The 6th of January Insurrectionists had very good intel from the highest echelons of the federal government; the Capitol building office that suffered the greatest damage was the office of the parliamentarian, because the organizers knew that this office contained the electoral voting ballots!
Fortunately for our representative form of government, those ballots were moved out of harm’s way at the last moment, when the Capitol building was invaded (according to Thom Hartmann on Youtube).
In other words, the intention was the overthrow of the US government.
They will be back to try again unless something lawful is done. Pressure the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute those responsible both in and out of elected office.
The rebels should have their US citizenship forfeited and made to suffer permanent exile!
ANDREW MARTIN, Yardley, Pa.
After reading Jill Richardson’s column, “Sociology can help the Climate Crisis” [12/15 TPP], her premise appeared lucid and overt. Instead of the climate being consigned as the province of natural scientists, social scientists could and should lend their expertise to the subject.
So enormous an environmental phenomenon plainly requires a commensurate collective remedy — a united response on the part of sovereign states, as nature doesn’t recognize manmade frontiers or borderlines. Sociologists and psychologists ought to join forces in exploring the fundamental emotions in various populations that underlie the ecological abuses.
The English poet, Alexander Pope, echoing a truism enunciated by Renaissance humanists, said the proper study of Mankind is Man. Through examination of human anxieties, guilt and shame, we may gain insight into the causes that have wrought climate grief.
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
To find the right answers, one has to look in the right places and ask the right questions. So much (or perhaps we could say everything) we are experiencing today is a result of what happened (often) so long ago. If we knew how it started, we may learn why it’s as it is today.
Most of us in the country came form somewhere else, and came (or were brought) here for many reasons. We call these happenings History. To unravel our histories we need records from the past. Books and manuscripts hold many or most of the accounts of our histories that we need to better understand our present.
America was discovered by Europeans (a few of them) in 1492. [Editor’s note: Scandinavians claim the Norse were in Newfoundland in 1021, and Irish monks may have been on the East Coast even earlier, and of course there were natives watching them land, but let it pass.] The Pilgrims came later. Other people have been coming ever since. We take these “events” for granted, but mostly don’t understand or know any more details of them. But it is in the details that the history will reveal what we need to know.
Recently, I began reading a book published in 1944 called “Puritanism and Democracy,” by Ralph Barton Perry, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University (published by the Vanguard Press). In it he describes and relates about how and why the Puritans came here to the Boston area. We celebrate “Thanksgiving” every year, but that real story is much larger than the turkey thing. Currently a book about when the first Black slaves came here, in 1619, is getting a lot of attention. But even it does not tell the whole story. We don’t always know what we don’t know.
Another book related to my theme is “A Critical Bibliography for the March of America Series” #101, published in 1966 in Ann Arbor by University Microfilms Inc. (“a subsidiary of Xerox Corp.”) by Albert T. Klyberg. It begins, “the discovery of a new and unsuspected continent, inhabited by people of an unimagined color and a primitive culture, was a shock to the western world such as we in America shall not experience. Our current ‘moon shots’ are not comparable. In 1492, it was truly a ‘New World’ that burst upon the European consciousness.”
It continues to say how much Americans themselves were shaped by the experiences they had of filling up the continent. It is getting a larger picture of our history, at this time, that would be profitable for all of us to learn about and profit from as we need to find our way into the future. There is so much to learn. Can we not take time to stop fighting each other and admit we all could learn more helpful lessons?
CHERYL LOVELY, Presque Isle, Maine
The BLM movement has given thinkers who are not Republican voters or Trump supporters pause to consider director Spike Lee’s comment that “the foundation of the United States is the genocide of native people and slavery.” We know the history, racist southern states and their so-called confederacy were all treasonous, enslaving the Black population, promoting treason and the deaths of thousands of fellow citizens.
