Courage. . .

In the Easter 2023 mailbox …

Today in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.

For over 3,000 years and even today there are people who prefer fear and hate over love and peace and who are focused on burning books, erasing minds, destroying culture:

Libraries go back to a time when their contents were inscribed in cuneiform on tablets of baked clay. . .Those institutions aren’t just artifacts of civilization; they are its defining elements. . . .Republicans are using their culture war issues as a lever toward something that’s an even bigger plum for their regressive pie. Because let’s be clear about it: Republicans don’t actually give a damn about drag shows. They don’t care one flying f**k about whether schools have a book about two male penguins caring for a chick. . . . What they care about is how they can use these issues to enrage the public and to attack public institutions. It’s not about banning specific books, or limiting the content of certain classes. It’s about limiting the channels through which knowledge is transmitted to ones where Republicans can exert explicit, overt control. – Mark Sumner

Today is Easter in the Christian tradition. There are many who greet the occasion without a clue as to what the event really means. “There’s a World of Difference between ‘Christ’ and the Greek ‘Christos’ “ – Dr. B. Brandon Scott FYI: the good Dr. B. Brandon Scott is one of my TulseyTown home boys.

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more. – Rita Dove