Witnessing Arrogance

 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION is an aggressively expansionist ideology. Anyone whos dreamy nap has been rudely interrupted by a loud knock on the door and two well groomed well attired young men bearing Bibles and brochures can so attest. Good friends of mine use to smuggle bibles into the Soviet Union. I prayed they wouldn't get caught, questioned the morality of not respecting the wishes of their hosts, and their sanity in taking the risk of spending their remaining days in a dank Russian prison, but, well, people do what they do. Enthusiastic evangelism in action. One might recall reading about the crusades, when, beginning in the year 1095 A.D., hordes of European Christian poured repeatedly into Islamic territory, bent on conquest and conversion of alleged infidels. The mere fact that the Christian religion has spread to every continent is the most convincing indicator of the efficacy with which missionaries and military might have spread the alleged true faith.Arguably all this is immoral, from the door knocking to the bible smuggling to the military attacks. Immoral on the simple ethical theory that everyone is entitled to religious freedom, freedom from coercion or persuasion of any sort. Devout Christians might argue that it is there sacred duty to spread the true gospel, the true faith. They might not consider the possibility that many others people have their own version of the true faith, and are happy with it. Other people already embrace the true faith; their own, whether or not it is Christianity.Christians intent on converting non Christians might do well to remind themselves that those they seek to convert are likely as intelligent as those seeking to improve them, and require no religious guidance, or that if they do, they can go looking for it, without being urged to do so. arguably, attempting to convince someone to change and improve his or her religious beliefs is insulting and disrespectful. But, of course anyone trying to change another's religion is probably too arrogant and insensitive to the need to be respectful of others to even care about such things in the first place. The evangelicals call it 'witnessing". They call themselves "believers". Everyone is a believer, in his or her own beliefs, not someone else's.. What we are witnessing is the temerity and arrogance of sanctimonious self superior souls with a selfish sense of superiority, witnessing their own shallow self absorption.

Accounting, Part II

 WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, there are no consequences for bad behavior, and the bad behavior continues with impunity, by the original miscreant and by others who imitate it.The argument, somewhat prevalent, that holding Trump accountable by imposing negative consequences on him is undesirable because doing so would further divide the nation and hinder bipartisan healing is, in a word,fatuous, in another word, irrational. The people making this specious argument, and calling for national healing are Trump supporters, the selfsame people who unhesitatingly divided the nation for years by embracing extremist ideologies and policies, embracing and perpetuating blatant lies by Trump, and by supporting a blatantly immoral president, immoral in his words and actions both. Now, suddenly, their leader in disgrace, they seek reconciliation in ignoring his criminal behavior. Proper healing would place Trump in front of a firing squad for trying to overthrow the government violently. There will be on compromise and reconciliation between efforts to reverse climate change and climate change deniers. The deniers require reforming. There will be no compromise nor healing between extreme right wing white supremacy and racial equality, the white supremacists will have to be defeated. There will be no reconciliation between the Trump movement and the mainstream political spectrum; the Trump movement will have to be destroyed. Either this will be a white supremacist country which embraces nationalism, xenophobia, isolationism, and white evangelical theocratic Trumpism, or it will be a country of racial diversity, harmony,and equality. The Trump agenda and ideology will either prevail, or fail. That is why it matter what happens to Donald Trump after he leaves office, whether he is prosecuted or pardoned, whether he is allowed to run for the presidency again, and whether his cult following strengthens or diminishes and goes extinct. High sounding talk of national healing, of bringing a divided nation together, given the nature of the division, is sheer fantasy. One side or the other will have to be defeated. America has always been great in many ways, and in many ways has never been. Whether it can be made truly great in an original way depends entirely on the outcome of the forthcoming struggle.

