemen and women who do what they have to defend themselves while arresting repeat criminals who have in some cases for years been preying on society. Outsourcing American jobs and making that profitable for Democratic Party candidate's family members. Keeping schools closed. Keeping businesses closed -- with exceptions for, again, politicians and their own families. Endless nastiness. And the pitting of one American against another -- against our own neighbors!

And along with all that there is the now more and more obvious contradiction between what people see with their own eyes and what the media tells them is supposedly happening. -The realization that most of the "news" is a twisted lie. This while real news -- important and often uplifting stories (such as the winding down of foreign wars and entanglements and the start of true peace in the Middle East) are being ignored and buried.

America has worked for now near two hundred a fifty years because most people are not only "smart," but often way smarter in a practical way than those who pride themselves in their own elite "smartness." -And indeed, those supposedly "elite" people are often shown to be quite stupid.

Open eyes show all the above. And that the division that has already taken place shows a dividing line between failure, widespread poverty, devolving morality and broken communities -- many of them large (our nation's cities!) and other communities -- those outside of the grip of the experts and the "woke" and the "now" -- that are peaceful, prosperous, safe and, despite all the world's problems, still relatively joy-filled.

You see this, don't you? So do I. How can anyone not see it unless they simply refuse to?

And so it is happening.

And once again this leaves me to say it: Smile, people. Smile. And keep busy and open and frank about who is on America's side, and who simply isn't.

The later these days sadly includes most of the Democratic Party.

And thus we shall soon VOTE THEM OUT.


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If there is a hope of "salvation" for today's America, It lies with us

It's said that every generation must learn the rules of life for itself. And that is true. But we used to have the past to guide us. History -- how things worked out when this or that had been tried -- and religion, guidance about "sins" and the bad that followed them. Literature, too. Yes, fiction, but fiction often based on closely observed reality.

Today's "youth" -- in quotes because the years here included in the phrase go way beyond just the young and inexperienced, but include all the uneducated and overprotected who never learned that actions have consequences -- has none of those advantages. No, nor for many the positive models of actual doers. Not personally, nor as in the examples of larger-than-life myths and fables.

This began with my generation -- so so-called boomers. Our teachers started watering down the truths, our ministers and rabbis to soften and justify what was once called "sin."

But they couldn't -- they just didn't have the power -- to eliminate or change the results that naturally followed. So instead they buried them or attached them to other causes. "Inequality." "Systemic racism."

I was a rock n roller back then. I watched as all this was happening. The "if it feels good do it" nonsense, the start of the drug craze, the rejection of what now, and often with mocking disdain, are called "family values."

I saw lives of people I truly cared for and about -- fellow musicians -- throw away the value of their gifts, and even of their own labor, chasing chimeras. Some paid with total dissolution, other found their way back. A few paid with their lives.

And now I/we see the same thing happening with entire large segments of our population. Cities reeling and nearing their breaking point. And unlike my friends back then -- people who had been reared with exposure to the ancient truths and understandings, and thus who had those to fall back upon when the errors of their ways -- life's hard realities that had led men to the past wisdom -- today we see people and entire communities totally lost.

Is it too late for them? Perhaps not if enough of us who know and remember are willing to speak. And if -- big if! -- they are willing to listen.

Ignorance, like drugs, is self-perpetuating. Easier to fall into than to climb out of. Especially when the media is equivalent to a drug dealer selling freely on the street.

If there is hope it lies with we who know. To pass along those hard earned truths -- the things that make up both history and religion.


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Words from 'both sides of my mouth'

A friend recently commented to me that concerning Covid19 I sometimes seem to be 'talking out of both sides of my mouth.' That one minute I was seemingly finding fault with government imposed restrictions and the other calling for personal caution. So I explained to them -- and will do so here as well -- that there is no contradiction, just a broad range of clearer and clearer facts that requires the two seemingly (but only seemingly) contradictory POVs.

When the virus was first upon us there was little data. But there were reports out of some parts of Italy, and then Spain, dealing with overwhelmed hospitals and a seemingly fearsome number of serious illnesses and deaths.

Responding to the "what ifs?" with strong measures -- especially since health professionals had long feared a repeat of the 1918 flu epidemic which killed millions -- was thus a reasonable response even if the specifics were put together in a hurry.

I'd compare this to the response anyone would be likely to make if they smelled smoke in their home. It'd not be casual. It'd not be slow. Everyone would be awakened. Its source we be sought out with urgency and with the tools in hand to put out any found flames.

And so our nation responded similarly to the reports of this virus.

Where was the smoke emanating from? China. Then Europe. And as in the case of a smoke in a home doors were shut to limit any fire's potential spread.

