Thanks for the public notice. For more information, please contact me at kmaher2@rochester.rr.com.

Kudos for City posting this timeline. It got me thinking.

As we sat down to our Thanksgiving dinners yesterday, I reflected on the true roots of our national greatness: Our enshrinement of individual freedoms and liberties exercised within communal settings that are consistent with principles of human dignity and decency. True public servants support such ideals, to include our troops, our police â�" and our occupiers, who dare to confront us with reminders of democratic ideals that we as a country are failing to uphold.

Yes, occupiers are public servants too, deserving of a fair hearing and a measure of respect. Yet the more we deploy armed forces to suppress such actions, the more our democracy withers from within, even as we claim otherwise.

A nation simply cannot sow the seeds of democracy in other lands while poisoning the seedlings of democracy on its own soil.

Let us reflect on the dangers of using one group of public servants (the police) to suppress another group of public servants (the occupiers). Let us ponder the dangers of putting armed forces empowered by noble oaths to act out unworthy purposes. And let us ponder as well what suffers most when our public servants are turned against one another â�" and who profits most.