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I woke up at 4am with this Jefferson quote on my mind...
Jefferson was evidently trying to calm some fellow delegates to the Constitutional convention, in the wake of Shay's rebellion. The rebellion is perhaps most responsible for our nation having a ban on debtor's prisons, and even the constitutional right to bankruptcy and debt forgiveness by act of federal magistrates. Jefferson believed rebellion may have virtue. Later in life he became a college president and youthful rebellion consumed his ability to provide a systematic educational process. "We have had 13. states independent 11. years. there has been one rebellion. that comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. what country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. what signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. it is it's natural manure. our Convention has been too much impressed by. . ." |
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- In 1860 we had a very divided nation, based on which side of Mason/Dixon we lived on.
- In 1968 we were divided by a generation gap & the rise of black
The Jim Crow laws, The War on Drugs; They cost us so many lives, long after the riots and battles ceased.
Today we see a massive urban/rural divide along political ideologies. The hostilities have led to virtual echo chambers and lobbing verbal grenades into the other side's trenches.
We don't have enough people sitting down to discuss issues in an open and patient discourse.
Let's not let hate win. Let's show grace and empathy. We have to value people who live differently from us. But we don't have to live like them, in order to respect them.
Be the salt of the earth...
