86 Comments

As usual: contemplation without wrath. Spring is here in New Hampshire and we would join you in renewal ,but as a fallen papist I know forgiveness comes after confession and contrition. Old dRummpy probably ain't in my boat, but I have friends who think he's a tarnished saint...so I try to understand, not get too crazy-righteous and move on...maybe forgive AND forget. I Love you and your ilk.

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Gary, what the hell? Pardon Trump and show leniency to the insurrectionists? No. I hope you were overcome by some fresh out of church delusional thinking and have regained your wits. These criminals and traitors must be held accountable. Please take it back.

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With all these wars and conflicts, it's just uncontrolled testosterone.

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Mar 16, 2022·edited Mar 16, 2022

You had me until the "pardoning" trump line. I'm in no mood to pardon Putin's insane invasion of Ukriane any more than I am wiling to pardon trump's traitorous invasion of our Capitol. They are both evil human beings who must be stopped by any means necessary.

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I agree with most of this. Particularly forgiveness. But it occurs to me that Putin and the leaders of the West are living in the past and maybe that cannot be forgiven . Their motivations just dont hold up in a world threatened by climate change. I long for the young to rise up, rise up and sweep away the old from holding public office. Place them in retirement homes for the bewildered.

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GK, you are the very definition of Big Picture. I don’t Want to agree with you but I Know you are right. To move forward I have to move the hurt, anger and betrayal into the rear view mirror. It’s simply holding us all back. Thank you for the important and long in coming insight. It’s been exhausting, simply. Selah!

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Sadly, Garrison, I agree with most of what you write.

But I want to make a few comments about your Marine. I agree with your Marine about the Vietnam War being a terrible waste of people and resources. We said that we were fighting Communism, but many people said that it was really a civil war among different parts of Vietnamese society. The French took over Vietnam in 1858. After that, you essentially had the Vietnamese who worked with the French occupiers (many became Catholics and the political elite) and the rest of Vietnamese society which was Buddhist and many of whom hated the French.

Also, I would agree that our government is controlled by an establishment or elite. Specifically, the Congress is controlled by lobbyists and special interests. But that should not be a total surprise. The Congress has a lot of power to help or hurt businesses and to appropriate money. Naturally, Big Pharma, the banks, defense contractors, and others, if they are smart, will be lobbying to do the most good for their company. At the moment, lobbyists have too much influence and the Supreme Court has been taken over by pro-corporate judges who want to return us to the 1800's in a legal, political, religious, social sense.

So, I agree with much of what your Marine says.

But where I disagree with him is about supporting Donald. How does supporting Donald help any of these problems? Donald talks populism, etc., but he is actually in bed with big business and the people who have money. One of his few substantive actions as President was supporting the tax cuts for the well-off and well-connected and supporting right-wing judges who will usually support corporations and the business establishment.

Donald is obsessed with himself and what he wants which is to grift off of his followers and to be the center of attention. He did have a plan when he ran for President and that plan was to use the culture wars (racial/cultural/religious antagonism) to activate his followers. Donald is characterized by his ignorance and arrogance. I suppose that a good thing about Donald is that he is basically lazy. Donald actives his followers but he also activates the people who dislike him.

So, I doubt that Donald will ever face "justice." Just like Putin will probably never face justice. It looks as though he will destroy most of the buildings and infrastructure in Ukraine then he will probably propose a "peace" agreement to stop the fighting. That will be what he wants which is a Ukraine which is not a healthy vibrant democratic country.

But I think the future is with Ukraine. This war has shown us several things. One is the weakness of Russia and its army. Most people knew that Russia had a weak economy but it was shocking to see how inept their army is. It is big but inept. Another is the energy and industriousness of the people in Ukraine.

The future is with globalization, diversity, education, training, industriousness, etc. Ukraine welcomes those kind of people. Russia runs them off. If a person in Russia wants to make a success of life. The first thing to do is get out of Russia.

