Pearl Bailey {1976}: “In America, we have people who are too rich, people who are too poor, people who are hungry, people who are sick, people who are homeless, people who are imprisoned, people who are bored, people who are strung out, people who are lonely, people who are exploited, people who lose and can’t find their way, people who give up on life. America, we better live as sisters and brother. Let us take care of our land. We cannot stand up for every other land. Stand up for ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter [1976]: “All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.”

India Edwards[1977]: “Every generation of Americans has wanted more material wealth, more luxury for the next generation. In my opinion the time has come when we must hope our children and their children ad infinitum will want more from life than material success. They must have enough of that to ensure a roof, clothing, food and some recreation, but, if we are to survive for another two hundred years, we must change our way of life.”

Dwight Eisenhower [1953}: “Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must fiLyndonme to pass in the heart of America.”

Ralph W. Emerson [1867]: “The office of America is to liberate, to abolish kingcraft, priestcraft, caste, monopoly, to pull down the gallows, to burn up the the bloody statutebook, to take in the immigrant to open the doors of the sea and the fields of the earth.”

Waldo Frank [1919]: “We go forth all to seek America. And in the seeking we create her. In the quality of our search shall be the nature of the America that we created.”

Hubert Humphrey [1964]: “We are the standard bearers in the only really authentic revolution, the democratic revolution against tyrannies. Our strength is not to be measured by our military capacity alone, by our industry, or by our technology. We will be remembered, not for the power of our weapons, but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare.”

Lyndon Johnson[1947]: “I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us – dollars and all.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. {1967]: “Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten…America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness – justice.”

Gerald S. Lee [1913]: “America is a tune, It must be sung together.”

David Lilienthal [1949]: “We are a people with a faith in each other, and when we lose that faith we are weak, however heavily armed. We are a people with a faith in reason, and in the unending pursuit of new knowledge; and when we lose that faith we are insecure, though we have never been so heavily armed. We are a people with a faith in God, and a deep sense of stewardship to our Creator, the Father of us all; and when that is no longer strong within us, we are weak and we are lost, however heavily armed with weapons – with atomic weapons we may be.”

Abraham Lincoln [1837] ; “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Meyer London [1916]: “To me Americanism means…an imperative duty to be nobler than the rest of the world.”

Reinhold Niebuhr [1962]: “We find it almost as difficult as the communists to believe that anyone could think ill of us, since we are as persuaded as they that our society is so essentially virtuous that only malice could prompt criticism of any of our actions.”

Adlai Stevenson [1954]: “Throughout its history, America has given hope, comfort, and inspiration to freedom’s cause in all lands. The reservoir of good will and respect for America was not built up by American arms or intrigue; it was built upon our deep dedication to the cause of human liberty and human welfare.”

Stewart Udall [19710: “It is painfully clear that the United States needs its Indians and their culture. A society increasingly homogenized and mechanized – a society headed toward ant-hill conformity and depersonalized living – desperately needs the lessons of a culture that has a deep reverence for nature, and values the simple, the authentic, and the humane.”

George Washington[1789]: “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

Walt Whitman [1856]: ‘O America because you build for mankind I build for you.”

Mark Twain: “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.” [read Sandel’s “Justice Whats the Right Thing to Do?]

Benjamin Spock: “Man is a spiritual being in that – unless he is badly corrupted – he responds powerfully to nonmaterial stimuli: the beauty in nature and art, the trust of children, the needs of helpless people, the death of a friend even though long absent.” [read Ellis’ “American Dialogue The Founders and Us”]

America, 2021, may be at a pivotal crossroads. COVID-19 has held a mirror to America. It revealed the vast majority willing to “do the right thing,” some die doing it. The reign of Donald Trump also held a mirror to America. It revealed a scary minority capable of greed, cruelty, ignorance, selfishness, misinformed stupidity.

Who are we? Are we who we say we are? Are we truly “all in this together?” Do we WANT to live up to our professed ideals? Do we believe”all men are created equal; do we WANT to “love thy neighbor as thyself; do we WANT a government that will “promote the general Welfare;” a “government of – by – FOR – the people?”

We have many problems – that COULD be solved by rational, fact-based thinking Do we WANT to do this? The first step is admitting/understanding the problem. The second step is arriving at what most Americans/the rest of the world understand as the “truth.”

Accepting fact-based truth has been a major part of our 2016-2020 ills. 40 years of lies and propaganda have poisoned some people’s mind, creating a public divided against itself. The Founders created a system that assumed rational ,informed, thinking – thus the post office, free speech, free press. In the internet era, lies, rage, falsehoods, rumors overwhelm the truth. This cannot continue in a healthy America.

Do we WANT to be healed? We are entitled to our opinions. We are NOT entitled to our own “facts, acquired from some “echo chamber.” If this doesn’t change, America is doomed – as is any form of democracy. Please consider the following steps to heal.

