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We Must Make The Wise Choice For Our Grandchildren

 We in Staunton have a choice to make.  It is up to us.  Shall we choose solar energy ? Twenty one years ago, I was adopted into the Shenandoah family, Wolf Clan, Oneida Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (People of the Long House).   White people call them Iroquois. We are taught to listen to our elders, learn to respect and act responsibly. Oren Lyons, 93, Wolf Clan, is an Onondaga Chief, and world leader of peace who teaches —  The Earth is our Mother.  She gives everything we need for life.  Imagine a living pine tree clinging to a cliff; getting all it needs for life from the earth.  We are like that pine tree.  Our Mother Earth provides, but time is running out.  We have little time to make changes in order to survive.  The economy of nations will be broken by natural disasters.  We see more disasters every year:  hurricanes, snow melt, coastlines washing into the seas, wild fires, drought, flooding, on and...
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Lest we forget . . . .

In his address to the nation on September 1, President Biden called for all Americans—“Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans”-- to reject government by violence, and instead work together to defend democracy and build a better future, one based in the Constitution, the rule of law, free and fair elections, the will of the people, honesty, decency, respect, patriotism, liberty, hope, and possibility.  His message was forward-looking, optimistic, inclusive, and hopeful.

Nevertheless, we should never forget that the January 6, 2021 rioters were not the only ones who tried, and failed, to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. On that same day, Representative Ben Cline voted to object to state election results, in a calculated effort to throw the election to Donald Trump. To give Mr. Cline the benefit of the doubt, there were many, including then-President Donald Trump, who claimed, and even now claim, that the election was permeated by widespread voter fraud.  But since that time, in spite of compelling evidence that the election was free and fair, Mr. Cline has thrown in his lot with the former president. To my knowledge, he has never renounced his votes or his support for overturning the election. Indeed, his silence on this matter has only helped perpetuate the Big Lie that the election was stolen from his patron.

Mr. Cline and his fellow MAGA Republicans, as Mr. Biden indicated, are working even now to arrogate to themselves the power to decide elections in America, casting aside voting by the people, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.  

If we arrive in 2024 and Mr. Cline is in Congress, will he once again vote to install Donald Trump, his cronies and partisans, overturning the popular vote, perhaps the vote even here in Virginia ?

As Virginians with long-established roots in the Shenandoah Valley (my wife’s ancestors settled here in the 1740s), we hereby call upon Mr. Cline to reject government by violence, to renounce the Big Lie and his votes in Congress and to withdraw his support for Donald Trump. Otherwise, we fear that history may very well repeat itself.

D.J. Murphy
Fishersville

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