Just to introduce myself, My name is Bob Gaston. I live in Largo, Florida. I moved to Southwest Florida as a child in the 1950s.  I was born in North Carolina, lived in Atlanta Georgia for a while before my family moved to Florida. You may have guessed that I am an old guy now. I am a Vietnam veteran. I also spent twenty years in the U.S. Army. Most of that was outside the United States.  After retiring from the military I worked in the IT industry for about forty years.

A few years ago my family and I travelled to British Columbia. It was blackberry season. The first chance I got, I stopped the car near some bushes in a parking lot, reached past a bramble, and plucked a wild blackberry. It was warm from the sun, slightly bitter, and very sweet. Memories of a childhood roadtrip in the 80s, picking with my sister, and Paul Simon's Graceland album erupted in my tastebuds. It is a flavour that has never been captured by any store-bought, Mexican-imported blackberry

Hi all. I've been thinking about some of the essays and podcasts released here, mostly on Zohran Mamdani, and I have been reminded of a scene in Peaky Blinders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdI7P0TOLO4 If you haven't seen the show, Tommy Shelby (the main protagonist) is talking to Laura McKee (an IRA commander) about politics not going in a straight line, but rather a circle. If the socialist (which he is one) goes far enough left, you will meet the nationalist who has gone far enough right,