"Pardon And Pacify Them" Poem by Michael Walkerjohn

"WE"
can move
back, maybe.
"WE" can lose
not really! "WE"
do so choose our
dignity correctly, over
the unconscionable thoughts
of, oh no they will not be allowed.
What, is inherent in the people's will
that calls out to all of a nation's citizenry?
The combination of actions seen, of voices
heard, of a documents demean; by an
elected and appointed leadership
which has lost consensus … and
this lost consensus is deemed
that which will never be found?
Jeffersonian Cognizance!

"bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds
enthusiasm of the free and buoyant; education
& free discussion are the antidotes of both."
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, August 1,1816

"What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man!
Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself
in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment... inflict
on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more
misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose."
Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier, January 24,1786

"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be
trusted with their own government; that whenever
things get so far wrong as to attract their notice
they may be relied on to set them to rights."
Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8,1789

"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred."
Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Jefferson Smith, February 21,1825

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots & tyrants"
Writing to William Smith (1755-1816) , John Adams' secretary and future
son-in-law Thomas Jefferson seemed to welcome Shays' Rebellion in
Massachusetts:

"god forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion
the tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the
blood of patriots & tyrants. it is it's natural manure." Jefferson
was confident that rather than repression, the "remedy is
to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them."