I have an active LinkedIn account and I check it periodically to keep in contact with friends and keep track of professional developments from colleagues. I don’t post much there as I am happily employed and the next job I seek will be some sort of semiretirement. I would love to do more writing or active research on something, but there is not much call for a middle-aged man to do that sort of thing. Maybe blogging is a great place to keep myself busy…

Anyway I got a notification that two individuals accessed my page. One was from a New York winery. That was interesting. The other was from the Department of Justice. Hmmm, it seems I have attracted attention. Did the blog reach the eyes of someone, or was it one of my condemning emails to my Senators or Representative. I have indeed called them feckless, lazy, and servants of a tyrant. I bet that is why they looked me up. BTW, I stand behind every word. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks is an arrogant feckless politician that should have remained in her chosen field of optometry. Her track record of accepting large corporate donations from pharmaceutical companies is how she paid for her election is out there for the world to see. She didn’t use donations from citizens of the 1st district from Iowa to win. She used deep pocket dark money donors. It is past time to clean the house of her corruptible influence.

All right. The Department of Justice looked me up. Here guys let me give you some background. My immigrant family arrived in Philadelphia during the 1730’s. The family tree my paternal grandfather performed is in the possession of a first cousin. He could give the specific date. My family were religious dissidents from Eastern Germany or what is now Wroclaw, Poland. They were Mennonites. They settled around the Dauphin County area of Pennsylvania. Lancaster and Harrisburg, PA also play a role in the family history. We discovered a village that carries my family’s last name. Is there a direct link? Not sure. My grandfather was satisfied to know where the family settled. Mennonites are conscientious objectors. My family refused to participate in war. The American Revolution was not a part of my family’s history. Nor was the War of 1812. The family was deeply religious and survived as simple farmers and millers.

I can’t imagine the hardship of sailing for weeks on the Atlantic, or starting from scratch in an alien land with only other Mennonites to depend on for some comfort (religious or otherwise.) How bad was it in Europe for them to perform such a daring and bold journey? Just think about it… It blows my mind.

Despite my family being in the country since the colonial days they still considered themselves immigrants. They spoke a German dialect well into the 19th and possible early 20th century as well as English. World War II ended all German speaking in the churches my family attended in the 1930’s due to the rise of Third Reich.

During the first couple decades of the 19th century a part of my ancestral family moved to what is now Whiteside, County Illinois when the land was still the Illinois territory. There has been a Bressler in Whiteside County going on ten generations now. The original homestead and mill site was located on the Elkhorn Creek near the villages of Penrose and what later became the city of Sterling, IL. During this time the family milled grain for themselves, neighbors, and even the Native American population as a sign of goodwill and stewardship. My family just wanted to be able to worship how they wanted, and live in peace and harmony with the land, and go about their business. The family did not participate in the Blackhawk War that President Abraham Lincoln partook in. As far as I know the family didn’t vote in any elections or participate in anything politically as that was not the religious custom until the Civil War.

Sidenote: My grandfather and grandmother are buried within two miles of the homestead. My father’s final resting spot is about 400 yards from the homestead. When the corn is harvested in the fall, I can see the stone base of the original mill along the Creek from my father’s resting place. During Sterling, Illinois’ sesquicentennial the newspaper took a photo of my grandfather, father, brother, and I standing on that spot of stone. It was humbling to come to the understanding as a teenager that my family had been in Whiteside County for 150 years or so. It was even more humbling when my grandfather finished that family tree. I had no idea…

During the 19th century my family slowly evolved in their political practice and service to the country. We had a member of family serve in the Civil War. Isaac N. Bressler was a member of the Illinois Infantry for the Union. The family had always abhorred slavery on religious grounds. The enslaved Jewish population served as their example in the Old Testament. Isaac was a POW at Andersonville, but managed to escape and cross the Ohio River near Cairo according to family legend. How true is it? Not sure. I do know he died at the Old Soldiers Home in Danville, IL after a stroke in 1912 at the age of 82. He is interred at Riverside Cemetery in Sterling, IL in one of the oldest parts of the cemetery. He was the family’s first soldier. He also was quite educated. Some of his letters survived. I remember reading his elegant cursive writing as a teenager. It was like a time capsule.

There are dozens of Bressler family members buried in the cemeteries around Sterling, IL. We are all descendants of the original Pennsylvania settlers. We are all related to that familial group that arrived in the colonies even though generations have passed. We are all immigrants still. I still embrace that identity. If the Department of Justice wants to deport me they would have to figure out what country in Eastern Europe I really belong to as the borders have changed dozens of times in the last three centuries almost. I may have squatters rights over everyone in the DOJ through my paterfamilias over 16 or so generations… …we shall see… light sarcasm intended.

So, as far as my civil disobedience and dissent of my congressional representatives and of course the $47 tyrant. I think my family and I have earned the right to express our opinion about the injustices being afforded to the poor and to the immigrants (doesn’t matter status.) We have dissented these persecutions throughout our history. Isaac actual went and fought against them. In his spirit I fight against these persecutions now using words instead of weapons. Rhetoric is all I have at this point to use. I’m tired of this obnoxious crew treading on the rights of all people. I think my Republican grandfather would say these Republicans in charge are the RiNO’s. (Republicans in Name Only) They sure don’t represent President Lincoln’s young Republican Party.

What would my family think of my humanism/athiest practices? I’m sure they would be upset, and they would pray for my salvation. However, I feel my family would be able to evolve and understand why. I don’t fault them for being Mennonite, and eventually Lutheran. I don’t fault them for anything. I feel immense gratitude for their hard work and peaceful ways. Their religious kindness was felt then, and I feel it now as I move forward trying to honor my paternal family through my work as an educator, just like my grandfather’s sister.

So, DOJ if you want to come and get me. Here I am. I have expressed my free dissent under my first amendment rights. I have not threatened any of you. I’ve simple insulted your feckless racist, and classless behavior towards all of humanity. I meet your arrogance and lack of kindness in kind. Why should I feel empathy for you when you think it is weakness? I have also held you accountable for violating the Constitution of the United States. I stand by every word. Just as my family has stood within these borders before the Revolution. Thanks for visiting… Thanks for reading… I really do feel my ancestral family would abhor the events of today…

so it goes….