The recent opinion piece, “When Trump is found innocent”, brought to mind all the Rachel Maddows and all the Sean Hannitys who create a balance, a dynamic tension that must be an elemental aspect of our humanity in that we allow, if not encourage, them to go on espousing their respective values in our name, in the name of “what the American people want”.

It’s not the president or Hillary Clinton or anyone other than us, each one of us, every day, through all time. As long as we accept the invitation of all the news readers and repeaters to inhabit their Potemkin village, they will continue to construct the façade. We do this, enslave ourselves to the tribal chanting, because it is easier and perhaps initially more entertaining, rather than attempt to stop the chatter so we might more fully analyze our wishes and fears.

It seems natural to us, part of our essence, to be stirred up by matters of winning and losing, all the while wondering how cheating or playing fairly, lying or truth-telling may have been involved in the process. We want to be on the side of the angels, which many conveniently determine to be the side they endorse. In some places, this is the civilized residue that has evolved from a time of continual feuding and war; in others the warring remains.

Some of the lyric lines of “Woodstock” as well as both the life and physical sciences remind us we are organisms composed of a variety of chemicals that, as I’ve previously observed, by the grace of our respective Gods and Darwinian evolution perceive consciousness. So once again, the bag of chemicals we are and its ability to create love out of the consciousness, is the only enduring cure for our dependencies on all of the phobias that keep us apart.

Ed Dalton

Framingham