because on the list of priorities in life nation, the concept of nation is certainly not at the top. It to me is only important because the nation contains your family, your neighbors, and a subset of humanity. My allegience is first of all to those groups. That they fall within the entity of nation is what gives the country importance not the flag, not the history books, not the graveyards of the people that died before me.

Because as much as those stories, the traditions, the stars and stripes flapping proudly in the wind have stirred me in the past, they are mere intangibles, tools to put the other things in perspective.

Without the living people of the present, all those other things are mere ideas. When your neighbor is forced from their house, when they are scraping by for food and necessities, when someone must choose between health care for their sick infant child and making their mortgage payment, the concept of calling someone a traitor to the cause is a waste of resources and energy.

It's interesting that this label came from someone affiliated with the party where the use of labeling has become such an effective weapon in the quest for power. Both parties have resorted to the use of alienating words but the practice over the past several decades has been honed to a razor's edge by the agents of exclusion.

I never believed I'd see a return to the McCarthyism that existed during my infancy but when I read these posts on here that take the normal swings to the left of center and start warning of Marxists among us at a time when we should be finding a common ground to tackle the huge challenges we're facing, it's easy to become alarmed and outraged.

I posted this link because of its irony not because I agreed with the author. I am buoyed by the fact that some old-school Republicans are waking up and finding themselves disgusted with the practices we've recently seen but I'd much rather that step wasn't necessary. I don't take joy in the fact that the party I rarely have identified with is flailing wildly in what many believe to be its death throes. History has shown us that life on Earth is dangerous during times of social upheaval. It brings the real crazies out of the woodwork with their violence and irrationality.

Tom, the word "traitor" never left. It will be used whenever there is a nation where people disagree about the course of the future. It is a vile label in that it carries by law a lethal penalty in most societies. How many people have died in a blaze of bullets at a firing squad or reached the end of a hangman's noose because their political passion was at odds with the people in power at the time. Yet you saw no problem with its use while your party were the ones with the executioners under their control. You didn't put an ounce of outrage out while people were being rendered to foreign lands to be tortured.

Excuse me if I find very little reason to care what you think about my post.

Art