Thank you for reading (and for following too; I hope I don't end up disappointing) and for this thoughtful response.

I also very much hope nobody does any shooting across any divides. Every day I send my kids off to school and I look very carefully at what they're wearing in case I have to identify them by their clothes that day. Sadly shootings are another place we all can't seem to work together for a greater good, which I would define as fewer shot kids.

I am very glad your signs remained sacrosanct and hope that holds true for this election as well.

Understanding is not easy, and it is not fast, for anyone. I fail at it a lot. I subscribe to the digital NYT because I think it is still the paper of record, but I think the NYT gets a lot wrong, particularly in what it chooses NOT to cover. And the Post? Owned by Bezos? I will die before I read that or link to that thing. So I would have the same response to those pubs, although I also don't watch Fox news. if only anybody would pay for some local journalism, that might be a better place for all of us to start.

I've gone on too long. Mainly just wanted to say thanks. I had to really try to keep calm in some of my replies, and somewhere in the middle that felt better than yelling back. It means a lot to me that you saw and appreciated that. A lot a lot.