1] end the ‘war on drugs.” This is a proven failure. Learn from other nations. Medicalize the drug problem. Arresting ourselves out of this has created vast criminal empires in America, and many nations south of us. WHY are people doing drugs?

2] end the Electoral College. The Founder’s rationale no longer exists. This should be easy: the person with the most votes wins. Period. Why continue a nightmare where political maneuvering in a handful of states overturns the numerical vote?

3] end political gerrymandering. Racial gerrymandering is illegal – why is political gerrymandering allowed? Divide each state into squares/rectangles. not voter enclaves. No objective judge has ever supported this. Why guarantee political jobs?

4] overturn “Citizens United” – one of the worst, most destructive Supreme Court decisions EVER. The stupidity of this illustrated by the ever increasing billions spent on elections. “Free speech” is corrupted – the richer you are – the more “free speech” you can buy. This has now corrupted American government, economy, society. [read Jane Mayers” “Dark Money”]

5] end America as 37th best in health care. Learn from other nations. COVID-19 has revealed public health IS national security. The corrections are well known: government negotiates drug prices; reform or eliminate private “health insurance;” regulate hospital charges; end health monopolies and consolidations. {read Bartlett & Steele’s “Critical Condition” or T>R>Reid’s “The Healing of America”]

6] enforce existing anti-trust legislation. The American economy is stifled by rent-seeking monopolies in all industries. Customers routinely overcharged. {read Lynn’s “Liberty From All Masters” or Teachout’s “Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom..”]

7] reform American tax policies. One table for ALL income, based on progressive taxation. Limit inherited wealth. End corporate ability to hide income. Why should billionaire Warren Buffett pay a lower tax rate than hissecretary?

8] return to the “Fairness Doctrine” of broadcasting, that was ended in 1987 by the Reagan Administration. American airwaves belong to the public. Broadcasting SHOULD serve us all, not feed “red meat” of hatred and fear. Why should media personnel earn $30 million yearly for dividing America, poisoning minds, creating division?

9] restore Glass-Steagall priciples. Separate investment banking [legalized gambling] from regular mainstream banking. End “too big to fail” banking. [read Phillips’ “Bad Money”, Ferguson’s “Predator Nation” or his Academy Award-winning film “Inside Job”]

10] end “share holder supremacy.” “American” corporations must be MADE to legally respect all American stakeholders: public, consumers, workers, environment. “Share holder supremacy” only enriches the top 1%, impoverishes Americans in many ways {read Hatcher & Pierson’s “Winner-Take-All-Politics”]

11] correct massive post-1980 “income inequality,” which is destroying America. If Joe Sixpack earns $50,000 for 50 years, his TOTAL lifetime earnings are $2.5 million. Can he thrive, support his children, retire with dignity? {read Wilkinson & Pickett’s famous “The Spirit Level,” “Pulitzer Prize-winner Johnston’s “Divided The Perils of Our Growing Inequality,” or Nobel Prize-winner Stiglitz’s “The Price of Inequality]

12] prohibit legislators and their staffs being employed as lobbyists; enhance strict lobbying rules. [read Kaiser’s “So Damn Much Money The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government”]

13] all American legislation must have author’s name in print on bills; bills must pass Constitution’s premise: to “promote the general Welfare.” Reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for millionaires; unneeded military weapons don’t pass. [read Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” or P.C. Roberts’s “How The Economy Was Lost”]

l4] return to the First Amendment’s original intent of strict “separation of church and state:” no church dogma put into law; no tax money to religious organizations. Why should a church you DON’T attend have any say on YOUR life??? [read Kimball’s “When Religion Becomes Evil,” Palmer’s “Thy Kingdom Come,” Epp’s “Wrong and Dangerous,” or Levy’s “The Establishment Clause”]

l5] return to the Second Amendment’s original intent. Google the “1792 Militia ACT.” See former Republican Chief Justice Burger’s “fraud” statement. See a grammar teacher on how to read a sentence!!! What does “A well regulated Militia ” mean to the Framers? See 4 consecutive Supreme Court rulings against a “constitutional right to own a gun” [read Levy’s “Origins of the Bill of Rights”]

16] protect voter rights against suppression. Overturn the asinine “Shelby County: Supreme Court decision – an INCREDIBLE denial of reality. Make it easy to register and vote with ordinary records [utility bill, rent statement, drivers license, tax statements, etc] Read Overton’s “Stealing Democracy or Anderson’s “One Person, No Vote.”

17] end becoming an American by birth here. Parents must be legal American citizens. End sale of American citizenship to rich and tourists.

18] bailouts. If any industry is bailed out, taxpayers own part income until “bailout money” is repaid. No executives/employees get “bonuses” from taxpayer money.

19]Adequately fund Social Security and Medicare. 100% of all income is taxed, no “caps” This ends the “problem.” The idea millionaires “get no benefits” from paying full tax is an insult. They “get no benefits” living here, no benefit from absence of threats to themselves or their wealth? Do you believe in the tooth fairy???