There is a lot to be pessimistic about, but I am still optimistic about humans and the world.

Best wishes and have a nice life.

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Mar 16, 2022·edited Mar 16, 2022

This piece your wrote, sir....("I have a feeling that if Putin launched missiles that wiped out the blue states, Fox America would be happy to cut a deal with him)"....is not funny nor clever and is at the heart of what's wrong with us as a people. Blame the lack of truly social media. Instead,, we have now have the anti-social that fans more flames of hate. Black Humor it's not. It's not humor, period. Until we have another Tip O'Neill, I've given up on politics. There are none.

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We "forgave" or overlooked Putin's attacks on Georgia, Crimea, and again in Ukraine in 2014. Each time they are forgiven or their deeds overlooked, they think they can continue. Bullies understand strength, not softness. This applies equally to Trump. He still believes he can continue to lie, cheat, and steal with impunity. Until he sees the inside of a jail cell, he will continue.

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Without justice, we are lost.

A very disappointing opinion piece.

To adopt this kind of thinking is to admit that we have two systems of justice: one for the powerful and one for the powerless.

Don't give up on fairness, equality, and equity in our justice system.

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Oh Garrison, my friend... I appreciate your desire to forgive. It speaks to my Christian upbringing and my own desire for us all to "just get along". But I fear that we are in a war now, a war that, like our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, we did not ask for but was forced upon us by those who should be our real brothers and sisters but have chosen to be our enemies. We cannot simply forgive Trump and his minions and followers because they will see this forgiveness as not only weakness, but as an invitation to try again to undermine our country from within. I can understand showing leniency to those who were merely lead by the nose by their false idol, but the true insurrectionists, those who did the leading, must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Only in this way can we prove to ourselves and the world that we are a nation of laws, and have a hope proving that our much touted devotion to Democracy is not just a fart in the wind.

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i enjoyed the beautiful hymn / Bring justice to our land, that all may dwell secure, and finely build for days to come foundations that endure. / amen / since i'm not a church goer it was my proxy attendance / trump on the other hand (although he seems to own the evangelicals) wouldn't know a bible from a hymnal and i'd rather see him in jail than back in the white house / he won't be so careless in his usurpation of power next time / i think he's a danger to peace and order just as much as putin is / his aspiration apparently is to be a dictator like his buddy vlad and then pass it on to his kids / yes we were naive about putin let's not make the same mistake with trump / as far as the divisiveness - i hope and pray that it will go away but it seems like a disease more pernicious and persistent than the covid / i'm not optimistic about that either but i laud your sentiment and follow your missives and send out my own and love my fellow humans and try not to be deceived by snake oil salesmen in sheep's clothing / that was a terrible mixed metaphor / forgive me

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No. I agree with you most of the time, but granting Trump a pardon for his myriad crimes and letting the insurrectionistas off the hook is not a good idea. We’re not talking about someone who stole a loaf of bread. Part of the problem is that there is no accountability. These people tried to overthrow the United States government. They’re lucky this is America or they would have been “disappeared” a long time ago. The American people deserve justice and although I sympathize with your Christian leanings, turning the other cheek is not applicable here. Why have laws? Why have the DOJ? Why even bother if we let wannabe dictators ride roughshod over our rights? We can move forward with justice just as easily as we can with forgivenesses.

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I came to praise Gary and now I will add Steven Manning as well- two lovely writers who have enriched my day. Thank you.

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Now, let's drop the "evil," and start thinking about the "good!"

It trumps the likes of Trump and our hate, and even those who hate Trump are trumped. We need to "love ye one another."

May the Red and the Blue among us realize we are both on the same flag. And if we are among the white among us, who may believe else-wise, we're all still on that same flag.

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Freedom's just another word for: Half the population will always be nuts. The Republic demands that elected officials don't pander to nuts or let them ride roughshod. Slippery slopes? so be it. Let's go.

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