Don’t listen to the likes of Ronald Reagan and those who demonize the federal government and prattle on about states rights. They’re traitors, like slaveholding Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, now consigned to the dustbin of history. Their banners/flags no longer fly proudly anywhere. Now the symbol for Republican voters who support the deplorable elements, including neo-Nazis, KKK, the Proud Boys and militia groups. They can have that confederate flag as their symbol. It only accentuates how evil these deplorables are.
By 1925, a decade after the release of “The Birth of a Nation,” the KKK could claim five million members, which suggests that today one-half of the White US population has a family link to it. All, no doubt, Republican and Trump voters.
GEORGE MANCUSO, Rochester, N.Y.
The one thing I haven’t heard talked about is what are the future generations going to do about the great need for oil produces, such as asphalt, for the millions of miles of roads and streets that need to be resurfaced (smoothed out) over time if oil is being burned up for transportation? The same is true for resurfacing of the many parking lots.
Another big use of oil-related products are the millions of roofs that need to be replaced over time with asphalt shingles. There are some alternatives, such as metal, slate, tile and others, but hopefully future generations will not be shorted on the ever-popular asphalt roof.
Another big requirement for oil products are tires, which also become a security concern for military equipment.
There are also millions of plastic items (toys, containers, components, etc.) that would be hard to duplicate and, I’m sure, much more expensive.
If you look inside of your automobile, there are numerous items and components, such as the dash, upholstery, side panels and many smaller components.
Inside of our homes there are the couches, drapes, blinds and, of course, the carpeting. The list is long.
We are a long way from finding an alternative to a fuel-based flight. I believe I will pass on a flight in a battery-powered plane.
Who knows, but we may be reincarnated and end up coming back to an oilless planet.
CARL THIMMESCH, Mission, Kansas
Current statistics show that if the present standard of living for just the “average” European or American (not including the wealthy or obscenely rich) were extended to just two billion people, only then could humans live sustainably with the resources our planet can provide. And here we are, fast approaching eight billion.
Yet, capitalism, a system based on growth and consumption, has taken control of financial and political systems world-wide; growth is its life blood. Then there’s the battle over abortions, some insisting women must have children (growth) even if in no position to care for them. Most major religions seek growth. And on and on. We consider growth sacred.
But most young people understand that evolution is a natural process. Any species that becomes wildly over-abundant will inevitably face vast reductions, one way or another. And of course, the most vulnerable always suffer first and the worst. Too much competition for living space and resources (including clean air/water/energy) leads to more intense alienation and friction within, more wars throughout, and greater increases in virulent diseases caused by many humans integrating worldwide and many living closer and closer together.
Thankfully, many of our youth have begun connecting the dots.
MARY McBEE, Tama, Iowa
Hal Crowther’s cover story [“A Confederacy of Dunces? Once Again Dixie Wants Out,” 12/1/21 TPP] is deft and lively, but the South is with us forever.
The reason is Medicare and Social Security. These programs are purely federal — so a senior citizen can move from Vermont to Florida and still get full benefits.
Uninterrupted federal coverage has been an enormous benefit to Sunbelt states — even while they boast about states’ rights and low taxes. Their greatest actual friends have been Democrats like Roosevelt and Johnson. (Just like the 19th century — when federal aid, land grants and the US military were the real supports for “rugged individualism.”)
BOB HERTZ, St. Paul, Minn.
Those who oppose abortion ignore one important issue: The suffering of an unwanted, unloved child. nnA child has the right to live. However, in my opinion, a child also has the right to be wanted and the right to be loved. Mothers who give birth to children they do not want or do not love, may keep their children physically alive, but may condemn them to an emotional death for the rest of their lives.
GILBERT A. RUBIO, San Diego, Calif.
A human being is a human being is a human being. They come in all sizes, shapes, colors and hues, dependent on origin of birth and inculcation. They may speak a different language, but as citizens of this nation and human beings they are to be afforded their inalienable rights and common decency due all human beings, for civilization’s continuance is dependent on compliance. The Egalitarian Quest.
FRANK ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
When and if God created the world and everything in it, he could have eliminated nuts because there have been plenty of them from Adam to Trump.
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2022
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