July 28, 2009

Good things in the past year ...

A local business wrote us this morning asking for "good things" that have happened in Racine and Racine County in the past year. Here's the list I sent her back off the top of my head ...
  1. Lots of great local events like the volleyball tournament, triathlon, Hot Rod Power Tour, Great Lakes Beer Fest bringing people into the community.
  2. Farmer's markets, urban garden at Park High, and creation of "Eat Right Racine" and "Neighborhood Walk" programs
  3. Horlick High basketball making the state finals.
  4. Fourth of July parade and Post Prom's continued success
  5. MitchellMcKinley Middle School kids win national documentary film awards
  6. Relay for Life
  7. E3 jobs program for young adults interested in green jobs
  8. Work on expanding I-94 started
  9. REC Center on the Root River in Racine.
  10. North Beach wins national beach award - again.
There's lots more to add ... post them in the comments!

69 comments:

  1. St. Catherine's boys basketball team wins their 4th state title in the past 5 years.

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  2. 1)Racine Urban Gardens Network
    2) The Tea Party
    3) Seeing way more folks at Council/Committee Meetings.
    4)CAR 25

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  3. Although the rebuilding of 6th Street is a pain now, it should be a good thing for the area in the long run.

    Don't know how most people feel about it now, but many were happy when we snagged Dr. Shaw for Supt. of Schools.

    The Chief of Police recently announced a drop in the crime rate.

    I assume that most people consider the Becker arrest a black eye for Racine, but I think it's good that the system still manages to weed out some of our problems.

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  4. Oh yeah, Hot Dog Guy (Caleb Robinson).

    And they still haven't fenced off the fountain.

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  5. GREAT THING - PARTY ON THE PAVEMENT - One of, if not the, largest free 1 day festivals in Wisconsin - thanks to all who make it happen

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  6. To add....No particular order:

    1. Music on the monument continues
    2. Community for Change
    3. RacinePost grows
    4. Caron Butler volunteer work

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  7. Health Care Forum

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  8. Downtown Racine Carves Its Niche, the ice carving festival.

    Special mention to Andy Haas Schneider who carves ice in the winter and sand castles in the summer, both in downtown Racine.

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  9. Music & More - free concerts on Thurs support local non-profits.

    Quilts on Barns - woweee!!!

    Wisconsin Polarity - School for Energetic studies opens in Racine above Spectrum Arts.

    Free music seems like all the time everywhere.

    Thanks Racinepost for positive stuff!

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  10. The Downtown Merchants sponsor First Fridays the first Friday of every month. This year it is going to the end of the year!

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  11. Arts Council Quick Draw
    Wells Bros Pizza on a Friday night
    Gallery Nights
    Rotary's After-Prom
    Farmers Markets

    I loooooove the micro cars!

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  12. Hot Rod Power Tour

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  13. The kids who one the video documentary contests attended McKinley Middle Charter School, not Mitchell Middle School :)

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  14. Correct my error to "won"...sorry.

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  15. The Dragon Boat Race and Festival was an awesome FREE family event!

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  16. It's actually the Great Midwest Dragon Boat Festival...

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  17. Good to be reminded of the great things going on in Racine.
    Sorry to say that my focus in fighting the power I sometimes forget to look at the good in this City.
    I will try harder to do so.

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  18. Colt - you need to. You and many others. All you want to do is whine - it is about time you look on the bright side of things. And I'm glad you've given up that 3rd person crap.

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  19. The zoo and all its newest exhibits

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  20. Rain barrel and rain gardens for the city of Racine

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  21. execdirector@lgbtsewisc.org7/30/2009 1:25 PM

    LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin opens in Uptown Racine!!!!!

