state during the graduation season of 2011. Surely, though Jefferson has been dead for almost two hundred years, the Religious Right has found a post-mortem way of slapping him in the face.

Copyright 2011 Dave Niose

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One slow day, my wife and I enter a small Mexican-owned small shop on the edge of town. My wife is from India. She is looking for tropical fruit that are still uncommon in mainstream grocery stores, in the years right after the signing of NAFTA. Her attention gets drawn to a cinenovela being played on a TV set hanging for the shop ceiling. Observing that she is craning her neck, the young man behind the counter brings a box for her to stand on. His buddy who has been hanging out in the shop with him approaches and offers my wife his hand to help her climb on the box. The guy has dark skin and very short hair. He appears to be somewhat over