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PERSPECTIVE.
For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were an American born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.
When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.
When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish.
At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.
As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.
Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this. In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.

UncleMiltie 5 May 14
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My Dad was born in a small river town in southern Ohio in 1910. All of the above, and more.

He was about 8 when his father nearly succumbed to the Spanish flu. Carts carrying bodies down his "Main Street" every day for weeks. Actually, I don't think my Grandfather fully recovered as he was dead by '25, in his forties.

So, he knew there was a Will; he'd seen it. Nonetheless it was never found after his Father's death. His estate (such as it was) was probated for years. And with the Depression, whatever he may have had was gone. So Dad grew up on the stockroom floor of a wholesaling company in Columbus, Ohio. He also earned money as a pro boxer. 28 fights, 27 wins, 18 by KO, 1 Draw. His trainer told him to get out NOW, while he still had his brains. Apparently, some of those wins were tougher than others. He also progressed in his company as a Salesman, eventually as Executive Sales Manager of his firm.

He joined the Navy in '42 at the age of 32. He was Honorably Discharged in '45, returned to work as an On-the-road- Salesman because he didn't believe he could competently slide back into his previous position without reestablishing business relationships. After a year on the road, he resumed his position, met my Mother*, started a family, and moved to my Eternal Home Town of Wheeling, WV. I'm the last of 4 children and was born in '57, probably the year of greatest and most heartfelt optimism of that century.

It wasn't until later in the Vietnam War that Dad said, "I can't believe this---I think I've reached the point where I don't trust my government. How is this possible?" He was anything but naive. He'd simply assumed that He and his government were, at bottom, on the same page. He believed that every American takes hits in a free country, but he hadn't believed that our government would play politics with lives. We could never have succeeded against fascism if that had been the belief of his Generation.

Therein lies the problem. Americans are forgiving of errors in judgment. When it becomes evident that we're pawns in a larger political game, all bets are off. We have a problem with a virus. We took extraordinary measures to combat it. We did that to save lives. Now, a political party wants to keep doing that to CONTROL lives. Again, we're approaching the time that all bets are off.

Correction:

He met Mom during the war. It started out as a date with her SISTER.
Apparently, Dad and Mom argued about something through most of the evening---and they knew it had to be love.

Yes, from time to time, human nature overcomes even something as wonderful as our Constitution, which was crippled badly the first time in 1942. No one remembers what actual freedom was like then. And you are right, now the speed of our descent on that slippery slope has become so fast that all bets are off indeed. We will soon have no choice but to again defend the original Constitution.

@TimTuolomne
In situations analogous to the current one(s), I think less in terms of "what we're going to do," and more along the lines of "what is inevitable."

The country is opening up, plan or no plan.

When pundits speak of our impulse to freedom being in our DNA, they're saying more than they think.
It, literally, IS in our DNA. Our being here speaks to our proclivities, our longings, our need to move, our need to BE.

T

@Terence57. I agree.

@TimTuolomne
I had to add a correction to my original post!

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Adversity is the greatest teacher. Overcoming it builds the strongest character.

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