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A chilling letter, Heather; it must have been a difficult one to write on both fronts. Putin and his army's blood curdling crimes are mirrored by those that tfg and his lackeys are capable of committing.

"They were just little things, those silly schedules and the articles about some deluded plan to decertify the state election results, littler than the many other norms Trump had broken. They were easily ignored or explained away by those who supported the president as well as by those just eager to see him gone. And yet, it turns out we should have been paying better attention: they were the signs that we were on the verge of losing our democracy.'

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Thanks for highlighting Dr. Richardson's last paragraph.

I am sending that paragraph far and wide making me EVEN more popular with my growing number of former Republican friends.

:-)

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I have none left. Sorry, Bill Maher and those who think we should not be tribal. When people show you who they are, believe them.

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Jeri, I understand you and, apart from a tacit understanding that we are fellow humans, I have no idea how to communicate at any depth with those in my own family.

That said, these people are showing you their nasty contagious disease, not what they are.

What is peculiar to this psychotic condition is how it not only spreads through the population directly infected, it befouls the innocent victims of their madness, their children and grandchildren. It scars generations.

Let us do all we can to protect ourselves from the disease and the diseased, even killing criminal psychopaths if we must, as surgeons amputate gangrened limbs. But let us hate no one.

Hatred is the primary symptom of their mass madness.

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"It scars generations." Chilling thought.

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The seven generations principle got run over and decimated when indigenous peoples were treated with the same madness. “Seven generation stewardship is a concept that urges the current generation of humans to live and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future.[citation needed] It is believed to have originated[citation needed] with the Iroquois – Great Law of the Iroquois – which holds appropriate to think seven generations ahead” (wiki)

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Thank you for citing this wisdom from a more stable society.

The accelerating treadmill that is ours makes it difficult to manage our own lives and enable our children to manage theirs, let alone build for posterity.

We are trying to face down parasites who bleed both the present and the future dry.

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So true. And, unfortunately, our current society only looks to the next quarterly financial report. It prevents us from learning sufficiently from the past (and believing we won't repeating it) as well as not planning sufficiently for the future.

When something is predictable, it's potentially preventable.

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Yes. And still we've not learned.

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Thank you for your viewpoint, Peter. I live among them and battle my knowledge of them as good people, vs. my feeling that to support TFG and the GOP makes them monsters. I’ve come to the conclusion also that they may deserve my pity. Of course I suppose that makes me an elitist. ; )

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If you just substitute the word compassion for pity, I think that gives you some more room.

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Yes compassion. Try to remember that we were one and all duped by a sophisticated worldwide attempt to subvert democracy. As brilliance once again catches us up we will put it together again. Stronger. I went to war. I want to fight the bastards with every ounce of cunning and strength in my frail old man body. When it comes time to die that is the easy part. To lay down your life heroically. No fear, no shame knowing you exercise your only option. We must walk slowly among the dead. We must walk slowly amongst those still living as well. We must find that way which preserves their lives. If we put a million men into the breach we can arrest the motion of war and the outlook of the future. No doubt. We may yet go there. We may have no choice but to go there. I trust this president. I choose to trust this American assemblage of great wisdom and experience that came out of the ether coalescing around these letters to America. In every period of The American journey we have met the resistance head on and while this one is on our watch the tide will come in once again. We have to do this. We have to calmly re-unite our fractured factions. And yes, with Joy’s compassion.

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How well put.

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No elitist, just sane.

A dangerous condition when surrounded by the insane...

Try reading HG Wells' Country of the Blind.

Or Saramago...

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Only if you lose the struggle to maintain some compassion.

Salud, Gail. We certainly have our challenges living in FL.

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We’re quite friendly, to a point. I struggle with thinking myself a hypocrite for not torching their LGB flags...

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Well felt, Peter.

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Thank you for how you've put it.

Feeling matters, but it took me a long time to understand how much.

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💕❤️💕

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Its a shared experience for sure. One that comes with a new definition of Patriotism. The old one is useless in its inadequacy

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I paid attention, and my blood ran a little colder every day. All in plain sight, and another cut every hour of every day. While we tuned in and dropped out.

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Jeri, as did I. I've lost track of the times I have said, "in plain site".

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You’ve said it as many times as you have said “Be safe. Be well”. I remain wondering how we humans are so able to ignore when one does not want to see.

Salud, Linda.

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Good morning Christine. Both statements I firmly believe in.

I agree, what is the tipping point for those that deny what their eyes show them.

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There are many wondering the same thing, “hoping” they come to see it, scared they might not, yet ready to battle if it comes to that to save the common good.

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At some point I became numb and I’m not sure how to fix it now. Masking only works most of the time.

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Agreed: This was one of the Professor's most gut-wrenching.

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Good morning my friend. A sobering missive from Heather. I am humbled on this Sunday morning at the tipping point that freedom precariously balances on. And pray and implore to have yet another chance to make things right in the name of common good and abundance.

And so it is. Please.

Salud, Rowshan.

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how many times have you heard someone say, "history is so boring, all those names and dates." those names and dates sometimes turn out to be the most fascinating aspects of history. Meanwhile, in russia today as in bolshevik times, the people in the remote hinterlands hardly matter. it's the people in the cities in western russia who matter. can the truth reach them in time, and how much damage has biden's gaffe done in slowing down that realization?

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