I recall attending a book sale at the University branch of the Charlottesville public library with my wife in my junior year or so, just up the Hill from our apartment at University Gardens where I purchased a collection of quotes mostly, by an editor so to speak of Mr. Jefferson’s creativity. Studying Chemistry, I wasn’t able to delve so deeply into our founder’s voluminous writings but I got a flavor of his thinking from Mr. Mayo’s selections. A most interesting example made a deep impression on me at the time and was brought to mind particularly when the far-right fascist racists besmirched the reputation of the grounds & town four years ago. It was in the section dealing with the challenge that has tested our nation (and yeah the world) for millennia, of course the comprehension and coexistence betwixt the so-called “races”. Mr Jefferson pointed out that although the caucasoid Europeans held total sway against the enslaved Africans, that in his moral judgement he “quaked in his boots” when he considered that the God he believed in was a JUST GOD and that retribution for all the mistreatment meted out against our brothers & sisters would surely be required by an eternal Judge of “Just Judgement”. (Ten genes out of twenty-five thousand is NOT a statistically significant fraction & does not infer any concept of race any more than eye color !)
The sickness that currently afflicts what used to be the “Party of Lincoln”, that is; the loser racists who cannot compete on an even playing field and therefore try to CHEAT their way into power by appealing to the evil tendency nature of those who cannot or chose not to analyze society’s troubles truthfully is on the ballot in Mr. Jefferson’s “country” or commonwealth this Tuesday. Vladimir Putin’s puppet (or prostitute) Donald (the Chump) whose dual driving attributes consist entirely of Greed and Racism is responsible for molesting two dozen women, stealing millions from contractors and the U.S. Government and murdering half a million U.S. Citizens in a vain attempt to re-start an economy in the midst of a pandemic so as to achieve immunity of office against numerous crimes in New York & elsewhere. After failing in said endeavor he is continuing his servitude to his Master in the Kremlin (who installed him along with Tory Rupert Murdoch & Mammons Mark Suckerberg) by spreading a “big lie” about the free & fair election of 2020. His extremist base has kowtow-ed the GOP (Greed Oiled Party ?) into mouthing obvious lies that 60 legal cases proved as vapid as Donnie’s little “mind”. The attack on Jeffersonian democracy on January 6th by racist, fascist, sexist losers is the most treasonous act by a sitting (P)resident in our History, the prosecution of which is being actively resisted by its perpetrators like Chump & his gutless wonder version of “Republicans”. (Whom I’m sure would be damned by Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt & Lincoln.) This sickness is represented in our Gubernatorial contest by Glenn Chumpkin. No matter how slick the disguise, the POLICIES which would be followed by this apostle of Donald the Chump as Governor would obviously parrot the disastrous “reign of error” that Virginia voted against last year by ten percentage points.
The most suicidal policy he would follow is ignoring the safe effective treatments & preventatives against the SARSCoV-2 infections like vaccines that have been proven safe by MILLIONS of doses with negligible problems (compared to the highly deadly disease) and filtering of aerosols by masking. The most suicidal policy against the birthright of U.S. Citizens to free & fair elections - which should be counted accurately is being promulgated across the country by Chumps minions who are passing laws to STEAL elections which they lose (like last falls’) & which Chumpkin has indicate he would also be complicit in. The right of women to be able to plan their families as it seems the Good Lord designed human reproduction to ensure that the more nurturing half of humanity is naturally equipped to decide, is a particular target that Chumpkin was caught telling the truth about on tape (which he avoids discussing like the plague ever since). This being most relevant given the completely unrepresentative extremely right-wing so-called “supreme” court packed by “Moscow Mitch McConnell”’s denial of America’s presidential choice (twice) - Obama’s Constitutional right to choose a Justice with ten months left in his term (while allowing the Chump to choose one with less than three).
He would also weaken the background checks for firearms purchasers which continues the insane slaughter of U.S. Citizens at twenty-five times the rate at which these coward’s weapons are allowed to butcher humans most anywhere else in the world thanks to the Satanic Rifle Association’s triple-profit-margin “God” of mammon, to which the GOP has become rank prostitutes for power-lust & thirty pieces of silver. (The second amendment was written regarding flintlocks that took a minute & a half to reload ONCE - before the National Guard was organized, not mega-death machine guns !).
If one was not sure about the nature to which today’s far-right wing “Republicans”
are appealing, their lies about critical race theory which has NEVER been taught in Virginia schools and their desire to “burn the books” of highly respected authors like Toni Morrison (who just “happened” to have been a woman of color) can clearly be seen as the racist “dog whistles” that Donald the Chump is so notorious for blowing at every turn.
Now, to contrast; the Jeffersonian Democrats are about to provide U.S. Citizens with the most wide-ranging improvement of society support (as well as infrastructure rebuilding with some responsible Republicans) that will help most all families deal with child support, pre-K education, lead (pipe) removal, climate change mitigation, Health care expansion, housing support and elderly assistance including hearing aids.
Another important fact is that Virginia knows how competent and predictable Mr. McAuliffe is, having seen his excellent leadership for four years already. On the other hand the “pig-in-a-poke” which the GOP is offering up is quite the wild card without any given track record except for chasing the “almighty Dollar” of the far-right !
Virginia has done very well under the moderate Democrats that have been in office of late, let’s allow competent responsible leadership that speaks truth to treason to maintain our ship of state as I’m sure Mr. Jefferson would prefer (because it’s the best for the long-term actual good of Virginians). Who-WaHoo ! (LeFevre -Metcalf ’72-3)
Dr. Steven Dwight Ferber Physical BioCHEMIST Ph.D. Howard University ’05
Chemistry B.S. University of Virginia. ’76
High School Yorktown H.S. Arlington Virginia ’72
Born & reared in Arlington County, Virginia
(also a sort of “All-but-Dissertation” stint at
Univ. Of Minnesota’s Physical Chemistry Dept ’76-’81)