We forget who laid it out for us a lifetime ago, but civilization is inherently fragile, and can collapse in an instant. Everything is handed off from one generation to the next, one life to the next, and the chain only goes back a few thousand years. We haven’t been at this very long.

The friend who explained this to us was Jewish. He had some specific examples in mind.

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Then came a quiet morning when Mr. Biden opened a door on the north side. A warm draft of rising air blew softly through the Capitol cellar. The baby Bernies felt the warm updraft. One Bernie climbed to the top of the security fence. Then it did something that came as a great surprise to Wilbur.

The Bernie stood on its head, pointed its mittens in the air, and let loose a cloud of thick yarn. The yarn formed a balloon. As Wilbur watched, the Bernie let go of the fence and rose into the air.

“Good-bye!” it said, as it sailed past the Washington Monument.

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• A constitutional republic famous for its peaceful transitions of power.
• The spirit that as Americans, we’re all in this together.
• The civic belief that all Americans should vote, and all votes should be counted.

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[via @DingDongVG]

Salt Lake City nurse and hero of the Republic Alex Wubbels may well have prevented Utah state and Salt Lake City cops from apparently attempting to slur the character or frame the victim of a car-and-truck crash precipitated by Utah Highway Patrol’s provocation of a high-speed car chase with the loser of the hour on July 26.

Wubbels mild and plain-spoken heroism exposed her to a violent assault and unlawful detainment by an apparently intriguing police officer on July 26 apparently attempting to set up an evidentiary framework to prove that the victim of the car crash bore some or all liability for the injuries in the crash their recklessness precipitated.

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We’re not sure what we expected. We’re not sure we expected anything. Coming of age in the Seventies, in liberal college-town Eugene, “protests” were such a tired tool that we mercilessly mocked each week’s low-attendance chantfest. “Moral preening” was not an expression in currency at the time, but it would have fit.

So we woke up Saturday morning, saw the initial reports of the crowd in DC: Good for them. No, really: It already looked more packed — and clearly more joyous — than the Inauguration the day before, and symbols matter a lot these days. Just ask the Hamilton cast.

And then we saw a video of the Denver crowd.

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Every time we think we’re ready to let go of the Talibunny Turkey Beheading, we just can’t. It’s only been five years, but it’s also been forever — forever in our heart, forever in the idea that some form of this must go back to the Greeks somehow, a sacrifice to Hermes that went horribly wrong, leading to the creation of Hades: a place where the living go to die, only to discover that there is no escape from other Departed Assholes, a Memento Mori that we the living are both Turkey and Executioner.

Or maybe it’s because we just can’t stop giggling at it. There’s also that.