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A thoughtful and timely post. Best is the following admonition:
"We can be true to the ideals of our country: tolerance, reason, individual liberty, and prosperity."
To which I would add, and both seek out and support those who share those values (like those in the Sufi tradition, as you [WoC] have repeatedly pointed "us" toward). Thanks for the link.
Joe,
The orcs have broken through the gate! Retreat to the second level!
Seriously, this post was a good one, and the peroration -- "We can be true to the ideals of our country: tolerance, reason, individual liberty, and prosperity. Or, we can be true to the ideals of a fantasy ideology that sees people as chattel, denies reason, destroys individual and group liberty, and seeks to make all as poor as possible – in every sense of the term." -- is very much on point. And worth bearing in mind when we feel temptations to destroy our own tolerance, reason, individual liberty and prosperity in pursuit of that enemy.
PS. The above post was to alert Joe that a spammer had broken into this thread. Apparently it worked; the spam is gone.