20]U.S. national debt. This is now a national security issue. Solution: end Reagan-Bush II-Trump reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for rich; wealth surcharge until debt under $l trillion as was pre-Reagan This is a major morality issue: ordinary Americans suffer so rich can live in obscene wealth.

21] education K-l2. America doesn’t invest enough in its children’s future. We’re below international standards. Educators paid less than no-college jobs. Tax money siphoned off to private schools [lst Amendment violation by pre-Rehnquist/Roberts Court standards] Read Ravitch’s “Left Back” or “Reign of Error;” or Owens” “Confessions of A Bad Teacher.”

22] education post-high school. Why doesn’t America provide advanced education for all? Who is the next Einstein? Why does 2021 tuition cost 10-20 times what it did pre-1970? We’re importing foreigners because we don’t do this. [read Kamnetz’s “Generation Debt” – how student debt is radically changing people’s lives, hurting our economy]

23 begin elimination of “outsourcing” American jobs. We won WW ii and Cold War because we outproduced our enemies {by American companies] Read Quart’s “Squeezed” or Pulitzer Prize-winner H.R. Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?”

24] world-wide democracy depends upon America being an active, positive, participant. We will not survive going it alone – tried that up to December 7, 1941. We won WW ii and Cold War with friends and championing democracy.

25] have rational immigration policies based on fact and national interest – not fears and rumors. Have policies tom attract needed skilled workers and a controlled humanitarian immigration/asylum system. Do we still believe in the Statue of Liberty? [read H.G. Buffett’s “Our 50-State Border Crisis” or Bacon’s “Illegal People”}

26] have rational environmental policies, based on science. We will either stop global warming or it will destroy the earth, and our children and grandchildren’s future – as it already is doing. Invest heavily in renewal energy [as competitors and enemies are doing]; eliminate plastic pollution. [read Oreskes & Conways’s “Merchants of Doubt” or Klein’s “This Changes Everything”]

27] regulate the internet for the benefit of all – or return to 1865-1901 “Robber Baron” age. We apparently love “Amazon” – but without regulation “Amazon” will own America. Why don’t Facebook and Google pay YOU for the use of YOUR data??? [read Mayer-Schonberger & Cukier’s “Big Data,” or Lanier’s “Who Owns the Future?”]

28] 2016-20202 America didn’t happen by accident. We’ve been heading for it for decades. In 1963-4, Pulitzer Prize-winner Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” discussed extremist fringe groups. More recently MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains” and Levitsky & Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die” detailed recent extremism and deliberate corporate planning to own America. Michiko Kakutani’s “The Death of Truth” discussed falsehoods.

In 1787 Philadelphia, a woman on the street asked Ben Franklin, “What do we have, doctor?” His famous reply: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Do we WANT to keep it?

29] For perspective, read James Michner’s “The Quality of Life” or Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture.”

30] Year after year, the happiest people on earth are usually Scandinavians – WHY????? One central COVID-19 lesson has been that nations exhibiting common purpose and mutual trust fared better than those who didn’t. America has not been one of these rational nations. Do we WANT to heal America? Do we WANT to learn and change? Can we handle the truth?

[note: Twain & Spock quotes from The Harper Book of American Quotations – Carruth & Ehrlich].

After 2 hours of laboring on the “religious liberty” posting of today, just above, i was rather exhausted. I closed too quickly and obviously missed an early major misspelling. Worse – I neglected to give credit to two sources in particular, even much came from multiple public sources. They are Leonard W. Levy’s masterful “The Establishment Clause Religion and the First Amendment” and “The Harper Book of American Quotations” by Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich. Sorry gentlemen.

Enclosed below are some thoughts, tolerant and otherwise, on religious freedom..

Isaac Backus, Baptist [1781]: “As religion must always be a matter between God and individuals, no man can be made a member of a truly religious society by force and without his own consent, neither can any corporation that is not a religious society have a just right to govern in religious affairs…”

Louis Brandeis, “Olmstead”: “The makers of our constitution undertook..to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thought, their emotions, and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men…The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal…”

Henry Clay [1818]: “All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty.”

Mary Baker Eddy [1906]: “I would no more quarrel with a man because of his religion than I would because of his art.”

Jerry Falwell [1976]: “The idea of religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country. If any place in the world we need Christianity, it’s in Washington. And that’s why preachers long since, need to get over the intimidation forced on us by liberals, that if we mention anything about politics, we are degrading our ministry.”

Harry Dudley Field [1893]: “If we had nothing else to boast of, we could claim with justice that the first among nations we of this country made it an article of organic law that the relations between man and his Maker were a private concern which other men had no right to intrude.”

Barry Goldwater [19810: “Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected with them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.”

Thomas Jefferson [1784]: “Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites.”