That was done by President Trump with typical alacrity. The left and their media voices of course complained. (As they always do with and about anything this president does no matter what.)

Since the perceived threats of and from the virus were quite different in various parts of our largely varying nation the specific local responses varied as well.

Sadly this was so not only in their intensity -- as they should have been -- but in their wisdom and their effectiveness. And as real data started to flow in -- something beyond mere fear -- again responses varied (and continue to vary) in their wisdom and effectiveness. 'Smart' leadership brought rewards to the people, incapable leaders brought various levels of hurt, confusion and pain.

Now we know, for instance, just who Covid19 largely threatens: The old and generally infirm plus those with certain pre existing and quite specific health issues.

This is not to say that no one else can get it -- or even, just possibly, become truly sick -- but that the number of such, as sad as each individual case may be, do not numerically call for a major shut down of a nation. Indeed, as is usually the case, giving very specific 'aid', both as to prevention of the disease among such, and focused care to those who actually require it, was as always not just generally wise, but in simple terms simply "good medicine."

And all of the above is, to use my friend's phrase, the "two side of my mouth."

Side one: Keep the politics out. See what is actually so -- who actually requires care re prevention and a cure -- and then do that with energy and wisdom and conviction -- just as you'd search out the cause of the smell of smoke I mentioned early on, above.

Side two: Act to protect *everybody* to the degree that they actually require such. Care for every American's actual needs -- this instead of looking to protect and advance the interest of specific groups -- politicians and their media handmaidens in particular.

The "two sides" then are equally real: The threat to some is real, the threat to others far less -- and indeed the threat of over action to these later far, far greater than the threat of this Covid19 virus.

Denying the above and spreading BS stories about who "created" the virus is -- sorry, but it must be said -- a childish and totally selfish response.

As is trying to frighten people who needn't actually be frightened -- and using this moderately bad (and only that) virus as a tool to take control of their lives while using misrepresentation of the facts -- fear mongering in fact! -- to do so.

No, I am not speaking out of "two side of my mouth." But I am speaking honestly and forthrightly about both equally important parts of this important story.


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Can we again be "One Nation ... Indivisible"?

Last evening I shared on Facebook a short piece by rather middle-of-the-road (by my own standards) John Hinderaker entitled "Is Disunion in our Future?"    In it Hinderaker raised the real possibility of our country actually coming apart -- splitting in two.

Others less middle-of-the-road have been warning of that  occurring for a while now, and some are saying -- pointing to the burning and pillaging of various US cities by the left's ever angry hoards while supposedly "Democratic" legislators, governors and mayors, be it through action or inaction,  have in effect sided with the pilligers -- as proof.

The city of Portland (WA) -- once the seen jewel in the "woke" left lover's crown -- has seen violence, pillaging and destruction now every night for weeks -- and the toll on the city is far worse than the media is allowing the nation to understand.

Some say we've been here before. The riots and mayhem of the sixties was, they say, just as bad. Yet the sixties ended, prosperity and a measure of civility in time returned. "See!" such such say. "We've been through this before and it passed."

Only now, however, do many realize what else was occurring as this supposedly "passed." -The roaches hid away (in the universities) until the lights went out again. And lo and behold, here they are, more 'roachie' than ever.

Will the same thing come to pass this time? Will today's passions cool off and civility return to our nation?

My own expectation is that yes, the same will likely occur again. But for that to occur it will require that the 'fool me once, shame on you' "woke" -- those of all races and groups -- to admit they were used -- tricked! -- and, yes, vote in large numbers for to reelection of President Trump.

Is such possible?

I think so, yes.

For example I think of the middle class moms in Portland who no longer feels quite safe going into town -- and that's if her favorite shops are not already boarded up.

Will such go from "woke" to being actually awake to the degree that she was used?

Or the black middle class who had for a time welcomed the activists (black and white) -- taking them at face value -- only to realize that in reality those people shared none of the same concerns or interests.

My own semi-rural New Hampshire town still has totally peaceful streets, but even here of late there have been tensions mounting as the 'Portland, East" peeple (as perhaps only I call them) who have governed it are starting to be taken notice of -- and the harm they have been slowly doing to the town's working people's own interests.

What the future holds can not be reliably predicted. But if it is not to be division then it will have to be a pulling together on traditional American values. -Those that allows differences among us to exist because of the strength fo what holds us as a nation together. The supreme value of "life, liberty and the (personal) pursuit of happiness."

Then and only then can we be "one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.


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"You say you want a revolution. Well, you know..."

"You say you want a revolution. Well, you know..."  So sang the Beatles back in 1968.

But the fact is that few "revolutions" work out well, or work out at all. That's a historical fact.

