Welcome back. We'll get started with service. I will share my screen. We'll be starting with the repentance verse, which we chant three times, and then we will be doing the Ehekosahotsugamo. All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. Born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. Born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. All my ancient twisted karma

[01:10]

from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. Born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. We vow together with all sentient beings from this life on throughout numerous lifetimes, not to fail to hear the true Dharma. Hearing this, we will not be skeptical and will not be without faith. Directly upon encountering the true Dharma, we will abandon mundane affairs and uphold and maintain the Buddha Dharma. And finally, together with the great earth and all animate beings,

[02:11]

we will accomplish the way. Although our previous evil karma has greatly accumulated, producing causes, conditions that obstruct the way, may the Buddhas and ancestors who have attained the Buddha way be compassionate to us and liberate us from our karmic entanglements, allowing us to practice the way without hindrance. May the merit and virtue of their Dharma gate fill and refresh the inexhaustible Dharma realm so that they share with us their compassion. Ancient Buddhas and ancestors were as we. We shall come to be Buddhas and ancestors. Venerating Buddhas and ancestors, we are one with Buddhas and ancestors. Contemplating awakening mind, we are one with awakened mind. Compassionately admitting seven and accomplishing eight obtains advantage and lets go of advantage. Accordingly, Longya says, what in past lives was not yet complete, now must be complete.

[03:17]

And this life save the body coming from accumulated minds. Before enlightenment, ancient Buddhas were the same as we. After enlightenment, we will be exactly as those ancient ones, quietly studying and mastering these causes and conditions. One is fully informed by the verified Buddhas. With this kind of repentance, certainly will come the inconceivable guidance of Buddha ancestors. Confessing to Buddha with mindful heart and dignified body, the strength of this confession will eradicate the roots of wrongdoing. This is the one color of true practice of the true mind of faith of the true body of faith. May all awakened beings extend with true compassion their luminous mirror wisdom

[04:19]

with full awareness. We have chanted the we dedicate this merit to our original ancestor in India, great teacher Shakyamuni Buddha. Our first woman ancestor, great teacher, Maha Prajapati. Our first ancestor in China, great teacher Bodhidharma. Our first ancestor in Japan, great teacher Ehei Dogen. Our first ancestor in America, great teacher Shogako Shunryu. The perfect wisdom Bodhisattva Manjushri. To the well-being of all those afflicted with ills and to peace pervading for all peoples of the world. Gratefully we offer this virtue to all beings. All Buddhas throughout space and time.

[05:26]

All honored ones, Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas. Wisdom beyond wisdom. Maha Prajnaparamita. When Taigen is ready, he will get us started. Good evening, everyone. Welcome. So, finally, tomorrow is Election Day. And I imagine many of us feel stress and apprehension now.

[06:41]

And I feel that about the election and about giving this talk. This is a very divisive and dangerous time. With not just threats of violence, but various acts of voters being pepper sprayed in North Carolina this weekend. And a bus of campaign workers being forced off the road in Texas. Anyway, it's a dangerous time. And some of us, anyway, have friends or relatives who we disagree with who may be voting other than we are or disagree with us. And myself, I'm included in that.

[07:51]

So, this week, maybe the next few weeks, maybe the next months will require patience, resilience, and the steadiness of our practice. We need to respond from Bodhisattva values and precepts now. Even after the election, the results may take weeks, possibly. And whomever wins, the issues will remain. So, from Bodhisattva values and precepts, I want to try and talk about this and have some discussion. And I want to try and speak from the precept of truth speaking.

[09:01]

So, I want to speak my truth. So, I'm going to share some of my own opinions. Buddhism is not about being neutral or not honing our own opinions. Buddhism is not about being nice. But we can speak our truth without demonizing those who disagree with us. With, to speak with radical respect for all beings, human and non-human. So, I want to speak with respect for animals who face extinction, for trees and mountains and rivers, who do not get to vote tomorrow. So, right view, some of you are studying the Eightfold Path, right view means not being dogmatic about one's view.