Robert Jeffress, pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas: “What a lot of people miss is, America is not a church where everyone should be welcome regardless of race and background.” “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.” In a 2011 sermon, called the Catholic Church a corrupt version of Christianity that sprang from ancient Babylonian cults.

Richard M. Johnson [1830]: “It is not the legitimate province of the legislature to determine what religion is true, or what is false.”

John F. Kennedy [9/12/60]: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the President [should he be a Catholic] how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.”

Thomas Kennedy [1823]: “There are a few Jews in the United States; in Maryland there are very few. But if there were only one – to that one, we ought to do justice.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. [1963]: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”

Robert E. Lee [l1/27/56 letter]: “Is it not strange that the first descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom of opinion have always proved themselves intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?”

John Leland, great Baptist preacher – Rejected the idea America was a Christian nation; advocated a radical separation of government and religion; contended any sort of establishment of Christianity, including all state establishments, were “all of them, Anti-Christocracies; favored equality foe Deists, pagans, atheists, Jews, Turks, and Catholics; rejected “test oaths” for office; above all insisted “religion is a matter between God and individuals,” not subject to governmental jurisdiction. Leland was a contemporary, and influenced, James Madison.

Margaret Mead [1963]: “We will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without assistance from the legal structure of the country.”

New Jersey Constitution [1776]: no person should “ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or any other rates, for the purpose of building or re[pairing any other church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or has deliberately or voluntarily engaged himself to perform.”

North Carolina Constitution [17760: “neither shall any person, on any pretence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship, contrary to his own faith or judgment, nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes right…..”

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man: “Persecution is not an original feature in nay religion; but it is always the strongly-marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.”

Pennsylvania Constitution [1776]: “…no man ought or of right can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect or support any place of worship, or maintain any ministry, contrary to or against, his own free will and consent,”

Pat Robertson [700 Club]: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.”

Robert Simonds, president “Citizens for Excellence inEducation” and National Association of Christian Educators [1991[: ‘Our job is to evangelize..schools are the battle ground. The goal of 500,000 born-again Christians working inside the ‘system’ is to bring public education back under..control of the Christian community.”

Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism,”

Alexis de Tocqueville, “democracy in America”: “..the religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on my arrival in the United States”…the “faithful of all communities…agreed…the main reason for the quiet sway of religion over their country was the complete separation of church and state. I have no hesitation in stating that throughout my stay in America I met nobody, lay or cleric, who did not agree about that,”

Virginia fundamentalists, “Religious Petitions Presented to the General Assembly of Virginia, 1774-1802″ To require a person to support even the religion of his choice denied him his freedom of choice and his right to religious liberty.”

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom [1785]: to compel anyone to support religious opinions he did not share was tyrannical and “that even the forcing of him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty” of giving his money as he pleased….that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship place, or ministry whatsoever.”

George Washington, 17809 letter: “I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”

The following excerpt is from the May l, 2015 “Washington Spectator,” by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber & Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove.
“Many have pointed out the problem of laws purporting to protect the First Amendment right to religious freedom by creating the opportunity to violate another’s 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law. But little attention has been paid to the struggle out of which the 14th Amendment was born – a struggle that continued to play out in Selma 50 years ago and is very much alive in America’s state houses today. We cannot understand the new “religious freedom” law in Indiana and others like it apart from the highly sexualized backlash against America’s first two Reconstructions……………..
Two features of resistance to America’s first Reconstruction are essential to note. First, it was deeply religious. White preachers led the charge, calling themselves “Redeemers” and framing equal justice for black Americans as a moral danger. At the same time, the threat was explicitly sexualized. Black men were portrayed in respectable newspapers as “ravishing beasts” eager to rape white women. In North Carolina, white vigilantes were armed and encouraged to defend their women, leading to the “Wilmington Race Riot” of 1898. Violent demonstrations of white men’s sexual fear led to lynchings throughout the South and Midwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ida B. Wells, the courageous African-American journalist from Memphis, did dangerous investigative work to show that the great majority of these lynchings were not about sex but political power.
When the Civil Rights Movement – a Second Reconstruction – was finally able to draw national attention to vicious patterns of Jim Crow in the 1960s. the challenge to white power was again conflated with sexual fear. As Danielle L. McGuire chronicled in”At the Dark End of the Street,” civil-rights workers were consistently accused of wanting interracial sex and/or having homosexual tendencies. We remember Dr. King’s “How Long, Not Long” speech from the Alabama Capitol at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery March. But we often forget that the members of the Alabama Legislature responded with Act 159, citing evidence of “much fornication” among marchers and claiming that “young women are returning to their respective states apparently as unwed expectant mothers.” When selma’s Sheriff Jim Clark published his popular memoir, he titled it “The Jim Clark Story: I Saw Selma Raped.”
The pattern is clear: whenever established power brokers have felt threatened in America’s history, they have responded by stirring up sexual fears. The widespread acceptance of interracial relationships makes “mongrelization” a moot point in 21sty century America. But one can see public expressions of concern about the “gay lifestyle” are not about religious freedom. They are about dividing an increasingly diverse electorate that has twice elected a black president. Fear of gay rights is a most effective strategy for extremists determined to take over America’s state houses…………..
In North Carolina, the proposed “religious freedom” bill goes so far as to say government employees may choose not to carry out their duties ****** because of a religious objection.******** While conservatives concern today may be a ******** religious objection****** to issuing a marriage license to gay couples, we remember well the religious reasons our neighbors in the South gave for segregation, the subjugation of women, and race-based slavery. Freedom of religion, a bedrock of American democracy, cannot mean license to condemn others.
Fifty years ago, thousands marched in Selma as part of a faith-rooted, moral campaign to secure an expansion of voting rights. Extremists who couldn’t deny their cause sought to distract and divide the country by using moral and religious language to stir up old sexual fears. The mystery money and secretive organizing behind today’s ******** “religious freedom” bills****** seek to do the same.”

