22 Comments

I spent a few years in the North Carolina mountains in my twenties. I met people like Jon's description. The small communities all over the mountains have so many wonderful, hard working people whose families mean more to them than anything.

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And now that is why people like them are under attack.

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A man's character is not developed during adversity, it is revealed.

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Beautiful

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Family, the key word.

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Three men with three different, heartfelt stories. Your telling of their stories allowed me to cry which I’ve been needing to do all day. Thank You for sharing your father’s story. As a woman I used to work with would always say, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

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Yes! And that something inside themselves is EXACTLY what the govt (party doesn’t matter) hates more than anything else. Self reliance is the govt’s enemy. It always has been. Disasters separate the men from the boys every time. So does war or rumors of war. Find those around you who lean into problems and danger, not the other way around.

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Thank you, Jon.

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Beautiful, Jon! 🌞🌿🐬🌎

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Lovely and so very true

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If I may be so bold to say-this is a most wonderful work. It made me weep. Nothing else need be said.

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Thank you! A good reminder.

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I just subscribed but have been reading what I could as a non subscriber for sometime … I love your directness and this particular piece is beautiful! Truly gifted writer 😊

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You say, "The news won’t cover their recovery in the months and years to come. But those families won’t need the news. They’ll have the most important things they need inside themselves".

You also say, "His [your father's] heroics were every day".

It might interest you to know, or perhaps you already do, that our lives are being recorded, everything we think, say, or do. Some call it the Akashic records (ie sort of like a database in an etheric 4D astral AI world, just out of human perception). According to Gnostic belief, AI astral Archons use that database info in various ways to guilt trip people into reincarnating. As for your WW2 vet, he said that he was "an atheist and there was no afterlife. There were only, as he put it, 'rocks, all the way down'.”

His rocks quip reminded me of a parable I wrote, that has some religious allusions that he no doubt would NOT understand OR agree. But I suspect your readers will get it: https://www.writepharmaparablepublishing.com/p/the-parable-of-morons-over-the-cliff

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Self deception is the human condition, not realizing it makes it worse.

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Your last line, Jon, was one of the most important lines we ever have to retain as we struggle through this dark time. Thank you.

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A very touching blog. Jon, you are a master of the English language.

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Great piece Jon. Reminded me Louis L'Amour Last of the Breed stories...those with true heart are the warriors in any age...

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