Accounting

 THIRTY FIVE PERCENT of republicans think it was a good idea to storm the Capitol building. A large majority of them still insist that the election was stolen from Trump, whether they actually believe it. A majority of them believe that climate change is a hoax, and are unaware that a substantial part of the American economy is socialistic. But, I digress. The point is that the republican party, dominated by white christian middle and upper middle class conservatives, is crazier than a basketball bat, unhinged from reality, and thus deadly dangerous to itself and to the country.It is so mentally ill that if it were a horse, it would be shot. In all honesty, much the same can be said about American culture in general, but again I digress.you begin to understand why the NAZI party was banned in Germany shortly after the end of World War Two. The American president is a ranting lunatic, and most Americans only only now beginning to realize it. Two thirds of Americans believe that Trump is responsible for the insurrection. Thus one must question the sanity of the other one third. Seemingly, it lives in some alternative reality.Had Lincoln lived, the south would have risen far earlier than it actually did, in the sense that the old pre civil war white supremacist social structure would have immediately regained control, and the renewed subjugation of African-Americans would simply have taken place sooner than it actually did. Systems of tyranny and oppression cannot be appeased. Fifty more years of Reconstruction would have done the foremr Confederacy, and the entire nation, considerable good. Accountability worked like a charm for the French after they finally corrected their mistake of sending Napoleon to Elba, and sent him to St Helena for good, but only after inflicting a great deal more suffering upon Europe, particularly at Waterloo They learned late, but they learned. Germany got it right the first time in dealing with Hitler and the NAZIs harshly in the aftermath of World War Two, despite having their country torn in half by their allied vanquishers. Trumpism, post Trump, must be thoroughly discredited and eliminated.Voting Trump out of office, vanning him from social media, impeaching and convicting him are good first steps. the final solution will be for better people to step uo and emerge a leaders of the republican party and to take the party in a new, different, and better direction.More of the same right wind evangelical extremism is obviously not the answer. Now is the time for all good centrist conservatives to come to the aid of their party, and their country.

Warning

 IT BEARS REPEATING that what was hopefully Trump's final, most brazen breach of decency and law cannot be denied as  "hoax" or a "conspiracy", or "fake news' Perpetrated against him by his enemies, his usual dishonest, insane means of evading responsibility for his criminal behavior. he incited the riot at the Capitol, we all agree on that, its on recorded video for all to see. Removing him from office would give Pence an opportunity to pardon him; impeachment and post presidential conviction, followed by criminal prosecution are the best course. Let him remain ifn office until the twentieth. We'll have to take our chances on nuclear war or further assaults on America by mobs of Trump supporters. Evangelical Christians on the radio expressed regret that a great president is being forced to finish his presidency under such unfortunate circumstances, as if  Trump is being subjected to unfair treatment. Thirty five percent of Republicans, according to a survey, believe that the insurrection was justified, and regret only that it failed. They may try again on the seventeenth, when protests all over the country, against the election results, Washington D.c. and all state capitols, are scheduled. This is why the conservative white Christian Republican is effectively the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, the greatest threat to the United States, with the possible exception of climate change.Donald Trump will leave office on January 20, and whether or not he tries to pardon himself, will walk straight into a legal quagmire.But the misguided miscreants who by the millions continue to support him will remain a dire threat to American decency and security, long after Donald Trump has been convicted and incarcerated, long after his death. Anyone who supports Donald Trump at this point has no decency, morals, or shame.The assertion that the election was stolen from him is a complete fabrication, an attempted hoax, an attempted coup, traitorous.Ridiculous though ti is, millions of miscreants cling tenaciously to it,and to the detriment of the country, will probably keep trying to act on it, violently. We must accept the stark reality that we live in a country in which upwards of forty percent of the population are criminals and traitors, and mentally ill, delusional.

Trying To Understand Trump's Support, Still

 SHORTLY AFTER TRUMP TOOK OFFICE, a document signed by forty thousand social scientists of various sorts warned anyone able to read that Donald Trump was mentally, emotionally unfit for office. As is often the case in the United States of arrogance, where everyone is an expert on everything, the experts were largely ignored. Trump's mental, emotional illness, hence unfitness for office was evident from the outset of his campaign for the presidency, and became increasingly obvious as his term in office proceeded. His, supporters, many of whom seem to suffer from psychological pathologies similar to Trump's, seem to have embraced him al the more because of rather than in spite of all his mental illnesses. You might recall the first indications: he called Ted Cruz "lyin' Ted" at least fifty times during a two week span early in the Republican primary, and he accused Mexico of "sending" rapists and murderers across the border into the United Stats, as if by Federal Express. Delusional, pathologically dishonest, malignantly narcissistic, all on display by Trump very early, and very often. And yet, he attracted a cult following which still endures, despite his recent treasonous incitement to violence and insurrection of an angry mob. Among history's greatest mysteries is how the electorate of an advanced nation, a twenty first century society, a society with access to more information, knowledge, and education than any other past or present, could possibly have chosen as its head of state a person of such conspicuously malignant personal characteristics, who never made any attempt to conceal his true nature, who never pretended to be anything other that what he was and is. Most irrational tyrants come well disguised. People can be forgiven for misplacing trust in them. He made angry people feels as if he understood their anger, empathized with it, and could and would remedy it. It seems contrary to reason that in an educated democracy an angry mob would attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government and replace it with a recently democratically defeated demagogue. An examination of history, however, reveals that this has happened with surprising frequency. My friend and neighbor from Guatemala, where a few weeks ago an angry mob broke into the Capitol building and ransacked it, told me that he had hoped that he had gotten away from that sort of thing. I jokingly replied that anything they can do in Guatemala, we can do better in America, the land of opportunity.

