I was about to post this, then the thread was halted, but our President reminded me of and thought members might enjoy a slightly OT story from my past.
My 4th grade teacher Mrs. Palmer started one day by saying were going to rearrange our desks into islands. Six I remember. She didn't seem to have a map or any preconceived notion but one by one or two or three at a time, names were called, and desks were pushed around by us, with her directing, intervening as to location and orientation. "Robin, I want you here by me" she said to the 4th grade bad ass, "Steve, and you too. Tim I think you would work well here, too" followed by Robert. Well half an hour later everyone was contemplating the dynamics of their new neighbors. Mrs P broke out the masking tape and began to mask tape around the Robin, Steve Tim and Robert Island and shortly after announced that this island was Alcatraz, no one could leave without permission and "prisoners must stay inside the tape". No other island had tape around it. Well after a week of celebrity status of being in 4th grade's most notorious prison I was replaced by Steve G. I was placed on island with four quiet girls and returned twice in intervening months before we went back to rows and had the distinction of causing the prisons only expansion moving to five inmates requiring more tape. Without reform there is recidivism or perhaps genetics dominates one's behavior. Robin was the only lifer. With this in mind, maybe it would best to contain quasi political topics to one or set of threads and enforce only decorum and anti-trolling.
Alcatraz, 25 miles away, was being closed during my 4th grade year, Native Americans occupied it in the early 70's in protest and is now a popular windy, cold, dank tourist attraction that you are stuck on until the boat returns. Yesterday my Pres announces that he wants to go back a quite a few decades to open it as prison again but he will need a lot of money and there might some of the red type of tape to get going. This true story was way to get your attention with some humor ask that we all try act civilly towards each other to give RickS a break. I know at times I find some comments here irritating and have lost it in retaliatory comments, so, maybe it IS genetics, but ASR is kind of sanctuary from the headlines, and we should try a little to keep it that way. Thanks for reading my off topic post.