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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">Thank you, Ellie! </span>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">Peace, </span>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12pt;">James </span>
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On 10/31/2022 9:04 AM Ellie Stock via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
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Hi Folks,
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Below is: A Reflection: PACHAMAMA PONDERING, 2022, on the 10/24 mass shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis.
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Attached (if you can get them) Photos: CVPA Vigil, Balloon Release, Town Hall Meeting
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA PONDERING, 2022</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">One more time the alarm shrieks!</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">(Ironically, paralleling folks’ </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">being attracted to Halloween week’s</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">scarey, shriek-filled haunted houses and horror flicks, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and faux death skeleton and ghost yard décor,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">while, simultaneously, shying away from engaging</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">with life’s real scarey issues)</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Another mass school shooting!</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">This time, it happened (well, it doesn’t “just happen”)</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">in Central Visual Performing Arts HS, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">St. Louis, MO (still dealing with implications</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">from Michael Brown’s death, Post WW II radiation waste</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">contaminating Jana Elementary School and other places,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and having one of the highest murder rates in the U.S.):</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">3 dead: a 16 year-old girl, a teacher and</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">an isolated 19 year old shooter, a former graduate,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">plagued by mental health issues;</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">7 others injured,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">mostly young life, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">facing the unexpected real horror of : “YOU are going to die!”</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">by long gun—acquired via lax state regulation,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">maximum capacity cartridge,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">600 rounds of ammunition— </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">now a long crimson line of school terrorism </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">stretching from here to Uvalde, Parkland, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Sandy Hook, etc., etc. etc. to Columbine.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The next evening, I look around </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">the intermingling, interracial Vigil crowd,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">gathered under moonlit shadows, outside the school</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a place of learning, growing, enjoying the arts,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a place of discovering, developing and deploying</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">the gifts of young talent;</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">now a crime scene of bullet holes and shells,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">shattered walls and windows and scattered belongings</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">abandoned as panicked, shrieking students quickly ran for safety,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">barricading doors and jumping out windows;</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">now mostly calmly quiet with an occasional sob or wail</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">or car revving by, honking in solidarity,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">black, yellow and white balloons reaching skyward,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">tethered to lit candled hands,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">flames flickering in the wind, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">cascades of wax tears,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">dropping to the asphalt covering PACHAMAMA</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">as she also weeps.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; font-size: 12pt; background-color: transparent;">Preachers and others invoke the name of Jesus,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">(or whatever other name or tradition may be present)</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">praying for comfort, healing, peace, justice,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">words of accountability </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">for the litany of gun violence in this nation,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">for impotent politicians and a public</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">that choose guns and death over safety and life,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">for the sickness of this society—enough, already!—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">words spoken about being community and </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">supporting one another, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">interspersed songs, lamenting—How long, O Lord?—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">words lifting up the name of each person killed and injured,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and those who heroically rushed to the scene to stop the shooter,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">sad and angry words of hurt, broken, and traumatized souls, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">mothers grieving from the depths, echoing PACHAMAMA’S lament for this Pandemic of Empire and Colonialism: </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">violence and racism,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">nationalism, autocracy, aggression, and greed </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">that fabricate lies and threaten to destroy</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">the fabric of families, communities and nations:</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Mother Emanuel AME, Tree of Life</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">El Paso, Las Vegas, and Boulder,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Iraq, Afganistan, Yemen, Syria, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Somalia, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, etc., etc., etc.—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">their predecessors and successors.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The loud speaker bleeps off and on, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">muffling some words, making others unintelligible,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">yet one does not have to hear them to know what is being said.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Candles melt down as balloons perk up, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">earnestly alert for the signal to be launched heavenward</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">where some hope their loved ones are waiting.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">And, finally, in a cathartic expression of memory and hope—Lift Off!—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a cluster of sparkling dirigibles, airborne, gently separating,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">filling the sky and fulfilling their mission, dancing with stars,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">temporarily escaping the bonds and suffering and pain.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Humanity’s violence spills beyond itself—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">seeping into the land, water, air—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">destroying ecological systems and irreplaceable Beings while</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">fossil fuel and other invasive mining, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">contaminate, infect, poison, and suffocate,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">heating the planet, melting glaciers, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">causing erratic storms, drought, and fires</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'serif';"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; font-size: 12pt;">and increasing the wealth-poverty divide,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">conflict and warfare.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Climate refugees flee homelands for an uncertain future;</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane gas erupt,</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">food and supply chains are disrupted and disrupt, </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">shortages abound as fields become barren</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and mighty rivers run dry—</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">another Pandemic of devastation</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">But wait, there’s more . . .</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">COVID and other deadly diseases</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">continue to evolve and mutate,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">killing millions, many in their prime,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">rooting where protocols are not honored,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">where vaccinations are neither</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">welcomed nor equitably distributed,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a Pandemic tide of germs, surging and ebbing,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">perhaps waiting for a more opportune time</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">to discretely emerge and merge with a populace</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">that defends individualistic freedom over vigilance,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">the Common Good and the well-being and freedom of All.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The next night, the Scene segues </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">from the school grounds to a Town Hall Meeting</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">on gun violence and schools and bullying,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">hosted by a U.S. Representative, where</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">more words are intoned and gods invoked</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">in a citizen-filled room—</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">school administrators, teachers, preachers,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">politicos, students, first responders,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">parents (including the mother of the girl killed),</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">feeling powerless,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">trapped in a cycle of unrelenting violence</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and unraveling of civilization,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">looking for answers, for wise and bold leadership.</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">A panel of speakers portends business as usual</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">until a young lady on the dais, a senior at CVPA,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">rises to her feet. Incredibly poised,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">she passionately and prophetically reads her Truth to Power,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a letter of proclamation to the Representative, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and demands that something be done: <em>Control the guns!</em></span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Stop the killing! Enough is enough!</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">No more excuses! No more thoughts and prayers and vigils!</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">No more political posturing, postmortem speeches, and funeral eulogies!</span></em><em style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span></em><em style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">No more Cross and Stars of David memorials,</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">stuffed animals, votive candles, and balloons.</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">DO SOMETHING to create SAFE SCHOOLS and</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS with equitable resources,</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">SAFE COMMUNITIES and A SAFE NATION! </span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">DO SOMETHING! NOW!</span></em>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">And a child shall lead them . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">And, finally, to close the gone-overtime,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">anxiety-fraught meeting,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">more words are spoken and then,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">a Word Benedictory:</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">we are all connected and are all called, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">for such a time as this,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">to live into our connectedness and interrelationship;</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">words of gratitude for those who came and who care,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">who show up day after day, year after year,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">who have a vision of working together,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">who overcome paralyzing fear, despair, and powerlessness,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">who bridge polarizing politics</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">and passionately and compassionately</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">pour heart, mind, soul, and strength into creating</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">resilient communities and a world of </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">equity and justice for all our relatives—</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">animal, vegetable, and mineral,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">who carry within and elicit from others</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">the unfolding adventure of </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">an ever wondrous Creation Way of Possibility,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Hope beyond hope and Love unconditioning,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Truth consistent with Earth’s Truth,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Peace, Wholeness, Shalom,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">turning swords into plowshares,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">instruments of death into tools cultivating Life.</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">As the crowd exits and trickles into the night,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">into separate domains and spheres of influence,</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">many wonder: just mere words, </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">their urgency and agency eventually fading and fizzling </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">or real change this time?</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">PACHAMAMA pondering . . .</span>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> </span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">ejhs</span>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">10/29/2022</span>
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