It shouldn't surprise us. Few ideas work out. Few last. What is old is not better because it is old. But it is often better because it has been tested. That's why it is still around. In simple terms "it worked."

The American revolution did work. Some see that as a near miracle -- one suggesting divine favor. Others see it as the one in a million that came together because a certain, rare, group of brilliant, imaginative, bold, studious, history-knowing men were together at the right time -- and that was "miracle" enough.

To say the American revolution "worked" is not hype. It is not partisan. Nor is it blind acceptance. Simply put, it did. It accomplished what it set out to accomplish and benefited -- this in very real ways -- more people than any other single act of man.

But that is not to say that it does not have enemies. Nor those who for any number of reason wish to see it undone.

Nor does it suggest that it is the end all/be all of human progress.

On the other hand this can be said: Those trying to bring it down today -- including those who say they are trying to "improve it" be it via "fundamental change" from within, or from without via riots and destruction, have shown no reason whatever why they should be either believed or trusted.

Few "brilliant" ideas pass the test of time and experience. And the ideas being put forth today are not even that. They are built on shallow thinking, almost childish word play, ignored contradictions -- and to the extent they have been tested -- and some have been tested! -- they have proved devastating to those upon whom that test has been conducted.

Anyone honest and wishing to see can find this out. Historically it is so. Internationally it is even now proving so. And even domestically one need just look at the places where its "ideas" have been tried and look at the results.

Human beings can for a time rationalize anything that offers them a seeming advantage. But a look at American prosperity and how it has proven open and advantageous to such a wide range of people demonstrates that the central truths of the American Revolution STILL are the best hope for, not only "mankind," but for each of us as individuals.

"Life." "Liberty" "The pursuit of happiness" -- each come to the degree that an individual personally applies the life principles that first led to the American Revolution, and then to its lasting success.

These principles may be considered 'old hat,' "bourgeois," "middle class" or any of a hundred other names put upon it. But 'cut to the proverbial chase' and one finds that their truths still are just that: Truths.

That hard work pays.
That free people are the most productive people.
That personal responsibility is required.
The dependency fails.
That the 'old fashioned" moral values are constant.

That all the above especially matters in youth -- when it must be taught.

That parents can pass these principles and modes of thinking and living along by word and example, but that no other method of teaching them is nearly as reliable.

That denying traditional moral values, and calling debased things by fancy new names, does not change their long term effects.

That the so-called "Judeo-Christian ethic" builds better, happier, lives for both individual people, and for communities, than any other tried method.

That short cuts to contentment --- be they high or low, practiced by the rich or the poor -- that ignores all the above simply do not work.

America -- the one given to us by our forebears -- does work. Is working.

Cut out the clamor. Look about you. The above is as true today as it ever was.

That is not a "belief." It is a fact.



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Our "Today" and Our "Tomorrow"

We live in "today." Yes, we all do to some extent.

Futurists may say they are living in -- this by imagining -- tomorrow. But what they imagine is based on what they are seeing and experiencing and (as important) thinking today.

World changing events do occur, but a frank and honest look tells us they are rarely what we, even the most imaginative of us, had expected.

Understanding this is critical, not just to the world as it turns, but to each of us and our own lives. And forgetting or ignoring it is destructive.

You cannot prepare for today -- you'd have to have done that yesterday. And preparation for tomorrow is limited to a) preparing for a wide range of possibilities with the focus on likelihood, and b) being "lucky."

How many of us, for instance, prepared for the closing up of society and the economy brought on by the reaction to Covid 19?

And note that keyword: The REACTION to Covid 19. For much that happens isn't truly based on what is actually happening, but on the perception of the same. -And that perception is for most people greatly influenced by others.

Fish swimming in a school may think that they are free to move where they want, up, down, this way or that -- but the greater part of their movement is determined by the movement of the school itself.

What controls that?

"Currents." "Leaders." Forces unknown.

All around us are currents. Currents in thinking. Currents in feelings. Moving people not as individuals, but as a group.

All around us are supposed "leaders." Influencing. Directing. That as they who claim to be able to predict tomorrow are themselves as stuck in today as everybody else.

"Wear masks!" "Black lives matter!" "Your color gives you privilege!" Those are the currents of the day. Those are the words of supposed "leaders.'

But that is TODAY. Tomorrow all three will be gone. Totally and completely forgotten.

The 'fish' won't even notice. The current of tomorrow's today will be then moving them on to somewhere else. Supposedly new and better ideas. New imperatives. -Ideas and imperatives that most all the fish will follow.

We -- you and I -- are moved by and with these things too. We, like it or not, are in the school moved by that current. Yes,every one of us.

