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I post sometimes here about my family because it is something I greatly treasure in my life and I feel that personal stories are often the most relatable. Not only do I reflect fondly on the time we've all spent together, I try as best I can to learn important lessons and take from the wisdom imparted on me from people I am closest with. I also learn valuable lessons of what not to do when I see things in my family that aren't always a positive life lesson. Sometimes, I fail at that endeavor, lose site, and get thrown off course. Each and every month my mom and I would take time out to go and visit the home of my Great Auntie Carmen and my Great uncle Ramon at their home on Rougeway St. in Livonia. When you visited Carmen and Ramon you never just dropped in to say hello and goodbye. Instead, you stayed around. You stayed for dinner and something to eat because they insisted on feeding you something. You also stayed around for the conversations and stories because they insisted on sharing their love with you and imparting their wisdom onto you. Spending time with my Great Uncle Ramon and hearing him tell you about his life stories was an especially valuable experience. Each time you sat around at that brown kitchen table or on their green couch in the living room you got important life lessons that helped you as a human being. Listening to my Uncle Ramon you could gain compassion for your fellow human beings and learn important lessons from history all in one conversation. One story in particular that has always stood out to me and one I heard a hundred times if I heard it once was the story how my Great uncle Ramon fought courageously in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's and stood up against General Francisco Franco and the fascists of Spain. See, even though Franco and his thugs in the Spanish Army drafted my Great Uncle Ramon into fighting on their side, he refused to march the order of fascism, even if it meant his own death in the end. He knew that democracy and freedom were what was right. He refused to shoot his fellow countrymen and himself was almost killed for his refusal to fire his weapon and kill another human being in the defense of tyranny. Never once did my great uncle fire a bullet out of his gun at a human being on the other side to kill in Franco's honor and fascisms defense. He would tell all of us in my family with a sense of sadness about the war, yet with tell us with great pride, that he refused to defend tyranny and kill in the name of fascism for Franco. I'm posting about my great Uncle, Ramon Sieira, on the anniversary of January 6th not simply to share a family story about who he was and what I learned from him. I'm reflecting on his legacy and sharing it here in the hope that everyone can take something out of it. Through his courage, compassion, conviction, and refusal to defend Franco, he knew what was wrong and right. Ramon Sieira defended freedom, liberty, and the right to vote through his support of the Second Spanish Republic of the 1930s. He defended democratic values and norms that proved fragile in Spain in the 1930's and would indeed fall into Franco's hands of tyranny. No, my post about my great uncle is not intended to indict one political party or another. It is not about Democrats or Republicans being worse or better than others. It is about the lessons of democracy and the fragile nature of a free society and peoples. On this January 6th anniversary, I hope we all take valuable lessons from it and don't take democracy and freedom for granted. Republican or Democrat, progressive, moderate or conservative, we should all be able to come together peacefully and support democratic intuitions and accept free and fair election results.

A documentary on Napoleon should have been shorter.

i remember being the only white kid in my grade school classes and having to be lincoln at every. school. play. so yes, i still recall four score and seven years ago our fathers set forth on this continent a new nation....

Amazing how foreign media can perfectly understand Trump and succinctly report it in a way America media has never been able to do.

I collect autograph cards, much to my wife’s chagrin. Here are a few:

I also shudder at the thought of a majority of parents teaching math.

Just a regular tourist visit.

To my knowledge, no, however when you collect the whole set you get a free hemorrhoid donut.

never forget this guy once led a Superpower "some will cheer the decline of America but I think we'll miss it when its gone"

I remember a conversation I had a couple of tears ago with a passenger at DTW who inquired about CNN being on the TV screens. I told him that the rights to the screens were put up for bid every few years. CNN was evidently the winning bid. He wasn't exactly pleased when I informed him that's how free enterprise works. (I later learned that CNN was the only company to place a bid)

yeah, she drove him to the insurrection. very manly.

They are currently involved in a multi-billion dollar libel lawsuit involving the lie that led to the events of 1/6. So yes, they are quite different than most other news outlets on this.

The number of deaths is not relevant. It's about everything that happened from election day through January 6. The president tried to overturn an election right in front of everybody. He spit on our democracy and constitution like no president in my lifetime. It was a historical and disgraceful time in our nation's history and it's still happening. This can not be downplayed.

I never memorized 13x12. I just take 144+10+2 to arrive at the answer. I remember when I was in school my teacher would say you won't have a calculator in your pocket at all times.

I don't know if you've noticed, but some of them ain't gonna be taught nothin'.

or "it's not chicken noodle soup because there's no nuclear fusion"

They get the Seahawks pick for Jamal Adams. Unlike us who's future picks will probably both be in the mid 20s or later they got fortunate and the team they traded with sucked the following year. Edit: nevermind you meant who would they draft if they traded the two top 10 picks not who they traded to get two top 10 picks.

Speaking of Reggie Brown, I remember reading recently how Willie Clay Ford helped set him up with his own Ford dealership after his NFL career was over. Brown went on to become a successful dealership owner.

i agree with you about the electoral college and i think it should be discarded. not because it will enshrine a temporary democratic party majority as some here seem excited about, but because i dont see what purpose it really serves anymore. as for the comments on the south, i think there are just as many stupid people in the north and in big cities who vote democrat as there are rural white people in the south who vote republican. if you want to see a banana republic one party state full of fraud, dirty tricks, and corruption, led by people who arent very bright but think theyre better than you, look no further than the great city of chicago and the thousands of lemmings who line up and vote for the democrats every year and get nothing for it. i know, because i am one of them.

Ba doom boom

She’s thirteen, of course she hates you (sometimes). I mean, we all do 😎

at long last, our nightmare of a season is over. let the real season begin! DRAFT SEASON! i look forward to 50 tater posts with all his mock drafts and fake trades! cruzer? where you at? its your time to shine. let's talk about speed!!!!! lol.

Ha! Yes, I use a online TV, a PC, and projector for watching TV/movies...I was watching a game when my cat perched herself in between the projector and the screen....her shadow appeared to be stalking Johnathan Schoop 😃

They "report" to their base viewers. They are no different than any other so called news outlet. I feel the same about CNN. Today they have a headline remembering the lives lost at the Capitol on Jan 6. There was only one life lost that day. No officers were killed or any other protestors or rioters. Its just sensationalized reporting playing to their base.