Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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The Winter of Our Discontent. I have experienced much in fourscore and four years. I saw neighborhood children beating on pans in 1945. I heard radio reports featuring jet sounds over Korea. I watched TV documentation of the downfall of McCarthy. I remember a school newsreel, showing Jains sweeping as they walked-- I recall, then, researching the all-encompassing Jain 'Golden Rule'. I also recall, from those same newsreels, the Palistinian prison camps. I experienced my graduate schooling, interrupted by the Vietnam War. Because of that war, I was guided into Pacifism-- I could not partake in an unjust conflict and kill others. We are all experiencing an unknown future, molded by the Climate Crisis. Thus we all are an integral part of the Sixth Extinction. And recently we have democratically voted in A government, the truth from which, most of us are now unsure. "We are going to deport all immigrant criminals", When the reality is, that even innocent citizens of color are nabbed. Frank Maurer 31 January 2026 1030 Hours.