But knowing that is so can make a difference, for then we can live our lives as they actually are -- which means wisely -- in the day's currents. -Making the best of the choices that are actually open to us, not limited by what we are told is open or closed to us. Making the best that each today has to offer. Not fooled, as so many are, into living someone else's life in their today and their hoped for tomorrow.



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Should this be our goal? Really?

A friend of mine cross posted that to Facebook today -- this in the form of someone's "tweet."

My "goal," the original 'tweeter' seems to suggest, should be to get to know him. His history. His culture. His gifts.

Now this individual may have a lot to offer me. I do not know him, or anything about him -- his gifts or his accomplishments --  so I cannot say.  But what comes to my mind -- is this unusual? -- is something else...  It is that this person, or his ancestors, like my own, came to the Western World. -The world that gave us the pure sciences and understanding such as mankind never had known or  benefitted from before -this from medicine and microbiology through microchips and all the way up to space travel.

That I now had access, via these people, to a culture like no other. One that gave us such as the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare, and the music of Bach and Mozart and Brahms and Beethoven.

That from these people -- and now, via them, available to me -- are works of art in every medium. Paintings, for instance, that range all they way from Rubens and Rembrandt through Chagall and beyond. 

That THEY gave us -- all mankind -- Ideas and philosophies of  justice and law that moved the human experience from daily experienced barbarity to an entirely new plain -- and this not just for the few, but for the many.

These are all here -- part of a culture my family (and I expect his) in a sense has "joined.'  A culture and a history truly like none other. 

If I have some obligation -- what the tweeter says should be my "goal" -- that of being "educated"  -- of growing in my understanding as well as my appreciation -- well, does not he?

How's deep I wonder is his appreciation (and knowledge) of any of these things?

Of "history"?

Or of the beauty and goodness of the world that had laid the foundation for the one that he and I are now living in -- must live in! -- yes, along with millions and millions of other men and women.

I do, yes, have much yet to learn.  And respect for the dignity of every person certainly should (and does) play a part in this.

But when it comes to learning?   My "goal" should be to see and appreciate his beauty?  His history? His culture? Really? 

Why?

No, I think it quite the other way around.

That there is much learning to be done.  From those that came before us here.  That it is their treasures I am obligated to learn from and to more greatly  appreciate. Not his


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America's "Clarification" -- A Good Thing

The existing divide in America is being revealed and clarified. That's a painful thing for us as a nation to be experiencing.

"Let's pretend" as a way of thinking has appeal because it feels good.

"Let's pretend" that we as a nation are not being split apart. "Let's pretend" that none of what is happening is truly happening, or that if it is that it really doesn't matter.

But it does.

That is because we will not -- we cannot-- come together again as a nation -- we cannot truly again be America, the beacon of liberty and progress and hope -- until we recognize that we have come apart.

The US as founded was a "Christian" nation. That -- not meaning a religious dogma, but a plethora of deeply held and shared values about mankind's place and obligations -- is the nation's very basis. -The source of its once seen as "self evident" truths.

America cannot be itself -- it cannot be "America" -- if those values and truths are denied, or worse, trampled and ridiculed.

Pres. Trump -- the man he is today as our president -- is standing for the preservation of those values. Boldly. Courageously.

We can stand together with him. Or not.

There will always be some who remain apart. (And there always have been.) -People who live in America, but are not in the fullest sense, American. Who do not share a love for the nation's basic founding principles.  -Those of liberty mixed with personal responsibility.  Who see "the state" as something else. Something over us, not of us.

The question now is how many such there are. And how many of us there are -- Americans. -Those who love the America of the founding -- a free and just nation, based on the law as set forth in our founding documents.

It matters not when we or our families got here. Or where we or they were from.

What matters is where we stand today.

And yes, with how much energy and conviction.

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The Real "Two Americas"

Yes - and we see it all around us. There are two Americas.

No, the dividing line is not race. People of all races are on both sides.

No, the dividing line is not wealth. For the poor and rich, too -- along with the many of us in the middle -- are here again on both sides.

Where the line is drawn is between those who look to the heavens -- and to make like itself heaven. And those who look similarly at hell.

How ironic that we Americans can right now with our literal eyes, as well as our minds, focus on either.  That this very weekend the literal "heavens" are again ours, as Americans and as human beings. Or, if we prefer, we can look into the jaws of fire and death.  At the "Dragon" above -- that beautiful creation of the creative minds and hard work being done at SpaceX  -- this one taking us to new heights and a bright exhilarating future. Or at a more traditional "dragon."  One totally of the earth. One that breaths death and fire.

Yes, it's our choice.