This posting is done in memory of Bob Allen, a long time Milwaukee Braves loyal employee and future player agent. Bob gave me this card many years ago. We’ve since lost Bob to a higher place.

“The Measure Of A Man”
Not “How did he die?”
But “How did he live?”
Not “What did he gain?”
But “What did he give?”

These are the units to measure the worth of a man as a man, regardless of birth.

Not “What was his station?”
But “Had he a heart?”
And “How did he play his God-given part?”
Not “What was his church?”
Nor “What was his creed?”
But “Had he befriended those really in need?”
Not “What did the sketch in the newspaper say?”
But “How many were sorry he passed away?”

Author Unkown

The following is from an September-October, 2020 “Washington Monthly” article by Elizabeth Austin reviewing the book, “A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear” [Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling} “But today more than ever, there is nothing remotely amusing about a group of wrong-headed extremists plotting to take over a government and impose its own dangerously eccentric views on an unwitting and unprepared majority…With the story of Grafton, Hongoltz-Hetling was handed an American character in an ant farm. This New England hamlet twines together the most significant strands in our history: tax aversion, religious fervor, veneration of individual liberty, and a deep vein of cantankerousness. All counterbalanced by our equally powerful belief we are on a God-given mission to establish on this continent a shining City on the Hill. In Grafton, we find a microcosm of the constant American tension between “Don’t Tread on Me” and “E Pluribus Unum.”

………In the Grafton experience, we see clearly the chaos that can be created when a significant chunk of the community rejects the strictures of government, science, and the notion of community itself.

As i write this, more than l59,000 American lives have been sacrificed to failures of government at almost every level, and to the refusal of millions of Americans to curtail their sense of personal liberty and submit to relatively brief inconvenience to protect their neighbors and their communities……

This is what happens when massively funded propaganda campaigns lead large numbers of Americans to lose faith in our system of government. This is what happens when that loss of faith leads to blind opposition to taxation. This is what happens when public services and public infrastructure are systematically starved of resources in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” And this is what happens, shamefully, when those who are best able to recognize the threat and sound the alarm choose instead to treat local politics like some sort of low-stakes sporting event for out-of-shape people.

Today, we are all living in Grafton. Armies of rabid bears are wandering our streets….terrified, we beg our neighbors for help, only to be told the Lord will protect us, or that the cataclysm in the streets is just punishment for our moral failures or our political misdeeds.

And all of this is happening because a large disgruntled minority of Americans dutifully memorized the Declaration’s listing of our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without perceiving that these rights can exist only within the context of the social contract – an Enlightenment concept so deeply familiar to the Founding Fathers that, tragically, they didn’t consider it necessary to mention……..

We are separated today..because millions of my fellow Americans have been unwilling to sacrifice even a shred of their perceived personal liberty to the higher considerations of what we owe to each other.

There were hopes in the 2020 election that America would seek to promote “our better angels.” We managed to end the nightmarish reign of the cult leader; but we have not ended our nightmare. Over 72 million Americans voted for the cult leader. The did so knowing how despicable, dishonest, and destructive he has been. These same voters rewarded his congressional and state enablers to continue their Dark Side work of destroying everything that once made America great.

The motto of the Dark One was “make America great again.” He has not done that. He has embarrassed us around the world; has attacked the very essence of what once made America a beacon of hope around the world; attacked the post office, the census, and the electoral process itself to win an election; said he might not honor the election if he didn’t win – unprecedented in American history; misused the powers of his office to attack everyone and everything that dared question his actions; has placed “loyalty” to him as the most important qualification of jobs – like a Mafia boss/dictator.

Worst of all, he has attacked the concept of “truth.” itself. The very notion of facts, of numerical, historical and scientific facts. very early in his reign, a close advisor raised the concept of “alternative facts.” The Dark One went downhill from there, into a “1984” fantasy world of over 20,000 lies. Is anyone even counting his lies anymore??? Are we so numbed by the hourly barrage of lies??? Without an accepted body of what was once considered factual truth, we cannot have “democracy.”