Preparing for Further Attacks By Trump Supporters

 IT IS SOMEWHAT COMFORTING to know that the U.S. Capitol building is being protected from further attacks by Trump supporters by new fencing and national Guard. Discomforting is the knowledge that many Trump supporters still exist, are at large, are violent by nature, and are inclined to gather together in angry mobs,usually in churches, and to embrace false realities and harmful beliefs in the fantasy world they inhabit. The Capitol building seems safe, but the rest of the country is undeniably in great danger, from Trump, and from his gangster-like supporters.Trump supporters, it is mildly consoling to know, can often be easily identified by their bright red MAG caps, fanatic facial expressions, (when not covered by a white hood), and their tendency to carry assault rifles rifles, confederates flags, swastikas, and Bibles. They are armed, with false piety and firearms, and considered dangerous. With regard to the emerging nonsensical argument that only the people who actually stormed the Capitol building are responsible for it, and that they were actually left wing radicals in disguise, one must bear in mind that Trump supporters are notorious for avoiding responsibility for their criminal behavior, as well as avoiding reality. That Trump is not responsible is an argument which belongs with Trump and his entire movement; in the dustbin of history. Here in the real world, which by definition precludes the views of people who support Trump, people influence the behavior of other people, constantly, everywhere. The real world excludes anyone who fails to recognize Trump and his supporters as anything other than criminals, and traitors. When the president of the United States holds a rally at which he passionately instructs his audience to go straight to the Capital building, without giving them further instructions other than to fight for him and to be "strong", and everyone at the rally cheers wildly in obvious agreement with and acceptance of the instructions, there exists a high degree of probability that the folks will become a mob, go to the capitol building, and do exactly what the mob did.Neither Trump nor his supporters can claim that this did not actually happen.They cannot claim that it was a hoax perpetrated by the media, or the left wing, or by China.It was all caught on tape, and has been seen by millions, if not billions, many times. And it guarantees that Trump will leave office in disgrace, will live in history in infamy, as will his tragically misguided supporters.

Harmonizing

 CHINA, in its thousands of years of history has, as far as anyone knows, never been a democracy. Arguably, for that matter, neither has any other country. Powerful, elite, undemocratic interests and forces invariably intercede between any expressed will of the people and its implementation.(In the United States, corporate intercession is prevalent) A recently released book "We Became harmonized" describes how the current regime in China has for the past decade imposed cultural and behavioral uniformity and conformity upon its billion and a half people, rendering a potentially volatile body politic passive, malleable, controllable, forestalling any possibility of democracy for China in the near future. There are now more than six hundred million surveillance cameras in china, as citizen surveillance has exponentially increased over the past decade. A massive amount of government computer processing and monitoring power constantly observes nearly every square foot of Chinese soil on behalf of the central government in Beijing. The "communist" government accumulates and organizes personal information on hundreds of millions of citizens with a thoroughness and on a scale sufficient to elicit the envy of any American social media platform, intelligence gathering agency, social research institution, or corporate conglomerate. This is a global trend. The world, not just China, is becoming Orwellian, aided and abetted by by technology and a sleeping giant; global culture. We the little people are provided with enough bread crumbs of prosperity and political power to keep us sleepily content. Hence, resistance to our total control by the state, corporate or otherwise, is minimal. One cannot set foot outside a building in London without being caught on camera. Inside, the camera is always on. Every jab at every button on every smart phone in the world is recorded. From time to time Said Thomas Jefferson, the tree of liberty will required nourishment with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Jefferson also said that the preservation of liberty would require a revolution and a new constitution every generation. It may well be that the time has long since come, and long since gone.