Well, largely.  But some are being forced to look neither up or down, but around them. This with fear and trepidation.

But there, too, there have been choices made. Some live in communities and literal cities that have aspired upward. And others that have dragged themselves downward. And they chosen that course every election day by choosing others whose eyes are affixed on what is below - or on ethereal promises that never pan out because they are not built on anything more solid than wishes and lies.

Dreams are one thing, wishes quite another.  Which we have -- where we choose to look -- is ours to decide.

Two Americas. One of hope, the other of bitterness and hate.

Choose with care friends. Either can be yours.

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"Cool it!"

So yesterdays 'big vid' was an iPhone one of a "mob" in a Staten Island supermarket angrily driving a non-mask wearing woman from the store. It, within mere hours of being posted, had some 6 million views.

I myself found it interesting to see the media equally (it is worth noting) on the left and right, blaming the 'other side', while, again equally, saying such anger was 'understandable.'

Is it?

If so that is not because the actual 'crime' of going unmasked is of such gravity, or that the actual danger this non-mask wearer was bringing into an otherwise "safe" environment was so.

No, what the video actually was displaying is the level of fear, anger and angst being brought into more and more communities. Fear, anger and angst strong enough to make otherwise normal, peaceful, citizens turn into a profane screaming mob. -A mob going after a hapless woman, to drive her from their midst.

Is there a lesson here? Should there be?

I think so, yes. It is for us to, in the common vernacular, "cool it."

And for no one is that message so important as for those of us who like to post about these things. -Be they informal posts here on Facebook, or tweets, or the more formal posts that some of us make in the form of webzine articles and blog entries.

Yet it seems few -- and again, this seems equally true on the political left and the political right -- liberals, progressives, conservatives, Trump haters, Trump lovers -- no one seems willing to stifle their apparent need to increase the level of fear and rile up additional anger.

It is easy to blame he politicians for this -- and yes, they certainly bare some of the blame. But from what I observe they are as much answering the call as making it themselves. (That is what politicians do -- they reflect the people's own passions and fears. -That is quite often the secret of their supposed 'success.')

So no, the blame cannot and should not be placed on politicians exclusively.

There's an old meme that says that when we point a finger at someone the other three are pointing right back at us. And here that is certainly true. For you cannot fight division by calling for yet more division. You cannot quiet anger by further raising it.

I have earlier posted in one of these personal 'my thoughts of the day' posts that my writings are no longer welcome at publications that used to gladly receive them. That at first, as the concerns I am raising here about us not being fear mongers and dividers became a theme, this caused my submissions to be subtly edited. Then such were rejected entirely on the supposed grounds that the publication just had 'too many article on this subject.' And then, finally (just last night) my being frankly told that my pieces on this subject -- my calls for mutual understanding and the importance of quelling the growing anger -- no longer matched the site's "theme and purpose."

Our nation has seen such division before. Back in the 1850s a then presidential candidate had warned the nation that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Interestingly those words themselves were taken by some to be an intended prophecy. The crowds hearing them saw such as a call for further division -- a call for war. And indeed that is just what history tells us happened. The most bloody war, still, in the history of our nation.

Is that where we are heading again today?

Some think so, yes. That while others firmly say "no." But so far at least few seem willing to even try to quench the growing fear, anxiety and anger. And fewer still seem willing or able to quell their own anger and divisiveness.

You and I, friends, do not individually have the power to change the course of human events. But we can choose to add to these passions -- or, if we think it wiser and better, to instead help quiet and subdue them.

I do not personally share in either this anger or in this pessimism. But *whatever* comes I have determined that I will not add to the growing angst. I will no be its multiplier. -That my words will stand for principle with firmness, but that I will at the same time, to the extent my understanding and ability allow, be a voice for concord and peace. And I here implore others to scrutinize themselves and to make that same choice and determination.

Things are hard enough already. We do not need yet more anger, fear or angst. Not in our homes, not in our lives, not in our supermarkets and no, not in our nation



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We -- Our Thoughts, Feeling, and the Ever Present Here and Now

There is a "truth" that we, even the most 'truth seeking' among us, can fail to see. It is that we are all influenced by the proverbial here and now. Where we are, physically, yes. But also in our mind (who is influencing us) and emotions (ditto). And that "now" means today. The present. And our own personal experiences that give all the above mentioned things their context and meaning.

This is so for me as much as anybody. My physical and emotional circumstances lead me to be optimistic and largely untroubled -- well, apart from the theoretical and philosophical. (I am at least as troubled by the increases in 'snark' and outright nastiness, and what such is doing to the quality of our lives, as I am by the actual effects thus far of the virus.)