[10:15]

Not being dogmatic about one's opinion or how one sees the truth. Willing to listen to others, willing to shift one's views and opinions. So, that said, I must confess that I feel angry about what the current administration has been doing. But I also acknowledge that some of this goes back, oh, 40 years or longer, including administrations of both parties. So, my anger is not about hatred for any person, persons involved in this, but about, you know, transforming that anger to resolve, to respond clearly. And so, now to speak about this,

[11:21]

these situations of harm involved that are part of the issues, not just of this election, but of our lives in the world now. But, you know, they're part of this election. So, I'll just say, I voted a while ago, maybe some many or some of you have already voted. For those of you who have not voted yet, I strongly urge you to vote tomorrow, whomever you vote for. So, I'm just going to speak about some of the concerns that I have. One strong objection is to the intentional cruelty of this administration's separation, separating children from their parents. As an intentional policy of separating children, immigrating children from their parents,

[12:30]

there's still about 545, I believe, children in cages on the border and elsewhere. Some reports say that the separation is still going on. And international and national human rights groups have called this child abuse and torture. This is just unspeakable. And, you know, there have been pictures on the news of this. This is still going on. These children are still there. Some of them were infants when they were separated from their mothers. Permanently damaged. So, I'm just going to name some of the things that I'm concerned about and that are at stake in this

[13:34]

election tomorrow. The Supreme Court, in which a new justice was pushed through at the last minute. And explicitly, she was pushed through by certain senators and by the occupant of the White House explicitly to help appoint the current president to a new term if they can get cases involved in the election up to the Supreme Court. I mean, this was stated explicitly. It's not a question and the Supreme Court justice was forced through at the last minute when they, eight days before the election, when eight months before they wouldn't even consider President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. And three of the judges appointed by the current

[14:39]

president worked on the case of Bush v. Gore in Florida, worked for Bush, George W. Bush, to decide that election by the Supreme Court against the popular vote. Situation. There is massive voter suppression going on in many different ways. In many states in the country. And this has been stated explicitly by the current occupant of the White House and by senators that this is being done and would be done to affect the result of the election. This isn't some speculation or hypothesis or conspiracy theory. They've been quite explicit about this. They were doing this to affect the result of the election because they

[15:44]

said that suppressing the vote was the only way they could win. And the current occupant of the White House has talked about supporting threats of violence. He applauded his campaign workers who forced the bus of his opponent off the road in Texas this weekend, which prevented three campaign events. So our democracy is at risk, actually. Then, of course, there's the COVID pandemic. I think about 235,000 Americans have died. Doctors say that many more may die by the end of January unless we follow science. And health care is threatened in the middle of a pandemic. This is an issue. There's so many more things. Climate breakdown.

[16:47]

And, you know, in my opinion, so again, I'm just speaking my opinion. Some of you may disagree with some of what I'm saying, and that's okay. But in my opinion, both candidates are not doing enough to respond to climate breakdown in terms of their policies. But there's a huge difference between the two. And then there's also the support of white supremacy by the current occupants of the White House. So there's so much at stake in this election. And I'm, you know, saying all this may stress you all out more, and that's not my intention. I'm just trying to talk about what is. One of the issues that is of concern to me that both parties are involved with is the extreme

[17:59]

military budget of our country. Fifty-three percent of our total national budget is dedicated to military expenses. Eight hundred military bases around the world support weapons-making corporations. All of that is called our defense budget. And none of these, none of the missiles or fighter planes or submarines or aircraft carriers or military bases helped defend us from 235,000 American deaths. So it's a tremendous waste of resources. It could be going to education and health care and housing for people who are threatened with homelessness now that they are not receiving benefits and are out of work because of the pandemic. So those are some of, a list of some of my concerns.

[19:03]

So I also want to say that whomever wins this election, and it may be a while before that's clear, and it's important that all the votes are counted, then we'll be able to vote on it. And whomever is leading after tomorrow night, it's not necessarily the winner of the election, of course, but we need to keep aware of what is happening. So an election is a time when everybody is very aware and stressed out about all of this. But part of our responsibility to the world is we need to keep paying attention, attention to our world and to caring about our world and to how to respond appropriately. And sometimes it feels like there's no way we can respond. But actually, a lot of what is at stake in this election is, and a lot of the issues that

