WESTMINSTER-"These are the times that try men's souls."
Words written by Thomas Paine 249 years ago are arguably as relevant today as they were when first written. He spoke of reasons to birth a country whose promise was only a dream in 1776.
Today, after thousands have died to defend that promise, our country, its flaws, setbacks, and trials notwithstanding, nevertheless was inching toward what Lincoln called "the last best hope of earth."
Today, we find the soul of the Republican Party along with those of the Supreme Court, not only wanting but derelict, totally absent. These soulless zombie imbeciles who do the bidding of their lord and master, in return for a promise not to be primaried, have abrogated their duty, have abandoned the Constitution to which they swore an oath.
They are now dismantling the mechanisms of progress that have so painfully been constructed, are now destroying whatever modicum of goodness, comity, kindness, and equity we have achieved in 249 years of struggle.
Some may say the fate of the country is in the hands of God. In these times, it seems evident that those made in God's image are incapable of salvaging the promise of America, that we cannot keep Benjamin Franklin's republic.
As we descend into the tyranny of Trump's revenge, cruelty, perfidy, stupidity, corruption, and lies, as those who are able scatter themselves to other lands, we, the ones who are thus abandoned, must not be left to suffer the tragic effects of the people's choice in 2024.
As Thomas Paine said in his pamphlet The American Crisis, "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered." Yet if we are to survive and again be a force for good in the world, conquer it we must.
As Lincoln said in 1862, "the way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless."
Philip Odegard
Westminster
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