Trego's Mountain Ear

I am, once more, observing anger and hissy fits over politics and election results.  Personally, I will be going to Canada again – for me, it’s a close and habitual destination.  The only thing that has interfered with those visits was their legal system during covid – and it’s their country, their rules.

I don’t expect to encounter any of my fellow Americans who are threatening to move north because Trump is moving back into the White House.  I don’t see changing where or how I live because of any politician – and, having lived three quarters of a century, I’m fairly certain that whichever one is elected, whether I like them or not, they’re going to vote against my interests sooner or later.  I can’t see getting angry about it.  I like Mike Cuffe.  I like Neil Duram.  Both cast votes against things I wanted – hell, Zooey Zephyr has done a better job representing me than either of them has.  I’m not angry about it – I’ll just vote against them until they correct their behavior. 

I had a chance to meet Hilary Clinton – but I would have had to walk a block from my office.  The effort wasn’t worth the reward – I had no doubt where she stood on the second amendment.  Still, I’ve known people who worked for State when she was Secretary who thought highly of her.  It’s one thing to disagree on politics – it’s something else to get angry about it.

When Montana’s first Territorial Governor left, Montana was left with Acting Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher.  Meagher was a member of the Young Ireland party, and for his efforts at achieving independence from England was brought to court, and legend has it, the judge first wanted him to be hanged, drawn and quartered.  That seemed a bit barbaric in the enlightened year of 1848, so the sentence was reduced to transportation to Van Dieman’s land for life.  Those old Brits understood political anger and hatred – and, just as Thomas Francis Meagher escaped from Tasmania, becoming a Yankee general and Republican politician, we too should remember that tolerance of different beliefs is a virtue.

Meagher wasn’t altogether tolerant – angry at the editor in Virginia City, Meagher demanded a retraction and an apology or a duel.  Apparently the editor’s reply of “Pistols for two and coffee for one.” made Meagher reconsider the virtue of tolerance – the two never met over pistols, and, while I am sure the editor on occasion enjoyed coffee for one, the occasion did not follow a duel.

Whichever politician wins the election, it isn’t a reason to change how a person lives.