This should set off alarm bells — and take your breath away.
One-third of Republicans, 20% of Democrats and 37% of gun-owners believe that "it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government," according to the results of a new University of Chicago Institute of Politics poll.
Incredible!
That's madness.
"This is the road to destruction and no one gets to leave" are the lyrics to the song.
The poison has been spread and it has taken hold and here we are just 246 years after 1776 on the verge of blowing it. Â
"We must not be enemies," Lincoln pleaded just before our Civil War erupted.Â
"Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
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"The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
It's time to listen to Lincoln again — and get it right this time.
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Public schools are on the defensive in Nebraska.
That's where most kids get their early basic education, where imaginations are triggered, stimulated and fueled, where lives and dreams begin to take shape in concert with the growth and encouragement and vital support that comes from home.
Some political detractors like to call them government schools because they are tax-supported. It's not a friendly term.
They are under attack in Nebraska and elsewhere in America -- and often struggling for political support.
"Political battles are now a central feature of education, leaving school boards, educators and students in the crosshairs of culture warriors," a Washington Post article earlier in the year stated.
"Schools are on the defensive about their pandemic decision-making, their curriculums, their policies regarding race and racial equity and even the contents of their libraries."
The Nebraska Board of Education came under fire a year ago and halted plans for new health education standards after criticism from some parents and conservative family-values groups that the content was sexually inappropriate.
It's certainly fair, and even vital, that families and taxpayers monitor public school performance.Â
But, hopefully, the goal would be to seek and support quality public education rather than pursue political objectives.
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Finishing up:
* Rep. Mike Flood's committee assignments as the newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives: the Small Business Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee. The latter is the main investigative committee of the House.
* After noting that Nebraska's congressional delegation voted against the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that pumped a billion dollars of federal economic recovery funding into Nebraska, Bob Kerrey ended a commentary article in the Nebraska Examiner with three words: "Thank you, Joe!"
* If Jim Pillen is elected in November, it looks like he would be the first Nebraska governor elected from the agricultural sector in almost a century, although Dwight Burney, a Hartington farmer, served as governor for four months following the death of Ralph Brooks in 1960 after moving up to the governorship from his post as lieutenant governor.
* And if Carol Blood wins the governorship, she would be the second woman elected to be Nebraska's governor following the election of Kay Orr in 1986 when voters chose between two women nominees. Former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis carried the Democratic banner; Orr was the first Republican woman to be elected as a governor in the United States.Â
* The Russians stayed in Afghanistan for almost 10 years after their 1979 invasion before giving up and heading home. Â
* Early legislative maneuvering and speculation: Sen. John Arch of La Vista is still on course to be elected Speaker; Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, chairwoman of the Revenue Committee, is emerging as an increasingly powerful legislative figure next year; a big decision is still unsettled as to who will chair the Appropriations Committee.
* The guess at the Capitol: No special session this year to attempt to enact a bill prohibiting abortions in Nebraska with few, if any, exceptions. If there aren't 33 votes locked down and guaranteed, Gov. Pete Ricketts isn't going to take the risk of finishing his governorship with an embarrassing political loss on a key Republican issue that would reverberate nationally.
* Zach Pluhacek tweet: "make the Haymarket pedestrian only."Â Â