I speak for Democracy – Roman and Texas viewpoints on “Lines in the sand!”

Our Democracy of the United Sates in America as of yesterday, 6 January 2021, been brought on the sudden realization of how we have slipped into enabling bad behaviors and the acceptance of inflammatory remarks and falsehoods in only four years. These behaviors are bringing dire consequences for our nation, they bring out the worst in all of us, and they threaten our Democratic form of government by the people and for the people. We are standing at a Line in the Sand! See how our law enforcement views what happened.: https://www.yahoo.com/news/hogan-feds-delayed-maryland-national-231416221.html

We didn’t have to be here! I’ve written to the President several times during his term and received acknowledgement: 8/18.2017, 8/23/2017 and 12/26/2018. Each time I tried to give positive suggestions that would help him do his job better. I hope you have written with suggestions as to what he could do for America

The Line in the Sand phrase comes from 168 BC, when a Roman Consul named Gaius Popillius Laenas drew a circular line in the sand around King Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire. The intent of the line being that Antiochus needed to make up his mind whether to depart from Egypt or go to war with Rome before stepping over the line and out of the circle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_in_the_sand_

I personally have known for a longtime that there are forks in the road of life which require decisions that cannot be then backed away from without consequences. My enlistment in the military, my volunteering for Peace Corps, my volunteering to be a Missionary, and my signing of numerous contracts for teaching and administrative assignments were all commitments with obligations.

In Texas where my sister lives, a line in the sand has lead some Texans to immortality as seen in the 1969 John Wayne film “The Alamo.” The film reenacts the choice Heroes of Texas made after being given an ultimatum by General Santa Anna. According to legend, on March 5, 1836, Col. William Barrett Travis drew a line in the sand and the Heroes of Texas step across it knowing that a fight to the death will follow. http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/Line-in-the-Sand-Alamo-History.htm

But by the same token, crossing the line in Texas can lead down the road to infamy. This path is the insidious tral we are tending towards in our nation. On this trail we tend to slip unconsciously towards a hell on earth as seen in the western “Lonesome Dove.” Here, crossing of the line between good and evil becomes figurative as Jake Spoon who joins up with a gang for security, but then gradually becomes complicit in crimes until he helps massacre a frontier family. When captured, Jake pleads for his life, but his friend and former Texas Ranger, Gus, says “You know how it works, Jake. You ride with the outlaw, you die with the outlaw. Sorry, you crossed the line.” https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/the-top-12-lonesome-dove-quotes/

This almost imperceptible insidious line to infamy is the one the United States has been flirting with for the past 4 years as President Donald Trump has sown messages and publicly approved of acts of violence, bullying racism, and religious intolerance, while venting anger publicly to a group of Americans who at the beginning of the Presidential road believed that he would truly “Make America Great!”

The effect of mob violence on a Democratic form of government is no different in the U.S.A. than anywhere else. What I saw in the bombings and “Paro Armadas” during Sendero luminos’s failed attempt to take over Peru; what I saw in the mobs that supported the rise and maintenance of power for Hugo Chavez’s dictatorship in Venezuela; and what I saw in the actions of the Terr’s who roamed Zimbabwe-Rhodesia during the attempts to foil the elections of a legitimate representative government were all the same vicious uncontrolled anger of humans directed by presumed higher authorities to attack peaceful persons of their own nation. None of these countries were any different in their display of directed anger which caused a failed government than our mobs, orchestrated by Mr. Trump in the past 48 hours.

History and experience show that mob violence always ends up the same if not stopped in its tracks. The radicalized Left or Right Wings (it doesn’t matter which tribe or political party you belong to) will continue to push the limits of violence further and further. Eventually the majority in the middle decide to will give control to some one single person or one single political group whom they feel will stop the chaos and bring control, or peace, or food, or greatness or wealth ….. It doesn’t matter what the lie is, the people will buy into it because they don’t realize that the person taking control is the one who orchestrated the violence and chaos in the first place.

Whether the government then ends up being a Dictator like Chavez in Venezuela or Mugabe in Zimbabwe, or a one party system similar to that of left wing Communist China or Socialist/Communist Russia, or is a right wing Fascist group as in Hitler’s Germany, or a particular sect of a religious group like in Iran, the result is immaterial. The ultimate power placed in the hands of a few will bring total control over the lives of all the people. We will lose freedom of the press, speech, guns, … unless we are in the favored power group. Then, in order to keep those guns, orthe right to speak, or the right to publish we will have to show full obedience to the will ofwhiome ever in the Supreme Leader. This won’t be the freedom we thought we were going to get. It will be coerced Slavery and Misery which we brought down upon ourselves.

There is only one way out for the United States. We need to agree that a strong two or three party political system is always more important than going for one party. The parties must agrees to disagree at times but agree to compromise and share power always.They cannot pander to the radical fringes of the left or right, they cannot allow outright lies and twisting of the truth to propagandize one side or the other. They can’t blame the nation’s problems on the other guy. It’s all our nation, it’s all our government, it’s all fault! The parties are going to have to figure out how to communicate a very strong centralist viewpoint while working on a broad spectrum of Infrastructure improvements, economic, social, and political compromises for all Humans.

We must select out leaders for political wisdom, experience and the ability to work with one another and make compromises for the best of the Social Contract written in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.The goals of our nation and political; leaders must be broad enough for the majority of Humans, not for special interest groups, not for a wealthy minority of humans or for large multinational corporations who have fabricated some kind of Person-hood. If we can’t control our communication of falsehoods on the internet, then we will certainly go down the path of infamy and failed Democracy. The goals must include figuring out how to have and maintain fair elections and how to communicate those results to all with an understanding that we must learn to accept the winner of elections because that is the Social Contract!

I can only pray that our two major political parties can see a shared middle road that lies ahead clearly enough to realize that we are standing at the “line in the sand” right now. Every additional step over that line means a descent away from Democracy, a failure of a system that should give voice to truth and a voice by the people and for the people in the governance of this country.