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A
Columnists
February 29, 2024
JUST THINKIN'

A note to a friend

By Just Thinkin' Hal McBride SPECIAL TO YOUR TIMES 

A good friend concluded an email by saying, “I am frightened by the state of affairs now in the world.” This lady had served my best friend as a loyal Secretary and Administrative Assistant. Given the context of her whole communication, I felt I understood and I immediately sat down and wrote a response. Only after much consideration do I choose to share it.

A good friend concluded an email by saying, “I am frightened by the state of affairs now in the world.” This lady had served my best friend as a loyal Secretary and Administrative Assistant. Given the context of her whole communication, I felt I understood and I immediately sat down and wrote a response. Only after much consideration do I choose to share it.

Thoreau once wrote, “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” As I would talk with a friend, I wrote: I understand why our current circumstances are frightening or at best scary. There is such a high level of unpredictability., nothing seems certain, not certain as it once did. I think from my prospective, during earlier times, I did not feel powerless. I needed to believed my efforts made a difference.

Today, most times, I feel there is nothing I can really do to make things better, to change things. I write my column and hope someone reads it and it makes my grandchildren’s life better. Other times I feel a tad guilty for leaving them this mess. On the other hand, I look back and find our country has always had messes. I was just threatening to read Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book, The Wave of the Future. She published it in about 1940. She was very supportive of fascism, in fact, she and her husband, Charles (the famous flyer) said we should join World War II not on the side of Great Britain but on the side of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. They were a large minority. There were many Pro-Fascist folks in this county right up until Pearl Habor and Germany declaring war of the United States.

I hear folks comparing these to Pre-Civil War times. Those times were bad. But even then, our lawmakers in Washington, D.C. were not as a group so mean spirited. They were at odds with each other but –. I find myself avoiding certain conversations with certain people. I do express my opinions in Just Thinkin’ along but I more try to get people to think about the issue, to realize compromise isn’t a nasty word. Mother Teresa says not to become concerned if you cannot feed 100 people, to feed just one. So, I write my column for just a few small-town newspapers and hope they find a friendly ear.

So, yes, I find some things today very discouraging. I’m fearful that we do have a population segment that favors Fascism and the strong man leader. But I will still – well, you recall Curt Grundy—after I wrote a column on the homeless, I got a note from him. It started, “Dear Brother McBride, keep preaching to the choir.”

Betty, please know we all care about you and yours. Hal I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friendship – Thomas Jefferson

 

Hal McBride writes a column, Just Thinkin’, published each week.

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