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  22. The story of Racine is a tale of two very different cities. Although good things galore transpire in radiant Ray-Scene, home of the fortunate few,only penury, poverty and pounding,pugnacious pain prevail in Rat-Scene where the rest of us suffer and die. The John-Swines and their elitist lackeys are why Rat-Scene's paupers cry. As a historian, I can tell you that if the Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family and its unkind kith and kin think that fortunes blown on modern art will save them from the common man's wrath, they're in for an extremely rude awakening.What the poor and lower-middle classes of France did to Marie Antoinette will be a joke compared with the socio-economic cataclysm lying in wait for our dollar sign dynasties.The fifteen-hundred hyper-privileged clans responsible for the misery of millions will pay for centuries of sheer unmitigated evil. (By the way, my statements aren't threats. Rather, they're the sad conclusions of a historian who has researched revolutions for fifty years.)

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  23. Anon 7:31 - Hey I think life is great to bad you insist in walloing in your own misery - not my problem.

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  24. Dear Anonymous 7:31, I am not wllowing in my misery. Rather, I am being realistic about existence in Rat-Scene, aka The Rodent City, alias John-Swine-Swill,the Mickey Mouse Company Town. Modern art, Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, music and other non-essentials are no substitute for social justice. Someday the porcine predators who ruin life for the rest of us will be forced to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. For their sakes and ours, let's pray that the coming revolutiom may be a non-violent transition of power and that the Waxtrash oppressors may forfeit their loot rather than their lives.

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  25. P.S. My apologies for not spelling "wallowing" correctly. Seriously, I'm amazed that anyone other than a Carnauba courtier or one of their venal vassals would think that life in Latrine-on-the-Leak is great. Although music and art are fun, they can't replace the basics.In this culture, they're just toys used to prevent us from seeing how the rich keep us in what they think is our proper place. Privileged twits have done this for centuries. Back in the decades following the fall of Napoleon's empire, Europe's elite pushed music at the masses and paid for public parties galore. For a while, the little scam worked. However, a series of crop failures brought on a depression, the commoners learned that they'd been conned and governments toppled during the revolutions of 1848. Right now we're on the eve of an upheaval which could make the events of 1848 resemble an episode of "Dancing with the Stars"!

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  26. 7:47 - I'm glad you know your place - stay there.

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  27. It is interesting how Dustin pick's Horlick making it to the state finals and does not even mention St. Catherine's - how it won their 4th title in the last 5 years. Horlick did a terrible job of representing their team and the city in that final game. It was everyone for themselves - they did not play as a team at all. Some very bad coaching.

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  28. Of course St. Cat's! Sorry I forgot them (but it's almost easy to do because they win every year. Great program!)

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  29. Dustin - Thank you.

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  30. Dear 747, My place is wherever I choose to be providing that I break no laws and refrain from harming others. Contrary to your arrogant beliefs, this sorry city is not your feudal fief and its citizens are not serfs for you to bully. Regarding my analysis of the corrupt arty-tarty culture in Racine, I stand behind it one hundred percent. If you don't accept its validity, ask any historian. The misuse of art, music and other non-essentials to bamboozle the common man has been a quirk of decadent societies from day one. When the local labor force rises up in rage, please don't say that no one warned you. (Back in 1968, during my post graduate studies at Wayne State University, I saw Detroit's poor settle accounts with elitists who thought that public concerts would make them forget about their misery. Trust me, it wasn't pretty.)

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  31. With all the misery in this county, painting pictures of quilts and hanging them on barns is ridiculous. As for "Music on the Monument," it's an evil joke in a town which leads the state in minority infant mortality. Why can't the people who run this pitiful excuse for a municipality pay attention to the basics? Our people need practical help, not yuppie nonsense.

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  32. 4:40 - you said "When the local labor force rises up in rage, please don't say that no one warned you." I'm scared. Take your idiotic comments elswhere. You are a miserable soul.

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  33. 5:54 - Infant mortality and music on Monument Square I see the connection. What a loser.

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  34. Believe it or not, there IS a connection between our high minority infant mortality rate and our "Music on the Monument." When a community spends its cash on yuppie amenities instead of help for the poor, the low-income people suffer. Morally speaking, saving babies' lives ought to outweigh our craving for ear candy.

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  35. Most poor people don't need to be poor - they choose to be poor. What are they doing to improve their situation - going to college, technical school, reading etc. It takes effort and some sacrifice, but there are ways to improve lifestyles. Furthermore the music is free entertaiment for those poor people you are so concerned about.