In the Academy Award winning film, “Judgment At Nuremberg,” a once highly respected German judge is on trial for war crimes. His lawyer defends him as a good man trying to do his duty; in so doing cruelly berates a witness. To this point, the judge has said nothing. Now the accused man stands and says “are we going to do this again?” And in that speech, the once great judge approaches his former self when he says “we all knew.”As in, “we all knew” of the war crimes and the barbarity.

In 2020 America, “we all knew.” We all knew of the cruelties and corruptions of the Dark One; and of the guilt of his enablers. They were in plain, public, sight for 5 years – just like the Holocaust and other Nazi cruelties and crimes were in plain sight. “We all knew,” but 72 million of us still voted for the Dark One. Millions “all knew” yet voted for the accomplices, his enablers. Why did they?

Supporters of the Dark One stated publicly their rationale was false propaganda talking points of the Dark Side: “doing a good job, doing a good job on the economy, doing a good job on COVID-19 [incredibly!!!], kept his promises [which ones???], not backing down,” etc. In extended comments, the Dark One’s voters gave as “facts” things proven wrong. They had drunk the cult’c Kool-Aid.

And there were dark reasons too. Some proudly admitted prejudice and bigotry. One poll showed 19% of the Dark One’s voters had refused to admit voting for him.

The Dark One didn’t drive into a crowd intentionally; didn’t vandalize Minneapolis – “Umbrella Man” did; didn’t drive across several states to commit arson and incite violence; didn’t assault and shoot protesters; didn’t burn churches; didn’t massacre worshippers; didn’t conspire on the internet to commit violence and start a civil war; didn’t try [again!!!] intimidating vote counters; didn’t issues death threats to anyone not supporting the Dark One; didn’t suggest that America’s leading pandemic health doctor should be beheaded. BUT – his supporters did

The Dark One has denied COVID-19’s seriousness, saying it will all go away, like the flu. His supporters have responded in defiance to all world-wide medical science. Their refusal to wear masks and practice social distancing accelerated the plague. We, the innocents following science, are now at the mercy of the stupid, the reckless, the Kool-Aid drinkers – as daily, hourly cases rise and more die.

Doctors and nurses are pleading, begging, for help. They are stressed out, physically and mentally exhausted, some have committed suicide, others in counseling, many considering quitting. Teachers are breaking under the strain of 15 hour days, about 1/4 – 1/3 considering retirement. First responders are wearing down, many getting sick and dying, some in counseling, some committing suicide. Low-wage “essential workers” have died doing their jobs. A girls’ tennis team in a small rural Minnesota town made a video pleading with their neighbors “to do the right thing” so they could play tennis. Supporters of the Dark One dismiss all this with “I have rights.”

Early in the Dark One’s rule, a Japanese comment discussed America”s leader in terms of a “Voldemort” presidency. Destructive science fiction villainy brought tragically to life.

hitler, Stalin, Mao didn’t murder millions alone – they had help. The Dark One didn’t, can’t, drag America down – unless he has help. “We all know.” There remains a chance America can live up to the hopes of the Founders [“all men are created equal”] and the wisdom of Lincoln [“with malice toward none” and “with charity for all”}. A chance.

BUT – America will not be redeemed, saved, restored, healed – if “we the people” don’t overcome the Dark Side – so often, so cruelly, revealed in 20l6-2020

We can choose to live, vote with love and tolerance. Or – we can choose to live, vote in fear and hatred. Our enemies may try, but only /americans can subvert us.

Over a million Americans have died in combat defending this country. Millions more seriously wounded. Thousands serve at this moment. They took an oath to defend the Constitution. They felt a calling – to protect us.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Mount Rushmore plaque states: “We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of man.” Shame, disgrace, trail in the dust, golden hopes of men…………….

We are at Teddy’s tipping point, have in some ways crossed the Rubicon. It is not too late to honor what America once stood for, 1789 – 2015. We have another chance – to redeem ourselves, and the hope of the world.

Whether we succeed my friends – is in YOUR hands. We, collectively, can pull back from the “1984” abyss. OR – we can continue to drink the Dark One’s Kool-Aid, and cross over the Rubicon completely to the Dark Side. What’s it gonna be??? Love and tolerance, or, fear and hatred?

Are “WE” going to be the same country that three times saved the world from autocratic rule – OR _ are “WE” going to allow a plutocratic theocracy to be completed in what was once “the home of the brave?”

The Dark Side is very strong, very seductive, very powerful, extremely rich, has absolutely no scruples. Their messages are very clever – appealing to your fears, rarely your hopes [and then with lies].

Will we do Vladimir Putin’s work {for him] – or, Abraham Lincoln’s?

YOUR choice America – your choice.

