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In a recent message, Matthew Jallow wrote:

> The people who care about other humans are there
and none of them is a conservative.


That's quite a sweeping statement. I have encountered
both caring people and uncaring people among
conservative voters, liberal voters, uncommitted voters,
people who never vote...among Africans, Americans,
African Americans...Democrats, Republicans,
Democrats with Republican agendas, Republicans
with Democrat agendas...men, women...relatives, co-
workers, and friends....

Knowing a person takes time. And time is NOT money.
Time is time. We might as well spend it getting to know
each other. And talking.

Here is a poem my very good friend (may her soul rest)
used to send out between the close of each year and
the beginning of the next. Maybe it will also fit in the
space between one 4-year period in American
presidential politics and the next.


Poem to Old Friends Who Have Never Met

When I'm not wishing I could find a unicorn
I wish all my old friends knew each other
The very least they deserve
is the pleasure of each other's company
We'd go down by the river and the rocks
would hum with this rich collection of men & women
They would look around and see themselves
no longer isolated
no longer points in the darkness pointing nowhere
but as links in a magnificent chain
of impossible flowers girdling the world
and their talk (they are all talkers)
would burst like spray in the sunlight
and I would smile, saying nothing
with a bottle of beer in my hand
and a small white bird banging in my heart.

--Peter Meinke


If my good friend were still alive, still sending this poem
out, and still voting, I don't know who she would vote for.
But I do wish I could argue with her again.

I hope we keep talking.

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