We Persist

We are now being tested, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. What progress we have won seems to be slipping away, not by the natural forces of time and change, but by the sinister forces of greed and wealth and power and deceit. Like our predecessors whose radical ideas have gone before, we must persist.

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There’s 7 New People Born

Into this world came this song. It certainly wasn’t on the radio, but I had bought the album – my second Dylan album – and listened to it, late at night, in the living room, on the hi-fi console, with my headphones on, in stereo.

When I first heard it, it was just “the next track” on the album. But halfway through, I stopped and moved the needle back to the beginning. I listened. Then played it again. And again. And again.

I learned, in 5 minutes, about poverty. Farming. South Dakota. Pain. Helplessness. Desperation. Terror. Loss.

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I Don’t Hate Trump

Everybody on one side says everybody on the other side hates Donald Trump.

No, I don’t hate him.

To be most charitable, I don’t care about him enough to hate him. I know other people who are crude or selfish or conceited or overbearing or loud or crass or ignorant. I’ve responded by ignoring them.

No, I don’t hate Trump. But I do hate – wait, let me think… yes, I do hate what he has been doing.

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“Fear was a big part of it”

Listen to what we are being told:

Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – the are rapists and murderers and drug lords.

Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – the are rapists and murderers and drug lords.

Fear those who cross our country’s border from Mexico – they are rapists and murderers and drug lords.

Fear those who run from brutality and death in Syria – they are terrorists who hate our freedom.

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Deadheads? Not Dead Yet!

Burke’s book was a great introduction, for me, to the central tenets of the Deadhead community – that sense of sharing, of helping one another, of finding your place within the world around you, and of keeping that place intact against the familiar pressures of everyday living.

More than just a story – though certainly an interesting and entertaining story – F.T. Burke’s “The Bohemian Adventure” shows us how we can grow, even in middle age, to re-center ourselves into a sense of purpose and value. That value isn’t found in ourselves as solitary individuals, but in the community of like-minded people, sharing among that community.

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