[20:22]

are being talked about in this election are being talked about because of people responding in between elections. So the Black Lives Matter movement, for example, brought that issue of systemic racism into the political debate. So we have to keep paying attention to what's going on in the world. Of course, we also have to keep paying attention to ourselves and our practices about paying attention to ourselves and turning the light within. So what's happening in the world is not separate from our own body and mind. And how do we take care of that? And how do we respond appropriately? And we're not disconnected from all these issues in terms of our own lives and how we take care of ourselves and each other. So our practice and teaching tradition shows us

[21:32]

that often in the world throughout history, truth and caring has been threatened. And there are also traditions of seeking peace and justice that have continued through history. They're often difficult times. And there have often been people caring about that. You know, there are lots of examples in recent times from the civil rights movement and Dr. King and the anti-war movement and many examples. So our caring and compassion continues. And our zazen, as we practice and as we feel connected in sangha, shows us that we are

[22:35]

deeply connected with everyone and all beings. And how do we find our way to, despite the stress we feel sometimes, to remember to breathe, to just slow down and to breathe, to respond strongly but calmly. So for people who don't have a practice like this, the stress is even worse now. How can we remember to breathe and to help others who don't have practice to to stay centered as much as possible amid all of this chaos which is happening in our world now. So our practice survives. Our world's going to survive.

[23:41]

We need to continue to take care of ourselves and each other, to take care of sangha. Sangha in the sense of, you know, our little sangha of Ancient Dragon, but also all of the sanghas in our life. We each have various communities that we are part of, family, neighbors, friends, other communities that we interact with. How do we take care? How do we act appropriately as best we can? And it's not a matter of doing this perfectly. We don't really know what to do sometimes. Skillful means, which is one of the Bodhisattva practices, is not about knowing how to act perfectly. It's about trying things. It's about making mistakes. It's about paying attention with patience and seeing when we can respond helpfully and pay attention and listen to others.

[24:50]

And sometimes, you know, there's no way we can try and, you know, if we disagree with someone strongly, some people we may not be able to persuade us of some issues, but some people sometimes we can dialogue with and listen to them. And anyway, I trust our practice and I trust human beings. I trust basic decency that, you know, maybe we call that Buddha nature. I don't know. But beyond that, just trust basic decency and that somehow that will prevail in the long run. So we'll see. So may we extend loving kindness and respect to all beings and stay calm and steady amid all of the turmoil that we're going to face in the week ahead, maybe the weeks ahead.

[25:58]

And try and be helpful to those around us and try and respond appropriately and helpfully. In the situations around us. So I've said what I wanted to say, but I want to hear from others too. So we have this opportunity of being together on election eve in the midst of this strange situation amid the pandemic and amid everything that's happening. So I want to hear from any of you who have comments, questions, responses, opinions, whatever you have to say. So please raise your hand or Sarah, I can't see you, but you can raise your hand to the

[27:04]

participant box. So comments, questions, responses, please feel free. Yes, Zoe. I can't find the raising hand, so I will. No, you can just raise your hand if I can see you. First of all, I'm so glad that I checked the website because I didn't know that this was happening until about an hour ago. So this, I was incredibly excited to see this. So it brightened my evening. I have two questions, but I'll just start with one that I kind of can't stop thinking about. And this, I would love to hear from like everybody who has any thoughts on this, but I was wondering how, in this case, myself can cope with the drastically different realities of those in my life who are in comparison to myself.

[28:09]

I mean, personal information, but my parents who are honestly almost completely unaffected by whoever wins and myself as both a trans and a queer person. With whoever wins, just the effect on myself is so much greater than my family's and that disconnect is so strong. And it's really hard to cope with that because there's so many people around me that I can't think of the word, but just kind of discredit because of that lack of empathy. And it's just, I've noticed that that is a lot more common than I even thought it was, even beyond my family. But I was just kind of wondering like ways that we can kind of cope with that. Thank you for sharing that. And I think that's a wonderful question. And

[29:12]

I know people will have responses. You said you had two questions. Maybe you could. Oh, yeah. I know. I didn't want to overwhelm, but this one's a little bit more broad and can actually be tied in. But I always, because of the way that this, just the sangha has benefited me, I always have like, I want to so badly kind of like input myself into different people's situations because I just want people to understand the benefits and be able to benefit from the ways that we practice. And I was just thinking if there's like ways that we can kind of not intrude, but I just want to like be able to help people during this time so much. And so it's just the question is just how we can help incorporate these types of practices or even just the idea of just slowing down in breath and very like basic things, how we can help incorporate