But I live in an area with few cases of the virus -- none that I could even name -- and have a life (as I have in earlier posts described) that is little influenced by others. -Not just what they *do*, but equally what they *think.*

If we by physical circumstance, and as much by our nature, are more greatly influenced, then our outlook will be different. There is no "right" here -- and by that I equally mean that word as in 'what is so' as "right" in the sense of moral goodness or justice.

Those who watch TV are seeing and thus mentally living in a different world than me, for I watch no TV -- neither "news" or talk show stuff. So just as one may see a different world when looking out of their window or going out of their literal door, one will also be seeing and relating to a different world within their head and imagination.

All those 'worlds' are in a personal sense equally real. You have yours. I have mine. Each of us has his or her own.

And we each "see" tomorrow based on our own, personal, yesterdays and todays.

The famed year of "Woodstock" there was a more fatal viral outbreak going on than there is today. But life then simply went on with most of us then taking little notice.

Why was that?

Because people back then had seen far worse calamities -- and the inhabitants of today's world have seen and experienced so few that to many what has come to be called "micro aggressions" has for some time dominated their thinking and feeling. And these are (or were until now) seen, believed, and accepted to deserve that depth of emotional space.

My point here is not to challenge that, but merely to point out that such is like a person to whom a "cold day" is 40 degrees f will see "cold" differently than one who has experienced long winters where minus 40f is a real and experienced possibility.

One sees a 40f day coming and gets out a sweater. The other gets out a pair of shorts and prepares to celebrate a heat wave.

And so it is for each of us. Experiencing -- not just physically, but in our heads and hearts -- a different world in this time of virus.

One will see the need for yet more shutdown, the other for throwing off at least some of the now commonly accepted restraints.

This can be made "political," but on a more essential level it is not. It is just each of us, and all the rest of mankind, living out our own lives based on our own experience and circumstances.

The above being so we must make room for one-another. In my eyes It is our failure to do *that* which we should most fear. Far more than the virus.


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Sides? What "sides"?

In the world of political dreamers there is one TRUTH.  In the real world many ideas need to coexist -- this to match genuine tensions and conflicting "truths."

And the above is not just true as regards political theory, It is so to one degree or another about every 'reality' about us.

Take, for instance, the words and thinking of Dr. Fauci  and the words f those who say it is absolutely essential that we start to again open up both the economy and our personal lives.

Does a tension exist between these ideas?  Absolutely!  Is one side "right" and the other "wrong"?  No.

When Dr. Fauci speaks to his concern that even small openings bring risk of additional outbreaks -- even serious ones that effect many people  -- is not "wrong." But neither are those who point out that more lives could be damaged -- indeed, likely will be! -- if fear of the fact keeps us in lockdown.

Yes, both are "true."  Both are real dangers. 

These are dangers that sincere politicians have to face up to -- but that 'false' politicians -- those more interested in gaining political advantages (yes, possibly on BOTH sides in this debate) -- prefer to deny.

"We are right; they are wrong." "We care about people, they don't." Some on  both sides are shouting that.

I say: "No!" Neither side  can claim absolute right here -- neither closers or the openers. The dangers are real. oth those of reopening. And those of staying closed.

No decision will be free. Neither decision will leave lives untouched. -Some for the better, some for the worse. And that with infinite unknowns that will determine which was wiser and which less wise in each individual case.

This basic understanding is what in truth will separate the ideologues from the real world doers. 

There are sides here, but there are no "right" sides.  Just tough decisions needing to be made -- made equally with boldness and humility. -Two qualities needed but less and less seen in American affairs..

Let others "take sides."  Let us decide to listen and reason and speak and act with those same two qualities in place. Boldness and humility.  Working together towards a common goal -- that of making America again a united, vibrant, healthy, land of freedom and liberty for as many as possible.

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Let Us Watch What We Allow Ourselves to Become

Some people like excitement, others like quietude and peace. Some people prefer to always be in a well ordered society, with plenty of "rules" to keep it so. Others prefer complete freedom and maybe even a daily dose of hurly-burly or mayhem.

No matter where we fall on the above mentioned sliding scales NONE of us like this virus thing. We chomp and stomp. We rail. We do or do not willingly submit -- be it to the virus itself or the restrictions its appearance have placed on our lives.

All of the above is normal human behavior. Part and parcel to the wonderful differences that make us "human." And if you love people -- as I try to -- you have to at least try to love all of this.

But there is another reaction, or set of reactions, to the virus that I for one find quite troubling. It may, too, just be "human," but it none-the-less is a destructive aberration.

Maybe not a truly rare one, if all of mankind and all our history is included in our field of view, but it was  once a rarity, and now not too uncommon, among such as I considered my friends.