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  36. Spoken like a well-meaning agent of the oligarchy! Most of the poor I know have done what you told them to--they've attended Gateway, earned credentials and the rest of the Horatio Alger routine. Unfortunately, they're still poor or even worse off than before. Please wake up and see that for most of us the American dream is a nightmarish reality of ever-deepening penury.

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  37. Only in America would somebody say that the poor choose to be impoverished. Elsewhere on this planet, people are smart enough to know that most human beings are what their circumstances make them. However, here in Yankland, we think that people create their destiny so we blame less-fortunate folks for their plight. The rich--who don't want to be taxed to help ordinary people--encourage us to believe this bunk. In reality, very few people are able to rise in our system, some people manage to keep what little they've got and many of us sink into poverty. As for good things in this sorry city, there are very few of them for the majority of our population. Racine provides scads of nonsense for yuppies because a certain powerful family and its lackeys want to keep the yuppies happy. If we didn't have the amenities for the yuppies, the yuppies wouldn't come to this place and work for a company which dotes on Ivy Leaguers.

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  38. Only in America would somebody say that the poor choose to be impoverished. Elsewhere on this planet, people are smart enough to know that most human beings are what their circumstances make them. However, here in Yankland, we think that people create their destiny so we blame less-fortunate folks for their plight. The rich--who don't want to be taxed to help ordinary people--encourage us to believe this bunk. In reality, very few people are able to rise in our system, some people manage to keep what little they've got and many of us sink into poverty. As for good things in this sorry city, there are very few of them for the majority of our population. Racine provides scads of nonsense for yuppies because a certain powerful family and its lackeys want to keep the yuppies happy. If we didn't have the amenities for the yuppies, the yuppies wouldn't come to this place and work for a company which dotes on Ivy Leaguers.

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  39. Dear 11:10, It's not your place tell anyone else his or her place. I gather from the tone of your replies to your opponent or opponents that you love the rich and yearn to join their raunchy ranks someday. If so, please be nice to the peasants you meet on your way up because they'll be waiting for you on your way down. Now, as to good things in Racine, they abound for yuppies. However, there's darned little for the poor. It's true that we have our "Party on the Pavement" and that we do not charge admission to this event. Nevertheless, food and beverages aren't free. Anyone planning to participate had better bring at least $20.00, a hefty chunk of change for minimum-wage workers and other victims of our system.

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  40. I know lucky people who've escaped from Racine and swear that they hope they'll never see it again. For them, the only good thing that could happen to Racine would be its total destruction. There's something about this pretentious company town which brings out the worst in humanity. The only people I've encountered who love Racine are members of the corporate oligarchy and their yuppie employees. By contrast, most blue collar folks hate Racine and the people who run it for their fun and profit.

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  41. If I could get out of Racine, I'd leave a.s.a.p. However, I'm trapped here by poverty and family-related obligations. For anyone who isn't rich and has no hope in this vicious economic system, Racine is hell on earth. Apropos of this evil city and the inferno, maybe the poor will burn Racine the way they fried Watts, Newark and Detroit in the sixties. (N.B. I am NOT advocating violence but just telling you what downtrodden people do when they can't take any more abuse. I'm not Nostradamus so I can't give you a prophecy about the ultimate fate of this place. Che sera, sera.)

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  42. 6:04 - why not put your energy in going to college, a technical school, learn a skill. Most of the poor in Racine do nothing to improve their situation - they just sit back and complain, they enjoy the benefits of entitlements and threaten violence.

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  43. Many of the poor have already done the great things you recommended--and they're worse off than they were before. If you don't believe me, read Alex Campbell's excellent article "Under Pressure" in the Journal Times for 8/16/09. We're too darn judgmental toward low-income people in this sorry country because we don't want to admit that our free enterprise system is broken. Somehow, we came to equate free enterprise with our much-vaunted "American Way." Hence, we're scared to change it to a mixed economic system. Then there's the sick influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ayn Rand. All three of these egomaniacs brainwashed millions of Americans with the notion that individuals can accomplish anything--a fairy fib if ever there were one. Still, in this sad land we're dumb enough to believe it and blame our system's victims for their plight. Concerning myself, I hold a doctorate in languages from Wayne State University which my family's poverty and health problems never allowed me to use. Someone charged with the care of an ailing Mom is not exactly marketable in our system. The bottom line is that the American economic system is about making the rich richer at the expense of the rest of us. Our capitalist flail-and-fail free-for-all is the laughing stock of the developed world. Now it's time for us to dismantle it and send the remains to history's museum of has-been hokum and hoohah.