[30:17]

that into other people's lives. So that's about sharing this with others or about including it more in your own life? Sharing it with others. Okay, good. So two really wonderful questions. So I'll open the floor to other responses to Zoe. Yes, Beau. I mean, I don't know if I have an answer to the second question, but it just occurred to me yesterday morning, and I hardly ever do this, but I just texted my whole family. And I was like, you know, chances are this next week is going to be kind of an up and down experience. But here are two suggestions, you know, take a breath and be gentle with yourself. So I'm rarely ever like, I'm never like, oh, everybody should take Zen classes in my family or something, you know, but it just occurred to me like, I'm just going to throw this out there and see, you know,

[31:18]

in the spirit of trying to be helpful. And they were like, really receptive to it. And I think because it was just kind of a simple suggestion. And we're having this common experience of this tumult. So yeah, I don't know that that's what I did. So you invited them to come to us as an instruction, or I'm not? No, I just, you know, I suggested just like if they were feeling anxious, or, you know, you know, I said that I expected that this next week would be very difficult, probably in parts. So, you know, what was helpful to me was just to remember to breathe and take breaths. And then a thing that's been helpful that people have said to me recently is like, to be more gentle with myself and not to be too, you know, judgmental, or like, I shouldn't

[32:21]

be feeling one thing or, you know, whatever, just to kind of be gentle with myself in general. So I threw that out to my family. That's great. Yeah. Other comments, responses, please. Yes, Amina. Hi, in terms of your first question, I don't know, I don't know if I know how to cope with that sort of those separate realities, you know, and like, and either like within your own family or people in your life, like how to cope with that distance or, you know, but for me, it's felt helpful. Like I have a friend, we were talking the other night and we were saying like, the next week is going to be really hard. Like, she was like, I think I'm going to like just have this open Zoom link for like, like us and other friends just to be able to like at any point, be able to just come on and just like email everyone and say like, Hey, like, does anyone want to talk right now? Or does like,

[33:25]

want to be together right now? Because it's kind of a crazy moment, you know, so just that it's obviously harder for us to be with others right now, you know, like often on election night, people like gather, you know, and we can't do that in the same way. But just to, I guess, find ways to do that as we can so that even if we can't sort of change or know how to respond to like the distances between us and some of the people in our lives, you know, like in our families, or at least we can, we can find ways to cope together with others that we feel more connected to in this moment, or I don't know. I don't know if that gets to it or not, but just something I thought about. No, it definitely does. And thank you for saying that too. I actually wanted to throw, speaking of like gathering through Zoom, if anybody likes performance art, or just a lot of different types of art in general, I do performance art. And my teacher at SAIC,

[34:31]

School of the Art Institute, is putting on a bunch of different artists and professors are putting on a 24-hour Zoom gathering where they have sections of different people performing different pieces of many different kinds. And I have the link and I'm going to include it if you ever want to pop in and see some very interesting things. SAIC is a very fun place. So I'll include that because that's just a good, just like, if that ever pops into your head, just something to go to. Yeah, that's happening tomorrow for 24 hours? Yeah, I think my TA in my class, I think, is performing at like 4 a.m. on Wednesday. So like that morning. So I don't know exactly when it's starting, but I believe it's early Wednesday morning and goes throughout the entire evening through Wednesday. That sounds great. Yeah, I'll include the link. Hold on.

[35:32]

That gives me an idea. Douglas, I think we should just, you know, anybody who wants to just talk during this week, email info at ancientdragon.org, not in any formal way, but just, you know, people can respond to each other and we can send that, put that out. I don't know. Maybe there's some way to share that with others and just the idea of having responses because this is going to be a difficult week. I don't know if there's some way to, I don't know, share that with others more or Douglas, maybe we can think about that. But just if anybody wants to just talk to somebody or just share some feeling of stress, just email info at ancientdragon.org and we'll see what we can do. So just a thought, maybe we can even have a spontaneous little Zoom thing. I don't know.

