Hi David,

Wow, John Brown's grave ! What a good man !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)

Are there still any good, honest, incredibly brave people amongst us like him ?

Now, having thrown that cat amongst the vultures, watch the frenzy from the crazed Right.

Thanks, David. You must be justifiably proud :)

Best wishes,

Joe

Dear Joe,

I'm sure that there are many good people on both sides
of politics. The late John McCain comes to mind. As
does former US President Barack Obama. But I'm sure there's
many more. We just don't hear about them here.

cont'd ...

I just thought of another one - Mitt Romney.
He voted to impeach Trump. I think it was
a first for a Senator to vote to impeach a
US President from his own party.

When one thinks of Pat Robertson, Robert Falwell, Billy Graham and other ministers who suck up to the powers that be one might forget the great Christians in American history.

Roger Williams

“Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible, for it required people to interpret God’s law, and people would inevitably err. He therefore concluded that government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God. A society built on the principles Massachusetts espoused would lead at best to hypocrisy, because forced worship, he wrote, ‘stincks [sic] in God’s nostrils.’ At worst, such a society would lead to a foul corruption—not of the state, which was already corrupt, but of the church,” Barry wrote.

As a result of his opinions, Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony within a few years. He chose to found a more tolerant, religiously free colony at Providence in what is now the state of Rhode Island. Williams was thus a pioneer for the idea of church-state separation and a Founding Father more than 100 years before the generation of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. He was possibly also the first Abolitionist. He went as a missionary to the Indians but quit when he felt he had nothing to teach them.

The Bible bashers who get upset by secularism might realise that it was invented by a Baptist minister.

Wm Penn who I think headed the only colony that lived in peace with the Indians.

John Brown

Martin Luther King jr

I'm surprised Steve Backshall hasn't featured Nancy Pelosi on Deadly 60 yet !

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Dear Individual,

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You wrote :

1. « he [Trump] has torn it [America] apart and severely tarnished its previously excellent reputation.

Banjo Paterson,

I can't help thinking that that is the insidious work of the Democrats' incessant attack on everything he does »
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That’s a chicken and egg conundrum, Individual. As often, the truth is probably to be found somewhere between the two hypotheses. They are both to blame to a certain extent.

Nevertheless, the president of the United States has to assume overall responsibility. It is his job to do whatever is necessary to bring the country together and install harmonious relations within and among all the vital forces of the nation, however great the divergence of their ideologies and objectives.
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2. « What it really boils down to & the same applies here in Australia is not the rich becoming richer but the unproductive but costly bureaucracy of he Public Service protecting it's bandwagon !

The rich at least employ people, what do the Bureaucrats do ? »
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Your comment refers to my statement that “he [Trump] has ruined the health and lives of much of poor America and allowed the immensely rich to become even richer”.

“All men are born equal” so the saying goes, but I don’t think that is true. I see all individuals as unequal from the cradle to the grave. What happens before and after that is a matter of conjecture.

The aim of democracy, as I understand it, is not to treat all individuals equally, but fairly – to each his due. Some are smarter than others, work harder, are luckier, more talented, better trained, born with a silver spoon in their mouth, more inventive, more opportunistic, self-confident, risk receptive, megalomaniac, etc.

It seems fair to me that individuals who are more productive than others receive a just reward for their achievements. However, I do not think it is fair that the already immensely rich become even richer while the poor become poorer.

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(Continued …)

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