recognize warning
signs of someone who’s on a
path to violence

The CISA is on the job.

Accordioning to Wikipedia, “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cybersecurity programs with U.S. states, and improving the government’s cybersecurity protections against private and nation-state hackers.”

They are working hard to insure the digital sanctity of the up coming elections as well as the safety of those people running and managing the day to day operations of America voting.

Among the many things the have done is prepare helpful pamphlets of useful information for these election workers.

One of these pamphlets titled simply, RECOGNIZE.

It is about behaviors that election workers might want to be on the lookout for?

Now what might election workers want to be on the on the lookout?

What might they want to recognize?

You know, back when I was a kid, my elementary school, Crestview, was the local voting stop.

For as long as I can remember the same local ladies where the election workers who ran this voting site.

Often we would walk by and my classmate’s Mom’s would be sitting behind the desks by the voting machines and we would say hello.

Often our class would be invited down to see what was going on and HOW TO VOTE.

The process I mean.

How to fill out a sign a declaration of who you were, which the ladies would look up in giant thick books and then hand you a ballet.

As I got older, the ladies got older.

When I started voting, the schools’ name had changed but the ladies were the same and we would spend a moment to catch up and they would always ask about my brothers and sisters and my folks.

I have moved a lot since then but I have kept voting and I tell you, across this country, whether in Michigan or Georgia or South Carolina, it has been these same little old ladies running the show.

I always felt safe with the fate of democracy in their hands.

So CISA created a pamphlet for these little old ladies titled, RECOGNIZE.

The subtitle is, “Recognize the warning signs of someone on a path to violence.”

Sometimes its seems the biggest enemy of Democracy is Democracy itself.

we build all manner of
walls and fences then wonder why
we feel so alone

We live in a time of such confusion and rancor, with a culture that puts a premium on things that don’t last – money, fame, status, likes.

We chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone.

We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time know each other – and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other.

Former President Barack Obama in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 20, 2024.

Regardless of who and what and where and so many other things about this speech, it was the style of speech that stirred my soul.

It was a speech.

It was a political speech.

It had a narrative.

It had ideas.

It asked questions.

It answered questions.

It challenged you.

It wasn’t a rant.

I knew half the country watching this speech loved it.

I also knew that half the country hated it this speech, if they even watched it.

Remember when this is what politics was like?

How did the common denominator get to be so low?

Think of the world Mr. Obama described.

A world of such confusion and rancor, with a culture that puts a premium on things that don’t last – money, fame, status, likes.

A world where we chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone.

A world where we don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time know each other – and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other.

Honestly now, deep down where you are honest, not with the world, but with yourself, who wants to live in this world?

king not below man,
but below God and the law …
this at least is clear

No one at the time regarded the Charter as a final settlement of all outstanding issues, and its importance lay not in details but in the broad affirmation of the principle that there is a law to which the Crown itself is subject. Rex non debet esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege — the king should not be below man, but below God and the law. This at least is clear.

Winston Churchill writing about the Magna Carta in his book, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: Vol. I. The Birth of Britain (Ontario, McClelland & Stewart, 1956).

Rex non debet esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege.

The king should not be below man, but below God and the law.

Mr. Churchill continues, “He has his sphere of action, within which he is free from human control. If he steps outside it he must be brought back. And he will step outside it if, ignoring the ancient Council of the kingdom, and refusing to take the advice of his wise men, he tries to govern through his Household, his favourites, or his clerks.”

The king should not be below man, but below God and the law.

If he steps outside it he must be brought back.

According to Wikipedia: Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.

by two qualities …
the one touch of genius he had
candour, decency

The one touch of genius he had was that of a peacemaker among Americans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Poles, bristling with national pride and driven by ambition. It may be, in fact, that such immortality as Eisenhower achieves will be guaranteed by two qualities that do not usually, in a worldly world, guarantee a man much more than the affection of his friends: by the force of them, Eisenhower was able to make trusting friends of about 250 million people fighting for their lives. They are candour and decency.

From the Letter to America titled simply, Eisenhower April 3, 1969. by Alistair Cooke as reprinted in the book, America observed : the newspaper years of Alistair Cooke, Penguin Books, London, 1989.

It was Cooke’s obituary of D. D. Eisenhower.

As Barbara Holland writes in the delightful, Hail to the Chiefs ( Berkley Books, New York, 2004):

One of the coziest things about Ike was that he never worried much. When people handed him worrying papers to read, he just smiled and handed them right back. He didn’t even worry about Senator McCarthy. He pretended there wasn’t any Senator McCarthy. He just blinked and got in his helicopter and went out to Burning Tree to play a Few holes before dinner. He figured it he paid no attention McCarthy would just go a way, and presently the Senate got fed up and censured the gentleman from Wisconsin and he did go away, sputtering and fumbling with his lists and still needing a shave, so Ike was right not to worry.

Candor ( Mr. Cooke used Candour).

Decency.

Right not to worry.

I like Ike.

Boy Howdy, do I miss him.