Rioting, Redux

 ITS HAPPENED BEFORE, in general terms. Americans, storming the capitol, an insurrection. Google "The Bonus marchers, 1932". That was worse. It lasted much longer, involved many more people, but was, arguably, justified. This time, Donald Trump is responsible. the agreement about this is nearly unanimous, with only the staunchest Trump supporters holding out. The silver lining is that the Trump mob can not claim that this was fake news, that it didn't happen, like they do with every Trump scandal or criminal act. he should be removed from office, and will be, in less than two weeks.Appropriate that the calls for application of the twenty fifth amendment are, or impeachment, they are, for all practical purposes, unnecessary. We suggest here that Trump be vigorously prosecuted for many crimes after he leaves office, to preserve accountability. he should be be indicted, prosecuted, an convicted for various crimes, among them coercion, suborning fraud, incitement to riot, sedition, obstruction of of justice, abuse of power, and various financial crimes, and violations of the emoluments clause.Joe Biden, trying to be conciliatory, tried to characterize the riot as an aberration, which it was most certainly not. It was as American, as they say, as apple pie. I used to claim that all protests are good protests; those advocating for Trump are not, even before they become riots. Donald Trump belongs in prison, and has belonged there for a very long time, since before hi sexually molested his first woman, probably in junior high. his claim that the election was stolen from him is so absurd that anyone who believes it, or pretends do, as millions do, is partly responsible for the capital building insurrection. Without Trump's encouragement, without being emboldened by the millions of Trump supporters who believe the great lie about election fraud, the rioters would never have attempted to violently overthrow the government of incoming president Joe Biden. Truly serving justice would require indicting, prosecuting, and convicting every Trump supporter for enabling and supporting Trump's traitorous, criminal behavior, including Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians, any of whom voted for Trump or embraces his false allegations of voter fraud. Given a choice between incarceration and deportation, millions of them would leave the country, creating an opportunity for the United States to receive millions of immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, which would greatly improve the country, because the immigrants would be far better people than the dearly deported.

Trump, Inciting A Riot

 RESPONSIBILITY for the riot is a pyramid, at the top of which slouches Donald Trump, alone Trump invited his supporters to come to the capitol city, then instructed them to go to the capitol building. This is not fake news. Beneath Trump immediately are the rioters themselves, hard core Trump supporters, right wing extremists, mostly Christians.  Many of the, like the "law and order" president himself, spewed indictments and accusations at the Black Lives Matter protesters last summer, sanctimoniously proclaiming themselves champions of law and order. Towards the bottom of the pyramid of evil are the mass of Trump supporters themselves, everyone who ever voted for ?Trump or kept supporting him throughout his vile and chaotic presidency. On the very bottom at the very base, is conservative Republican evangelical Christian America itself, Trump's staunch base of support.These are the people who made him president, the people who uphold and support the entire vile, immoral, violent Trump movement,  all accessories to crime, all members of a criminal gang, all traitors. The most telling moment came when Trump appeared on camera in front of the White House, while his supporters ransacked the capitol, and he encouraged them further, telling them that their cause and their behavior was totally justified, that he loves them, that they are wonderful people, but that they should go home now peacefully in order to avoid getting hurt. At the crucial moment when his violent MAGA mob was destroying democracy and our county's claim to greatness, Trump congratulates them, expresses his love for them, and further encourages them, in front of the entire country.  One can scarcely imagine the reaction by Christian conservatives had the mob consisted of African-American Obama supporters. America;s conservative community has shamed covered itself in shame for years, with its hatred of gay people, its hatred of government help for the poor, its hatred of all that is good and its embrace of evil, most particularly Trump himself, but this is a new low. This is the legacy of Trump, of looters roaming the inside of the nations' capitol building, looting, revealing their true nature.This is the true nature of evangelical Christian conservatism, the true nature of the Republican party. A vast majority of these people actually deluded themselves into believing that the election was stolen from Trump, another Trump lie, a big lie. Most Republicans, most evangelical Christians, most conservatives believe this lie.That is why today is their responsibility, their party, their true nature, and their legacy. Now, they will own it forever.

