Very weird hill to die on there, Megs.

Absolutely. 💙

Your post made me start hunting down more info on the 92nd's role in fighting alongside the partigiani in Italy. I found reference to a documentary called "Inside Buffalo" that I'm going to try and track down (I think it's only in Italian but if I find in English I'll post a link here.)

It was heartbreaking to hear his story, more so b/c when he realized we were American, he was so delighted to meet us. We wanted to apologize for the path we were on but couldn't speak for being so choked up. That was Aug 2017; it hurts even more now to think of how much worse it's gotten.

The soldiers were from the 92nd Division and were responsible for fighting alongside the Italian partigiani on the Gothic Line front. The man we spoke to had tears in his eyes 73 years later as he told us about the soldiers and how they cared for them as they were nearly starved to death.

The Italian man in the story was saved by a company of Black soldiers; he was only 6 at the time. His group was terrified when the soldiers discovered them in their cave (it was the first time any of them had ever seen a black person) but overcame his fear when they started handing out chocolate. :)

I found a post that I made back when it happened in 2017, when we accidentally stumbled on Sant'Anna in Stazzema [hopefully this link will take you to the post?]:
www.instagram.com/p/BYUDq19Aem...

I will share a beautiful story with you about a company of Black soldiers that liberated parts of Tuscany during WWII as soon as I'm at the computer and can type it all out. 💙

I do think that's a lot of it. Americans are famously insular. I think over a 25+ year span, say from ages 20 to 25, people who never left their original bubble are more likely to dig in when confronted with notions of us vs them. They are afraid of the other - which has led us where we are today.

That gave me whiplash. Crazy to see her try to be reasonable. The veneer of respectability is very thin and very transparent.

They were also much better off than we were growing up but they have slid ever further down the economic scale in the last 20 years. I don't know, I definitely need more coffee. I fear it all boils down to being able to think critically though. There's just not a lot of that going around these days.

At 45 I'm 1000% times more progressive now than I was at 20 or even 25 or 30. And that while that is the same trend I've witnessed from those closest to me, it's not what I've noticed in my Georgia cousins, for example. The exact opposite. They have swung wildly right and are super religious now.

Much the church was an insidious factor in the way many of us were raised - even people like me who did not go to church or come from a churchy family. It's too complex for a thread reply but I think a lot of folks swung way right because of that, and a fair number swung apathetic b/c of it as well.

I think many people had their brains melted by evangelical thinking + 9/11. I grew up in Texas but moved away at 24-ish... Bounced back and forth b/t there and Europe for 15 years before pulling up roots entirely at 39. It's only been in the last few years that I have been able to see clearly how

Well-referenced. 😂💙

The more of us there are that keep hope alive, the more likely we are to pass a flame to someone else whose light was about to go out.

"So what else are you gonna do / can't give up just 'cause the bastards won / I'm going down with the ship & they'll say / the band played on, the band played on."