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David Mitchell
Mike B. (and Mike M, and John J, and..........)
You and I are on the so-called "opposite" side politicaly. But I am not sure the word "opposite" is proper here. It assumes we are "opposed" to each other. It implies confict or confrontation, and somehow that idea doesn't sit right with me.
You have the advantage over me in that you know much more of our history than I do. But I am keenly interested in all this, as I was raised at a dinner table where everything was discussed - well, almost everything. (see below)***
And endless numbers of guests dined with us, with very different backgrounds and points of view. My Dad was eager to share different ideas with people - from a female Protestant friend who was a missionary in India - to 2 Catholic priests, one who spent his life running a mission in Formosa, and another who ran a boys school in Trujillo, Peru - and to a totaly weird guy (Ammon Hennessy) who was on the staff of the "Daily Worker", the American Communist Party newspaper in New Youk City - - seriously weird dude!
And the endless flow of Priests and a few OSU fellow proffessors - I could go on.
But always his conversations were respectful, even when I knew it was stretching Dad's tolerance.
I think this election swings between a matter of Issues, vs, a matter of Character. But the choices this time around don't give me freedom to have both. So I think you and I are closer to each others point of view because, in this case, I will have to choose character over issues. (there once was a time where both men were of honorable cahracter, and the matter was simply about the Issues).
I cannot and will not choose someone who is a convicted rapist, who scammed thousands of families out of their life savings (Trump University - Wow, drill down deep into that story!), who said "There is no sin in Adultery," who called for the suspension of part of the constitution, who flattered and praised our worst enemies, and who continually makes a mockery of my fellow "Losers" and "Suckers".
I wish things were different. I wish Donald was a clean living, honorabe man. I wish "my" Republicans would stop acting like childish fools. On the other hand I wish Joe, Kamala, and that bunch were also opposed to Abortion, and not so in love with spending more and more instead of less.
(and listen me go on - Trump has some proposals that would also add triliions to the debt)
And personally, I wish both parties had the guts to expect the ultra-rich to pay their fair share of taxes.
*** (I never disclosed, at about age 9, that I had stolen an arrowhead (one of 8) sitting out on a towel near where a team of anthropoligists from Ohio State were digging up the nearby sacred Indian burial "Mound" so the lot could be cleared for new building sites on a new street - Wynding Drive (connecting Yaronia with Glenmont). I only grabbed one - then I ran like hell for my house across the street and hid it up in my room.
That never came up at the dinner table.
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