The "it" here is a willingness to buy into bullshit.

Sorry, but how else could I equally well put it?

All the concurrent 'blame game' stories making the rounds on Facebook and filling people's screens care of YouTube and who knows what other sources.

"He" did it. "They" did it. "It's all a hoax -one perpetrated by You Know Who."

Rubbish!!!!! It is none of those things. It is a virus. A disease semi-organism -- not a true life form, but of this earth. One of many such that has ravaged the human family for all its history. "Smart" if being able to outsmart smart people makes something so. Clever. Ingenious even.

But what part of the universe isn't?

And what part of it required being made by men to be so?

Yes, it is that. An evil-to-us component of the natural order. One that is effecting our lives uninvited. Challenging many of our assumptions about... well about almost everything.

Few of us can fight this semi-organism. So instead we deflect our angst towards what we know how to fight. A "seeable" enemy (even if such is just in our imagination). A "boogie man." He. They. Them.

Some couch this in political language. Others in words with religious significance. Yet others in pseudo science. But whatever words or images are used it is all just what I said earlier: Bullshit.

Please friends... Be frustrated. (How can you not be?) Be scared. Be angry. Be whatever you need to be to cope with what we are together facing. But do not fall for "it." For by doing so you degrade yourself and hurt the human family -- both those near to you and those far away.

This particular virus is new. But challenges like this are not. What may be new, though, is a generation of men who thought they would forever be free from anything like this.

Guess what folks... we're not.

It -- the virus -- is destructive enough without letting it destroy our world. Without allowing it to turn us either back, or away, from everything we have long held dear.

Reason. Trueness. Love. Fairness. Kindness. Understanding. Personal strength and endurance.

Please, friends, hold on to those things. Let us not gravitate towards those uglier others.

Got to be a 'culprit,' right?

I watch as myths build up -- ones that confirm people's previously held viewpoints about how "real" the virus is, where it came from, and whose "fault" it is.

This is human. We all look for confirmation. And today a hungry media sees satisfying that need as a sellable product, if not directly then once removed.

The left blames the right. The right the left. China blames America, America blames China. Domestics blame people from elsewhere, urbanites blame ruralites ("It was their political choices that led to this!)  On and on. Infinitum.

No doubt some blame resides here and there.  But on a deeper and truer level this, I truly think, is just something that happened. -Something we were so open for with today's speedy and mass movement of people and the things they carry that the wonder is that it took until now.

And we thought... No, we DEMAND!... that we be free of it. That others carry the burden. "They" "Them" The other."

Such is, yes, understandable.  But it is the flailing and wailing of children.
Grownups need to see farther. And do better.

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"Give me liberty or give me death"

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Those famed words spoken by Patrick Henry were once learned and revered by every American kid. Today? Maybe not. But the truth and spirit behind them is far from dead -- and we are seeing this in a myriad of ways across our land. Ways that demonstrate the 'real deal' as Henry's words meant them to be understood. -Not as a mere slogan, but as a challenge, a sometimes dangerous wager, a true willingness to put one's honor and even one's life on the line -- just as Henry himself did along with all his compatriots during the time of this nation's founding.

To Henry facing such challenges ever meant a willingness to stand opposed to the common thought -- to reason for himself and then to act. This even to the point of opposing the ratification of the proposed American constitution -- this because he feared it put too much power in the hands of a distant government -- a power he wished to keep closer to home and more personal.

Is that spirit dead? Thankfully, at least to me, it seems not. We are seeing examples of it across our blessed land.

We need not in every way agree with one-another and what we each do in our personal battle for liberty. But we can (and should) take responsibility for ourselves -- and, like Henry, rejoice when others do the same.

Each of us today has a battle to fight. For some that may be best fought quietly and serenely, in-doors. For others it may be out on the streets, in shops, or even, perhaps, on the beach.

May those words, too, be our mantra. "Give us liberty or give us death"

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All Those Coronavirus Contradictions - How should we deal with them?

Contradictions. Contradictions EVERYWHERE.  That is what the coronavirus has brought us.

Yes, even here, for my own postings could at least appear contradictory.

The why of this is simple -- and important to understand. Both the coronavirus disease itself, and the way society is dealing with it, is new. For that reason even long held understandings and beliefs are being challenged by it -- and not just once, then leading to a quick, firm, conclusion, but over and over again.

Too, the 'sales pitch' is vacillating and to some degree hollow, and to some degree that must be so, for it is being worded so as to make 'the sale' today, not tomorrow. And with us entering new territory almost daily, with new and contradictory information about the virus almost daily coming forth, so the 'sales pitch' will change and change and change yet again.