Gangsters, Following the Boss

 DONALD TRUMP'S latest impersonation of a mob boss, the one in which he made an offer that the Georgia Secretary of State could barely refuse, is perhaps his most convincing, his most criminal, and the one most likely to inspire and delight his right wing evangelical Christian mob base of support. People who recognize Trump as an immoral criminal thug, most of the American people, have never figured out hoe Christian evangelicals can adore Trump in such large numbers. Understanding begins by understanding that evangelical Christians do not follow Jesus, they follow Trump, seasoned with a twist of Milton Friedman, David duke, and Hitler, who hated the same people they hate. You cannot obey two masters. Conservative evangelical Christians, for the time being, follow Trump. They'll be in the streets of Washington, D.C., Wednesday, January 6, following Trump, truing to overthrow the United States government, illegally carrying guns, legally carrying Bibles, the most violent book in history which describes the most violent God in history, the God of capricious genocide, petty grudges and sadistic loyalty tests, the God they purport to worship. The toxic Trump mix consists of right wing talk radio, the home of hate speech, right wing cable TV, home of bizarre conspiracy theories, right wing internet, home of both of the above, and right wing evangelical Christianity, where the cruel god finds his base of support, with Donald Trump stirring the mix and doing the cheer leading. Trump himself is a mere figurehead, a fleeting symptom of a far deeper disease. media can be ignored, and driven out of business by popular neglect. The poisonous component is the malignant, radical religiosity which infected politics beginning in the late nineteen seventies and turned itself into a tool for an equally malignant political, cultural, and economic message of social and economic survival of the fittest, in a society filled with unfit, with people needing help who find it ever more difficult to receive it. The Trump movement offers nationalism and rejection of compromise and cooperation and compassion, in a society badly in need of cooperative action for the benefit of all. The Trump movement is rooted in lies and delusion. The "law and order" president even now is encouraging his violent supporters to show up in the streets of Washington to demonstrate on his behalf and the violence has already begun. In less than one week, our criminal president has suborned fraud, incited riots and violence, and is attempting to instigate a civil war, all for his personal, delusional vanity. That is why he is comparable to Hitler, and his evangelical christian followers, who have nothing in common with Jesus, are comparable to NAZIs and brown shirts.

Exiting A Criminal

 DONALD TRUMP is rapidly running out of time to sink lower morally or to rise higher criminally, but he somehow seems to manage both. In in the virtual age, it is probably possible to conduct impeachment hearing, to impeach, to conduct a trail, to convict, and to remove a sitting, slouching president in sixteen or fewer days. Trump;s behavior, if neither sane nor decent, is remarkably consistent, and strangely, for him, appropriate. The fundamental formula is that whatever Trump accuses others of doing wrong, they haven't done, but he has, or soon will. attributes and behaviors which he himself displays he ascribes to others. Its called "projection", is widespread and well known, especially among the mentally ill. Trump's election was fraudulent in 2016; Biden's in 2020 was not. He, Trump, lacks military service and military hero status, not John McCain. He is a slut, not the women he scorns and slanders. he is a pathological liar, not Ted Cruz.By now you begin to get the point. The list of Trump's negative projections of himself onto others is quite lengthy. Trump is a paragon of projection. To his credit, and to the benefit of voters, historians, and psychiatrists, Trump has no sense of shame, or morality, and therefore never tries to conceal his most reprehensible behavior, which included most or all of what he says and does. When he telephoned the Secretary of State of Georgia just the other day, requesting, pleading, demanding, threatening the doubtless taken aback young man to "find", meaning "fabricate" eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty votes, presumably for Trump,did he know that the conversation was being recorded, and would be released to the public and heard by millions? did he even bother to consider the possibility that it would, that the Georgia official would record official conversations legally as a matter of course? If so, did he even care? the answer is probably "no" on both questions. he probably assumed that the people to whom his behavior really maters, his ardent supporters, would approve of it in any case, and that the rest of us are already beyond hope, and part of the vast left wing conspiracy which cost him the presidency by perfidy and fraud. This fact is probably more alarming than the actual crime itself; Trump's likely attitude about it. Criminals never see themselves as criminals. The true Tragedy of Donald Trump is that there are millions of Americans who are no better than he who are willing to sink to any depth morally to support him. This revelation about forty percent of the American people is the most shocking and difficult fact to accept of all.