[36:37]

And there is, for those who don't know there, we have a Dharma buddy system that some of you are on, but if you're not and you would like to be on, you can email info at ancientdragon.org. And there's already some people who are connected to that, but we can include more. Other comments or responses or questions? I just had a quick question. Do we have anything planned for tomorrow? Are we still doing morning Zazen? Sure. Okay. Morning Zazen. Tomorrow, Jokai, you're leading that? Yeah. Cool. And Wednesday morning, I think Jerry leads it. And yeah, so the morning Zazen is going. Everything is usual. Okay. Okay. That's reassuring. That's evening. I went to the Hyde Park group for the first time. It was lovely.

[37:40]

Yeah. It's a really nice group. Yeah. It was a really nice group. So either other responses to Zoe or any other comments or questions or responses about anything? I think Emily and George have their hands raised. Oh, hi, Emily or George. Hi, maybe you can't see me very well. I'm a little backwards. It's yeah, it's dark in there. Yeah, you know, I was thinking about, you know, just from this discussion, one thing that that I've been thinking about a lot recently is how, how much like communication and like listening gets blocked. Right now, you know, we are in this very divisive time. And it's it makes it hard, I think, to listen to really like listen and listen empathetically to others, especially because I think it's easy to assume. I find myself, you know, easy to sort of stereotype and assume that

[38:46]

you kind of know what somebody's maybe going to say. And I, you know, I have family, family members and relatives who don't vote the way I do as well. And so I've been thinking about how I think that is a is a big, I guess, a big obstacle that if, you know, if it was possible to it's not it's not easy, but if it's possible to like hear some of your relatives, like, listen to them, and not not always assume that you know what they're going to say, or know what their perspective is, it can be easier, I guess, to talk about these really difficult things. Yeah, one response to that that I have is that people who I disagree with about, you know, about, you know, who to vote for, for president, for example,

[39:51]

to find to find, you know, we may find some things in common, you know, or to talk about values or to talk about, you know, to find to find the common ground, sometimes it's hard to find, but to find the commonalities. And then, you know, we can start to hear what's different and to not to not just try and, you know, name call or anything, which is to respect, okay, there's differences, but to see to see if there's some things that are that are uncommon. And sometimes it's hard, you know, to try and persuade the other person of, you know, I'm right, and you're wrong. And that, that doesn't help so much. You're trying to convert someone. Anyway, just a thought. Ed? Oh, yeah, I didn't mean to raise my hand. But you know,

[40:55]

um, we're actually having a viewing party in the alley in the 2100 block of Bradley Place, which is right behind the GML tap at Leavitt and Grace, because we're going to put the TV outside. And because of COVID, it's going to be the door will be open, and everyone from the neighborhood's welcome. And we'll probably be watching John King on CNN, because he seems to get the most up to date numbers and the most detailed analysis, even though a lot of people reject CNN. And so, you know, we are expecting that there'll be an early call to the election, based on the general media, and we think it's going to be favorable. So I'm not and that's how I'm going to bed tonight. I think it'll work out. But you know, to what Zoe is saying, and so forth. I mean, I had many, a lot of my families in the civil service here in Chicago, and their political views are quite different than my own. And you know what, I know, I've known them as human beings since they

[41:59]

were little children, and they don't know themselves and their internal workings any better than I do. And so the gift of not knowing has been a fantastic one within the circumstances of this saga. And it's very helpful in terms of my comprehending, not only myself, but them in these political circumstances that we're in at this moment. Hmm. Other comments, please feel free. So much to talk about, about all of this. Yes, Chokai. Good evening. My question was about dealing with family members who are

[43:03]

on the other side of the aisle, and how not to take it personally. Like, I can't help but be quite upset with potential Trump voters in my family. And I don't, I know we've spoken about calling ground before, but like, how do you not, you know, this, things are happening. And I don't, [...] I don't know. These things are so, I'm not going to say important, but like, they mean something to me, you know, children in cages, like, how do you avoid thinking about that? And then so how do you still find ways to like, love these people, I guess, not love maybe, but just get along? I'll have some responses. Well, David, go ahead, David Ray.