Case in point: Masks.  First the public was told not to wear them, then, later, that they should.  Is this not evidence of duplicity?

The answers to even that one question in itself calls for some contradictions.

Why were people told not to wear masks if in fact they were useful?  The answers to that are simple in fact, but not so simple to accept.

One was the mask shortage.  To build up the stock available to those forced to face the virus close up -- medical personnel, for instance -- people not being faced with daily exposure had to be discouraged from wearing a mask.  "It'll help you stay safe, but you shouldn't wear one anyway" simply is not an effective sales pitch (There's that phrase again!)  so the pitch was "you don't need 'em."

Truth?  Lie?  As every parent knows such things are not as black and white as that. At least not as 'so' as is the importance of keeping those in one's charge "safe."

And on the other side there was the simple fact that if one was following the safe spacing directives when one had to be about, and staying in at other times, wearing masks was in truth generally unnecessary.

But yes, the above did reveal contradictions. And some people for various reasons will see such as "lies."

Then there is the level of contagion.  At first unknown.

But could they tell us that?

When a parent tells their children never to speak to strangers they are commonly moved to do so by a genuine fear.  But try to put the realness of that fear into numbers?  I bet speaking to strangers is safe 99.9999% of the time.  Yet the charge not to speak to strangers is still a good one.  Are the parents giving that advice then "liars"?

And to all the above we need to add the principle of cause and effect.

Right now the death toll is far lower than some feared that it would be.

"There! They lied!!!"

No, not necessarily.

First of all, it is reasonable to think that the 'lock down' and social distancing has made a major difference in the spread of the illness.   Too, lowering the end number of those made ill was not in truth the initial purpose of the lockdowns, the closures, or the social distancing.  That's where that much maligned "flattening the curve" idea comes in. And again, at least in part, that was a sales pitch.  "You're gonna get it anyhow - just at a more convenient time" just isn't a good selling message.   So instead people were told to do those things so as to stay safe.

In fact, if the coronavirus does follow the seasonal rules that many other viruses have followed, many, many lives will have been saved.  But only now are we getting a real glimmer of hope that such is so -- and already at work.

All of the above, yes ALL OF IT, contains ifs ands and buts.  Changing information. Changes in focus. Various legitimate concerns that themselves to some real degree contradict one-another.

And in all the above I have not mentioned the current hot button subject: That of personal freedom being threatened by questionable laws and decrees.  What is truly temporary, what is for a short time reasonable (and legal) -- both open to interpretation -- and questions with answers that must be predicated on a certain level of trust -- a thing being brought into question by everything mentioned above.

Which brings us full circle.

Yes, contradictions are everywhere.

Children will most certainly struggle with that. Teenagers  even more so.  But we adults should at least be able to understand and make some room for it, realizing that in the real world such contradictions are not necessarily emblematic of evil.

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Haters... (ready for this?) ...Hate

Okay, this may not be either a brilliant or even an original observation, but haters hate.

(Space left here for your "Duh!"s)

What is generally less obvious (but still not an original observation) is that haters hide what they are.

Back in 1982 author and psychiatrist M. Scott Peck MD wrote a book entitled "People of the Lie." Its strongly supported thesis was based on an observation he had over and over been making through his life that the nastiest people he met were found in the various healing professions -- both physical and spiritual. That hateful people seemed to bury themselves there, in the "healing professions", where under a guise of 'goodness' they could look for victims -- most of whom were other people who claimed to be "caring," but in their cases sincerely -- and crush them.

When, at the time I was originally reading his book, I mentioned Dr. Peck's observation to a family member who had spent her entire life as a 'carer' -- in her case of the learning disabled -- she very strongly agreed with Peck's observation and started sharing one example of this after another. Ones that she herself had seen and experienced and was still seeing and experiencing.

This came to my mind because of the dichotomy I am myself observing here on Facebook - a place where hate and vitriol are in my eyes far too common. -But where I have been seeing, much to my amazement, that the worst examples of this hatefulness are found, not among my own friends, most of whom tend to be 'people of the idea,' but among others whom... yes! ... are commonly seen as "caring" people. 'Feelers.' 'Love everyone' sloganeers.

Among my thoughtful circle of largely hard-nosed realists a comment by one will bring two, three or maybe in some cases a half dozen equally thoughtful comments. Among these others any comment that even mentions certain disapproved by their set public figures by name will in just minutes get 60 or more 'short and nasties.' -Comments that not only show a relish for name-calling, but for wishing harm on the hated recipient.

Hate.

Group hate.

Cursed.

Slandered.

Wished dead.

All this by people of what? Yes, Peck had it right. "People of the lie."

Those who really care, of course, do none of those things.

I bet you are seeing this too.

_