Including Iraq, etc.
How red are my hands? I descend from slave owners. My biological father developed weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological, radiological, and advocated for them as somehow superior to nuclear weapons options. As a youth, American men and boys, not much older than me, were sent to Vietnam to burn women and children and villages, with napalm. Under 43 America murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, tortured many more. I can, of course, go on.
I wish to join the call for calm. To those who feel insurrection is treason, punishable by death, I council calm and mercy. We are bigger than those insurgents of January 6, 2021 who sought to topple our government, our constitution, our core belief in rule by law.
"There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves and sheep dogs."
As spoken by Chris Kyle's father in the Clint Eastwood directed film "American Sniper" (2014), said to be "loosely based" on the real live story of Christopher Scott Kyle 1974-2013. The real Kyle was a highly decorated Navy SEAL sniper who served four tours in Iraq with over 150 confirmed kills. A hero in any sense of the word.
FLM: Fox Lies Matter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/02/05/lou-dobbs-canceled-fox/
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away...
When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door...
Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn't there,
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...
-- William Hughes Mearns 1899
"Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all.
I dreamt I was in a reception line at a formal event. At the head of the line was the President of the United States, shaking hands one by one.
He took my hand firmly as I stepped forward for my turn. I leaned slightly toward him and said "We have something in common, you and I."
"Really? What's that?"
I let his strong grip pull me closer, and spoke in a hushed tone so only he could hear: "Neither of us belongs here."
Can't find it right now, but one of my friends posted an old video, an interview with Martin Luther King, Jr, one of America's greatest leaders of all time. That post reminded me of MLKs "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
Jack and Jill
Went up the Hill
To beg for something safer
Jack fell down
Blood all around
And Jill died crawling after
Up Jack got
He, badly shot,
Remembered in the paper
Empty stares
Thoughts and prayers
We mourn the dead tenth grader
They call B.S.
Children address
This homegrown bloody terror
Endured in school
Just so you'll
From tyrants slightly safer
Stop the guns
The deadly ones
That leave our children slaughtered
The tyranny
You fear is thee
Killing our sons and daughters
Stop killing our sons and daughters.
Stop. Killing. Our. Sons and Daughters.
(Placed in public domain. No rights reserved.)