When a person/group says they are “people of faith,” what exactly does this mean? A dictionary definition of “faith:” “confidence or trust in a person, or thing; belief that is not based on proof; belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion; belief in anything, as a code of ethics, or the occurrence of a future event; a system of religious belief; the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.; the observation of this obligation…to act in good faith…”
An encyclopedia defines “Religion:” No simple definition can describe the numerous religions in the world. For many people, religion is an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, practices, and worship that center on one supreme God, or the Deity. For many others, religion involves a number of gods, or deities. Some people have a religion in which no specific God or gods are worshipped. There are also people who practice their own religious beliefs in their own personal way, largely independent of organized religion.”

When a person states he/she is “a person of faith,” what exactly is that person telling us? Is this a ‘2 plus 2 equals 4’ declaration? Are they asking us to regard them in a certain way? Are they asking us for special privileges? Are they telling us they are so inspired by their beliefs they’ll BE special persons? Are they warning us they intend to act on their beliefs?
How does a society work with “people of faith?” What track record do “people of faith” have? Is it “good” or “bad?” Positive, or, destructive?

American society has seen “religion” a generally “good” thing. We have allowed “religions” special tax privileges because we assumed they’d work for a better society. Religious leaders, especially of major “religions,” have generally been regarded as people working for the general “good>” How have these assumptions been born out in fact?

An encyclopedia discusses “Law” as: “..the set of enforced rules under which a society is governed..No society could exist if all the people did just as they pleased, without regard for the rights of others. Nor could a society exist if its members did not recognize that they also have certain obligations toward one another.”

The Founders who created the American Constitution had four major fears: abuse of power, slavery, religion, and mobs. They intended to prevent these from injuring America.

Why did the Founders have a fear of religion? As students of history they knew of Europe’s 1517-1648 “religious wars. Some of their ancestors had been refugees from religious persecution. Religious persecutions had occurred in America.

The American Constitution mentions religion three times, all to LIMIT how a religion treated other people, prevent it from being politicized. There was to be no religious oath for office [Article VI]. Amendment One provided both freedom FOR, and freedom FROM, religion. Because “an establishment of religion” is forbidden, people have the RIGHT to practice any, or no, religious belief – as long as they don’t injure others. Freedom “FROM” protects them from having others religious beliefs imposed on them.

Professor, ordained Baptist minister, Charles Kimball’s 2002 book, “When Religion Becomes Evil,” laid out “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption of Religion:” absolute truth claims; blind obedience; establishing the ‘ideal’ time; the end justifies any means; declaring holy war.” Kimball: “Whatever religious people may say about their lover of God or the mandates of their religion, when their behavior toward others is violent and destructive, when it causes suffering among their neighbors, you can be sure the religion has been corrupted..” Later: “..sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history.”

In America, religion justified slavery, later segregation, currently discrimination. Doctors murdered, people terrorized, health clinics blown up by “people of faith.” “People of faith” demand only ‘pro-life’ judges be appointed [seemingly a “religious test”]. “People of faith” have/are attempting to rewrite American history and science to support their false claims. “People of faith” have/are writing their religious views into American domestic laws and foreign policies [seemingly a violation of “no established church”}. “People of faith” have/are pressuring ALL Americans to financially support their churches and schools [Constitutional violation], but claim “religious right” to run those institutions on THEIR [tax free] terms. Would a reasonable person, with this beginning list of evidence, say that “people of faith” have respected the rights of others?

“People of faith” demand special “rights” to practice their religious beliefs in the public square, demand ALL Americans follow THEIR particular religious interpretations – whether YOU like it or not. Things they oppose, as “People of faith.” WE are not entitled to use/do/practice. “People of faith” seek to control the behavior of ALL 330 million Americans – whether YOU attend their church or not, whether YOU accept their beliefs or not. “People of faith” have pursued this ‘holy mission” to “save” us – on their terms – ruthlessly – “the end justifiers any means.”

“People of faith” proclaim their absolute horror at Muslim “Sharia law,” a fundamentalist interpretation of that faith. Yet, American “people of faith” intend to impose their fundamentalist ‘Christian’ Sharia law on YOU.
Professor Kimball recognized this. He placed the Taliban and the American ‘religious right’ on a continuum.

Ask yourself this simple question: why is it in 1970-2020 America do we see almost exclusively people on the fundamentalist far right religious spectrum that proclaim they are “people of faith?” Meaning, as they have repeatedly demonstrated, they want to remake America on THEIR terms?

Note the arrogance of this. They infer the rest of America has no religious faith, no morality, no code of ethics, no righteous conduct.

Consider the following “people of faith” quotes
-Jay Grimstead, National Director, “Coalition on Revival:” “God has given us the Bible as a rule book for all society – Christian and nonChristian alike.”
-Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”
-Robert Jeffress, pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas’,: “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.”
-Pat Robertson, 700 Club: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.”
-Gary nOrth: “Let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know..there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy..constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.”

