Or any sane religion, for that matter. Please don't blame the song when the choir's tone deaf. But I appreciate your empathy, and it proves my point in the title consequently that you are far more my brother or sister than many in the churches. Your friend is very fortunate to have escaped with his life and that of his children. I'd say 'unharmed' or 'unscathed' except we both know the scars such a trauma can leave, especially on the little ones. Hopefully your friend can explain to his sons that they've just seen what a hateful monster conservatism has produced, and they'll be forewarned as they go through life to avoid such traps. This never should've happened but since it did, try to use it for educational purposes.
Since my mom was a New South southern belle, I got somewhat similar exposure to that sort of person early on in life, when we visited her relatives before the final breaking point. She and I thought we were going on a summer's evening scenic car ride but we wound up in the woods at a Klan rally with no way out. It was the single most terrifying moment of my life, and on the way back to my aunt's house later I learned that my exquisitely graceful parent could swear like a whole boatload of sailors. We didn't dare tell my father the whole story when we got off the plane at home, because he would've gone ballistic. He got an appropriately watered down version, which was more than enough to convince him all ties to that branch of the relatives - I refuse to call them family - must be severed.
I've been through two presidential election cycles here now, both when my 2 chows were still alive. Which is a major reason I still am! One of the first things I invested in was a fence around the complete perimeter, and when I put up my 4'x5' handcrafted sign, I set it toward the front of a side yard so if anyone shot it up - as they openly threatened to do - at least maybe house and occupants would survive. But I also installed a row of small American flags across the top in hopes that the wingers might not be in such a hurry to shoot at that. Don't know if it helped, but no shots were fired that I know about.
And when the wingers took the House in the last midterms, a pickup truck full of armed teabaggers parked in front of my house, honking the horn and raising all kinds of hell. I went outside and waved at them with a grin on my face, called a few by name, and then pulled out an old camera they didn't know was broken. As I pretended to take pictures, they peeled out and never came back. But they're still out in the woods playing soldier, you know that. Some guy wrote a letter to the local weekly in response to one of mine, and it had 'LYING HYENAS OF SOCIALISM!' in large bold caps for a title. I guess that was meant to put me in my place.
Oh, well... guess we could trade war stories all day. But if we ever met for a beer, I don't think we'd lack for things to talk about.
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