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Our Hard Hearts
Richard’s Post:
My Dad staring straight ahead, “ they brought 3 new kids in. Looked like 3 brothers. The oldest one says a joke in the language. Most of us knew not to laugh. Yet a lot of kids did laugh. The school master walked up to this kid. Dragged him by his hair to the big wishing well out front. In front of all of us kids. The school master proceeded to hold the kid’s head under water. We all stared for a good three minutes until the kid wasn’t kicking and resisting anymore. The other school people came and carried the limp body away. We were told he’s going to the nurse’s station. We never seen that kid again. We all knew the school master drowned him to death in front of us. They killed a lot of us, Richard. They did whatever they wanted and none of it was nice.”
My Dad also told me “Always be aware because they can kill us and nothing happens to them.”
— From Marie Howard
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“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before, more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.”
— Charles Dickens — Great Expectations, 1861.
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“We have power… Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an…