[44:22]

Well, I'm reminded of that story that Paul Disko tells sometimes about Shonigaro Suzuki, and I forget the context, but he's, but somebody says, there go those deluded people. And his answer is, well, we're all deluded. That's one thing that Jokai, that comes to my mind when I experienced that. A story that is coming up for me, and I don't know if this is related or not, maybe it is, is that, like many people, I'm finding myself thinking about, you know, what was happening in my life four years ago, and the aftermath of the election. And that's, I'm sort of thinking about that with dread. And I taught a lot that the day after election, I taught three different classes. And the third one was the extension graduate class. And as I had done in

[45:24]

every other class, I said, well, before we start talking about, you know, great literature, does anybody need to say anything? And this class was very different. You know, they were older, you know, closer to my age. And one person said to me, look, I think this is maybe not such a bad outcome. And I looked at her in disbelief. I was looking at a woman, a person of color, and someone that I knew to be a divorced parent raising children. And I thought to myself, how can you possibly, how can you possibly be in support of something that is so obviously not in keeping with your interests? And yet, and so I asked her some version of that. And she said, well, I think maybe it's a good thing to have a business person take the reins of the country. And again, all I can say is that, you know, I'm deluded too. I'm, that seems absurd to me to think that. But I'm sure that I think a lot of absurd things to joke. I don't know if that's helpful. But

[46:28]

when you said take things personally, I wonder what I wondered what you were thinking about? Because I mean, I could say I take it personally as a queer person, somebody else could say, I take it personally, as a woman, or someone could say, I take it personally as someone who is economically at risk. What's the thing in you that feels, you know, personally affronted? Probably just like, my humanity, I guess. Like, it's, I mean, it's everything. Yeah, it's how everything that's happened over the past four years is against every kind of morals that I have. And I don't, I guess, it's hard not to be, if you say like delusional, they're like, all right, okay, we're all delusional. Yeah, but some people are deluded in their belief that harming others is okay. And I think that for me is probably the biggest

[47:39]

kicker. And that, I know that that doesn't necessarily mean all Trump supporters are okay with hurting other people. But it means that it's not, you know, this means that they kind of accept that this is something that has to happen. One way I think about that is that, so putting aside the people who are responsible for the policies and enact the policies, the people who are, oh, I'm going to put it in a pejorative way, the people who are followers of the cult have been very skillful. You know, there's these different realities. I mean, it's not just two realities. But, you know, there's, I mean, the people who have been, who get all of their information from Fox News, for example, have been very skillfully led into thinking in a certain way,

[48:45]

believing certain things that are not what we would say not true. And so it's not that they're not responsible for that, because there are also, you know, there are ways of not following that. But there's this very skillful way in which people have been misled. So blaming people, you know, the precept, one of our precepts is not to speak of the faults of others. And so we can talk about the ways in which people are delusional, going back to what David was saying. But there are causes and conditions. There are reasons why people feel like Trump speaks for them, for example. And

[49:56]

if we understood their stories, and how and causes and conditions, we might understand how they came to that. And so, you know, I think to demonize them is not helpful. So how people, how we share, you know, how science becomes legitimized again, and how people start to see more clearly is part of the issue, rather than who's on which side. And that's going to take a while, whoever's elected. I don't know if that makes much sense, but it's to blame your relatives for believing things that if they've been

[51:02]

excuse the word brainwashed to thinking or propagandized into thinking. You know, from their point of view, we've been brainwashed, we've been propagandized by whatever, you know, anyways, it's these different views of reality. And our practice is about trying to try our practice on one level is, what is reality? So we sit looking at how do we see reality? And to have that as a question all the time, and being willing to question what is real, what is real. So right view is about not being dogmatic. And I think if you're fundamentalist and dogmatic about, you know, believing in Mr. Trump, or I don't know, whatever, anyways, it's so I would just, I'm encouraging you not to demonize your family members who think other than you. We have to think about how people can

[52:17]

wake up. That's our job. And that includes how we wake up to see more broadly, and to see and to question what we think is true. So it's a difficult process. I don't know if any of that helps. And I don't know if it helps in terms of tomorrow's election. Yeah, and one thing, can I say one thing in addition to that, and I think, thank you, thank you for your words. And also to Ian, a lot of my family that supports the president, I find that there's a that often there's and I share this with them, there's a sense of injury and disenfranchisement and fear that drives a political view. And so that actually leads to a sense of empathy that I have for them. Because they even fear exploring

