Somehow I missed your reply. You said it perfectly and I do hope we see reform on both sides of the political coin! And yep, I remember when Bill was campaigning and what made him such an attractive candidate and it was that he seemed to be the antithesis of what he and Hillary have now become!!!

PS – I don’t think the VA system is as bad everywhere like its being states in campaigns, but I have a Navy SEAL sibling & got involved in helping homeless and trying to get some of the veterans medical care, mental health referrals and rehab options… ugh it broke my heart the runaround (& wait!) they’re given.
As for the “me me” attitude, I think people for the most part tend to be good. I think the economy and how tough things have been have simply stretched people so thin, it’s caused us to turn inward because people are struggling more than they’ve been used to.

Thanks for the response – I had to LOL at your question about the voting in Guerneville! I lived there for 6 mos in 94-95 (when it flooded twice in a month) & left for good when we were helicoptered out after the 2nd flood. I still remember meeting these 2 big scary Hell’s Angels members that turned out to be a gay couple who were neighbors of ours. Loved that crazy little town!

I totally agree that the fact that racism exists boggles my mind also. I grew up in a family where Grandma was Jewish, Grandpa was Bible Belt Methodist and my aunt (their eldest) married my African-American Uncle in 1969 so I was genuinely pretty color-blind as a child. I learned about racism through nasty comments my Aunty & Uncle would receive in public or going to the mall w/my cousin and wondering why security followed us every time. It was a shock to my worldview as its never “made sense” to my heart.

I don’t know what’ll happen. I genuinely hope he surprises people and turns out to be a decent leader. The fact that he met w/Obama & was willing to concede there were things he needed to consider about the ACA gave me some hope, but I’m concerned by some of his cabinet choices & that he’s not spoken out about the concerns the “other side” feels since his election or the stupid acts of racism some individuals have participated in under the guise of “this is Trump’s America now.” So we’ll see. No matter what, I think this has woken up many people so that the next election cycle will not be taken so lightly by ANYone – at least I sincerely hope that’s the case!

My agenda in this argument is alert people to stop government policies which support the COS and other similar organizations .

It is good that we have understanding .

Yeah, I’d say we’re diametrically opposed on what we want from an “ideal” government.

You do have me pegged in the first sentence .My solution is to bind government tightly by Constitutional mandates ,so that it can’t grant privileges ,exclusions,abatements, concessions,subsidies ,or any lawful inequality to citizens or organizations.

You talk about “governments” as if the semi-functioning messes we’ve had up until now are the best humanity can hope for.

And as if Democratic Scoialism couldn’t possibly do better.

An opinion to which you’re entitled but with which I don’t agree at all.

And personally I think the legal definition of overtly should be brought more into line with the plain English.

But that won’t happen in any of the (non-Scandinavian) Western democracies any time soon.

Your philosophy does not allow for Scientology’s overtly criminal activities ,but governments do .The laws governing tax-exempt organizations are very strict for most people,and organizations,and the word “overtly ” as in Scientology’s “overtly” criminal activities is the plain English definition ,not the Scientology definition.There are are numerous exceptions which the COS takes advantage of including IRS code ,State Attorney General Charity Laws,and “black letter law ” concerning the IAS.