Congressional Traitoring

 CONGRESS will convene to formalize the election of Joe Biden as president, and dozens of Representatives and Senators will laughably, pathetically object to the electoral college, by fabricating false claims about violations of election laws in several states. In actuality they are staging a coup, an attempt to overthrow a dully, democratically elected government. By so doing they, like Trump,like all of Trump's supporters who have joined the election fraud movement, reveal themselves to be criminals and traitors. The irony is is that Trump's election, accomplished only with Russian interference and assistance to Trump, was a true coup, a coup of which congressional republicans, Trump, and millions of Trump supporters tacitly approved, by denying that it happened, notwithstanding an enormous volume of proof that it did, proof provided by the FBI, CIA, a dozen other intelligence gathering agencies, and verified and described in detail by the investigation conducted by Robert Mueller, former FBI director. The traitors still deny all of this, compounding their traitorous perfidy. Every instance of traitorous behavior by the Trump administration has been thoroughly investigated and documented and proven, including the attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian government into providing fabricated damaging material against Joe Biden, numerous emoluments clause violations by Trump, constant obstruction of justice, various abuses of power, for which he was impeached, and Trump's constant lying to the American people - all of it has been assiduously confirmed as fact, and yet Trump and his monstrous mob of supporters has denied all of it, calling it all a "hoax", or some hidden conspiracy to destroy Trump.The more egregious Trump's behavior became, the more egregious became teh behavior and responses to Trump's behavior by his immoral support base. Since Trump became president millions of  Americans have either ignored his racism, xenophobia, and general immorality, or have approved of it and imitated it. This attempted overthrow of the government is by far the worst behavior of all, and the fact that millions of American support it, and that dozens of members of Congress are trying to implement it, although with complete futility, is the worst yet. It seems they are saving the worst for the last.

Calling Traitors Traitors

 GEORGE FLOYD, amond his many other tangible and heroic accomplishments, which shall sadly remain forever unknown to him, is his inadvertent awakening within the United States of America a knowledge of the true nature and place in history of the short lived but highly influential Confederate States of America. His death triggered a national storm and fury of protest, and a conversation about racism in America, and its historical underpinnings. He reminded us what a horrid bunch of hypocritical traitors the southern Christian slave driving rebels were, in short. We modern Americans, in our zeal to promote "southern heritage", often overlook the obvious: that the CSA, slaves or no slaves, racist or otherwise (nearly all nineteenth century Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, were "racists") was a bunch of outright traitors, treasonous, traitorous rebels who became a foreign country and enemy combatant of the United States, albeit only for four years, certainly long enough to do considerable damage to their former country, our country. American folklore has twisted history and reshaped the Civil War into a romantic, noble struggle of worthy adversaries, of noble cause against noble cause. Nothing could be further from the truth. The american civil War was nothing other than rebellious, traitorous treason. Southern sympathizer descendants like to point to "state's rights" and "southern heritage"; states's rights to do what? Own slaves? Southern heritage of what" Rebellion and treason against one's country? George Floyd has inspired the most widespread tattoo removal fad in American history; confederate flags are coming off forearms, buttocks and bosoms in astounding numbers, as people finally begin to get the point. The tats are turning magically into American flags, bald eagles, and other imaginative motifs, since tattoos are notoriously difficult to actually remove, having been put there to stay. The racism behind much of the confederate flag tattooing requires brainwashing.The central moral here is, as Jefferson said after being edited by Franklin, self evident: do not get tattoos.Skin is sufficiently appealing unto itself, and needn't be augmented or covered with 'art", but merely washed often.For those disposed to ignoring good advice, try this: never get a tattoo expressing love or loyalty to any particular person, place, or thing.human passions area s transitory as the midwestern wind in early spring. Better to display hatred; it least that passion is a bit more enduring.An overwhelming high percentage of people who get tattoos want them removed later in life.The process of removal, it is well known, is laborious and painful. If the confederate flag can go out of style, anything can.