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  44. If people look hard enough, they'll find jobs if they have the education or skills required. It may require relocation or a commute but there are jobs out there so I don't want to hear about the poor's woes. For yourself - get some in home care and get out and make something of yourself. And lastly a doctorate in languages from Wayne State University - what exactly did you think you were going to do with this. Maybe you should have made better education choices. The system is not to blame - YOU are.

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  45. I'd like to weigh in on the poverty subject for a second. The poor folks I've come into contact with had babies when they were 15, 16, 17, etc. They decided to "keep" their babies (not necessarily "parent") because they couldn't bear the thought of someone else raising their flesh and blood. As if they really gave any thought about the child's welfare. Anyway, there is a growing culture of teen pregnancy because somehow it's cool; or they want something to love; or they needed someone to give them love (sex); or they got high/drunk and don't even know who the father is. There are so many sad scenarios that occur because of lack of morals and no shame. Thanks to the liberals and all their handouts, we'll be paying higher and higher taxes to support the ever-growing number of poor and poorly educated.

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  46. Dear 2:58, For your information, I had a job lined up before I graduated from Wayne State. However, my Mom's spinal neuroma flared up so I spent the next thirty-four years caring for her. During that time, I wrote three books, one of which is used in Marquette's Intercultural Nursing Program. By the way, why do you always defend the damnable capitalist system? Why do you think that the system is perfect? All it does is concentrate wealth in the prehensile paws of private sector predators like Widow Waxman, who blows the loot on fiberglass cows or her daughter the Hellwitch, who just had to acquire a piece of the Berlin Wall for her compound. Wake up, please. Anyone who isn't rolling in loot can tell you that your precious system is broken!

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  47. Anon 5:34, I think I'd slumber thumbing through one of those volumes you penned. You must have a Brobdingnagian thesaurus. I enjoy employing alliteration often to punch a point, but are you trying to impress someone?

    By the way Anon 4:40, a fief IS a feudal estate, so you wrote redundantly.

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  48. 5:34 - big deal you graduated from Wayne State, you have to remind us in every post. As I said before it's not the system, it's you. Get some help for your mother and make something of yourself or is it great to use her as a crutch so that you do not have to do anything and then you can blame society.

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  49. My Mom passed away in 2006 and I'm a near-cripple thanks to arthritis. Why are you so insistent that someone in my situation be richie-poo's wage slave? Who died and made you God? I hope this country becomes a socialist nation which offers its people the only freedom worth having--freedom from poverty. Maybe when you're protected from having to worry about the stinking nickel, you'll grow a heart.

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  50. There are many programs avaiable for individuals with disabilities. Either you can try and make your life as good as it can be or you can sit and complain about your woes - I'm inspired by those people with disabilities that go out and make a change in the community. It's all up to you!

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  51. Spoken like a tool of the oligarchy! In America, our elitists and their lackeys always blame their victims instead of admitting that the capitalist system harms anyone who isn't part of the ruling class. The only hope people like me have is a socialist economic system backed by strong government. As for inspirational stories about people who've overcome handicaps, they're hooey. Many of them are hoaxes. And even when these tales are true, they're of no use to the fortunate hyper-achievers' fellow sufferers. What those stories do is prop up an evil system by telling victims that their misery is their own fault rather than encouraging them to change the system. We're too darned obsessed with individuals in this sorry country because richie-poo doesn't want us to rise up and change his system--he'd rather have us whimpering and trying to re-invent our selves. (No Western Europeans are that stupid. They know from sad experience that human potential is a myth and that people are what their circumstances make them. So, over there, the common people organize and elect progressive governments which protect them from the corporate class.)

