And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I was surprised when I typed the date of this column to note that the Fourth of July is only ten days away from my writing a column. It seemed too soon.

But observations made after a short jaunt in Allamakee County recently once again confirmed that the color green prevails strongly in those years when we have had sufficient spring rains, as this year. The scenery is incredibly green.

With southern immigration much in the news, I mused that it is no wonder folks from Central America would like to live here ... except that those nations ought to have as much or more green than Iowa. My breakfast banana, like many of the immigrants, came from Guatemala.

The difference is perhaps incorporated into the significance of the Fourth of July. That document signed that day provides the framework for our Republic as a form of government, and despite increasing efforts to set that aside in favor of a mobocracy, socialism or communism, as a number of countries have done, including those of Central America, the fact is, we have not had our own citizens firing on other citizens en masse since the Civil War.

But that could change.

Left coast leftist Maxine Waters over the weekend incited her supporters to riot whenever members of the current national administration appear in public. That followed on the heels of three events in which administration supporters were verbally attacked as they were engaged in non-government activities, such as eating out or going to a movie. All were female, which may be significant.

It is the right of all citizens to confront those with whom they disagree politically, but for the most part, previous confrontations have been confined to public events which are government related or the individual is acting in an official capacity. It is incredibly rude to extend that to family dinners or private outings.

Administration opponents say the president started it, and it is true that the president can be very crude and rude in public comments or his infamous “tweets.”

But I can’t recall an incident when he or his supporters interrupted private activities.

And if they did, two wrongs don’t make a right.

But might inspire a physical fight if the verbal attack is sufficiently provoking to the wrong individual.

Like a male with a military background.