Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  Read an article in the paper about the “innocent patriots’ ‘ that tried to overthrow a legal election and are now being held in jail that is so terrible they would like to be sent to the one in Cuba because the conditions are better there. 

   The inmates in that prison have a great deal in common with these “patriots”, they hate America as it stands and what it stands for, but somehow I do not believe that they would welcome these “patriots”. The similarities are great, they preach and practice hatred, and wish death to all that do not believe. They are fanatical about their devotion to a leader that uses every method he can think of to have them do the dirty work without getting shit all over his shoes. Thinking is not allowed; it would interfere with the leader’s vision of a world devoted to him, run by him, and destroyed to make him wealthier.

    Many great things once came from the place that the men held in Cuba come from, and that all went away because of one man’s obsession with how he thought the world should work and it was based on religion. Many great things have come from the US but we too are falling from a leader position to one dominated by someone that believes he is greater than all before him and that he should be followed without question. Education and intelligent thought are enemies to such people that follow these kinds of leaders. 

   The practices of school yard bullies should be left behind with the adolescent age, growth should happen in the mind as well as the body. Differences are the interesting stimuli of life; they should not be the basis for hate and embitterment. 

    It may be that we are where we are as a nation because we have allowed the fringe of society to make enough noise that we have lost sight of what we are or should be. We have had multiple disagreements over the course of your history and we have managed to get past those issues without resorting to internal warfare except for the Civil War. One of those has been called to satisfy one’s man’s ego and our current issue with a stolen election is not a reason for war. At most it may be a valid discussion point but that is doubtful.

    Giving the people that caused 5 deaths in their peaceful quest to overthrow an election a pass on any type of punishment will not be productive. Should it be jail time, or taking away their citizenship, or their property, forcing them to leave the country, making them wear a badge to mark them as was done in the book “The Scarlet Letter” or as Hitler did to the Jews? 

    Perhaps we should take lessons from the part of the world that believes in eyes being removed, or tongues cut out, or other parts being cut off, stoned to death or thrown out of aircraft, what should it be? The idea that life would be better elsewhere is short sighted on the part of the people complaining about their current, self inflicted predicament and rather than point at the guards, the system, or the local courts they should be directing their anger at the image in the mirror and the man on the podium.