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  52. Many people with disabilities (not handicapedd as you say - what a terrible thing to label an individual) have made changes in society which allows them to be an active and able to contribute to society. Although more changes are required this group of people concentrate on their abilities not their disability. They are not looking for handouts from as you say the richie poo - they want to be their own individual independent person. You know nothing of what you speak.

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  53. Our brand of independence is just another name for misery--we're free to strive and starve. In Western Europe most nations give their people the only liberty worth having: freedom from poverty. Tell me why the poor should have to scramble for pennies while one Wax-witch splurges on fiberglass cows, another Wax-witch blows dough on modern art and a third Wax-witch invests in a piece of the Berlin Wall for her cushy compound.

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  54. Our brand of independence is just another name for misery--we're free to strive and starve. In Western Europe most nations give their people the only liberty worth having: freedom from poverty. Tell me why the poor should have to scramble for pennies while one Wax-witch splurges on fiberglass cows, another Wax-witch blows dough on modern art and a third Wax-witch invests in a piece of the Berlin Wall for her cushy compound.

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  55. 7:56 - Those are great things - Ilove them.

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  56. To each his own. Nevertheless, the poor will rise and deal with the fiberglass cow-collector, the modern art maven and the Berlin Wall babe. Please pray that the coming revolution may be non-violent. May the Wax-witches lose their loot rather than their lives.

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  57. 8:46 - we are all so afraid. Why don't you use your anger and threats against the real enemies - why don't you enlist.

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  58. Dear 9:04 A.M., When last I checked, the U.S.Army wasn't taking sixty-four-year-olds who've been crippled by arthritis. As for the real enemies of America and its citizens, there here in Racine, where they operate the Bugspray Bank, Messy-John-It's-A-Sin, John-Swine Perversity and The John Outdoors. Any CFR-affiliated plutocrat or Trilateralist trust fund brat is far more dangerous to our people than the Taliban. Although the privileged classes pretend to be patriots, most of them are internationalists or globalists. Their first allegiance is to themselves and the multinational corporation which they own, NOT the U.S.A.

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  59. Dear 9:04 A.M., Please accept my apologies for the typo in the second sentence of my message: "there" should be "they're." Sometimes I get so upset about the oligarchy and its crimes--treason included--that grammar and spelling fall by the wayside. Seriously, the moneybags and their lackeys USE the U.S.A. but rarely, serve in its Armed Forces. The elitists have far more in common with foreign plutocrats than they do with ordinary Americans.

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  60. 4:30 - you said "Their first allegiance is to themselves and the multinational corporation which they own." Of course that is true - that's the way it should be you socialist. You should most to a socialistic country because even though Obama is trying to make the U.S. socialistic, he is coming down.

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  61. Asking the elite to respect the U.S.A. and its legally-constituted governmentis should not be equated with socialism. Also, ranting that President Obama is "coming down" could get you a visit from the FBI.

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  62. Whoever that rabid right-winger is, he ought to think before he vents his rage. Telling folks that President Obama "is coming down" could be interpreted as an assassination threat. I hope for everyone's sake that he is smarter than he sounds and won't commit any immoral, illegal and violent acts.

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  63. Coming down meaning thrown out of office - you idiot.

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  64. I'm happy that you clarified your statement. However, calling people idiots is most unwise in today's volatile and violent society. (No, I would never harm you. Even so, there are many paupers who would dispose of an arrogant yuppie on sight.) What you exalt as liberty is in fact the rich man's license to abuse anyone in his path. Sooner than you think, a new regime will revoke that license. T

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  65. You folks are too nice to that reactionary. He should jolly well know that on the street "coming down" means that a person has been targeted for death by a hit man. That type of speech benefits no one.

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  66. I've already have given my explanation - meaning get him out of office. 8:46 is the one with the threats. He threatens groups every day.

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  67. Least said, soonest mended. Instead of exchanging threats and insults, let's try to solve our problems and do something constructive.

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  68. 3:03 That would be original.

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  69. A Mt. Pleasant citizen group still watching the village.

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