I was very lucky in having some excellent teachers in my small town

[Atticus]

public school system. One of the best was my history/US government teacher in high school. One of the truths he planted in my young skull was that the citizen's right to "petition for redress of grievances" is similar to the safety valve in the lid of a pressure cooker. It allows for a safe release of accumulated pressure and prevents a violent explosion.

We have serious grievances about the Trump regime---too many to list. Our "petitions" (requests) for "redress" (remediation) are not just being ignored, they are being scoffed at and ridiculed. The pressure continues to build.

I fear that we are headed for a reckoning that only the arrogant cannot forsee.

[Are_grits_groceries]

1. This was fairlycommon.

Most of my relatives and I grew up in small towns or farming communities. At that time, there weren’t many alternate job paths for women so one default was education. The pay wasn’t great but they did have a job.
Their career path loss was th students’ gain. We had some seriously good teachers who might not otherwise have been there. My English and Math teachers were generally excellent. The others were not shabby.
One history teacher I had did his best to provoke us and challenged our assumptions. Some of those morons called him a “Communiss.”
This was the Sixties and we were Woke! Vietnam, Integration, assassinations, Kent State, riots, and on and on.
This was an unstable and traumatizing time. After one assassination I remember wondering if they were going to shoot everybody. The term “Beaking News” is so misused that it has lost an urgent feel. However, I still catch myself cringing and that is a relic of the 1960s.
I believe this is another important historical moment. I could do without anymore tests of our intelligence, courage and stamina.