From this very small sampling of People of faith” leaders – is there any rational person willing to deny that “people of faith” have a very unConstitutional plan to totally, in a very authoritarian and dictatorial manner – RUN YOUR LIFE????????? And. use YOUR tax dollars to do it???????

Many “people of faith,” being single issue voters, have followed THEIR fundamentalist views to elect numerous ‘pro-life’ politicians and judges.
The last two Republican-dominatedU.S. Supreme Courts have begun the process of rewriting the Constitution – to give special privileges to “people of faith” [incredibly giving ‘religious rights’ to corporations]. They are deliberately tearing down the 1789-2000 “separation of church and state” principle.
The last 4 Republican presidents have funneled YOUR tax dollars into “faith-based” organizations, which often practice discrimination against people “of the wrong religion.”

The 1980-2020 Republican Party has become the political arm of fundamentalist churches – unprecedented in American history.
The l975-2020 “cultural war” is solely the creation of the far right fundamentalist “religious right” and their Republican enablers.
The Republican/religious right DOUBLE STANDARD of “we can violate the Constitution by appointing candidates picking for their “pro-life” fundamentalist records/views – BUT -YOU are forbidden to mention this, to criticize this, because…… THAT….. would be religious bigotry!!!!!!!!!!! In your face, America, we make the rules.

The “cultural war” didn’t begin with “Roe-v-Wade.” It began in 1965 with the “Griswold” decision. “Griswold” ended the attempt by one fundamentalist church to prohibit, by criminal law, the use on contraceptives by ANY married Connecticut couple. In your face America, WE make the rules.

As seen by recent Supreme Court decisions, the “religious right” has not abandoned efforts to undermine contraception use in America.
As seen by the 2016 and 2020 efforts, the Republican Party believes “the end justifies any means.” Getting two “pro-life” Justices on the Supreme Court justifies ANYTHING, including undermining the Court’s credibility. In your face, America, WE make the rules.

Everything above is but a very SMALL sample of what “people of faith” have done, have planned for YOU, your children, your grandchildren. They have said, are working toward, an American theocracy – run by THEM. They piously claim, as “people of faith,” to have YOUR best interests in mind. Do they?

This post contains material from “Church & State” magazine, September, 2020 issue, pages 16-17. The article is a review of Steve Suit’s new book, “Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy Of The Modern School Choice Movement” [NewSouth Books].

Suits: “The book races the history of school vouchers since they were first used widely in Southern States in attempting to defeat school desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s and explains how that legacy continues to shape perceptions, practices and policies today.”

Suits: “It’s simply really. Today most white students attending private schools remain in virtually segregated schools – schools where students of color represent only a token portion..usually less than 10 percent…”
“..As desegregation slowly moved across the South, private schools in the region accepted a token number of students of color IN ORDER TO SAVE THEIR FEDERAL TAX EXEMPTIONS.
“Over time, the same school patterns have persisted…Once only a Southern problem, NOW IT IS A NATIONAL PROBLEM.
“It is also worth noting that the arguments today are largely the SAME ARGUMENTS that the SEGREGATIONISTS used to DEFEND AND PROMOTE SCHOOL VOUCHERS IN THE PAST.”

The “Boutwell Committee in Alabama…was the first segregationist strategy group in the South…Their segregationist plan proposed ‘FREEDOM OF CHOICE’ without regard to race. It had four basic components:
-eliminate any reference to segregation in schools..Alabama laws would “concede the right of white and negro families to send their children to mixed public schools
-remove ANY language from the state constitution GUARANTEEING A RIGHT OF EDUCATION OR ANY OBLIGATION OF THE STATE TO FUND PUBLIC SCHOOL-CHILDREN AT ANY LEVEL.
-enable LOCAL school officials to DETERMINE ‘ELIGIBILITY, ADMISSION, AND ALLOCATION OF PUPILS, INCLUDING THE POWER TO REFUSE ADMISSION….
-provide vouchers and OTHER TAX FUNDS for private schools to operate on THEIR OWN ADMISSION STANDARDS,”

Suits: “When Friedman [economist, Milton] wrote his first paper on school vouchers..he admitted he knew..Southern segregationists were proposing the same thing..admitted he..vouchers could help them maintain and advance school segregation. But..segregation was the NECESSARY COST OF FREEDOM OF CHOICE….’freedom of choice’ was more important than desegregation and was NECESSARY TO DISMANTLE WHAT HE CALLED “government schools” – a term President Trump has adopted.”

Suits: “They are using the language of civil rights to defeat the goals of civil rights”

Suits: “Yes, the U.S. Supreme Court has ESSENTIALLY ABANDONED JEFFERSON’S ‘WALL OF SEPARATION on matters of church and state.”

Suits: “U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ last words….”when you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. DEMOCRACY IS NOT A STATE. IT IS AN ACT.”