[53:20]

this sense of injury. And they often and we have a very skilled man in the White House who knows how to play on that sense of injury. And I think that that explains a lot of the situation to me. And he's, he's, he's, he is a he is a prisoner of time, this individual, and he will he will pass from this, he will pass from this place sooner than later, I think, or certainly eventually. He's a very skillful salesman. Yes, Mike, hi. Hi, just to follow up on what Ed just said. Yeah, I think I've read a few stories, not only from friends, but also I feel like there was a celebrity who did this, who went around and found random Trump supporters and asked to have dinner with them. And I don't know if this was

[54:27]

filmed or not, I imagine it was. But for quite a few of these occasions, you know, whoever it was, was really just sitting there listening. And I think to like what I was just saying, you know, a lot of people who are following Trump, I think are either are or certainly feel that they are disenfranchised in some way and have been, you know, screwed over for a long time. Their anger might be in the wrong place. But I think what they really want probably more than anything is to be listened to. And the few instances that I've heard, and maybe these are cute Hallmark card type stories that pop up. But when these people are listened to, I think then their wall comes down and they can actually find that bridge of some kind of empathy, because the base level is still there. And, you know, they're able, even if it doesn't like change who they're going to vote for, at the very least, they don't feel that, you know, this other person who's on the other side of the aisle is some foreigner or enemy, it's a decent human being.

[55:31]

And I think it gives me like this tiny shred of hope of like, that's how we're gonna move past this in some ways, you know, is to be able to at least see each other as decent human beings again, and understand each other. And I think that's the way that we can kind of start building. So I don't know. I don't know if it was helpful, but it made me think of that. And it's been one of the few things that's kind of given me a little bit of hope lately. So. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for that. Yeah, it's gonna be a process. It's not gonna be easy. But I think that's right. We have to listen. So we're getting near the end of our time. But any last comments, anyone? Yes, Bo, and then David. I've been thinking a lot about, you know, what you mentioned about human decency. I just think that's, I'm gonna try to keep that in my head, you know, forever. You know, I just think as like a thing to lean on and to trust in, that's a very powerful idea to me.

[56:36]

And today I taught fourth graders, and I asked them what they would do if they were president. And like, kind of uniformly, they were all like, we need to take care of homeless people, we need to give people money, we need to give people houses, food. And I was, I wasn't surprised or shocked that that was their answer. But I was, I guess, a little like, wow, like, they all sort of believe this, more or less. So very decent nine and 10 year olds in Chicago. I just want to put that out there. We can trust them. Yeah. David Ray. Along with that, I think that it's so clear that even if the outcome is what I hope it to be in tomorrow and the coming days, that our economic situation has really worsened the lot of so many people. And it's easy to see homeless people, and it's harder to see

[57:41]

working people whose standard of living is nowhere near where it was, comparably, when I was growing up. I was raised by a divorced mother. I went to public elementary and high school. And then I went to Harvard and got a PhD. And I lived in a world where there was a lot of prosperity, and it really was a land of opportunity. And that story no longer plays out for many, many people. And those are the people who feel disenfranchised and hurt and indignant and insulted and embarrassed and all those things. And another more charismatic leader than our current one could rise up. There's a grave danger if we don't make the lot of those people, if we don't make those lives better in some way. We really need to reform. Yep. Well, thank you all. Just last call, is there anyone else who has something you'd like

[58:45]

to say before we close? I apologize for butting in again. But you know, Biden has mentioned Franklin Delano Roosevelt many, many times in his talks. And he is man after my heart when he mentions one of the greatest presidents, one of the most humane presidents we've ever had the honor of having in that office here in the United States. When David talks about the rights of working people, and the prospects of working people and working families. Yeah, we need a new deal. And we need to put people to work and the government could do that. This could be happening. And we could, you know, have a campaign for, you know, to build some kind of system of alternative energy and put a lot of people to work doing that and building up infrastructure. There's all kinds of things that could be done. So yeah. Okay, well,

[59:48]

please start. Hang in there, everybody. It's going to be a strange and difficult week. But please remember to breathe. And Mike, are you do we do the closing? For what he said for the house for us? Yeah, I'll put those up in a second. And then we'll do announcements.

[60:12]

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