Rolling the Dice For Friends, Gaining and Losing Friends

 THE PERSON with whom you are most compatible, your perfect match, your "soulmate",is almost certainly someone of whom you will never hear nor see nor meet nor speak to. Mathematics, statistical analysis, which, yes, is valid, verifies this. Likewise, in the public school system we do not so much choose our friends as they are chosen for us. We select them from among the pool of prospects our parents and our school districts give us. Many of our longest lasting friendships are mere serendipity. In one of his well known and poignant letters, Einstein compared society to a huge number of wooden planks, drifting aimlessly on the surface of a vast ocean, carried about by the vicissitudes of water and wind currents, each with a person perched atop. he told the person that he was writing to that he sincerely hoped that his wooden plank and the one upon which the other person was floating would bump into each other in the future, if only by chance. Yours truly, Dr. Einstein. We should all be so fortunate as to receive such a comment in the farewell portion of a letter, or email. Our lives consist of a huge number of brief, mostly fortuitous encounters with people who will only play a limited role in our lives, encounters unpredictable.All friendships end; its merely a matter of when and how. But they all have a lasting impact on our lives and our memories, making all of them worthwhile and valuable. At the end of our days, all we have left, really, is our memories of our lives, and the people with whom we shared them. I live in a conservative corner of a conservative state, surrounded by politically and culturally conservative folks, and would feel quite out of place if I allowed myself to. I often reflect that I belong in a university town, which is why I live near one, which suffices. Social media gives us the opportunity of choosing more compatible friends from a larger sea of fish, but the trade off is time and distance, which become impediments. I want my friendships face to face. I lost one friend because I dared suggest, forcefully, bluntly, that the scientific is the only valid way to verify information, and another because I suggested that racism might be a motivating factor when she asserted that Michelle Obama is a man. Friends like that I'm willing to lose. Over the last few years I can think of at least four good friends who chose to discontinue our friendship not by yelling, but by falling suddenly silent, by refusing to speak or respond - to anything, instead of hashing out and resolving what would have been an easily resolved issue. Its the sudden silence I don't like. Why not at least try to save a friendship? Isn't it worth it? May their silence bring them sadness, and personal evolution.We Americans are a sensitive, easily offended bunch. We prefer our friends passive and compliant. When people show a little independence and personality, the friendship is in jeopardy. Oh well, their loss.

International Friending

 IN SAN DIEGO, hard up against the pacific ocean and spanning both sides of the border, are several lovely acres of what has been named "Friendship Park", a place where Mexican and American nationals can freely mingle, briefly refuting the efficacy of barriers and borders, before going home, home to the usual bordered and barricaded world. First lady pat Nixon baptized it formally in 1971. Ronald Reagan approved of it, both before and after granting asylum to millions of undocumented Mexicans in the nineteen eighties. In those days, Mexican immigrants, legal or otherwise, were not cast by a racist American president as ""rapists" and "murderers", accused of being "sent" to the U.S., as if as part of an organized conspiracy, and Republicans were decent people with some measure of compassion. A small parcel of well manicured land, free of government tyranny, border agents, walls, and barbed wire,where ordinary people, if only briefly, can be citizens of the world. But now the great monstrous wall of Trump is piercing through it,bisecting friendships, truncating harmony, bringing back the old familiar ignorance and mistrust. Before he leaves office, Donald Trumps seems determined to do as much damage, to harm as many people as possible.Miles of border wall are being built at a furious pace, because the racists haters responsible for it know that their time is limited, because incoming president Biden has pledged to build not another inch of border wall.The next administration has pledged to lead America forward into a kinder, more compassionate, more harmonious state of mind and being. Or maybe its just that Biden is truly going to make America great again, as she was before the prevaricating monster stole the presidency with foreign assistance and a malign agenda predicated on anger and hatred. When Donald Trump is at long last gone, which will be soon but none too soon, and his traitorous mob of vicious angry supporters is finally quietened a bit,perhaps the senseless disjointed remnants of the wall of hatred will stand, like Ozymandias, as a dead relic of hateful, detestable, useless lunacy. nothing better can be expected. Then perhaps Friendship Park and return to being Friendship Park, and children will no longer be separated from their parents by gestapo like goons and locked in cages in he false name of restored American greatness and American can get about the business of actually becoming great, rather than trying to retreat into some imaginary greatness of the past which never really existed after all.